WCIYP (How To Deal With Any Handicaps You Have)

One of the most common handicaps a job-hunter will experience is shyness. That's right, shyness is arguably the most profound obstacle an individual will have to overcome in the job-hunting process. Although some people will not admit it, almost everyone becomes nervous or shy at some point in the job-hunting process. An ideal way to overcome shyness, at least according to What Color Is Your Parachute, is to use enthusiasm as a cure. For example, I am passionate about sports. To limit my shyness during an interview, I may bring up how sports are a major passion of mine. Fortunately, I am seeking a job in the sports marketing industry, so not only will my enthusiasm about sports be appropriate to discuss, but it could also help me appear less shy during an interview.

Another alternative to overcoming shyness is through the implementation of the PIE method. In the method, the "P" stands for pleasure. During the "P' phase, you should practice interviewing people you are comfortable talking to, such as family or friends. Once you feel comfortable talking about a career with someone, it is time to advance to the "I" stage, which stands for informational interviewing. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, informational interviewing usually involves reaching out to a bridge-person who can possibly offer advice or a connection to a company that you wish to work for. After sufficient interviewing has been done, and you are comfortable speaking with strangers about your career aspirations, then the final stage "E" can be approached. The "E" phase of the PIE method involves an actual employment interview with an individual who has the power to hire you. 

For a visual perspective on the PIE method I explained above, please view the following images:

Overall, it is important to understand tactics to overcome shyness in order to succeed during an interview. Also, anyone involved in a job-hunt should be able to distinguish the difference between self-esteem and egotism. It is alright to be confident in yourself, but is a completely different story to be self-centered. Employers will surely make assumptions about you based on your personality during an interview, so it is critical to display the best version of yourself in order to prove that you can add value to the company you are interviewing for. 

WCIYP (How To Deal With Any Handicaps You Have)

As you venture on the job-hunting process, you may come to the realization that you lack the ability to perform certain skills. According to What Color Is Your Parachute, the lack of such skills are considered to be disabilities. Hence, it is critical to determine what skills you possess and articulate them to potential employers. The book goes on to argue that everyone is handicapped in some sense, as no one person can perform all tasks or skills in the world. A key distinction between owning a skill or failing to have the ability to perform it is the understanding how the perspective of a job-hunter differs than that of an employer. Often, job-hunters do not have the ability to carry out some skills. Although this is common among many individuals, employers are often prejudice if someone falls into a certain category.

For example, the book credits employers for falling subject to the following prejudices regarding job-hunters:

1.) Out Of Work Too Long

2.) Age

3.) Returning Veterans

4.) Ex-Offenders

5.) Former Patients

6.) Others

Although some of the prejudices listed above could clearly limit someone from earning a job, it is arguable that employers are simply looking out for the sake of their company. Still, it is important to understand the difference between a disability and prejudice in order to deal with any struggles you might encounter in the job-hunting journey.

One way to determine what you can or cannot do is to look at a list of transferable skills, as it will allow you to pinpoint what you are capable of. In fact, the following image offers 246 skills that employers often look for in an applicant. I strongly recommend sifting through the list and noting the skills that you believe you own. I actually completed the exercise myself and found it surprisingly rewarding, since I was able to list and articulate my transferable skills upon completion.

Here then, is the aforementioned list that any job-hunter should consider glancing at:

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