Your Career and You: “Three Wise Moves”

Okay…I’m reluctantly allowing myself to get into the holiday spirit and, since “bah…humbug” isn’t part of my vocabulary, I guess I’ll go with three tips on how to jump-start (or refresh) your job or internship search.

One of my recent posts talked about resumes and networking, and that chat still applies…and will continue to apply throughout your professional career.

Ø  Never stop networking. Just like houseplants and goldfish, your networking contacts have to be nurtured and nourished…keep them alive by keeping them fresh.
Ø  Update your resume…regularly. When you do something that you feel reinforces your case for being hired, add it to your resume…if necessary, remove something that’s older and possibly less relevant today.

And here’s more for your “to-do” list.

1.    Read!  I know some…not all…some of you are muttering eggnogedly, “I read enough for my classes including yours, Kirk. Why should I read more??”

I constantly remind my students both at Curry College, where I head the undergraduate Public Relations Concentration and teach most of the PR courses, and at Regis College, where I teach in the graduate Organizational and Professional Communication area, that I’m always reading…both for pleasure and for work/pleasure.

I read and write reviews of new PR and marketing books for Emerald Publications’ Journal of Consumer Marketing and Journal of Product and Brand Management. This hobby/ habit keeps me up-to-date on current trends in the public relations field as well as connects me with thought leaders in PR, social media, and marketing.

You should do the same. You want to be regarded as an up-and-coming ”superstar,” don’t you? Expanding your knowledge through reading is a way to accomplish that.

2.    Write! 

Send handwritten (legibly written) notes to folks that you’ve met recently at the networking events you’ve attended (you have been networking, haven’t you?!?).

As I’ve said time and again, the holiday season is especially suited for note-writing. You find a nice holiday card, write your note, address the envelope, stick on a stamp, mail it...Done.

And start becoming more visible on social media and other opportunities for commenting. If you read and are interested in others’ thoughts online and elsewhere, take some time to comment…to express your own thoughts. Communication is just that…communicating!

3.    Research! 

I’m going out on a long, thin limb here, but I’m going to suggest that, in your reading (see # 1), you probably came across some companies that caught your attention because of the work they do or the people who work there…both legitimate reasons to look at a company for possible employment.

Use your computer for something besides posting snarky comments and suggestive photos on Facebook or tweeting profanities about your favorite sports team’s massive mistakes.

Do some research on the companies or the people that caught your interest. What’s their background? What do they do that you think is exciting or that you know something about?

Not only does this knowledge give you some talking points in an interview (informational or job). It’s a lot more fun working with someone whose products or services are something you’re interested in! I once did public relations for a cemetery…for a very short period of time. Nice people; obviously a needed and important service. It just didn’t work for me.

So do your research.

So there you have it…reading, writing, and research. It truly can be as simple as “one…two... three wise moves.”

Happy Holidays! Mele Kalikimaka! Maligayang Pasko! 聖誕快樂!

Your Career and You: "Life's Little Surprises...Talk to People!"

I was in Chestnut Hill (MA) Bloomingdale's the other day looking at things I couldn't afford, didn't need, and, of course, desperately wanted, when a sales assistant caught my eye.

If you don't know, I'm a transplanted Southerner and am absolutely genetically incapable of not speaking to folks I see in stores, on the street, and just about everywhere else (except the subway, where weirder people than I seem to congregate).

Well, I said "hello" to Geneva, the sales assistant, and we struck up a conversation.

Turns out she is from Americus, Georgia, a hop-skip-and-a-jump from my own hometown of Dublin. Instant connection there!

What a coincidence!

Also found out her son was born in 1978...the year Margaret and I moved from Hampton, Virginia to a state where, watching the weather reports earlier that year, we declared "only crazy people live." (Note: Except for a three-year sojourn in wonderfully laid-back Honolulu, Hawaii, we've been here ever since.)

Also turns out Geneva used to work for Boston Edison (now part of NStar) and knows my friend Walter Salvi, who now heads the community relations activities for NStar.

What all this means both for you and for my Communication students at Curry College, where I head the Public Relations Concentration and teach most of the PR courses, as well as for my graduate students at Regis College, where I teach in the Organizational and Professional Communication area, is that the world is really, really small.

You never know where you might run into someone who has some sort of connection with an organization you're interested in working for. The "trick" is to connect with that person.

It's called "networking," and I preach the sermon almost daily in every class.

• Go to professional meetings for associations in the area you're interested. Here's my list of regulars: Boston Chapter, Public Relations Society of America; Publicity Club of New England; Social Media Club of Boston.
• Take advantage of special programs offered by organizations in your desired career field. I'm on the mailing list for several PR firms and other organizations, and I go to as many of their programs as possible...to learn and to network.
• Go out with your friends and your friends' friends...some of the best leads come from casual conversations over a beer/soda/chocolate milk.

And, talk to folks in the stores where you shop and the restaurants where you eat. Once again, just like my chance meeting with Geneva, you don't know who knows who.

This is what makes up what I think of as "life's little surprises." Learning how to look at people and speak to people can open up Forrest Gump's "box of chocolates." And, in the midst of all those yummy goodies just might be a connection that you can use.

"The man seeking his first job or trying to change the job he has should remember that third parties can approach employers as friendly middlemen. First of all, people he knows, experienced friends with knowledge and contacts, can broach the matter for him and can presumably be depended on to do a friendly service. Professional and trade associations know what goes on in their fields." - Edward L. Bernays, "Your Future in Public Relations" (Richards Rosen Press, 1961)

Your Career and You: "It's about 'Time'"

The Rolling Stones had a great hit in the ‘60s called “Time is on my side.” It was all about “the world is my oyster and sooner or later things will go my way.”

Good concept. Bad for the working world…especially for those who are (or should be) looking for jobs/internships.

I’m constantly on my undergraduate Communication students at Curry College, where I head the Public Relations Concentration and teach most of the PR courses, as well as my graduate students at Regis College, where I teach in the graduate Organizational and Professional Communication area, to act now.

Take the ol' bull by the horns. Don’t wait for someone else to make the first move.

What brought this to mind was, in the course of one week, receiving four different messages from four different students in which timing has been or will be a factor in the outcome of their efforts.

1.    One student asked for help drafting an internship application letter.

2.    One student wanted to meet to discuss some internship opportunities.

3.    One student wanted to meet to schedule a “catch-up-on-life” meeting.

4.    One student was following up on internship application progress.

“Exhibit A” took exactly one week to respond to my suggestions on the letter.

“Exhibit B” hasn’t responded…four days after asking to meet…to my response.

“Exhibit C” “forgot” to check Facebook (on which the request was sent).

“Exhibit D” acted on my recommendations, applied for the internship, and has an interview scheduled.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or ditch digger…or school teacher) to figure out which of the above stands a snowball’s chance in Hades of realizing success.

The point to all this is that time…that elusive, fleeting, amorphous thing that is always looking over our shoulder and is never around when needed…is a major player in life’s successes.

The annoying thing about time is that it doesn’t sit around waiting for you to act. It moves on.

And, if you don’t make your own move, you will be a fading memory in time’s rearview mirror.

Thomas Jefferson…one of history’s master time-users…came up with this take on time: “Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.”

“Today,” of course, has morphed into a nearly unrecognizable concept with the advent of intercontinental, interactive communication. When I write to my niece in Taipei today, it’s already tomorrow for her…which makes wishing a “Happy Birthday” a bit of a trick!

But we’re talking about here and now…your response or reaction to a situation.

I’m absolutely not suggesting kneejerk responses. But I am suggesting…when the situation arises…that you start thinking about what you'll do…and start planning your response.

Then…act…immediately if possible (and feasible) but at least within 24 hours…unless there are some really complicating factors.

The point (again) is that someone on the other end of the communication loop is waiting to hear/see what you think/are going to do.

In some cases, they can’t act until they know what you are going to do.

In other cases, they’re not going to act until they hear from you.

Think about this if you’re applying for a job or an internship.

“Often do the spirits

Of great events stride on before the events.

And in today already walks tomorrow.”

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

“Wallenstein,” [1799-1800] pt. II, act V, sc. i

Your Career and You: “On Pigeons and Statues”

I had an epiphany a few days ago as I sat patiently (although you wouldn’t know it from the multiple snarky tweets I sent while waiting) as the folks at a local newly-opened restaurant tried to cope with a hungry lunch crowd.

“Chaos” is the only way I could describe the scene.

The front end of the restaurant boasted easily a half-dozen empty tables while the hostess “looked busy” but wasn’t accomplishing a whole heck of a lot.

The frazzled waitstaff had gotten their mantra down to a sincerely-mouthed “I’m sooo sorry for the delay” as patron after patron asked about an order.

The two guys at the table next to me gave up. Forty-five minute lunchbreak wait for a sandwich.

I decided to stick it out…slow day on the farm, so I had some time to kill…and Twitter was keeping me company!

Hamburger…35 minutes. Drink (“sweet tea”…hey, I’m a Southerner; I’m allowed to slip once in a while!) undrinkable. Who in heaven’s name puts nectar in tea?!?

So that’s the backdrop.

The young lady taking my order was the epitome’ of “cool-under-pressure.” Patient, empathetic...and exhausted…it was 1:30 p.m., and she'd been on duty since a little after 5 a.m.

Having done time myself after college working in my Dad’s soda shop back home, I understood how she felt…and appreciated her efforts to soothe ruffled feathers.

Through quick mini-chats each time she came by my table, I learned that this was an unusual day…apparently other days (the restaurant had been open just four days) had been less frantic.

And that’s what inspired this week’s thoughts…sometimes you’re totally in control of the situation and life is good.

Sometimes, as I often say in my classes at both Curry College, where I head up the Communication Department’s undergraduate Public Relations Concentration and teach most PR courses, and Regis College, where I teach in the graduate Organizational and Professional Communication area, you have no choice but to sit back and watch the train wreck happen.

Or…to use one of my absolute favorite sayings: “Sometimes you’re the pigeon; sometimes you’re the statue.”

Job-hunting is a good example.

Career searches, while they should be somewhat controlled, occasionally jump off the track and you find yourself scrambling to straighten the mess out.

A friend texted me at the end of last week to say she had hurt her back moving into a new apartment and had had to call and re-schedule a job interview. She was in a bit of a tizzy because this is her first real job hunt, and she was afraid things were going to spiral out of control.

I assured her that her excuse was entirely legitimate and…more important…if the organization with which she had scheduled the interview was unsympathetic…she didn’t want to work there anyway.

We like to feel like we're in charge of our lives. And, for the most part, we are.

But occasionally things happen. And there's not a blasted thing we can do about it except soldier on and do our best.

Back to my young, anonymous friend at the new restaurant. She’s heading off to UMass-Amherst in September to study English, and I hope her professors recognize early on that this young lady is a budding young professional.

Cool under pressure. Poised under fire. Pleasant and upbeat while Rome burns. I would hire her in a microsecond.

And, to close this conversation…statues stand all regal and self-important…and immobile, oblivious to all that is going on around them. Pigeons (forgive me pigeon-lovers) are annoying birds that poop on people, places and things…including the regal, self-important statues.

Professionals understand that not everything is going to go the way they want, and they learn over time how to respond to unexpected glitches.

It's called "experience."

“There comes a time in every man’s life and I’ve had many of them.”

– Charles Dillon (”Casey”) Stengel

Your Career and You: "Customer Service-It's in the Eyes"

I just had an interesting experience at a local, somewhat upscale, pizza place.

Went in. Ordered a pizza and coke to go. Paid. Waited. Picked up. Left.

In that roughly 15-minute interval, the young lady at the register never once made eye-contact with me.

Ø  As she was processing my order, her eyes were glued to the register.

Ø  When I paid, she carefully examined the top of the counter between us.

Ø  When my order was ready, she ogled the pizza cooker guy.

Ø  And as she slid the pizza box and coke across the counter, the best I can figure is she was checking out a spider crawling up the wall behind me.

Absolutely NO eye-contact in this entire process with the customer.

I chimed in on a blog post this morning (pre-pizza) about one of the culprits in this “failure to see eye-to-eye”…social media and mobile devices. I deal with it in the classroom…and in the “real world” as a shopper.

We/you have grown up in an online world, and apparently there’s now a fear of turning to stone if you actually set eyes on someone, like in the tales of the goddess Medusa. Seems that, if you looked directly at her, you would instantly turn into a rock. Hard way to go (snicker, snicker)!

But that’s mythology, and I’m talking about real-world customer service where people interact…where there are people who need people to help them. And part of that interaction is eye contact.

I hear time and again from colleagues in the professional world that one of their pet peeves in a job interview is the inability…or outright failure…of the interviewee to make eye contact during the interview.

Flash forward to yourself at work. How do you think the customer feels when you don’t bother to look at him or her?

I won’t ask how you would feel if that were to happen to you because I doubt that you would even notice or care…feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (sneaky way to find out who’s reading this blog!)!

So this is a short rant today on a growing problem as the younger generations morph into the workplace and, at least for brief periods of time, are detached from their computer screens or mobile devices.

Look at people when you are interacting with them…you won’t turn to stone, and you will make the other person feel appreciated…and you just might convert that person to a return customer!

How cool would that be?!?

“Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save face. Put yourself in his shoes – so as to see things through his eyes.” – Basil Henry Liddell Hart, “Deterrent or Defense [1960], 'Advice to Statesmen'”