WCYP (You Get To Choose Where You Work)

After reading my last blog post, it should be clear that identifying what you are passionate about, and then pursuing that passion in a career is of the utmost importance during a job-hunt. Three more aspects to consider towards the end of a job-hunt are thank-you notes, job offers, and contacts.

First, thank-you notes should be a considered a requirement for anyone that has received assistance in the job-huting process. This may include a bridge-person who helped you earn an interview, a representative from a company, or even the person who actually conducted a formal interview with you. It is recommended to send both a digital and physical thank-you note, and doing so will surely separate you from other candidates applying for the same job. A thank-you note does not have to be long in nature, as two or three sentences will suffice.

Second, it is important to understand the proper ettiequte in accepting or rejecting job offers while gathering information about a company. Most of the time, a company will not offer a job if you are simply inquiring about working for them. However, it is possible. Hence, you should be ready to have a prompt response prepared in the event that such an opportunity presents itself.

Third, it is imperative to develop contacts in both a social and professional environment. Studies have shown that the more people you know can directly translate into networking your way into earning a job. A perfect example of a contact is a bridge-person, or someone who works for a company that you wish to by employed by. One of the best resources available to grow your contact tree on is LinkedIn, where you can reach out to friends, family, colleagues, or peers.

WCIYP (You Get To Choose Where You Work)

The beautiful aspect of adopting the Parachute Approach to job-hunting is the fact that you get to choose where you work. Now, it's not always as simple as finding a dream job. Instead, it could be a rather long and rigorous process that involves extensive research and effort.

Nonetheless, What Color Is Your Parachute, by Richard N. Bolles offers five helpful steps for job-hunters that are looking to find a place to work. Before listing and explaining the five steps, it is important to note that curiosity and informational interviewing are necessary requirements to increase networking efforts.

Without further delay, here are five helpful steps to supplement your job-hunting efforts:

1.) You Need to Find Out What Careers or Jobs Your Flower Points To

• Remember that flower exercise that I discussed in a previous blog post? Well, it's actually very useful and will allow you to determine your favorite fields of interest and best transferable skills. 

2.) You Need to Try On Careers Before You Decide Which Ones to Pursue 

• Identifying a career, or at least a career path is one of the first steps in the job-hunting process. Keep in mind, it is never considered a bad idea to look for a career-change, especially if its towards an industry that you're passionate about. An ideal way to research multiple careers before ultimately choosing to select one is through informational interviewing, otherwise known as asking people in a particular industry about the details of their career.

3.) You Need to Find Out What Kinds of Organizations Have Such Jobs 

• This kind of research can be done in various ways, but I have found LinkedIn to be one of the best resources to utilize. 
• Examples of the kind of information you should research regarding an organization;
• Places that employ part-time or full-time
• Places that take consultants 
• Places that are profit or nonprofit

4.) You Need to Find Names of Particular Places That Interest You

• Keep in mind, people who usually find success in a job-hunt seek positions that do not necessarily have vacancies. Hence, if you are persistent enough in the job-hunting process, companies will begin to realize that you can provide value and will become a top-of-mind candidate for any potential openings.  

5.) You Need to Learn as Much as You Can About a Place Before Formally Approaching Them

• Understand a company's corporate culture before heading in for an interview, Identifying a company's goals or working environment is essential, especially if you are asked a question about the company during an interview. 
• Make sure to determine where you would like to work. Even more, do so before you accept a job. This can be accomplished through extensive research, including referencing the following resources:
• Friends and Neighbors
• People at the organizations that you are considering
• The Internet 

CASA Marketing (Social Media Monitoring and Analytics)

Social media monitoring and analytics are two important tools to consider for social media marketing purposes. In short, social media monitoring revolves around initiating conversations and posting content to social media platforms. Most importantly, social media monitoring should involve social listening, that is, searching for feedback from customers. On the other hand, social analytics refers to the ability to measure performance metrics, such as likes or conversations.

Delving even further into this topic, social media monitoring and listening can be broken down into two components; owned media and earned media. Owned media relates to properties that you control, such as a personal Facebook or Twitter account. On the opposite side of the spectrum, earned media contains conversations or shares on a social media account that you do not control. In either facet, learning how to use tools like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, or Radian 6 is an integral part of the social media monitoring experience.

An ideal time to utilize social media monitoring is during a time of social media crisis, similar to when Target suffered a data breach. During a fragile time like this, social media enables a company to respond to harsh situations that could potentially tarnish its image. This is especially true if a company does not have a Public Relations department, as social media allows messages and conversations to spread at an almost uncontrollable speed. Consequently, this can either positively or negatively a company's financial position in a specific industry depending on how its followers respond to a particular crisis.

Finally, social media monitoring is useful for a company when a customer complains about a product, raises a question, or wishes to engage in a conversation online. Overall, utilizing social media monitoring and listening truly helps improve customer service efforts for a business, which can also have an impact ROI as well.

MKTG 347: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is an excellent tool to utilize from a social media marketing perspective, as it allows users to post content simultaneously to multiple social media platforms at once.

With this idea in mind, I recently utilized Hootsuite to post a recent article I wrote for a fantasy football company, which is Dynasty Nerds.

To begin, I selected Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as social media accounts that I wanted to post my article on:

After I composed a short preview of my article, I then proceeded to post it to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter directly from Hootsuite. The results are pictured below:

After using Hootsuite for the first time, I can personally admit that the service does an excellent job of simplifying the process of posting content on social media.

WCIYP (You Need To Understand More Fully Who You Are)

In Chapter 7 of What Color Is Your Parachute, it is necessary to take a self-evaluation in order to learn more about yourself. Once an inventory is completed, you will have a much better understanding of your preferred characteristics and traits, including which employers match those that you're interested in.

As a part of the inventory process, Richard N. Bolles recommends filling out seven "petals" to a flower that will help define you as a person, while also identifying your skills and passions in the process.

Without further delay, here are the seven "petals"of a flower that should be defined during a self-inventory process:

1.) My Favorite Knowledges Or Fields Of Interest 

• These may include areas of knowledge, functions (transferable skills), or traits
• Three questions/statements to ask yourself:
• What you know from your previous jobs
• What you know about, outside of work
• What fields, careers, or industries sound interesting to you

2.) My Preferred Kinds Of People To Work With

• It is important to determine what type of working environment you work most efficiently in, including what personality types you blend with as well
• There are essentially six main working environments, and it is necessary to determine which of the following you best fit in with:
• Realistic
• Investigative 
• Artistic
• Social
• Enterprising
• Conventional 

3.) What I Can Do And Love To Do (My Favorite Transferable Skills)

• Transferable skills can be best described as your skills with people, data, or things in a general sense. In other words, transferable skills are those that are innate, or that you are born with and have refined since

4.) My Favorite Working Conditions 

• Once you identify you ideal working conditions, you will be able to determine work settings that will make you happy and allow you to be the most productive

5.) My Preferred Salary And Level Of Responsibility 

• This needs to be accomplished in order to determine a desired salary, in addition to what is a realistic amount of money to earn relative to your field of expertise

6.) My Preferred Place To Live

• Understanding where you want to live is a major decision that will ultimately define where you take a job. Therefore, it is imperative to live somewhere that will make you happy and allow you to have a successful career  

7.) My Goal, Purpose, Or Mission In Life

• Defining a goal, purpose, or mission in life will provide a sense of guidance or direction, especially where a career is concerned
• Per the book, here are the "Nine Kingdoms of Mission and Purpose", which can help in the self-inventory process:
• The Mind
• The Body
• The Eyes and Other Senses
• The Heart
• The Will or Conscience 
• The Spirit 
• Entertainment 
• Our Possessions
• The Earth

WCIYP (You Need To Understand More Fully Who You Are)

According to Richard N. Bolles, the author of What Color Is Your Parachute, it is critical to take an inventory of yourself in order to fully understand who you are as a person, and how the results can impact job-hunting as a whole. By doing so, you will be able to learn more about yourself and find answers to the following seven dilemmas provided by the book:

1.) By doing this homework on yourself, you learn to describe yourself in at least six different ways, and therefore you can approach multiple job-markets.

• Instead of being arbitrarily known as an "accountant", you can instead describe yourself as a person with certain skills and experiences that ultimately shape who you are as an individual.

2.) By doing this homework on yourself, you can describe in detail exactly what you are looking for.

• By doing so, you will be able to more effectively communicate with family, friends, or colleagues for assistance in your job-hunting process.

3.) By ending up with a picture of a job that would really excite you, you will inevitably pour much more energy and determination into your job-search.

• Once you have a dream job in mind, you will undoubtedly become determined to earn the position, or at least be persistent until you do so.

4.) By doing this homework, you will no longer have to wait to approach companies until they say they have a vacancy.

• Utilizing a bridge-person to connect with an employer is an ideal way to approach a company without any widely known vacancies, and more likely than not results in you finding a job. 

5.) When you are facing, let us say, nineteen other competitors for the job you want-equally experienced, equally skilled- you will stand out because you can accurately describe to employers exactly what is unique about you, and what you bring to the table that others do not.

• In other words, you should be able to articulate the traits or skills that differentiate you from others for a job opening.

6.) If you are contemplating a career-change, maybe-after you inventory yourself-you will see definitely what new career or direction you want for your life.

• Conducting informational interviews, or simply taking an inventory of yourself will surely provide insight into what you are passionate about, and can help determine if a career-change is necessary. 

7.) Unemployment is an interruption, in most of our lives. And interruptions are opportunities, to pause, to think, to assess where we really want to go with our lives.

• If you adopt the "Parachute Approach" to job-hunting, which I have discussed in great detail in previous blog posts, then you will definitely be able to determine who you are and what you love to do. In fact, taking an inventory of yourself can help you grow as an individual, in addition to finding a job that you may find interesting. 

CASA Marketing (Hootsuite)

Can you imagine if there was a resource that allowed you to simultaneously post content to multiple social media sites? Well there actually is, and it can be done from a site called Hootsuite. Essentially, Hootsuite is a tool that enables users to manage social media accounts by developing and posting content to multiple platforms at the same time. For instance, if I worked for a social media company and wanted to promote a new service, I could theoretically use Hootsuite as a form of marketing to generate buzz for my company across Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all at once. Although this may seem overwhelming at first, Hootsuite is an excellent tool to utilize from a business perspective. It is especially important as it relates to sustainability, particularly where content and return on investment are concerned.

If you have never used Hootsuite before, there are various ways to become familiar with the site and its abilities. Fortunately, Hootsuite has a free version that can be used as a test to determine if the site will work for a marketing campaign.

As as new user, Hootsuite's welcoming screen will look like this:

As you can see, the site appears to be very user-friendly. From its main page, Hootsuite allows users to sign in to various social media accounts or even create products/plans as a business. Due to the fact that Hootsuite can be rather intimidating to a new user, the site has an engaging help section that will surely guide you through any questions, including live webinars for those who enjoy a visual learning experience. In addition, more information can be learned at Hootsuite University, with video tutorials available on YouTube.

After you have pondered through Hootsuite and believe that you have a firm grasp on how to use the site, I recommend to then create an account. To begin, creating a free account should more than suffice. Once an account is created, Hootsuite will guide you through the process of adding social media networks to your account. After all of your accounts are connected to Hootusite, you will be able to post content simultaneously to social media platforms. The final step in the Hootsuite configuration process is to practice using the site's features in order to become familiar with navigating around the platform. Overall, Hootsuite is an important tool to gain an understanding of to develop a continuous stream of content that will deliver information about a product or service, with the ultimate goal of generating a return on investment from marketing efforts.