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Posts Tagged ‘Skillset’


Best Of… Social Media — From Your Online Persona to Twitter to Job Searches

May 7th, 2010 ::

by Robin Ferrier

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/ / CC BY 2.0

There is so much good information floating out there in the Web-o-sphere — or the Interwebs, as one of my friends likes to call it — that it’s easy to find yourself in information overload. I see it every day with all the great articles my friends are posting to their blogs, their Twitter accounts, their Facebook pages… so I thought I’d start a regular “best of” feature for this blog that would be a regular round-up of some other great career resources/articles. (After all, why reinvent the wheel, right?) With that in mind, our first “Best of…” feature gets underway with a look at some of my recent “favs” regarding social media.

How I balance personal & professional on Twitter
from Denise Graveline (@dontgetcaught) of Don’t Get Caught communications

With tips ranging from why you should include some personal information in your tweets to advice on what you should leave out, Denise Graveline does it again, providing a thoughtful, insightful look at best practices in Twitter use.

MY ADDITIONAL TIP: Look at your tweet balance. By this I mean, how much is personal (in my case, my work on the Gaithersburg Book Festival, complaints about bad service at stores or restaurants, anything related to wine, dogs, or writing) vs. work (in my case, generally anything related to: marketing or PR, economic development, career development, or Johns Hopkins University)? I tend to think you should, in general, want to be 66-75% “work” and the remainder “fun.” (By the way, I tweet at @rferrier. Feel free to follow. You’ll find links to additional career resources and articles.)

Make sure your online self matches your real self during job interviews
by Jennifer Nycz-Conner (@JenConner), a Washington Business Journal reporter and blogger… and contributor to this blog

Jennifer writes about the importance of making sure your “online (unofficial) resume” matches the resume you’re presenting to employers.

Dear Bev: How Should I Use Social Networking In My Job Search?
from MediaPost Publications

A look at how you can EFFECTIVELY employ LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter in your job search.

MY $0.02: Yes, you should be on LinkedIn. Do it now. It’s one of the top professional social networking sites. As to recommendations on LinkedIn, make sure yours are not just from friends. The recommendations should come from your university professors, supervisors at summer jobs or internships, etc. Also, don’t underestimate the value of using the Answers section of LinkedIn. (In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t use them enough. But Jason Alba from JibberJobber is a pro at this and writes about the topic on a regular basis!) Ask questions. Answer others’ questions. It can help you start to establish your professional persona.

4 Ways to Utilize LinkedIn’s “Follow Company” Feature
by Andrew G. Rosen on Social Times

Did you know LinkedIn has a new “follow company” feature? I didn’t… until I saw this post. (Thanks, @GenerationsGuru for the tweet about this!) Andrew Rosen provides some great tips on how to use the feature, including a reminder that you should be targeting companies you want to work for as much as you are looking for jobs that fit what you want to do.

MY THOUGHTS: Where you work is as important as what you do. It truly is. A lot of people would benefit from following Andrew’s advice. I think there’s a lot of merit in taking a less-than-perfect job — at least according to its job description — if it’s for a company you admire and for which you want to work.

So there’s a round-up of some of my recent career-related readings. What about you? Any good articles you’d recommend? Or do you have your own advice related to these topics? Let us know. Weigh in below!

Robin Ferrier is the editor of What’s Next, Gen Y? and Communications Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. She is also the President of the Capital Communicators Group and the co-chair of the Marketing Committee for the Tech Council of Maryland. She has inadvertently become a frequent career / professional / job hunt resource for friends and colleagues due to a career path that has included five jobs in 12 years.

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Posted in Job Search, Networking, Personal Brand, References, Robin Ferrier, social media, Uncategorized, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

Should You Go to Grad School?

April 29th, 2010 ::

by Patrick Madsen

Image: Andrew Magill's Flickrstream, Creative Commons

I had the opportunity to read through an article posted on Yahoo! Finance’s page the other day titled “Valuing Another Degree”. Interesting article and something that is probably at the forefront of a person’s mind as they consider furthering their education or sticking it out in the workforce. I have to say, this is something that has been discussed by students all through my 10 + years of experience in the career counseling profession. This is not a new concern nor something that the recent economic downturn has caused to surface.

Here are my thoughts on the decision of furthering your education or staying in the workforce:

  • Are you satisfied with your current career path? Most students would say “no” and that the previous education they went for did not pan out like they thought. A graduate degree provides a person with a more specified set of skills, experience, and knowledge that not everyone in the marketplace may have. It is an opportunity to say, “Hey, employer, this is what makes me better than that person over there” or “this is the value that I offer your company to affect your bottom line”.
  • Did you learn the skills that you need to effectively operate in the workforce? Many employers would say you didn’t. Often times, an undergraduate degree is meant to provide you with an overall education, i.e., you get a little history, social sciences, math, composition, and other transferrable knowledge, but with a few exceptions, you likely didn’t get the specific training needed for a specific industry. Take, for example, a Liberal Arts degrees. I fully believe that students are gaining great experience in research, analysis, and thoughtful discourse, but many times they are not shown how these skills can be marketed to the workforce. So these bright and talented young professionals are stuck having to figure out how to target themselves and prove that they have the skills, experience, and knowledge for many industries. Thus… enter a graduate degree.
  • Don’t assume that a graduate degree alone will give you a higher salary. The concept of a graduate degree, by itself, was never meant to automatically give you a higher salary. Instead, it was meant to provide you an update in knowledge and practice to help you prove you deserve a higher salary. This is a misconception about graduate programs (and MBA programs especially). A vast majority of students entering these programs believe and expect that once they finish someone will just give them a job and a $100,000 salary right after they grab their diploma. FALSE. The graduate degree is something that helps you show your passion and motivation for a particular area. It helps “open the door” so that you can show the employer all the great experience and practice you have had and how you could apply it to their organization. When it comes down to it, an employer will most likely look to see if candidates have the degree, but then quickly go into their experience and skills to see if they can “do the job”. After that, the interview will help them see if you are actually a “motivated and professional person” that can fit in with their organization.
  • What does history say? I do not have statistics on this, but I bet they are out there! When you look at the history of jobs and their requirements you start to see an interesting trend. At one point, a high school diploma was the main driver for entrance into the workforce; many jobs asking for a minimum of such educational completion. Over time, you start to notice that the minimum has grown to a bachelor’s degree being the requirement for most jobs out there. I am beginning to see that a master’s degree will become the new minimum requirement for a majority of jobs. This is just something to think about. See if you can find a similar trend for the industry and job function you are looking to enter.

What do I say to students who have been debating this same question over the past 10 years? Simple. What do you see yourself doing with your life? How do you imagine being a part of society?

I want them to see that life is more than just a “job” that they do to earn money, but something that allows them to show the world “this is who I am”. A career is an opportunity to express your values and add substance to the world around you. Do you need a degree to do this? Not necessarily, but often times it helps you get through that door that society puts up to make sure you are motivated, professional, and proven.

Patrick Madsen, Director of Programs & Education in Career Services at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business SchoolPatrick Madsen is the Director of Programs & Education in Career Services at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. He manages the Programs & Education curriculum to include career advising services, speaker series, brand management training, and other events to help students prepare themselves for the world of work. His background includes a degree in Psychology from North Carolina State University, a masters degree in Counseling from East Carolina University, and a doctorate in Organizational Leadership/Student Affairs from Nova Southeastern University.

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Posted in Advanced Degrees, Patrick Madsen, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

8 Signs You’re Spending TOO Much Time on Social Media… even if Social Media IS Part of Your Day Job

April 28th, 2010 ::

by Robin Ferrier

Image: M i x y / Mixy Lorenzo. Flickr Creative Commons.

No one would question that in the current job market, it’s important to understand social media — what it is, how it works, how to use it for business purposes, etc. But recently, Jibber Jobber founder Jason Alba posted the following query to his Jibber Jobber blog:

When is social networking… LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever, TOO much? In other words, how do you manage your time and efforts and have the right balance between what you do online and what you do offline?

In honor of his question, I present my list of 8 Signs You’re Spending TOO Much Time on Social Media… even if Social Media Is Part of Your Day Job

  1. You only know your “friends” by their Twitter IDs. Many of us have twitter IDs that aren’t our name – people like @thejobsguy and @dontgetcaught. I can say I know @dontgetcaught personally and I know her real name. (Hello, Denise Graveline!) But @thejobsguy is someone I follow and occasionally converse with on Twitter. If you don’t know someone’s real name, he or she is a social media colleague/friend, but not a “friend.”
  2. Your boss joins Twitter to communicate with you because you’re more likely to respond to a message on Twitter than you are a phone call or voicemail.
  3. When you’re asked about your last social outing, you discuss a tweet up. (Hint: If you’re sitting at a desk or on a phone and there’s no one else in the room, it’s not a social outing… even if you are conversing with other people.)
  4. When you get engaged, you don’t even think about what your invitations will look like because you plan on inviting all of your friends via a Facebook event invite. (At least, I hope this idea is still considered crazy, even to those members of the “digital native” generation… some traditions should remain traditions!)
  5. When you meet someone new – in real life – you refer to it as “friending” them. (For those of us who grew up before Facebook, we made new friends on the playground, we didn’t “friend” them there.)
  6. You start to speak and think in 140 characters or less. All the time. (Don’t get me wrong… less is often more. But there is a thing as being too brief.)
  7. Your definition of networking is attending TweetUps, conversing in LinkedIn groups, and meeting new people via other social media channels. (Sorry, guys, but face-to-face networking is still key in business.)
  8. You’re engaging in ANY social media activities while at the gym. Ignoring other reasons, let’s just focus on the fact that when you’re using weights or machinery, you should focus on the task at hand. (I wonder if there are any statistics on gym injuries due to cell phone social media use…)

But seriously now…

I think, like everything else in life (including bad-for-you foods and alcohol), it’s all a matter of moderation and balance.

You can’t live so far in the world of social media that you’re ignoring other aspects of your job. But at the same time, you have to be far enough in it that you understand how to use it and, more important, use it effectively.

I try to intersperse my social media activities between my other responsibilities. I know I’m spending too much time in that world if other items on my to-do list aren’t being crossed off. Rudimentary way to measure, maybe. But it works for me. You just need to find what works for you.

But if you start showing any of my 8 signs above, it may be time to admit you’re a social media addict and do something about it!

Robin Ferrier is the editor of What’s Next, Gen Y? and Communications Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. She is also the President of the Capital Communicators Group and the co-chair of the Marketing Committee for the Tech Council of Maryland. She has inadvertently become a frequent career / professional / job hunt resource for friends and colleagues due to a career path that has included five jobs in 12 years.

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Posted in Robin Ferrier, social media, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

Outsmarting your competition is easier than you think (but it does require some effort)

April 22nd, 2010 ::

By Jennifer Nycz-Conner

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pshan427/ / CC BY 2.0

I’ve been out of college for … well, let’s just say longer than I’d like to admit. Plenty has changed since then. Today’s twenty-somethings don’t have to battle the eternal questions surrounding the job application process: how many pages a resume should be, sending it flat versus folded in a regular envelope, to use a staple or paper clip.

But there are still plenty, less tangible, attributes that remain constant. A big one? How to make yourself stand out from the masses. In a good way.

With many years as someone who’s both been hired and done the hiring, I’ll let you in on a secret: It’s not really that hard to do. It will require some effort, however.

Steve Buttry has a fantastic example of this on his blog. As the Director of Community Engagement for Allbritton Communications’ new Washington, D.C. yet-to-be-named Web site, Buttry is on what in this economy could be referred to as a hiring spree, with plenty of qualified candidates from which to choose. But in his latest hiring announcement for a social media producer, candidate Mandy Jenkins popped to the top of the pile:

“Other excellent candidates interviewed before Mandy, though, and I thought of this as a crowded field when she arrived for an interview. I saw good signs even before she reached the office. She checked in from the Metro station nearby about 20 minutes before the interview, then from a nearby coffee shop. When I commented on that as I met her in the lobby of our offices, she told me she was using the beta of check.in, a new service that checks you in on multiple location-based platforms at once. There’s a good interviewing tip for you: If you’re applying for a social media job, start the interview right by telling the prospective boss even before you sit down that you’re using something he’s never heard of.”

That is a classic example of doing your homework, getting into your potential boss’ head and finding a way to use actions, not words to demonstrate why you are the right choice.

Here are some tips to make yourself stand out throughout the entire life cycle of the application process. It sounds like common sense, but many people do not do any of these, let alone all:

  • Spelling. Yes, this is basic, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t check their spelling. Want to show, not just say, you’re detail oriented? Spell your potential boss’ name correctly.
  • Do your homework. There is no excuse not to have done research on a potential employer today. It’s too easy not to. Don’t stop at the first two Google links you see. Go on LinkedIn and see where that hiring manager has worked previously. Check the news sites to find out what the company, and more importantly, its competitors, have been grappling with. Looking through social networking sites to find people you may know in common, or people that have worked at that company in the past. Ask them for guidance on what life is like inside the company. All of this is critical to prepare for the dreaded, “So, do you have any questions for me?” question. Which brings me to the next point…
  • Have a topic — or topics — ready for the dreaded, “So, do you have any questions for me?” question. You know it’s coming. Prepare for it. Better yet, use it as an opportunity to show what you know about the industry, your critical thinking skills, and your ability to add something to the team.
  • Think like your potential boss. If you were him or her, what kinds of questions would you ask? What kinds of answers would you want to hear?
  • Outthink your competition. What are your best competitors likely to do? How can you do it better, faster, different?
  • Follow up. Send the thank you note, and quickly (yes, it matters, says the girl who cringes at the thoughts of the ones I should have sent). Stay in touch, about the job, about the company and particularly with the person.
  • Be passionate. Anyone can have experience, or be shown how to do a job. Enthusiasm and passion cannot be taught. If you have it, show it.

Jennifer Nycz-Conner is a Senior Staff Reporter and Media Strategy Manager for the Washington Business Journal. You can read more great advice from Jennifer on Working the Room, her blog for the Washington Business Journal.

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Posted in Cover Letters, Interviewing, Jennifer Nycz-Conner, Job Search, Networking, Resumes, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

My First Job… or Learning to Appreciate the "Menial" Tasks in Life

April 8th, 2010 ::

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valerianasolaris/ / CC BY 2.0

A recent post by blogger Tom Madrecki has generated some conversation — both on the blog and in other outlets — so I thought I’d respond by reflecting on my experience at my first job.

Like Tom, I left college ready to take the world by storm. After all, I had a college degree. What more could I need in order to make my mark on the world, right? Yup, you guessed it. That would be a big, fat WRONG.

I quickly learned that college degree = menial labor when it comes to your first job. And though I wasn’t happy about it, since my parents made it clear that a paycheck was key to my survival, I knew I had no choice. (I grew up in a very practical household. Aspirations were great and all, but first you paid the bills!)

My first job was as a literary assistant at a literary agency. Don’t get me wrong, I got to do some fun things. My favorite was reading the unsolicited queries from authors seeking representation and writing memos as to why I thought the agency should or shouldn’t sign the authors as clients. But that was a small fraction of my time, and it was often done at night or on weekends because the other, menial, have-to-get-done-now tasks took priority during the work day. These were things like inserting my bosses’ fixes to book contracts (using a typewriter!), answering phones, filing, ordering supplies, organizing (read: cleaning) my boss’s office, sending royalty checks and statements to clients… tasks I’d always thought of as “secretarial” — the sort of thing I’d gotten a college degree to AVOID doing.

At the time, I hated those menial tasks. Now, I can appreciate them for what they were: an incredible learning experience.

I learned more about the business by performing what I’d before thought of as “menial tasks” than I ever would have otherwise. One reason was that I decided if I had to do these things, I would do them well. (Not to mention I had a boss who was a stickler for details.)

What I found was that once I proved I could handle those detail-oriented tasks, my boss gave me increasing responsibilities. I was given the opportunity to edit one of the proposals, which was so much fun. And eventually, she asked me to supplement the public relations activities being done for her authors by the publishing houses. It was my chance to shine… and boy did I. It’s the reason I have the career I do today.

So what’s the moral? Or morals?

  • Those “menial tasks” you may think are beneath you right now present some of the best learning opportunities… if you let them.
  • Everyone has to work their way up the ladder, and sometimes that means taking a job that isn’t “ideal” just so you get your foot in the door.
  • Oh, and those “menial tasks” you think are beneath you? Trust me. They aren’t. Those “menial tasks” are often part of some of the most difficult jobs out there, and it takes a special person to be able to do them well and do them gracefully. (Case in point: When my current boss’ assistant goes on vacation, I handle my boss’ calendar. It’s time consuming. It’s challenging. I do it without complaining, despite being 10+ years into my career. And I’m always more than relieved when her assistant returns!)

Now I’m going to call on all of you. Please comment below and share your first job stories — both the good and the bad. I’m sure we’re all learn something from what you have to say.

Robin Ferrier is the editor of What’s Next, Gen Y? and Communications Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. She is also the President of the Capital Communicators Group and the co-chair of the Marketing Committee for the Tech Council of Maryland. She has inadvertently become a frequent career / professional / job hunt resource for friends and colleagues due to a career path that has included five jobs in 12 years.

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Posted in Job Search, Robin Ferrier, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

The Importance of Adaptation and Survival in the Job Search Jungle

March 9th, 2010 ::

by Thomas Madrecki
A caveat: I am a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia with a good grade point average (3.79/4.0) and a solid background in journalism and communications, and I have yet to secure full-time employment. That being said, I still believe in the following recommendations…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/icelight/ / CC BY 2.0

There’s no question that we live in an ever-changing digital and Internet-driven environment, an environment that affects every aspect of our lives, including the job search process. And with so many mediums and so many options out there, it’s more important than ever that we learn how to stand out from the crowd and how to efficiently and effectively communicate our professional proficiencies across a wide media stratum – not only because it will make us stand out, but because it showcases skills that companies are looking for in the hiring process. In an odd – if convoluted – way, selling yourself successfully means selling to recruiters the idea that you can sell … anything.

The first step? There are several very easy and readily available ways to boost your resume and its appearance. A little bit of effort will go a long way toward impressing future employers and making your application stand out amid a sea of less marketable candidates.

The first of these suggested technical skills is a familiarity with the Adobe creative suite. And I’m not suggesting this just as a skill set for someone looking to enter the communications/design arena. I see no reason why any job-seeker wouldn’t stand to profit from even the slightest InDesign and Photoshop experience.

For starters, any product crafted in Adobe software looks and feels light years ahead of anything composed in Microsoft Office. Every employer receives hundreds of applications that originated as 8.5 x 11 documents in standardized, size-12, Times New Roman font. Maybe, if they’re lucky, some bold soul is creative or design-oriented enough to fashion his resume in Helvetica instead. Far better, though, to use InDesign in composing your resume and sample materials, as the number of advantages vastly exceeds any initial drawbacks in terms of a learning curve. If you’ve got an eye for print design – just an understanding of what works and what doesn’t – you’ll be able to reap numerous benefits:

  1. A “cleaner,” more sophisticated look.
  2. A quicker and easier ability to convert documents into secure .pdf format.
  3. Generally speaking, more space to include outstanding achievements and career experiences as a result of straightforward, customizable line kerning/leading and font selection/sizing.
  4. Another great technical skill on the bottom of your application.

As a final note, be careful not to “go crazy” with your resume. I shouldn’t have to say this, but tailor the look of your resume to the impression you wish to convey to employers. Maybe a serif font with dozens of bold, dramatic flourishes speaks to your inner poet, but it’s probably unwise if one is seeking employment as a financial adviser (though I’d have to inquire why any poet would stoop to such mundane, middle-class work). Similarly, though, I personally love groundbreaking graphic design and all things “modern” and “clean.” Precisely because I’m not seeking employment as a graphic artist, my own resume reflects a more traditional, perhaps refined, taste. After careful consideration, I attempted to utilize a standard layout with relatively easy-to-read boxes and a few eye-catching design tweaks (the Trajan font header, for example, as cliché and overdone as Trajan tends to be). The result is something that is slightly more text heavy than I would ideally like, but provides an adequate representation of who I am.

Providing that link brings me to the second technical skill recommendation – WordPress web site design as a way to showcase your work portfolio online. Initially a blogging platform, WordPress has been molded into a viable content management system with the help of an open-source (and mostly free) design community. An entire instruction manual could be devoted to conveying how to best utilize WordPress, but the bare bones are these:

  1. You have two options – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The first is a free-to-host service with more limited design and URL options, while the latter is a fully customizable option used in conjunction with a paid hosting service and URL. The best option is up to you, but my personal route of choice was first to explore the system using WordPress.com and then transfer over to my own domain.
  2. WordPress uses customizable “themes.” There are dozens of blogs and sites devoted to the latest WordPress designs, so common sense would dictate that you research as much as possible before starting your new site.
  3. Get your hands dirty. WordPress is easy to use, but one has to experiment, naturally, before one can get the most out of the system. Looking into the coding framework and going beyond the initial capabilities of various templates is the only way to separate oneself even to a greater degree, so it can’t hurt to tinker.

I apologize upfront for the scarce introduction, but all that really needs to be mentioned is the “wow-factor” possibility. To be perfectly frank, I didn’t know a lick of coding and still barely know my way around PHP and CSS. But with a bit of determination and outside-the-box thinking, I put together a creative portfolio that most college students charting a career in my field of choice (i.e., not web/print design) can’t match. As a side bonus, my experience using WordPress later provided me with several freelance opportunities, the most important of which was the chance to redesign an internationally distributed magazine’s web site.

So, what’s the takeaway? There are plenty of ways to distinguish your application during the hiring process. I haven’t found the right job yet, but I can’t imagine being in today’s job market and not being armed with the technological survival and adaptation mechanisms highlighted above. After all, it’s a jungle out there.

Thomas Madrecki headshotThomas Madrecki is a fourth-year Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia and the former managing editor of The Cavalier Daily newspaper. A true media chameleon, he hopes his extensive writing background and knowledge of various print/web design options makes him the perfect candidate for a career in brand management, communications, journalism, and/or public affairs. On the side, he’s also a former Dexter USBC High School All-American bowler (averaging about 225) and a budding, Nietzsche-adoring philosopher with a keen interest in existentialism and the pursuit of happiness.

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Posted in Job Search, Thomas Madrecki, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »