January 2010 Archives

This is a guest post by Lianne Palmatier, a recent graduate in communication studies from James Madison University. While enrolled, she participated in entrepreneurship coursework as well as internships that ultimately led to employment in her field. 

If ever you want to hear how the "real world" differs from college, I can tell you, it involves fewer naps.

 I wake up every morning at 6 a.m., not because I'm a morning person. I have nearly a 2-hour commute. Living at home and saving funds was the only way for me to survive on an intern's paycheck. As a person who is used to staying up until 3 a.m. and taking glorious mid-day naps, the intern lifestyle did not come easily. However, I was determined to succeed.

Landing my dream internship wasn't straightforward. After graduating in May, I began the search for a job. After several interviews, I had little luck. I continued to reach out to contacts, apply to online postings, and sit around my house feeling miserable.

When I finally nailed that perfect job, I wanted my employer to be grateful for choosing me. Say the word, and I could handle it. Give me a deadline, I'll meet it. Something I learned early in life was that being acceptable isn't good enough. Take it further and shake up the place. Eat lunch at your desk if you can crunch a few numbers in the process.

The biggest thing I brought to my internship was a positive attitude and a desire to make life easier for my surrounding colleagues. I'm happy to say that the early mornings and the late nights paid off. After proving myself as an intern, my organization chose to bring me on full-time.

Little (besides a new desk) has changed. I am still managing a ridiculous amount of work that makes my mother shake her head. But I'm thriving. Although it took me several months to find an internship that fit me, my career can reach heights that I only dreamed possible.

Such opportunities provided to me also included reading books about people in similar situations. In Y-Size Your Business, I read about going the corporate route to success and in Upstarts, GenY'ers became entrepreneurs, finding a hole in an industry and filling it.  As I neared a full-time offer, these books paralleled my experience toward success.

Some key takeaways from Y-Size Your Business by Jason Ryan Dorsey:
* Check your professional image online.
Google your name every week. Your personal brand will be judged, so make sure you maintain a professional Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. to go along with that professional voicemail message.

* Practice professional speaking.
You have to, you know, like, talk to people that may not have your GenY mannerisms. If you join an organization like Toastmasters, you can practice public speaking and work toward removing those filler words.

* Benefit yourself with real-world experience.
A 4.0 GPA looks great, but strive to get out of the classroom and explore real-life situations that will impress potential employers.

Key takeaways from Upstarts by Donna Fenn:
* Know your market and adapt.
In this economy, you have to do your research. That holds true for both starting your own company and your job search.

* Your brand will be judged by the company it keeps.
A sports-media company might partner with superstar athletes, you might partner with high power connections on Linkedin.

* Identify value.
To succeed in business, you must bring something to the table, whether it is a new system for credit-card processing or an organic baby food. Likewise, in your job hunt, you must show your interviewer why you would bring value to the team--in revenue generating, or strategic idea development.

GenY may not usually read business or professional development books, but I like reading books about myself and my so-called generation. Tools you pick up from these may expand your mindset and land you that next offer when an interviewer asks how you stay involved in your industry.

Recent grads, what do you have to share about your experiences?

This is a guest post by Julia Nizinski, an assistant media planner at Hill Holliday in Boston, Mass. and a former intern at Fleishman-Hillard's Washington, DC office.  She graduated in May 2008 from Syracuse University with a degree in political science and a minor in communications.     

Ah, the job search.  It's like the mythical creature of the professional world: you've heard about it, but you have to see it to believe it.  When I graduated college I never expected the job search to be such an emotionally trying experience.  I never expected it to be so bizarre, so memorable, so forgettable, and so everything else in between. I was called Natalia by an interviewer (my name is Julia), sold men's shoes at Nordstrom, and watched many jobs disappear due to the recession, including the first internship I was offered at a PR agency in DC. But, just when I thought I was going to go from magna cum laude to magna cum loser I caught a break: the same senior vice president that hired me for the PR internship in DC had another position for me.  She told me she liked my tenacity and offered me an internship on the new Marine Corps account.

I went down to DC for the internship with the intentions of getting hired, but seven months later found myself still unemployed for factors out of my control.  Some people might say that my efforts were a lost cause, but I'd beg to differ.  I didn't find a job, but I did find out the importance of having job search mentors.  I met the two people I consider to be my professional mentors and who helped me during my search.  I think finding a mentor is an important component to the process because the job search is often too difficult to tackle alone.  I feel fortunate that I was able to find guidance during the process.  

Although my DC experience was positive, I left sans job. I went home and back to Nordstrom and men's shoes and was unhappy.  I felt badly about myself, I felt angry about what was happening to me and, as the summer went on, I started to feel defeated.  One day, after breaking down in tears in the stockroom somewhere between the Sperry Topsiders and Eccos, I knew I had to get a grip on myself before I gave up.  I knew I had to find something that made me happy and would help me get through my search and that thing for me was joining the press team on a political campaign.  Although I didn't get paid, it kept me busy, relevant, and, most importantly, it kept me happy.

My internship and campaign experiences eventually led me to my current job as an assistant media planner at an advertising agency.  I went in for an informational interview at the agency last summer, but they had no open positions.  However, they said they'd keep me top of mind if anything opened up and, to my surprise, they did. I've been there for a little over a month now and enjoying my new adventure. 
 
I've learned some important lessons along the way I'd like to share, which I've listed below:
* My favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut once said, "I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."  I not only live my life by this quote, but I also lived my job search by it.   Don't forget to notice when you're happy, even during difficult times.  It helps you carry on.  

  * Persistency pays off.  Just because it didn't work out the first time, doesn't mean you should give up.  Don't be overbearing, but do keep in touch with people you've met along the way. 

* Last but not least, don't get upset or discouraged.  It's important to stay positive because, trust me, you WILL find a job.