What is it about the agency biz that makes it so a** backwards and how does one ever go about being successful in one?
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One of the great things about working in a boutique operation is that your co-workers can be remarkably candid without being mean. For instance, yesterday I was in a lengthy meeting trying to explain a strategic plan when the conversation turned to my use of “MBA-Speak.”
As the team’s more senior members put it; most MBAs have an affinity for MBA speak simply because it’s what they’re used to being around. In the outside world, they added, there is an enormous benefit to being able to speak plainly without over-complicating your vocabulary for the benefit of sounding smart.
Having previously worked in a situation where being an MBA was actually a liability, I saw their rationale and appreciated the way in which they delivered the critique. In fact, they pressed me to explain why my plan would help us differentiate from other agencies in a single sentence. After several missed attempts, I finally stripped the last of the MBA-Speak out of my explanation. When I looked back on the simplicity of the sentence and how it was 100 times more powerful than 4 more sentences packed with business jargon and buzzwords my jaw hit the floor.
Though I can’t promise my team to completely erase the MBA-Speak from my vocabulary, I can set myself a challenge to try. For the next month I am going to see if I can go without using any of the following:
I will also attempt to explain the benefits of whatever I am working in direct relation to increased customer awareness, interest, leads or sales instead of things like “engagement.” Best of all, I will let you know how it goes!
In the meantime, feel free to add words I should avoid using in the comments section. Let the games begin!
As we cruise into June, Alison and Jared take on Hubris in MBAs, the changing face of social media in the political arena and the new role of power moms on the internet.
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The Owen Follies crew after pulling off 3 hours of an awesome show!
Business school maybe over for but the recovery period is just beginning.
Since beginning my MBA at Vanderbilt, my life has been a tornado of activity. Little did I know, the ride just gets crazier before it lets you get off.
Example: in the last 6 weeks, I have…
Now that it’s done – I feel I need rehab from the sleepless nights, anxiety-ridden days and of course the heavy celebration accompanying each critical accomplishment.
I guess this is my way of saying it’s back to being creative and spending more time exploring the world through this blog. Though it is amazing to think of what’s ahead of me, sometimes you just have to look back and say; “did I really do all of that?”
I find myself once again on vacation. My destination, not surprisingly, is back home to Washington DC. Coming back has become a ritual that not only clears my head, but I find it’s usually the best way to re-focus my attention on any new venture – in this case, being my new job which starts Monday.
Let’s be clear – DC is not the place you go to “relax.” In fact, like any trip home it’s only a matter of time before the endless emails about who I plan to meet, where it is we are going to catch up and I am forced to contemplate how much time I can actually spend doing vacation-type stuff. Though at times it may feel like more of a benefit for my friends, I do find there is one supreme upside to going home: the quiet sense of appreciation for where you’ve been.
The view from the corner of my old apartment in DC
It hit me as I wandered through Dupont Circle and past my former apartment; my world has grown so much in the course of only 19 months. At first, the act of disassembling my life and starting over in Nashville felt impossible. Today, I can’t imagine what my life would be without it. The reason is because my risking everything I knew and getting out of my comfort zone, I gained an enormous appreciation for almost everything around me.
It’s easy to take things for granted when you’re comfortable. You begin to think of your limits as stabilizers and your scope becomes narrowed in an effort to reinforce what you think has worked in the past. The truth is that a little discomfort is good for you. By keeping yourself off balance, you start looking beyond what is immediately understandable. In doing so you begin to master the art of appreciating the ever widening scope your own environment.
When marketers take their worlds for granted – whether it be in their understanding of consumer behavior, technology or even what they, themselves are capable of – they loose their edge. The best guard against that complacency is an appreciation of how big the world is and, perhaps, how much we don’t know.
For my own journey, I just have to look around at what I used to take for granted. I look at places I used to pass by without a second thought and find appreciation in the company of friends I used to talk with every day.
Will I ever want to move back? Who knows…
What I do know is that I would have not traded my business school experience for anything in the world. In it, I have gained an appreciation for the very art of appreciation and what a valuable tool it is.
For anyone out thinking of stepping out his or her comfort zone and into a big change I say, “do it.” You never know what you might find once you pass that threshold but in the words of Dr. Joyce Brothers, “if you can take the worst, take the risk.”
Despite its growing relevance, social media is considered a very non-traditional career path for any marketer, let alone an MBA. Still though, a year ago I realized that I wanted to pursue social media marketing as a full-time gig if only to articulate a broader theme for my post-business school career.
Imagine my surprise then when just last week an opportunity for a dream job in social media marketing popped up right in front of me. The opportunity came based on steps I had taken to position myself through social media networks and yes, I took the offer.
Smart minds like Jason Falls are quick to point out though that social media is not the panacea some marketers make it out to be. However, based on my experience, I am compelled to offer a slightly contrary viewpoint as well as some best practices I picked up along the way.
To sum it up; I fundamentally believe Jason is right in that only face-to-face interaction will close the deal on any potential job. The part where I disagree is that the nature of this job market benefits the job seekers who are prepared, flexible and able to pounce on an opportunity when luck strikes. In that way, social media is the perfect way to increase your chances of being in the right place and the right time.
To illustrate my point, here are four key best practices applicable to almost any job seeker in the social media space:
1) Develop your personal story
Social media is all about connection and the surest way to do make connections is to get people to latch on to your personal narrative.
Before you even approach the job market, make sure you can tell a compelling version of your story in 20 seconds. A good way to do this is to boil your story down to three sentences; a) who you are b) what your professional background looks like and c) why a and b make you perfect for your target job opportunity.
2) Come to the table with something besides just asking for a job
Conversations over social media are usually best suited for non-job related talk butt hey can lead to opportunities. Have your personal story in your back pocket but lead with something of shared interest between you and a social networking contact.
Don’t just jump in and say, “I would be perfect for your company!” Ask questions that demonstrate your competence in their area. Talk about a project you’re working on, talk about a project you’re thinking of starting, just talk about something other than the fact you need employment. The point is to get your contact to open up to you about their organization, what things are keeping them up at night and ways you can potentially be of service.
If you do this right and the opportunity really is there, the contact will offer some sort of opening and ask you about your job search. That’s when you roll out the personal story and pitch.
3) Create a target list of companies, then use LinkedIn to find contacts
I’ll admit; LinkedIn is not the best place for job listings. It is however, a great place to look for contacts at the companies you want to work with.
Start by doing a broad search of job postings on boards like Indeed.com. Set up an RSS feed for titles, descriptions and job requirements that match what you’re looking for and take note of the names of the companies that are hiring. Then, do a search for those companies in LinkedIn and see if any of your friends or their connections have contacts that can help you get your foot in the door.
Asking for a connection requires a little bit of guts but I have found that its very effective. In almost every instance, I was able to land at least a phone call with a recruiter. Even recruiters from companies that didn’t have positions respected the initiative I took and were more than glad to offer connections of their own.
4) Network relentlessly in person and in cyberspace
I will reiterate that all of these best practices are just to position you in social media. The rest of the journey is about being absolutely relentless in pursuing opportunities.
Check your RSS feeds, attend twitter meet-ups, and send out introduction emails. Whatever you do, keep the momentum up in your job search. It’s an exhausting prospect but when you find yourself in that right place, at the right time with the right tools, it’s worth it.
I am really grateful for the people who helped me along the way and want to pay it forward. If you’re struggling in your job search, message me here.
If have something to add to aid in people’s job search – please add it as a comment, I would love to collect as many best practices as possible and see if we can’t lend a hand to brilliant marketers that are still seeking jobs.
Also, to hear more; check out the singlecup podcast commentary:
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Let’s talk about progress, shall we?
I am 17 months into a 21-month long MBA program. I have been interviewing non-stop since August for full-time positions and I have yet to get a single offer. It would be easy to say that in all that time and through all that effort, what we have here is a stunning lack of progress.
Sardonic as it may be, this feeling is widespread among my fellow MBAs in the class of 2009. In fact, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s a day-to-day battle to remain positive despite what can feel like continual setbacks.
It’s times like this that I love to invoke one of my classmate’s favorite military themes: “Embrace The Suck!”
Drawn from the deep well of military jargon, “Embrace The Suck” essentially means that while the situation may suck, you don’t have to. In that theme, as we stare down the pretty substantial task of getting a job in this economy, I tried to find some ways to truly embrace the suckiness of the situation.
Embrace The Suck – Contacts
When the economy is down, you’re apt to get plenty of people who tell you that they’re not hiring. That doesn’t mean you should stop calling people. Call them networking contact calls, call them informational interviews but if you manage them right, these contacts can serve as a valuable resource later down the line.
Case in point; I recently used a random contact to leverage my way into a company that I know has open positions, currently but is delaying their hiring until the second quarter of 2009. By thinking outside the box in terms of what you can get from a random contact, you can increase your chances that you will ultimately find them useful.
The main idea here is to remain altruistic and candid about the relationships. Yes, you need a job but more importantly, you’re seeking input from that contact in order to further your understanding of their operational area. The more you give – the more you’re going to get.
For More On Networking, Check Out Jason Alba’s Thoughts On The Matter on JibberJobber.com
Embrace The Suck – Experience
The worst part about interviewing is the inevitability that you won’t land the vast majority of the positions you’re up for. In my opinion, the sting of rejection can almost be worse than not having the opportunity entirely. Then I remember the upside – what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Though it hurts, a rejection is the surest opportunity to get input into how you can improve. It’s the experience of multiple rounds of interviews that make you more confident and stronger. The bad news about this logic is that you have to fail in order to succeed but the good news is that you’re most likely failing towards the opportunities that are better suited for you. Seriously, who wants to be an ABM for a brand they don’t believe in?
Embrace The Suck – Perspective
Lastly, the ultimate benefit of a prolonged job search is in the perspective you gain from knowing what’s out there. If you were to get a job offer the first time out, you wouldn’t have the advantage of getting to see the inside of multiple other companies. I find this to be particularly appropriate for bloggers since, what we gain in this perspective, we readily turn into content. {Insert Appropriate Comic Laughter Here}
Honestly, there is no one true way to get that love-at-first-sight job opportunity. In fact, unless you are able to divine the one company with the one culture at the one time they need your singular skill set, you’re probably going to have to kiss a few professional frogs along the way.
In the meantime, I know its hard…TRUST ME, I know. However, the upside of this is that, as long as you don’t stop trying, you’ll find something. All you can really do is have some fun along the way.
The very fact that we spend 60% of our time as “new media professionals” explaining what the heck new media is got me thinking: when new media becomes a forgone conclusion, what will the “new media professional” look like?
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Technorati Tags: marketing diner, MBA, new media professional, new media projects, new media ROI, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management
It’s safe to say that there isn’t a single one of my MBA cohorts at Owen that expect an easy road this year when it comes to landing full-time offers. In fact, most of us agree its going to take us pulling out all the stops to really get things going in our job hunt.
Though I typically reserve these types of posts for people more dedicated to career management than I – see Susan Strayer or Jason Alba – here are my personal picks for the three best ways to use new media tools in your job hunt.
Job searches can be one of the most stressful aspects of an MBA experience. Using these new media tools are just a few ways I have found that can help you make the best of your time and maximize your opportunities.
If you have more that you want to suggest – let’s get a list started on the comments section!
Technorati Tags: indeed.com, Jason Alba, LinkedIn, MBA, OwenBloggers, Personal Portfolio Sites, job search, Susan Strayer, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management