Skip to main content

Job Seeking Advice for Young Professionals


With my internship with the Center for Digital Engagement, I had the opportunity to listen to a panel of recruiters a few weeks ago.  With it I took some valuable tips about finding employment in today's market that you may find useful:
  • Create a powerful open ended statement to describe yourself.  One that will get others to ask you about it.
    • For example, mine is "I can get other people to talk about your company"
  • Specialize, dont be a swiss army knife
    • Companies are looking for someone who is a subject matter expert in certain areas.  It is better to be a master in a few fields rather than proficient in many.
  • Always highlight your top 3 skills 
    • Determine what you are best at, find ways in your social media, resume and in interactions to sell yourself as the product
When it comes to today's job market, our networks become more important than ever before.  Who you know can often be more vital than what you know, at least in the stages of finding new employment.  In order to maintain your professional contacts, it would be recommended that you take great care of your LinkedIn profiles. These recruiters who spoke with us expressed that there have been many times that they will hire individuals off of their LinkedIn profiles rather than even looking at their resumes.  Some advice for operating on this network would be:

  • On LinkedIn the amount of connections and secondary contacts that you have will greatly improve your visibility.  It is recommended to add in some L.I.O.N.s to your contacts.  These are LinkedIn Open Networkers.  That means that they accept all connection requests, and often have a very large network. Just adding them greatly improves your secondary connections.
  • Keep your privacy settings to a minimum on Linked in, remember LinkedIn is a place where you want to be found, so make it easier to find you!
  • In the same token of the last note, ensure that your contact information is simple and easy to find on your profile.
More importantly than any other point would be to adjust your mindset.  As cheesy as it may seem, good things often happen to good people.  
  • Start every day with a statement like "Today is going to be a good day!"
  • Include calls to action in everything you do, whether it be sending messages or sending some encouragement, get things done and help others do the same.
  • Remember that the little things matter.  Don't forget about handwritten "thank yous" after interviews or actually following through with people who have done something for you.  Genuinely care for others and it will not go unnoticed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Directing Marketing for EMU's SVA

My Internship with the Student Veterans of America at Eastern Michigan University has been going great.  With them, I have been managing social media, creating fliers, promoting events and designing different marketing opportunities.  So far I have promoted two separate events, both of which had some pretty great turn outs, one of which was a 5k "Walk and Roll" with the purpose of fighting the veteran suicide epidemic.  The SVA had a team of 8 and there were over 200 participants that attended the event! My other large project for the moment has been editing their logo to make it work better on a t shirt for the organization.  I did this through Photoshop and have been sending it to different shirt companies to get quotes so we can determine where we can get the best deal.  My results with social media have been great.  I have found that most of my posts get a large amount of viewers reached but I would definitely like to drive some more interact...
2 comments
Read more

Versatility in Social Media

As I was growing up, I never really understood most technology.  Sure I used sites like AIM and Myspace and eventually moved over to Facebook, but I never considered it's potential in a professional environment. When I try to explain to family members how I am using Social networks today, they are blown away. In both of my internships I am working with social media.  With one, I am managing a brand's social networking sites to promote events and engagement with its member base.  With my other position, I am seeking out more clientele or organizations which we can follow, which may in turn increase others' knowledge about our brand. When people think about the role of marketing in Social Media, often times, images of ads and sponsored posts come to mind.  I would argue that while running ads is important, it is almost "small potatoes" when compared with the task of building and maintaining a brand on social media and encouraging engagement within it's marke...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting to Know the Talent Around Me

When you working in a new environment, in my situation in an internship, it is important to get to know the people you are working with day in and day out.  In our internship with Ann Arbor Spark, we have decided to start meeting together for food and drinks at a local restaurant before every Wednesday meeting.  Personally it has bee a fun experience getting to know the other interns.  While most of us, like myself, have a marketing focus, there are web developers, supply chain specialists and graphic designers.  Throughout the past weeks, I have learned valuable skills not just on the job but also from my fellow interns who have different specialties.  If you know much about me, you will know that as a busy student, husband and a father of two sons, I don't get out as much as others.  In this case, I am very glad that I made sure to spend the time necessary to get to know the incredibly bright interns in this program alongside me.
Post a Comment
Read more