Following Your Passion: Taking My Own Advice

As many of you know, the Flipping Burgers philosophy is to follow your passion – to invest your time in doing what you love to do. I have written many blog posts about this philosophy.

Now it’s time to take my own advice. My passion has always been books – reading books, writing books, buying books, studying how to market books.

And as I get more and more involved in internet marketing, I find myself stretched in too many directions with trying to keep up with this blog and my other interests.

True, I also love giving advice to high school students and young people about college applications, internships, jobs and careers. I just don’t love this as much as I love giving advice about book writing and book marketing.

Regrettably I have decided to take the step of no longer adding new posts to this blog, although I will, of course, leave this blog up. After all, many of the blog posts I wrote remain useful. For example, advice on interviewing techniques and proper interview attire is the same whether posted now, a year from now, or several years from now.

Use this blog as a resource archive for when you need to review advice on such topics or to recommend this advice to others.

You can also keep in touch with my activities by checking out my Miller Mosaic LLC company websites www.millermosaic.com and www.queensofbookmarketing.com. And email me with questions or comments at pzmiller@millermosaic.com.

Wishing you much success as you follow your own passion through life.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, college applications, internships, jobs, careers, book writing, book marketing

Networking Events: The Early Bird Has a Good Chance of Catching the Worm

The October 30th Wall Street Journal article “As Layoffs Rise, Jobless Throng Career Fairs” by Dana Mattioli had a concluding paragraph that caught my eye:

Nicholas Schulz, a 23-year-old from Woodbridge, N.J., looking at jobs in the marketing field, has developed his own trick for making the most of his time. He arrives early to reach recruiters before they get burnt out. “If you get there later on, you can see it in their faces that you’re the thousandth person they’ve spoken to,” he says.

This advice is particularly important for all “networking” activities. If you get to an event early and you recognize a speaker or panelist, that’s a very good time to go up to the person and politely introduce yourself. No, you shouldn’t pitch yourself then. You should focus on spending a few quality moments just talking to the person. Before you turn away, you could ask for the person’s card.

Then after the speech or panel when everyone else is storming the barricades trying to get to the speaker or panelists, you can smile to yourself and go home. You can be secure in the knowledge that you can send a follow-up email expressing gratitude for the public presentation and adding a comment about the pleasure of speaking to the person before the formal presentation began.

You can add in that email an appropriate request that follows from the brief chat you had before the presentation. This might be something such as: I enjoyed talking with you about companies offering internships for marketing personnel. Would you have any recommendations of companies that might be interested now in marketing interns?

Obviously, if the person thinks his/her company would be interested, he/she will say so. Yet you’ve given the person an out – permission to say he/she doesn’t know of any companies at this time. Because you haven’t backed the person into a corner by expressing asking about his/her company, the lines of communication are still open for a future email from you.

While I can’t promise you that the early bird always catches the worm, I can promise that you often have a better chance of catching the worm if you arrive early – and use that time to your advantage.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, Wall Street Journal, WSJ

New Experiences: Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

I’ve written before about having an open mind (and recommended the book MINDSET by Carol Dweck). As it’s such an important topic, I wanted to revisit it again.

Most of us probably have a standard response to things we don’t want to do – NO (if we can get away without doing those things). Yet if you’re in high school, college or your first job – you might want to consider saying yes to things you don’t want to do because of what you may learn or who you may get to meet.

A long time ago my husband and I were asked to take with us to Israel two very bulky sweaters Israelis visiting the U.S. hadn’t been able to take back with them. At the time my inclination was to say no, but I was prevailed upon to say yes as we were taking half-empty suitcases so we could bring gifts home.

The irony is that neither my husband nor I had relatives or friends in Israel at that time. We delivered the sweaters to the head of Israel radio and his wife, and suddenly we had the opportunity to meet real Israelis! A totally unexpected outcome of taking two bulky sweaters in our suitcases.

If a teacher, mentor or boss asks you to help out with a project that at first sounds boring, do not automatically say no. First, get more information about the project. Second, take a few minutes to think about how you might learn something new or meet some interesting people if you do this project. And then, with an open mind, if at all possible say yes.

Being open to new experiences is a wonderful character trait that can lead you to all kinds of interesting things. Of course, we’re talking about LEGAL projects. While you might learn from an illegal activity, this is not something you want to say yes to.

Use good judgment about saying yes to new things – and do say yes when it is appropriate to do so.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, high school, college

Basic Work Etiquette:What Do Millennials Know?

The October 21st Wall Street Journal had an excerpt from Ron Alsop’s book “The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace.” (Alsop defines the millennial generation as born between 1980 and 2001.)

I’m not a huge fan of grouping an entire generation into one catch-all description, and the excerpt in the Journal didn’t do much to change my mind on this score. Yet this one part of the excerpt did catch my attention:

It may seem obvious that employees should show up on time, limit lunchtime to an hour and turn off cellphones during meetings. But those basics aren’t necessarily apparent to many millennials.

Why do I find this hard to believe? Because most millennials did have to show up on time for school or college classes or a babysitting job or a shift at Starbucks. And in high school there was a specified length of time for lunch and at Starbucks there was a specified break time. And believe it or not, high schools and places where teens get part-time employment do have rules about cellphones.

This is why I am always leery of anecdotal evidence. You can find anecdotes to prove whatever point you’re trying to make.

But in case I’m wrong, and you are a millennial who truly doesn’t know to show up for work on time, take only an hour for lunchtime and turn off your cellphones at work (and especially during meetings), please learn these work etiquette rules right now. And then go out and prove to the world that millennials do know these things.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Ron Alsop, internships, jobs, careers, high school, Starbucks

Internships: What to Do With Conflicting Opportunities

A friend just told me about her college-age son and his dilemma with internships this past summer.

It seems that he was promised an internship for which he stayed in D.C. for. But the weeks dragged on with no word, and he got a call for a really good internship in New York. He wanted to accept this second internship, but he was worried that he had promised the first internship.

His parents explained to him that it was perfectly acceptable to take the bird in the hand rather than waiting for the bird in the bush.

He went to New York and had a great unpaid internship. Only, near the end of that internship, he got a call to work (paid this time) for the Obama campaign, although he would have to leave his New York internship early.

Again he was conflicted. Until his parents pointed out that this was a paid internship (as opposed to the NY unpaid internship) and was also a unique opportunity to work for a Presidential campaign. He took this unique opportunity.

Why have I recounted this one college student’s internship experience? Because I think there’s an important lesson here.

Yes, you want to be true to your word. But when someone keeps you hanging for weeks without making a decision, you have the perfect right to accept an internship that is ready right now. And when a paid internship for the whole fall semester presents itself, you have the right to leave your unpaid summer internship a week or two early. After all, it isn’t as if you’re leaving early to spend two weeks lying in the sun at a beach. You’re leaving two weeks early for a paid fall semester internship.

The moral of this story? While I think that your integrity is very important, you do have to do what is right for you. If someone keeps you dangling for weeks, you have the right to take an internship that is being offered right now. And if someone offers to pay you for the entire fall semester, you have the right to leave an unpaid internship a couple of weeks early.

Bottom line? Your integrity has to be combined with what makes good sense for you as you find your own path through high school, college and life.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, college

Elevator Speech: Have a 30-Second Speech for Whoever You Are or Whatever You’re Looking For

The expression “elevator speech” doesn’t mean a speech in favor of taking an elevator rather than the stairs or vice versa. It refers to a “speech” you could make in a 30-second elevator ride to tell someone who you are or what you’re looking for.

And whether you’re in high school, college or beyond, you should have at least one of these speeches down cold (and maybe more if you have different interests). And by down cold I mean: you know the speech so well you can say it as if it’s spontaneous rather than memorized.

Maybe you’ve noticed an adult asking a teen what she is doing and the teen says “applying to college.” What’s an example of what the answer should be when asked this question by an adult? “I’m applying to top Eastern colleges and I’m particularly hoping to be accepted by the University of Pennsylvania.” Now the adult has enough information to say, for example: “My sister is an alum. Would you like to be introduced to her?”

See the difference? The teen hasn’t asked for help, but she’s provided enough information for someone to offer to help. And if she were in an elevator and had only said “applying to college,” there wouldn’t be enough time for the adult to ask questions to elicit the same information and offer the same help.

At whatever point you are in your life, be prepared with this 30-second speech.

Someone on Facebook just wrote me that her 19-old-son is publishing a book and looking for information on book marketing. But she should have said: “My 19-year-old son is publishing a book on ………...” Although I did respond with advice for book marketing, I might have been more helpful if she’d mention fiction or non-fiction, the title of the book, and when it is coming out.

And if you’ve got different interests, have an elevator speech for each interest so that you’re prepared for any opportunity that comes your way.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, college applications, book marketing

Resumes Revisited: Do You Put Your Twitter Username on Your Resume?

Resumes usually take a rather standard form when it comes to including your name, address, phone number, email, and maybe cell number and fax number.

Here's an interesting question to consider: Should you include your Twitter username, your Facebook profile page URL, your LinkedIn public profile URL or any other social media information on your resume?

Okay, obviously the answer is yes if you're applying for a job in social media. And obviously the answer is no if you've posted inappropriate information about yourself on MySpace or Facebook.

It's the middle ground that leads me to ask the question: Do you want to indicate by, for example, including your Twitter username that you are knowledgeable in one of the popular microblogging platforms? Or are you worried that a prospective employer might think you'll spend too much time on Twitter if the employer knows you're on that social media platform?

I'm not sure there's an easy answer for everyone. Anyone want to weigh in with an opinion?

Related Posts:

Resume 2.0? The question is, when do you think document that we know now will replaced as the "king of resumes"? I don't think they'll ever completely go away, but there is a time in the not so distant future where we will be asking candidates for ...

Six steps to Resume 2.0 Can you think of other ways to start tweaking your resume for Web 2.0? Employers, human resources pros and recruiters - would any of this be helpful for you? Are you using social networks for recruitment purposes? ...

The Social Media Resume: Making Your Mark in a Web 2.0 World The idea of this kind of resume may not be as widespread as its traditional counterpart, but it’s something that web workers might want to consider if they want to take advantage of what Web 2.0 has to offer. ...

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Facebook, Twitter, internships, constructing resumes, jobs, careers

U.S. Economic Situation: Good Time for Internships?

Internships may actually be more available during this economic time. That’s because companies are being forced to lay off employees and this may cause those companies to be short-handed. If you offer yourself as an unpaid intern, you may be snapped up to fill in the gap.

And when a company is short-handed, there’s usually more of a chance for an intern to get to do real work tasks rather than just making coffee and delivering the in-house company mail.

What does this mean for you? If you’ve been wanting an internship to try out a specific career field or get credentials on your resume for a future job, now is the time to do this.

Brainstorm with friends or family about the companies in your area that may need the kind of intern you want to be. Read your local newspaper to see who is laying off large numbers of employees. Then contact those companies if they appear to be the kind of company at which you’d like to intern.

The company’s HR person may not be the best person to contact. He or she is dealing with layoffs and might not take kindly to an intern request when that intern might do the job of a previously paid employee. But a department manager, desperate for more helping hands, might be very open to meeting with you.

Therefore, chose carefully who you will approach. If you want a marketing internship, choose someone in the marketing department. If you want an accounting internship, choose someone in the accounting department.

If you’re good at pitching yourself in writing, then do so for the first approach. If you’re better pitching yourself in a phone call, do that for the first approach.

Remember that with all the issues on the minds of managers today, your request may get buried even though you could really be useful to the company. If you don’t get a response within a few days, do approach the person again. Just be sure to make your approaches in good taste and do not appear to be a nudge.

Be prepared to explain how you can help the manager/company. Then, if you get the internship, do a terrific job of helping out. This could even be your opportunity for a paying job at this company when the economy picks up, or at the very least the opportunity to get a terrific recommendation.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, U.S. economy

Email Deluge: How Helping Someone Get Out From Under Could Further Your Career

A friend of mine who is a medical doctor at a large university told me that she gets so many emails a day – close to 200 – that she can’t keep up with them. And that sometimes she misses deadlines for important grant projects because of the magnitude of keeping track of all the emails she does open.

I explained to her that many professionals are now using a VA (virtual assistant) to check their emails and keep track of such things as which emails needed responses and which didn’t need to be followed up. Then I realized that she couldn’t use just any VA. She needed to use someone who could understand the scientific and medical discussions in her emails.

And that’s when I got the idea for a way to help an undergraduate student at the large university and help my friend. If she got a student majoring in pre-med or science to be her VA for her emails, the student would be able to understand the content and also learn just be reading the emails. This would be great for the student to put on her/his resume and great for my friend.

Then I realized that there must be many, many professionals who are overwhelmed with their email inbox. And, therefore, an enterprising student with an interest in a specific area could approach professionals in that area about being a VA. Of course, the student would have to understand the need for confidentiality of everything he/she reads. But this is the same as for any VA.

If you’re looking for a way to demonstrate a passion of yours and, at the same time, learn more about that passion, look around for a professional whom you could help get out from under the email deluge. This could be a win-win for both of you.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, virtual assistants, internships, jobs, careers

Interview Techniques: The Words Out of Your Mouth Can Lose the Job for You

Yesterday I put a blog post on collegefinder.globalscholar.com that began this way after the headline “Using Appropriate Language During a College Application Interview”:

The three words “like” and “you know” (along with the annoying “um” and “well”) used liberally throughout your conversations may not bother your friends. Yet be assured that a person interviewing you will note the immature and/or annoying language. Other words that bother interviewers include dude, hey, stuff, whatever. And, of course, you should use proper English and not street or slang or colloquial English.

In an email exchange with one of the CollegeFinder people this is what I received:

That post also applies well to interviews! You wouldn’t believe how many just out of college students we interview here who use the words or worse!

Okay, now you’ve heard this warning directly from the mouth of an employer (as opposed to my harping on this subject). And if you take these words to heart, you could have a giant advantage over other job candidates.

If you’re not aware of how you speak (whether you continually use the words “like” and “you know” and whether you use slang), record yourself practicing an interview with a friend. Then listen to the recording.

If the above warning applies to you, take two immediate steps to correct these problems. First, try consciously even when speaking to friends to use proper English and NOT to constantly use the words “like” and “you know.”

Second, practice answering interview questions with a friend over and over again until you eliminate the problems. Record each practice interview to check your own progress.

Any questions about what might or might not be appropriate to say? Leave questions in the comments section below.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, collegefinder.globalscholar.com, interviews, internships, college applications, jobs, careers

Interviews, Meetings, Appointments: The Case for Being on Time

I’m reading Dan Kennedy’s book NO B.S. TIME MANGEMENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS. Kennedy credits motivation speaker Ed Foreman with saying you only need to do three things for rapid advancement in most business organizations:

“Show up.

“Show up on time.

“Show up on time, ready to work. So few do.”

While Kennedy and Foreman may be oversimplifying the way to advance in corporations, the advice about showing up on time is extremely important for you to follow at internships or jobs.

Of course, the advice is even more important for showing up on time for an interview for an internship or job.

If you can’t show up on time for an interview, what possibility is there that you will show up on time each day of an internship or work? If you’re late for an interview, you have a huge strike against you before you even shake hands with the interviewer.

I know a college student who told his parents that he wished they had insisted he be on time for school when he was younger. Now that he has his first real job, he’s finding it hard to get accustomed to being on time.

If you do not already have the “on-time” work mentality, you must immediately teach yourself to have this mindset. You must figure out your own coping skills for ensuring that you show up on time.

If you know your habit is to treat time as elastic, it may be necessary for you to plan to get to work 15 minutes early so that you actually arrive on time. Or you may need to a put a timer in the bathroom and kitchen to ensure that, after your alarm clock wakes you up, you don’t get lost reading in the bathroom or at the breakfast table.

Eventually, if you work hard enough at it, you should be able to keep yourself on schedule without such additional reminders. But if you are truly one of those people with no sense of time, you will always have to rely on outside forces to get you to where you need to be on time.

This emphasis on being on time may seem silly to some of you. You may say: “What’s five minutes?” Yet from the perspective of the person expecting you to be somewhere at a certain time, five minutes can be the difference between keeping your internship/job or being shown the exit door.

Maybe it’s time you took time seriously.

Technorati Tags:
Internships, jobs, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, Ed Foreman

PROJECT RUNWAY and ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL: Lessons from Two Television Shows

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL is a reality show currently running on the Sundance Channel. The August 27th episode focused on the Tulane architecture students presenting their designs for building an affordable new home in a Katrina-ravaged neighborhood of shotgun houses.

(New Orleans shotgun houses are long narrow houses with no hall – each room is directly behind the other so, if you shot a gun from the front, the shot would go straight through to the back.)

The presentations would impact which of the student designs would be chosen for the students to actually build. Yet almost all the students were really terribly at presenting and “selling” their designs.

Although all these students wanted their design to be the one chosen – big kudo for an architectural student, yet it appeared most of them had given little thought to the explanation and selling of their designs.

As this show follows Bravo’s PROJECT RUNWAY, I had just seen a fashion designer chosen as the one to be OUT partly because of his unimaginative design and partly because he whined during the critique of his design, blamed his model, and actually complained about the judges’ previous “criticism” of him.

Michael Kors, “top American designer,” said words to this effect: Face it, kid, this is what life is like as a fashion designer. You’ve got to be prepared to take the good and the bad.

What do these two television shows have to do with college applications, internships, jobs and careers? Several lessons:

• If you are given an assignment – when you present that assignment, be prepared to assertively but not aggressively sell your vision.

• Accept critique willingly and understand that you can often learn more from your mistakes. Do not insist on being the one in the right.

• Do not blame others for your less-than-stellar presentation. Accept responsibility.

Watching Michael Kors’ face as the OUT designer left the runway, it was clear that Kors felt this guy just didn’t get it. How much better if the disgruntled designer had graciously thanked all the judges for the incredible opportunity to have been part of Project Runway?

Make sure you are thought of as an amicable person who learns from critiques and appreciates your opportunities. That reputation can take you a long way.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Project Runway, Michael Kors, Architecture School, Sundance Channel, Bravo, Tulane, New Orleans, Katrina, college applications, internships, jobs, careers

Business Cards: Are They Still Needed in a World of Web 2.0?

I’m getting ready to get business cards for my younger daughter and me for our company Miller Mosaic, LLC. Up to now there’s been no need for business cards for this new online company, whose website isn’t yet live and whose business model will be part of Web 2.0.

Yet next month my daughter and I will be attending a conference in LA where we hope to meet some of the people we’re following on Twitter and in the blogosphere, such as conference speaker Chris Brogan, a Web 2.0 guru (www.chrisbrogan.com). We want cards to hand out when we meet these people in person.

Considerations for getting your own business card

If you’re starting to look for your first real job, do you need business cards? After all, if you get a job, you may be provided with business cards. And until you have a job, what would go on your business card?

In the “old” days business cards could cost a lot of money. Today there are so many places online and offline to get cards, including cards that are free except for shipping, that cost should no longer be a deciding factor.

And there’s another consideration. Some time ago I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about people having different business cards for different parts of their lives. For example, someone may work as an accountant during the day and have a company business card. Then she may be a slot car enthusiast on weekends and pass out a personal business card when she meets fellow slot car enthusiasts.

Thus, you could get an inexpensive business card now that can be used while you job search and, after you get that first job, can be used on weekends for meeting people at parties or other venues.

What’s needed on a personal business card?

Name, personal email address, and cell phone number are the minimum needed on a business card plus possible a personal website (as long as there are no inappropriate items on the website). No need for an address, which can change, or your landline phone, which can change. In most cases you’ll keep your personal email and cell phone even when you change jobs.

You could add one more element – something that makes you memorable in the minds of people you meet and yet is “professional” enough when giving out a card at a job interview. Such elements might include: website designer (you made your own website), social media expert (you’re a pro at MySpace and Facebook), political commentator (you’re a regular commentator on several political blogs).

While you may be interviewing for the job of an actuary or a social worker, the interviewer should still be impressed at your “talent” because those companies who haven’t yet embraced Web 2.0 will need all the help they can get to do so in the next couple of years.

Who knows? You may be hired for an actuary job and end up the company’s social media guru as more and more companies create such a position.

So say yes to getting a personal business card. (And you can even attach a copy of it to your email signature.)

Technorati Tags:
Business cards, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, interviewing, MySpace, Facebook, Chris Brogan

M.B.A. Students Choose to Follow Their Own Career Paths

The August 19^th Wall Street Journal article by Samar Srivastava titled “M.B.A.s Skip On-Campus Recruiting” made my heart sing. The article focused on M.B.A. students who took the road less traveled by looking for their own post-M.B.A. jobs instead of going with the jobs-on-offer through campus career services.

Having an M.B.A. myself from Wharton, I know exactly what those on-campus interviews can be like -- the major companies offer the major jobs. And if one of those consulting or Wall Street jobs is not your cup of tea, you have very slim pickings of on-campus job interviews.

One advantage in choosing your own path and working on finding your own job is that you are often a potential work pool of one person when you get interviews on your own. Thus, if you do your research and connect with the right companies, you can have an excellent opportunity of getting the job that you want.

The Journal article says that Michelle Antonio, director of Wharton’s M.B.A. career-services office, talks about the students who opt for their own job searches working at an internship to gain experience. As readers of this blog know, one of my main emphases is on getting internships to try out careers.

One M.B.A. student interviewed for the article said she took an internship to “show her commitment” to the new career path she wanted to follow. This is precisely the opportunity that can be available if you have an open mind towards finding the path that suits you best rather than following the traditional path of someone who just earned an M.B.A.

The moral of this story? If you don’t want to follow the traditional path, be willing to use networking and other techniques discussed here and elsewhere to find your own path.

Technorati Tags:
Wharton, M.B.A., Michelle Antonio, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, business schools, Samar Srivastava

Internship or Job Interviews: Do Not Assume That You Know Best

Interviewing for an internship or job in a different region of the U.S. than where you live or go to college? Be prepared to “go with the flow” when you bump up against unexpected regional differences.

Recently I had over for dinner new neighbors who have just moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Now I’ve lived in different parts of the country: I grew up and went to undergraduate college in the Midwest, lived in Munich when my husband was stationed there with the U.S. Army, and lived for eight years in Philadelphia before moving to Los Angeles.

Yet, I admit, I was surprised at the pronouncements made by the New Jersey couple --sweeping statement about things that just weren’t true out here. And this reminded me of the first time I interviewed for an M.B.A. position in LA:

I was just finishing my M.B.A. at Wharton and ARCO flew me out here for an interview. Although it was only March, I knew it was warm in LA. So for the interview I bought a purple linen spring suit at a department store in Philadelphia.

And I wore that purple linen suit to my job interview at ARCO in LA. Only the other professionals at ARCO were wearing dark-colored clothes because LA does have seasons. No one was yet wearing spring/summer clothes.

Did I feel foolish that I had made an assumption rather than checking with someone who would have known what the correct professional attire would be for LA in March!

If you are flying across country or even going to an interview at a company in your hometown whose on-the-job culture you don’t know – find out ahead of time what the expectations and situation are.

And if, in the interview, the interviewer says something that isn’t true in your region or in your knowledge base, don’t immediately jump to “correct” the interviewer. Listen to what he or she says. You may just learn something that helps you get the internship or the job.

Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, interviews

Who You Know Still Plays a Large Role in Hiring Decisions

Recently the following comment was left on this blog:

About.com just added 3 new sites to their Top 10 Employment sites list:
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.indeed.com

Only one of them is a social network. Employers and recruiters don’t care if they know someone; they want to hire the most qualified candidate .... nothing will ever change that.

This comment was probably generated by a software program that looks for blogs on which to leave comments that connect to someone’s website. At least I would prefer to think this than to think that someone would purposely write such an idiotic comment.

This comment has NEVER been true in reality even if the hiring manager says he/she wants to hire the most qualified candidate. Unless forced by diversity programs and/or government regulations, people hire who they like. And who they like is usually who they feel comfortable with – which frequently translates into a close copy of themselves.

Now the advent of social media networks has somewhat changed the playing field. Today people can connect in non-traditional ways (outside the men’s locker room and the golf course) and become “friends.”

And LinkedIn.com – the one site above that is the social network rather than a job website like the other two sites – is really a business recommendation site much more than a true social media network.

Here’s the thing: There can be so many equally qualified applicants for a job. If you were the hiring manager, wouldn’t you rather hire either someone you know personally or someone recommended by someone you know personally (even if that person is known only through a social media relationship)?

For those of you starting out on your path in life, remember that who you know is still very important in the larger picture. And you also need to be prepared when you discover an unqualified candidate has just been hired in your department. In this case, a good question to ask yourself is: Who does this new employee know either online or offline?

The moral of this story: You should always strive to be the best qualified candidate for any position to which you apply – and finding someone to recommend you who knows the hiring manager is also a good idea.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers, internships, jobs, careers, LinkedIn.com, Realmatch.com, Indeed.com, About.com

U.S. Olympians Must Also Train on Correct Behavior While in China

The August 6^th front-page Wall Street Journal article titled “U.S. Olympic Training Features A New Requirement: Etiquette 101” by Christopher Rhoads made me smile.

Why this hadn’t been obvious from years ago is a mystery. We Americans are not well-versed in other cultures nor are we particularly well-versed in manners in general. (That’s why I often blog about such seemingly minor things such as getting rid of your gum BEFORE you walk into an interview meeting.)

Apparently in the past the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has only given 15 minutes to guidance on behavior. This new course – given in five cities throughout the U.S. – is mandatory, usually lasts two days, and includes role-playing and group games.

One piece of the instruction included this: “Also discussed was how to hold the American flag during a victory lap. (Answer: not upside down.)”

Whether you are competing in the Olympics or competing for an internship or job, your behavior in public reflects on your overall image. Make sure you’re a gold medal winner when it comes to achieving a positive image.

Technorati Tags:
U.S. Olympic Committee, Olympics, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Christopher Rhoads, internships, jobs, careers

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Bravo TV’s FLIPPING OUT Jeff Lewis Rants About Entitlement

My younger daughter showed me a brief segment of episode “Tapped Out” of season 2 of Bravo TV’s series FLIPPING OUT (www.bravotv.com). She wanted me to hear Jeff Lewis – the “obsessive-compulsive house flipper” in LA whom the show follows – talk about his new assistant Chris.

Chris is changing careers and hopes to become a project manager under Jeff. And you know that I often write about the need to take an internship to try out a new career. But Chris is getting paid to try out this new career – and, unfortunately, he has a problem.

Chris unrealistically expects to be a project manager in six months. Jeff informs the camera that he’s been doing this for 20 years. And if everyone could change careers after three weeks on a new job, Jeff would be an astronaut in three weeks.

Jeff is actually hitting on a major problem with young people today – the feeling of entitlement. This is a feeling that everything is due you without any effort or work on your part. And I know that Jeff’s assistant isn’t an isolated case. My cousin who works at a large computer company has complained to me about the entitlement attitude of the interns with whom he works.

How do you know if you are exhibiting this behavior? One clue might be if you say or mutter negative things when asked to make copies of something or to pick up an envelope from the receptionist.

Another clue might be always demanding to do things that you haven’t yet learned how to do well or even been shown how a company wants that task done.

The expression “everyone has to pay his/her dues” is a good one to remember for young people starting out on their own career paths. Or another good expression might be “you have to crawl before you walk.”

For example, although my uncle was chairman of a national food service company, my cousin with a degree from Wharton started out as a cook at one of the food service contracts. For his whole first year of marriage he left the house at the crack of dawn, leaving a good-morning note for his bride. But it was important to learn the business from the bottom up as he rose up the ranks.

The next time someone asks you to copy papers – don’t pout or raise your eyebrows or look annoyed. Instead, smile and eagerly fulfill the task. First, you might learn something from the papers that you’re copying. Second, you’ll be appreciated much more than another new hire who does pout.

Entitlement only comes when you have paid your dues and then some.

Technorati Tags:
Bravo TV, Flipping Out, Jeff Lewis, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Another Facebook No-No – Sending a Friend Request to a Job Interviewer

The July 29^th Wall Street Journal article by Sarah E. Needleman entitled “Thx for the IView! I Wud (heart) to Work 4U!!;) Young Job Candidates Find Too-Casual Tone of Textspeak Turns Off Hiring Managers” surprised me.

I wasn’t surprised that young job candidates didn’t know better than to use texting abbreviations in their thank-you notes to interviewers. I’ve written before about the need to use proper English (spelling and grammar) for such communication.

But I admit I was surprised that young people on Facebook send friend requests to interviewers with personal pages on Facebook. This assumes a peer relationship that doesn’t exist. And this action can be fraught with peril if the job applicant has been indiscreet on his or her Facebook profile page.

Although Facebook is now being used more and more for business, there’s still a major difference between Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook is a social media site first, a business site second. LinkedIn is a business site first, a social media site second.

Therefore I do believe it would be appropriate to send an add to network request to an interviewer on LinkedIn because presumably the interviewer is on the site for business purposes.

But to send a friend request to an interviewer who is on Facebook in her or his personal capacity and not on a company page is presumptuous. Regardless of what you may think, the interviewer does not want to share her or his likes in music and movies with you.

As in everything else on the internet, you have to use good judgment. Every time I want to send a message to someone through Facebook, I stop and consider whether this is something that could be put on the person’s wall or whether this is something that should only be seen by the recipient. These messages can’t be dashed off without any thought.

Just because you can send a message around the world in a flash does NOT mean that you should disengage your brain from your activities.

And, according to the Journal article, interviewers are worried about hiring someone who text messages a thank you using abbreviated language. What kind of business correspondence can this young person be trusted to do? After all, every communication that person sends if working at a company reflects back on the company.

Next time you’re tempted to dash off a thank you from your BlackBerry five minutes after you’ve left an interview, consider whether that is the best positioning of your image. While you don’t have to produce a hand-written thank-you note, a well-formulated email could go a long way towards demonstrating that you know professional communication standards.

Remember, as always, the job opportunity that you impact positively or negatively by your actions may be the one that you really want. Don’t jeopardize it by two-thumbing a sloppy, jargon-laced thank you.

Technorati Tags:
Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Sarah E. Needleman, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media, BlackBerry, job interviewers

Yet Another Facebook Profile Photo Warning – Take This Advice Seriously!

Yesterday Peter Shankman’s www.helpareporter.com email alert had this query:

Doing market research for an article:

What, if anything, are kinds/young adults taught in grade school/high school and/or college re: online profiles and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.?

What if you found out that your college-age nephew, who is slated to take over the family business after college, looks like a total idiot online? How do we teach our upcoming “young professionals” that posting pics of themselves in nothing but a diaper at Halloween is just not appropriate?

Of course I immediately responded to this query because I often blog about this problem of inappropriate photos and personal info on social media. I even forwarded to the reporter my post of June 6^th (see http://tinyurl.com/5g9hgr).

And then I went on Facebook because I’m working with a young woman and her mother to more effectively use Facebook and LinkedIn (and start on Twitter) to help establish their professional brands. And what do you think I found on the young woman’s profile page?

A profile photo of her making a face (she’ll be 27 in September), and for “interested in” on her profile she had put Men.

I immediately emailed her that she must:

a) replace that goofy photo with an appropriate profile photo

b) eliminate the “interested in” entry and instead use the “looking for” entry of Friendship and Networking

Was I annoyed that I had to tell her this? Yes and no. Yes, because she should have known better. No, because obviously from the reporter’s query there are lots of young adults who don’t know better.

If you’re a reader of this blog, I sincerely hope you’ve taken my warnings to heart. Be sure your profile photos on all social media sites of which you’re a member are appropriate as well as having appropriate comments on your profile pages.

The career that you do NOT sabotage if you follow this advice is your own.