Career Advice

professional development webinar…Build a Thriving Online Brand for Yourself (June 16, 2010)

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Just a mere few years ago, a resume was one of the only things a recruiter had access to in order to gain insight into an applicants background, experience and overall personal brand. Well those days are over.

Now a quick Google search can reveal your online footprint – the blog you write, comments you’ve left, your Facebook profile, tweets, pictures you’re tagged in, events you’ve attended, and the lists goes on. It is now more important then ever to be as strategic with you online presence as you are with your resume. Everyone should be asking themselves, “Have I positioned myself well online?”

To help us determine how, when and where to join online conversations, while maintaining our professional credibility, we’ve invited fellow New Pro member Lauren Fernandez to share her secrets to becoming an online influencer during the New Pros webinar “Build a Thriving Online Brand for Yourself,” Wednesday, June 16, 2010 from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. EST.

Lauren Fernandez is an account executive at Moroch | PR, and specializes in social and traditional media relations strategy, working exclusively with the energy sector. In the past, she has worked extensively on behalf of clients across a variety of industries, including health care, motion pictures, technology and higher education. Lauren’s public relations and social media blog “LAF” was awarded “Best Up-and-Coming Blog” at the 2009 PR Reader’s Choice Blog Awards. She is a co-creator and moderator of the popular #u30pro, an ongoing Twitter conversation focusing on professional insight and bridging the generation gap. Connect with Lauren (@CubanaLAF) on Twitter.

For the cost of this event, PRSA members will receive a free New Professionals Section membership (a $20 value). This membership will expire at the time of your PRSA National membership renewal.

For more information or to register, click here.

career advice… Real People Think This is OK When Job Hunting, but It’s Not by Janet Krenn

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I’ve been completely astounded by the way that people act in networking and job-hunting situations; and I start to wonder, how could any rational person think that this is OK?

The only way I can explain it? These crazy interactions must be the unhappy result of someone misapplying generic advice. Here are real stories of bad networking behavior that I have witnessed along with the four bits of generic networking and job hunting advice that I want to bring to your attention. By all means, apply these pieces of advice, but please do so with a healthy amount of restraint!

Generic Advice #1: Don’t be afraid to take a risk.
How much “risk” should you as a job hunter take? Risk can indicate that you are a leader or that you are confident. But if the risk turns out to be a disaster, you may come off as arrogant or reckless.

Bad Application: Taking a risk without considering whether the risk will give you the desired outcome.
Once I was at a trade show with our CEO. A newly minted graduate and now intern planted himself in our exhibit space. While the CEO was off talking with someone else, the recent grad indicated to me that he thought our company was interesting and inquired whether we were hiring. We weren’t right now, I told him, but if he’d like to drop off a resume, we’d hold onto it. He walked away, but when he came back, he didn’t have a resume–He had redesigned the company logo and started pitching his unsolicited redesign to the CEO.

Generic Advice #2: Don’t be afraid of networking! Get your name out there. Show your face.
When I lament to my boyfriend that my bike needs some work, but I didn’t know where to take it. He says in reply, “Oh, if only there was some international network of information that you could use to find this out!”  There is no excuse for walking into any prospective partner, employer, or client’s office as if you were conducting a “cold call”.

Bad Application: Contacting an individual about whom you know nothing.
The other day, a job hunter walks into my office and asks, “Do you know who the expert is in XYZ?” and then “What can you tell me about him?” This gent wanted to establish a partnership with someone at my company, and assumed that just because I had a desk on campus that I was going to have answers for him. When I told him I didn’t know who he should talk to, he asked that I look into it and email him. Which brings me to #3…

Generic Advice #3: Ask for help.
Finding a job is work. You can probably look to your close friends and colleagues to help you drum up business or interviews. Be careful whom you ask for help.

Bad Application: Asking others to carry you.
When you ask for assistance from someone who doesn’t know you better, you run the risk of looking unambitious or lazy, and once you’ve made that impression, you have a slim chance that that connected individual will want to recommend you for an interview.


Generic Advice #4: Contact the hiring manager before you submit your resume. Ask questions during your interview.
The questions you ask a hiring manager could make you appear thoughtful and intelligent. The caveat is: In order to appear thoughtful and intelligent, your questions need to be thoughtful and intelligent. Walking into a networking situation or a job interview, you should already know why you want to be there.

Bad Application: Asking a company to tell you how you could benefit from this position.
Don’t contact a hiring manager and ask her to justify why you should want the job. This seems obvious, right? I’m only bringing it up, because I’ve seen it happen more than once. If you don’t know why you should want the job, don’t waste anyone’s time. Don’t apply, and don’t bother the hiring manager. You never know when that hiring manager will be posting a job you are interested in, and you don’t want to have that first negative interaction hanging over your head.

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JANET KRENN has never been a hiring manager, and even so, she’s seen some job hunters doing some wacky things. She is also the 2010 Chair of the New Professionals of PRSA. You can contact her at janetqs(a)gmail.com or @janetkrenn.

networking… “What do you do?” and Why Your Answer is Wrong by Janet Krenn

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Networking. It’s how you can get a job. It’s how you can self-promote. It’s important in every profession. For many of us, networking is a mystery. I mean, how do you go from “hello” to getting a job? How do you go from “nice to meet you” to let’s collaborate?

My local PRSA chapter held a speed networking event last month, and it opened my eyes! The speaker presented on “Make Your Contacts Count: Networking know-how for business and career success” by Anne Barber and Lynne Waymon, and I foudn that I have been giving the wrong answer to the very first question asked in any networking conversation–“What do you do?”

By giving one of the two popular incorrect answers, I’ve been missing opportunities to describe my value, achievements, and goals. Instead, I provided meaningless, but easy, responses. In short, I’ve been failing at personal branding.

Wrong Answer #1: I work for a company.

I used to say, “I work for McDougal Littell” and those in the textbook publishing industry were usually impressed. Maybe you work for GE, and you know that dropping the company name will sound impressive. But the company name doesn’t promote you and your strengths. In the first minutes of conversation, I neglected to give my conversation partner any interesting information. What if they’ve never heard of your company before? Will you have to spend valuable networking time explaining the company rather than your own value?

Wrong Answer #2: I am a job title.

No matter how much you like your job, you are not your job title. How many other people are in PR? Thousands! By saying you are a job title, all of your achievements and goals, the reasons why someone should want to work with you, are hidden. Will an answer like, “I’m an account manager” get you recommended for job openings? Probably not.

Right Answers are Descriptive

I can much more easily point out the wrong answers than to give you a blanket “right” one. Basically, you want to give a quick, descriptive answer that is achievement driven (what have you accomplished? how have you accomplished it?), goal oriented (what are your goals when you enter the office? what are your long term goals?), value-added (what value do you have as an employee? what are your strengths?), and inspire questions (will your descriptive answer lead the conversation to those probing questions that will help you reveal your value, achievements, and goals?).

Myself as an Example

As I said, I used to answer “What do you do?” with lack-luster answers, such as, “I work for Virginia Sea Grant” or “I am a communicator.”

After more thought, I’ve started to elaborate to say, “I translate science to non-scientists.” But even this slightly more descriptive answer doesn’t explain the value of my skills well. So I kept adding, pruning, and rethinking my answer to the “What do you do” question, until I got to the answer at the end of this post.

What do you do?

Well, how might you answer this networking question to best show off your achievements, goals, and value? To celebrate our newly unlocked comments section of this blog (no log-in necessary to participate), write your own new-and-improved response to the What do you do? question.

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JANET KRENN helps coastal industry, and communities make ecologically and economically sound decisions by translating science to non-scientists. (She is also your 2010 New Pros of PRSA Chair, and the past, 2009, Communication Chair. Follow her on Twitter @JanetKrenn or contact her janetqs(a)gmail.com)

career advice… The mistake I stopped making by Brian Camen

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When I graduated college, my resume  touted all I accomplished during my four years at Arizona State University. Three internships. Two relevant part-time jobs. President of my fraternity, and a good gpa. Sounds impressive, right? These kinds of accomplishments impressed a hiring manager and got me a job, but they meant very little once I started work.

We all make mistakes as first time full-time employees, but mine was a big mistake. I acted as if I knew everything.

Just because you had four or five internships, doesn’t mean you know everything about Public Relations. I’m happy to report that I stopped making that mistake quickly. My attitude quickly changed once I realized that pretending to know everything was the worst thing one can do.

Entry-level employees often are afraid to seem inexperienced so they pretend to know all the answers. The point of an entry-level position is to learn about the industry you work in, develop yourself as a full-time employee, and grow your skill set. Your boss isn’t expecting you to be perfect nor is your boss expecting you to manage yourself. If your boss wanted those traits in an employee, they would not have been seeking an entry-level employee.

As a new professional you will undoubtedly make mistakes (whether accidentally or on purpose). The key is to learn from those mistakes. Study what you did wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Another key to your entry-level position is to master your entry-level tasks. Once those are accomplished, your boss will feel more comfortable giving you higher level tasks. Developing your skills takes time. You can always be a better writer, listener, and practitioner.

Your skill set isn’t going to develop overnight and no matter how many internships you have, you never stop learning in this industry because Public Relations is continually evolving.

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BRIAN CAMEN is a Public Relations Specialist at a top-ranked international b-school in Glendale, AZ. Read his blog The PR Practitioner (http://www.theprpractitioner.com). He can be reached at brian.camen@gmail.com or @BrianCamen

pr strategy… The Dangers of Social Media Marketing by Travis K. Kircher

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I spent four years working as an assignment editor for a local TV station. We covered a host of fatal accidents, homicides, house fires, etc. One of the first things we did when we got word of a fatality, whether the death was a tragic accident or the result of foul play, was hit Facebook and MySpace up to see if they had an account. If they were young, chances were they did. And chances were, it was an open account. That is, any member of the public could access it.

I can remember one instance in particular when we were covering a fatal accident involving a young person. As soon as we got the identification from the coroner I ran his name, and, sure enough, there was his profile page, his smiling face beaming eerily from the computer screen. Already his friends had gotten word of the tragedy and were posting memorial messages on his wall. It became standard practice for the media to show those photos and read these messages on the air.

When people stop to think that they might wake up one day to see the contents of their MySpace or Facebook pages as a topic for discussion on the morning news, many of them bristle. Isn’t that a little below the belt? After all, what business does the media have delving into people’s private lives?

This is the lesson all of us must learn: As long as your profile page is open to the public, IT IS NOT YOUR PRIVATE LIFE. When an agitated husband writes, “I hate my wife!” on his evening status update, it’s no different than purchasing ad space on a 250’ x 500’ digital sign in Times Square and announcing it to the world.

The media will investigate anything in the public record, and an open Facebook account IS public record. And it may not just be the media thumbing through your MySpace photos. Prospective employers, loan officers, ex-girlfriends, sexual predators, your boss, and Osama bin Laden could all be checking you out.

Like individuals, businesses can often be careless about their social media accounts. When setting up a MySpace or Facebook page, it is critical for marketers and public relations professionals to keep the following tips in mind:

  • Keep business and pleasure separate on social media. A business owner who already has a personal account under his name should not use that same account for business purposes. Clients don’t want to hear you “shoot the breeze.” They want to see professionalism and expertise. Keep one account for fun, and the other for business.
  • Double-check the privacy settings on your social media accounts. Facebook and MySpace give you the option of making your accounts public or private. It’s a no brainer that any high level executives with personal accounts should have them set to “private.” Business pages will likely be public.
  • Be aware of potential exposure to litigation. Don’t post any content to your Facebook page without first determining whether you have the legal right to do so. Posting images of minors may pose a problem if you don’t have parent’s permission.
  • Monitor your social media networks. One of the most dangerous things a business can do is open a social media account and then forget it is there. Entire conversations may have taken place and accusations may have been leveled against your company without your knowledge. Take an active, aggressive, and vigilant approach to the way you handle your account, and be quick to nip any problems in the bud before they explode into a PR nightmare.
  • Don’t post anything to social media you wouldn’t say to Larry King. You have no idea who is accessing your account. Even if it’s closed to the public, one of your friends could save images from your page and e-mail them to others. Anything posted on a social media account should be run through the PR office first. You should also be aware that once it’s up, it’s permanent. You may take it down, but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t already seen it, saved it,and distributed it to others.

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TRAVIS K. KIRCHER is an independent copywriter and founder of WriteNow Creative Services, which does indeed have a Facebook account (feel free to join.) He can be reached at tkircher@writenowcs.com.