That’s right.
Cheryl Harrison is GONE from the interwebz! OH NOES!
Just playing 
She just manned up and bought her own domain (finally…)
OMGZ you’re gonna have to update your bookmarks and your RSS feeds, please forgive me
Check her new website out:
Seeya there, folks
I’ve recently taken to urging my friends, professors, co-workers and fellow classmates to get involved in the social media scene (not counting their obvious rampant usage of Facebook and Myspace) for their personal and professional development. I get a lot of blank stares from these people…
I understand why it’s weird to hear someone talk about “following” people (Twitter) and “adding people to your network” (LinkedIn) if these aren’t concepts you are familiar with. Especially following. Really, Twitter, could you make people feel MORE stalkerish?
But you want to know what “following” people got me? I found out about an internship (unpaid, fail) through Twitter, by @’ing (if you’re not familiar, you @someone to reply to them) the person who was hiring about the potential opportunity for me, having someone else who worked for a different company who needed someone in a similar capacity see that “Tweet” (these words all sound super lame, I know) and follow my profile links to my LinkedIn (essentially your online resume and professional contacts) page, realize I’m THE BOMB (like tick… tick.. Lil’ Wayne reference? Inappropriate? OK… moving on) and meet up with me to discuss my skillset, career interests, et al., and then getting me in for an interview and, eventually, having said company create a position, just for yours truly
I’m not even afraid to story top myself in my own blog post, so here it goes: HALFWAY THROUGH WRITING THIS POST, I got a phone call from someone I met through Twitter, then Facebook, then Linkedin (I’m a social media SLUT) offering me the position of Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations with a newly founded interactive agency in Indianapolis. Oh, and hi, $125k salary FTW. I won’t elaborate on this at this time, it’s just fabulously good timing for my blogosphere inspiration.
Social Media Epic Win?
BUT YES. Building a strong professional network takes a lot of time. And “following” someone on Twitter or persuading them to accept your LinkedIn invitation (OMGZ I LOVE UR JOB PLEES BE MY FRIEND) does not, in itself, make them someone you can expect a job from, expect to become your client, expect to even sit next to you at a social networking event. If you stop the relationship there, well, der, the relationship stops there.
BUT! And this, my friends, is the title track of the album that is this blog post (The B side?):
Electrozicution from lite bulb + mouth = t-minus 5 seconds
In Defense of Social Media Networking
You have to foster these relationships. If someone posts that they need an article on a topic, you need to take 5 minutes and be the first person who finds them one. If someone creates a Facebook page for their company, you need to take 30 seconds out of your afternoon to invite all of your friends to “Be a fan” of that company. If someone posts a blog (AHEM) that you find interesting, helpful, stupid, has hot Cheryl pics, et al., you need to post that link for YOUR network to see. This is how this crap is supposed to work, people. There are people I “follow” who I will probably meet this Wednesday at the Columbus Tweetup (Twitter + Meetup… geeks are clever.) and feel like I’ve known them for years. And there are lots of other people who I will initially feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable around because there is no feeling of a personal relationship from our connection, just an occasional kudos on a link share or a beverage choice. So if you send me a Facebook friend request and don’t introduce yourself or tell me why you’re being a social media creeper… I’m just going to think you’re a real-life creeper and the potential connections are lost. Finito.
So post your work history on LinkedIn. Tweet about the news article you just read (Tabloids don’t count). Don’t just use Facebook to track down the girl you thought was cute at the party last night to learn her “interests” (“BOIZ, cuddlin, gettin schwasted and lovin life! lol!” Oh, and she’s only 17, BTW, and Chris Hansen is en route), use Facebook to share links, pictures, blogs, events, MAVERICKINESS (to be explained in a minute.) Oh, and uh, don’t use Myspace at all. KTHX.
In conclusion, because that’s how we are taught in 5th grade to end things, social media is what you make it. And if you’re reading this, you likely figured that out already. Or you’re a Facebook creeper. So I’ll direct this comment at my Facebook creepers:MAKE MORE OF IT!
OH and, uh, I vowed early on to not make my blog political, because I want you to like/hire/want/etc me despite my political ideology… but I CANNOT resist sharing my Halloween maverickiness any longer:
Costume Maverick.
After a daunting first week of classes listening to students talking about how they don’t know or care what they do with their lives, have no experience and no plans to get any before graduating, and pretty much just expect a good paying job that will fulfill all of their heretofore unknown professional dreams to be handed to them when they graduate… I have decided to put my best (and proven!) advice out here.
OMGZ ALL THIS STUFF IS SUPER CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVATE AND I’M GIVING AWAY ALL MY SECRETS NOOOOOOO!
I haz secretz?
(Note: All this stuff is common freaking sense that most people just don’t seem to have.)
1. GET AN INTERNSHIP:
Yours dropped the failball
Your professor’s tell you this all the time. They probably tell you this enough that you have begun thinking you are qualified to be a professor because all you have to do is tell your students to go, get an internship! This is by far the least original but most important piece of advice I can give you. And, hate to break it to you, but that first internship you get probably isn’t going to pay you. In exchange for 10-15 hours per week of your unpaid time, you get real-world experience and something to put on your resume other than a list of classes you took (i.e. “Yoga”) and your job providing “quality customer service” at McDonalds. More than likely you can get college credit for this, too. And after you pull your weight not getting paid and getting people coffee, you’ll be more qualified than you were 3 months ago to apply for a position that will actually help pay your bills. I’ve had 5 official internships (not counting the truckload of other experience), and only the first one was unpaid.
Fitting it into your schedule
The reason people give for not seeking internships that I hear the most is, “I don’t have time.” No, you do have time, you just either suck at time management or refuse to give up that time between 3 and 4 p.m. when you watch Saved by the Bell reruns. Currently, I am pulling 18 credit hours (as always), working 20 hours a week at my primary internship, working 13 hours a week at my work study job, putting in between 2-3 hours of work for my secondary internship, and preparing to devote another 2-4 hours per week on student organizations I am a part of. THIS IS ALL MONDAY-FRIDAY. I have absolutely no weekend obligations, because that’s enough free time to get me through the rest of the week. No, I’m not overwhelmed by my schedule. And if ever I should be, taking all of my 400 level classes and mastering a new job should be it. But college doesn’t teach you how to be a PR practioner, a marketing pro, a political scientist. It teaches you how to manage your time, how to work with people, how to meet deadlines. (If you haven’t realized that yet… you might want to take some time to reflect on what your BA actually represents.)
Finding an internship
The other reason I hear is that students don’t know where to FIND an internship. This one blows my mind.
Those people who teach your classes, professors, remember them? Most of them have either come to teaching after working out in the real world for a long time or are STILL working out in the real world. And those experienced, tenured folks have a hell of a network that they would be more than happy to tap into for you, if you ASK.
Also, most colleges have a Career Services department who’s sole job is to help you with your career by working with you on your resume, practicing your job interview skills and, dun dun dun, FINDING YOU AN INTERNSHIP! Also, most of these departments have a website that lists internships/jobs in your area and allow you to upload your resume for potential employers to search. Capital’s is www.cucareers.com, and it’s where I found my first two internships, so don’t try to tell me the sites aren’t helpful.
Check for local websites specifically designed for job and internship searches. Columbus recently launched www.columbusinternships.com, which is EXTREMELY useful. I posted my resume on there and still get about one phone call a week asking me to come in for an interview in a position that would be amazing… if I didn’t already have two internships and 18 credit hours! I’ve taken to referring these people to my friends when they call now, two of whom have received calls for interviews after my recommendation. Anyway, check the Interwebz for these things, they’re out there. If there’s not a specific website for your college or community, national job search like www.monster.com post internships, too. That’s where I found internship #3.
Lastly, if you want to scope out an internship before you apply or accept the position, check out www.internshipratings.com. Most of the listings are East Coast at the moment, but it’s a fairly new website and more regions are catching on as we speak.
You’re welcome.
2. BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO
Not such a gud idea akshully
Eh I’ll be honest, outside of Marketing, PR, Business, English and, erm, Art-type majors… I really have no idea what you would put into your portfolio? As a recovering Political Science major I had several policy papers, etc. saved and ready to show anyone who would care, but I don’t know if anyone would have. So, unless you’re in one of the aforementioned fields, take time in this section to go make a sandwich. Oh wait, this isn’t audio, it’ll still be here when you get back. JUST SCROLL DOWN TO 3!
My portfolio started out with clips from Capital’s student newspaper. Layouts I had designed, columns and articles I had written. Pretty boring stuff. Today it is a 4-color fantasy land. And you know what surprises me the most? About half of the stuff in here… isn’t from my internships. I have news releases and newsletters I wrote for OhioHealth and a sample of a book I designed for Priceline.com, but the way I filled my portfolio was not from collecting internships. I have samples of work from a group I volunteered to help with. I have a fabulous 2-page spread press clipping from a news release I volunteered to write for my high school. I have a communication plan I wrote for a student organization I volunteered to do PR for this past summer. The point is, if it’s something you’ve done for class or work that you’re proud of, SAVE IT. If you don’t have anything like that, put yourself in a situation where you are forced to create something you can be proud of.
Note on Student Orgs: I’d make “get involved with student organizations” a separate point in this list, except that some student organizations just aren’t worth your time. Just because the name of the organization fits in with your major/career interests (i.e. PRSSA for PR peeps) doesn’t mean that the chapter at your school is worthwhile. Look into those organizations you think might interest you, and those you don’t. I joined Radio Club last year because I wanted to hear my own voice on the radio (so vain) only to learn that Radio Club had a marketing/public relations team. Ding. I joined theatre because I love acting (I just suck at ti) only to discover that theatre needed a PR team. Ding. Look outside the “Future Business Leaders Club” to find an organization that needs help developing a business plan.
3. BUILD YOUR NETWORK
We be cheesin
One of the most effective ways you can do this is through internships. Don’t you love that these all come back to internships? If you intern with a company, and you show up and do your job, you’ll leave that internship with a letter of recommendation from your manager and, potentially, other people you worked with. You’ll be connected to people at that company who are connected to people in other companies. And then next thing you know, you meet Kevin Bacon. Aside from internships, most areas have professional networking events open to the public, and typically free. Get out there, MEET PEOPLE.
Social Networking
Surprisingly, I am not referring to the number of friends you have on MySpace. But not too far off, actually. You want to know how I got my current job? Someone I follow on Twitter posted that she was interviewing candidates for an internship. The position intrigued me, so I asked if she was still looking for candidates and she said yes. In asking her this question, someone at a marketing firm saw the “Tweet” and made the jump from my Twitter profile to my LinkedIn profile, was impressed by my experience, and got me in for an interview the next week. A position that did not previously exist was created solely to be filled by yours truly at the firm. Writing this blog has just led to an offer of writing for a local magazine.
Important take away: If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, GO MAKE ONE RIGHT NOW. SRSLY. LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. You know, people with experience, people who you will one day work for and could possibly intern for now. Join LinkedIn, find people you know or want to know, answer questions in the Q&A section, write recommendations for people who deserve them, hope they return the favor, etc. I could write an entire post on the benefits of LinkedIn, but I’ll leave it at this: JUST FREAKING SIGN UP ALREADY.
And this has been a lolcheryl special presentation on career building for college students. Even if my advice completely sucked, you got FOUR QUALITY LOLCHERYL PICS IN ONE POST.
Every morning I walk into my office and hear the same people recycle the same scripted phrases as though they are required by corporate policies to check their brain in when they walk through the door and can only retrieve it at promptly 5:30 p.m when they walk out the door. It’s not just here, though, it’s really every office I’ve ever been in. Apparently, in corporate America you’re given a new vocabulary and set of personality traits you’re supposed to take on during business hours. Well, lolCheryl isn’t particularly found of office culture and has decided to rant about some of the most irritating of these phrases.
homicide: ur doin it wrong
“A case of the Mondays:” I’d much rather you tell me that you’re hungover or, more likely, you just hate your job and are miserable to have to repeat the 40-hour work cycle one more time, because it sounds more spirited and less like an STD.
“Another day, another dollar:” Really? I mean, yeah, I imagine earning “another dollar” is the reason we ALL show up for work “another day” but I honestly have no idea why anyone would ever feel inclined to point this out as though it was an interesting statement.
“I’m ready to call it a day:” What you really meant is that you don’t want to be here. Newsflash: No one really does. Get over it.
“Have a good one:” This is supposed to be synonymous with “Have a good day/evening/etc” but, well, it isn’t. What kind of “one” am I supposed to have? ‘Cause I can think of some “one”’s that would make that sexual harassment? I’m suing. I don’t know why this one bugs me so much, honestly, but it does.
ANYTHING about “the weather.” I don’t want your predictions, your personal reactions or a replay of the forecast you saw on the news this morning. If I do, I’ll ask, but more than likely I’ve already checked the weather forecast and your take on the humidity isn’t any more interesting than mine. Can we talk about music or something less obvious?
“Touch Base” That just sounds filthy. You didn’t think it did until I just said it either, did you? Next time your boss asks you to come to his office to “touch base” you’re going to have HR waiting outside to slap that perv with a sexual harassment case. And besides, what you really mean is that you don’t trust me to do the job without you “touching base” on my progress frequently.
“There’s No ‘I’ in ‘Team’” No shit there’s no “I” in team, are you 7… and a little slow for 7 at that? And “I” can get a hell of a lot more done working by myself than working with people who think “There’s No ‘I’ in ‘Team’” is a motivating phrase.
“Think Outside the Box” Quite the challenging proposition when you’re stuck inside a cubicle all day. I mean, I can think about the beach, or murdering you for being a buzzword-invoking douchebag, but that’s not going to solve the problem at hand. Just tell me to be more original, I’ll appreciate it a lot more.
“Get on the same page” – Um, I’m a speed-reader… don’t drag me down to your level. I’m 10 pages ahead of you and I don’t have time to wait for you to catch up because Snape just killed Dumbledore, damnit! MUST READ ON. Anyway, what you’re really saying is that I’m wrong and you’re right. And I think you’re wrong.
I, Cheryl Harrison the internship collector, have been on at LEAST 25 job interviews in my short life. I’ve actually worked 12 different jobs and have declined/been rejected from several others so somewhere along the line I just stopped keeping track of the never-ending stream of interviewing I’ve drifted down. That being said, I just got back from what we’ll call interview number #26 and am still a little shaky and sweaty. Why? Well, panic disorder and an over analytical personality don’t really HELP, but the fact of the matter is no matter how many job interviews I go on, no matter how many times I tell people what my strengths are and why I want to work for you and BLAH BLAH BLAH, it never, ever, ever gets less shitty. Here’s why, brought to you by lolcheryl:
I can haz a job now?
First and foremost, as lolcheryl so eloquently said (sidebar: none of those words except “know” translated through the lolwiki and I didn’t want you to think I was an idiot for writing the lolspeak “no” when the rest of the sentence was in perfect effing English… but moving on) I CAN’T MARKET MYSELF. I can do it online, I can do it on paper reallllly well, and I can do it through my portfolio and recommendations… but look me in the eye and ask me why you should hire me and I start shaking like a whore in church (who started that phrase and why the hell is that all I can think of to write here?)
I can tell you I’m hard-working, I can tell you I have experience, I can tell you I’m adorable and thusly nice eye-candy for the office (I should try that one) but I’m not telling you anything you can’t read on that piece of paper on your desk called my resume or that any semi-intelligent person wouldn’t have read verbatim on an interview Q&A site (which, by the way, I have a word document of answers to questions from that site that I study before everrrry interview.) The thing is, I really am a hard-working person. I really do have more experience than most people I know 10 years my senior who have long-since graduated and gotten jobs they are probably overpaid and underqualified for. BUT I have issues figuring out how to sell myself without being arrogant and without undermining what I have done, can do, will do. I ALWAYS, without fail, end up leaning towards the undermining track and getting run over by the interviewer train.
Secondly, I HATE the questions “What’s your dream job?/What do you want to do with your life?/Where do you see yourself in x number of years/Do you foresee yourself eating bologna or salami for lunch on April 16, 2052?” Um, check back later, por favor? Now, according to best-job-interview.com I’m SUPPOSED to say “My ideal job is one where my knowledge and skills are put to good use. A job where I will learn and grow as a person and an employee and where I am given challenges that test my potential.” OR “I believe a job is what you make of it. Each position and company has unique characteristics that give meaning and value to that job. If you work hard and make the most of the opportunities given, you will find job satisfaction. I am enthusiastic about a position that allows me to learn and grow and to make a positive and meaningful contribution.”
That’s some bullshit, and it’s also not what you asked me, Mr/Mrs Interviewer. If you wanted my generic take on what a job ideally is you would have asked me that, right? But you asked me what MY ideal job is. Or am I expected to follow scripted QA guidelines? ‘Cause if I am, if that’s HONESTLY the answer you’re looking for me to regurgitate back to you, please don’t hire me because that’s not who I am, k? Or should it be who I am in that setting? Should I Google a generic response to a generic question… or should I tell you the truth?
‘CAUSE THE TRUTH IS I HAVE NO EFFING CLUE, KTHX.
I shud 2 buy muzzle?
I really thought it was a hell of an accomplishment for me to know what INDUSTRY (PR/MARKETING, fyi) I wanted to be in. I didn’t know I needed to know the company’s name and my job description. The truth, my friends, is that I am 19-years-old (you probably don’t believe that) and a college senior (still hard for ME to believe) who has changed her major 3 times and has finally found an industry she/i/whichever-voice-i-was-just-typing-in LOVES. Marketing/PR is fascinating to me: it’s ever-changing, it’s challenging and it mandates creativity. I thought I was golden for having gotten that far at this age, considering I know 27+ year-olds still trying to nail down that undergrad concentration (you get ‘em, guys… lol?)
I’m just trying to figure out where I fit into that industry. My *dream job* is to star on Broadway but what the hell does that have to do with this job interview for a marketing firm, exactly? I accidentally said the Broadway thing once to receive an awkward look and a “we’ll-call-you” response. Never got that damn job… and it was PR for a theatre company… ironic… ha. The answer I usually give is “I really don’t know (the truth) I’m just trying to get as much experience as possible in as many different areas as I can now so I’ll know what I want to do after college (the truth).” I have been told multiple times by giving this answer, today included, that I need to find a direction/path/focus. Erm, I’ll get back to you about my life’s “direction” when I’m old enough to buy a beer without my sister’s ID, thanks? No? Eh.
I’m not bitching about the quality of today’s interview/interviewer in any way, for the record. I was asked some good, though standard, questions, which were pushed far enough that I could no longer answer them, which is when I went into CherylPanicMode… dun dun dun dun! Ask me 5 times the aforementioned questions about my future and watch how my head turns… I dare you. No really, please don’t, I’ll probably cry as it takes much restraint for me not to do this in interviews, ha. But aside from THAT, she introduced me to a local board game club and lives in my ghetto apartment complex, which we lamented for a while, and she was awesome.
The POINT of all of this is… where do you draw the line between being yourself and following interview etiquette? I know plenty of people who have gotten a job reciting the scripted responses…
But seriously, if that’s the kind of person you hire, if you’re really looking for a carbon-copy of a google search result…
you wouldn’t want me working for you anyway =)
Suggestions/Additional Bitching highly encouraged.
DISCLAIMER: Ok ok, so this is my first attempt at a “real” blog post, not counting the exciting days of logging my step-by-step movements in a LiveJournal (before that in a DeadJournal when I was 13 and “emo”) or venting about relationships on MySpace. I’ll give myself a B+ for effort and please, please, please (x10… million) give me some feedback on this attempt so I’ll know where to go from here!
I was talking with Nate Riggs last week about the impact of social media on relationships. Relationships that are made and kindled through the realm of social media seem to start abruptly, build rapidly and end much sooner than a relationship made in the real world. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s just friendship/networking in the digital age. But as I was laying in bed last night unable to sleep because I was thinking a mile a minute about the last Tweet I posted, the attendees of a Facebook event I had just created, the contents of my LinkedIn profile that needed to be adjusted, a text I had forgot to send and, most importantly, what the hell to write in this blog space (solution!)… I started to realize that social media makes more than just our friendships fly by… it brings our minds into simplified communication/information overdrive. Maybe that’s just me? I do have a tendency to get interested in something and take that interest a tad too far, but from looking at my online network’s pages, I don’t think I’m doing anything above and beyond the norm for the tech savvy. I guess the question is, “Are we really simplifying our lives by utilizing internet resources that allow us to connect and share with like-minded individuals with little effort, or are we attempting to forge more relationships and absorb more information than our minds, and time, can handle?“
I found this article by Greg Verdino about productivity versus innovation. He cites a friend who posed the question: “If we literally turned off all this social media/Web 2.0 stuff for a day, would business productivity soar? And inversely, would innovation stumble?”
My thoughts? Yes on both counts. I think the time I personally would get back from avoiding the intertubes for a day would allow me to accomplish a hell of a lot. I also think that I would learn, and think, a lot less without my influx of blog feeds and tweets. I guess balance is key here.
Greg’s post ends with this, which is I guess where I was trying to park this thoughtcar all along:
“But how many of us have calculated the cost of what we’re giving up — including productive work hours (says the guy who is blogging at 10:50 am on a Thursday) and quiet time to actually think about what you can do to make big things happen (says the guy who can’t seem to function without a four-tabbed web browser, two instant messengers, email, Skype and ooVoo all running at the same time)?”
In my case, I’m writing this at 10:24 in my office with 6 tabs open. None of which are work. Oops.
Thoughts?
I haz headake.
UPDATE: In this article I read today in Business Week about Twitter, a study at the end from 1992 by Robin Dunbar notes that, apparently, ” humans—like other primates—can handle only 150 relationships. If we try to add many more connections, our little brains get overloaded.”
Interesting… according to this study, I would be so brash as to oversimplify… social media = bad.
All right, so I finally caved, 5 years later than everyone else in the world, and got myself a blog. Why, you ask? Um, to be trendy? Nah… I’ve got great insights into… stuff… that I will… share. Right? Right. So what kind of insights, you ask? What are you going to write about, you ask? Why the hell would I waste my time reading your blog, you ask? What is the square root of negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four ac over two a, you ask?
Jesus, this is my first post, you, you’ll find out! (just as soon as I do…)
[Note to self: Get some "insights" ASAP]
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