Keeping Your Bank Account Afloat While Job Searching

3354726208_0cce729fc8_zAs a new PR professional, the job search can be tough. You have your degree and a few internships under your belt, finding a job should be a breeze, right? Sometimes that isn’t the case. After a little while of looking for a job you’ll notice that entry-level positions are hard to come by and most full-time positions are looking for more experience then you have.

Paid Internships

Some internship programs extend to college graduates up to 1 year after graduation. Look for a full-time internship that pays. This is a great way to gain experience, network with professionals, find a mentor, hone your skills and earn some cash while your waiting to kick-start your career. The experiences you can learn at this level will benefit you in the long run and help you expand your skills. There also is a chance that the company could hire you after your internship is complete.

Worst case scenario, you’ve added additional experience to your resume and no one is going to tell you that you did too many internships at your next interview.

Part-Time Positions

It can be frustrating to see that a company is only hiring part-time or internship positions when you are looking over their careers page. This should not be discouraging. Instead think of it as a great opportunity to get your foot in the door. Chances are that if you come in part-time and do a good job, when the HR manager starts looking to hire for a full-time position candidates within the company are the first choice. Already working at an organization makes you a great hire because you understand the company, the culture and the work, which can save time when it comes to training.

In the case that your part-time position does not lead to full-time, it’s still something to build up your resume. Plus you can look for and interview for a full-time job during the hours you are not at work.

Freelance Work

One of the best ways to bring in some extra money, gain experience and add some references to your resume is freelancing. If you know a small business or a non-profit near you that want to be active on social media but can’t do it because of time or inexperience, you can capitalize on that opportunity by freelancing. Many small companies out don’t have the time or resources to hire full-time employees. However, these companies might be willing to hire a contract employee or freelancer for a set amount of time. This is the work that helps you build up your professional portfolio and will give you with a taste of what it’s like to be your own boss.

You don’t have to sit around with your fingers crossed waiting for a company to hire you. There are many opportunities out there that as a young professional you can – and should – take advantage of. Take some time to gain experience, network within your industry and save some cash. The rest will fall into place soon enough. Happy job searching!

daynaDayna Lucio is a Digital Specialist at Alchemy Group in Michigan. Her experience lies with social media, content creation, blogging and media relations. You can connect with Dayna on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Eight Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Internship

Once again internships are prominent in the news. Just last week, we learned from an article in the Atlantic that barely one-third of the U.S. Senate pay their interns. The White House also was recently chided about not paying interns.  Even the foundation of the COO of Facebook has finally and reluctantly relented and has announced that the foundation will begin paying interns.

I have written before about the internship on behalf of the Public Relations Society of America and have not changed my opinion one iota. Internships are legitimate work and should be compensated. PRSA is so adamant about the issue that it published an advisory nearly three years ago for its 30,000 members about internships. As noted in a past post  on internships, PRSA believes it is ethically improper to employ anyone who adds real value to a public relations agency or department without compensating them for their work – whether that compensation is monetary or in the form of educational credits. If billable work is being performed by an intern, he or she deserves some form of legal compensation.

There was a time many years ago when internships were employed by organizations to give back to society by offering summer employment to students in disciplines related to their academic studies. Later, the internship evolved to a way for organizations to solve interim staffing issues. On the candidate side, the internship was a way to get practical, real-world experience in the field that would supplement academic training. Somewhere along the way, internships started to be viewed as a volunteer function and organizations treated them as such.

Let’s be clear though what constitutes volunteerism. Helping a charitable organization tend to the needs of the underserved is volunteerism. Assisting an organization to sell books or some other product or service is not.

As young professionals, your goal is to secure a full-time professional position in public relations. Here are several metrics for evaluating the efficacy of internships after you have graduated.

  1. Is the internship a paid position? And is it well above minimum wage? This is a critical question for which the answer is simple. If it is not paid, steer clear.
  2. Is the compensation reasonable for the role? You should expect no less than $25 per hour, particularly if the job involves content creation, including writing releases, case studies, blogs, speeches, tweets, Facebook posts and yes, even questions for Quora or content for Pinterest.
  3. Is the internship/job a 40-hours-a-week gig and/or are you expected to put in inordinate time that is not compensated? Most jobs are reasonably 40 hours a week or at max 50 hours. Investigate if there is the opportunity for paid overtime or compensatory time.
  4. What is the probability that the internship will lead to a full-time position? Assuming you excel in the job, will the employer agree to put it in writing ahead of time? As Ronald Reagan once said, “trust but verify.” If a permanent position is not in the cards, make certain other conditions are sufficiently compelling to make the internship worth your time and labor.
  5. Is the organization a leader in its category, whether a non-profit, corporation, institution or agency? Your credibility, integrity and personal brand are all built on your associations. Make certain that the organization is a thought leader or at least “reputation safe.”
  6. Will the internship help to appreciably increase your skills, broaden your understanding of the field and augment your network and sphere of influence? These are all vital characteristics that should be inherent in your investment in the internship. If they don’t contribute, think hard and long before you accept.
  7. Can you use the content you create as part of your portfolio? Will you be able to take credit publicly for your intellectual labor and resulting product? It is wise to have some evidence that you can use to validate your accomplishments.
  8. Will your employer give you time for other pursuits, including volunteer work, professional affiliations and networking? Don’t be chained to your desk. Make sure there is adequate freedom to network, volunteer and attend to other professional endeavors.

If you decide to go the internship route while you job hunt, exercise caution in doing internships that do not help fulfill your career goals and strategy. What other red flags have you seen associated with internships? Have your internship experiences proved valuable in your professional growth?

 

Gerard CorbettGerard F. Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA, is 2013 immediate past chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America; chair and CEO of Redphlag LLC, a Silicon Valley Strategic Communications Firm; and the PR Job Coach.  He can be reached at gerard.corbett@redphlag.com

Summer Book Club-July: Be Your Own Best Publicist Discussion

From the moment I read the title of the latest book club selection, “Be Your Own Best Publicist: How to Use PR Techniques to Get Noticed, Hired, and Rewarded at Work”, the human resources side of me was intrigued. Authors Jessica Kleiman and Meryl Weinsaft Cooper, offer a fresh perspective on marketing yourself by using basic PR skills to create and manage your professional reputation as you climb the corporate ladder.

Managing reputations of organizations is no different than managing our own reputation. You are representing yourself when you go into a job interview or pitch an idea, so why not put your PR experience and skills to work for you? Readjust your thinking, and view yourself as your client. How would you sell…you? The thought is a little scary, but Kleiman and Weinsaft share their tips and techniques to help you through the process. Below, I outline four of my personal takeaways from this book club selection:

Prepare Your Pitch

Spend some time thinking about your elevator pitch and perfect it. “Knowing how to communicate concisely and clearly will help you hook the interest of whomever you are pitching,” say Kleiman and Weinsaft. Concise is the key word—you want to be mindful of everyone’s time, especially someone who may hold the key to you future.

Craft Your Message

You’ve got their attention, now what? You landed an interview or that important meeting from your great pitch, so now it’s times to expand your message. Kleiman and Weinsaft say you should build out your pitch to a speech focusing on three key attributes or goals. As you create your message, keep in mind your target audience. Practice makes perfect–once you have finished creating your message, practice, practice, practice.

Build Your Network

With competition for job opportunities becoming tighter and tighter, sometimes knowing someone on the inside can help you get your foot in the door. As PR pros, we know the value of relationship building. Kleiman and Weinsaft stress, “the most important thing you can do is to build a rapport between yourself and those with whom you are looking to do business.” The title of Chapter Four says it all – It’s All About Who You Know (and Who Knows You). Build a network of trust by following-up periodically just to say hello. Avoid reaching out only when you need something.

Protect Your Personal Brand

Always put your best foot forward because you never know who is watching. You’ve worked hard to build your reputation so protect it. Kleiman and Weinsaft remind us that how we dress, how we speak and the people we choose to surround ourselves with can influence other’s perceptions of us. Social media makes it easy for us to share our personal thoughts online. Protect your online reputations by managing what you say and share online. “Before posting a comment, images or video, think like a publicist would about a client,” say Kleiman and Weinsaft. You should not only be monitoring what you say, you should also monitor what others are sharing about you as well. Again, think like a publicist, always be prepared for what could go wrong and have plan to correct what has gone wrong. 

I enjoyed reading this book, it satisfied my both the HR and PR side of me. There are many more PR tips and techniques Kleiman and Weinsaft share on self-promotion, including sections to create your own “Personal PR Action Plan”.

Let’s talk about the book…

  1. What will you do differently because of reading this book?
  2. Tell us some of your own personal tips on creating your personal brand.
  3. What are some of your favorite tips and techniques the author shared?
  4. Do you believe it’s important to integrate social media into your life? Why or Why not?
  5. What tools do you use to manage your online reputation?
  6. We all make mistakes—to err is to be human. Where have you tackled a crisis concerning your personal brand, and what did you learn from the experience?