New Quarter, New Year, New Decade

It’s amazing how different perspectives can become, how different life can become, in such a short time. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years is not a terribly long time. I find it difficult to accept that 10 years ago today, I was 11 years old and heading back to 6th grade since Y2k did NOT bring about the destruction of life as we know it. Life consisted of going to school, coming home, going to movies on Friday nights, and reading a lot.

Fast forward to today: two days into my final quarter of college, a second childhood rapidly coming to an eagerly anticipated end. It’s a time of excitement, fear, and above all change. Changes within myself and the way I view the world, with the way I interact with the people around me. Changes in technology and opportunity.

Today I had a phone call with Adam Keats of Weber Shandwick’s Chicago office, and he asked me where I saw myself in five years. I replied that I hope to be working in an Agency setting, doing PR that means something. There are so many paths that I could see myself taking, however. Having taken the LSAT and gotten a 157, I could be in my first or second year of law school. Or I could be working on an M.S. in Public Relations and Strategic Corporate Communications somewhere. I could be in Chicago, or New York, or London, or Prague.

The not-knowing provides so much more excitement than knowing, and there’s a lot that I don’t know right now. As someone who nearly always has an answer, if not THE answer, this would typically cause a great deal of stress and anxiety. For whatever reason, right now it gives me comfort. It gives me hope.

Seth Godin had a great post yesterday about there being a surplus of fear and how he’d rather have a surplus of hope. I think I found some of his stockpiles.

Back from Extended Vacation

Wow, how the time flies. It’s been one month today since my last post, which is approximately 4 years, 7 months, 19 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes, and 23 seconds in internet time. And that’s about how long it’s felt like with everything that’s happened in that time.

Initially, my break from posting came at the hands of the end of one of my final quarters at Ohio University. I may or may not have had to stay up for 37 hours straight to finish projects and prepare for exams. For all you naysayers who talk of the detriments to working under pressure, I would like to announce that the three courses that caused my self-induced insomnia all came back with a nice, big A on my grade report. In fact, after a solid showing this past quarter, my cumulative GPA has risen to honors status, with an even 3.5- enough for Cum Laude.

So immediately following the end of the quarter, I had to prepare for the LSAT that I decided to take simply to have the option to go to law school if I wanted. (I know, I’m kind of a nerd.) I’ll find out on January 4th for sure, but I feel like I did pretty alright on it.

Then, immediately following the LSAT, I left for Chicago for my interview with Weber Shandwick’s Chicago office. For those of you who have been around a while (hi Grandma K!), this is the interview that stemmed from my Tweet back in August. I was planning on writing about the experience, as I was also supposed to be meeting with Fleishman Hillard and Ketchum as well (via the fantastic Bryan Blaise and Kevin Saghy). However, that plan was soon put to rest by a hard drive failure in my laptop the first morning of my stay. I happened to be in town for the worst day of winter so far, and must say I was not impressed. After everything I had heard about Chicago winters, I was expecting to be unable to move, not walk up and down the city all day. Certainly it was cold (-15 with the wind chill), but with a jacket, a hat and gloves (that would later be unwillingly donated to someone else at a McDonald’s), I was right as rain.

For those of you wondering, the interview went really well. I feel comfortable saying that, as less than a week following the interview I was given the writing test, the next step in the interview process. Having returned the assessment (which was actually pretty fun, again- nerd), it’s now simply a waiting game.

As great as the trip was: seeing old friends, meeting new ones, discovering the rocket-shaped rainbow-colored street lamps of Boys’ Town; it wasn’t nearly as exciting as my trip back to Ohio. It was a hell of a lot more pleasant, but definitely not as exciting.

But that is a story for a post on its own. Suffice it to say, I’m back. And I may not be a PRospective Employee by Christmas. Now that would be enough to renew my faith in the jolly man in red. I’ve got the cookies in the oven big guy.

Operation Foot in Door, Success

Well, the stage is set. You remember the post about using Twitter to find a job? Perhaps that was a misnomer. Perhaps the post should have been titled, Tweeting to land an interview because my friends, I have done just that.

On December 11, 2009, I, Danny Cox, will complete my first interview with a Chicago agency. Which agency you ask? The same one that opened my eyes to the possibility of social media as the great equalizer, spanning great distances and formalities and granting the user nearly magical direct access with people who have the ability to make a difference: Weber Shandwick in Chicago.

A note: the greatest utility of social media is not necessarily its ability to connect you with the one person who has  the ability to make the difference in getting you an interview. Rather, its best function is in helping you build your own mini-network of those who have the insight, knowledge, and existing connections to put you in the right place at the right time. Without everyone else’s help along the way, I don’t think this would have ever come to be, and for that I am truly thankful. As I’ve learned over the past few weeks, the buzz-phrase of the young professional in Public Relations is to “Pay it forward.”

Just like Morpheus could only show Neo the door, if you use it well social media can only put your foot in it, you have to show up and show that you’re worthy of letting in. But it can get that foot in the door, no postage on a shoe necessary.

Have you used social media to advance your career? Any tips on how to nail the interview? What other tactics do you use when job-searching?

View from the top… and bottom

During the 2009 PRSSA National Conference, I have had the opportunity to hear some great speakers from a variety of disciplines within the industry. One of my favorite sessions so far was from Ron Culp, Director of Ketchum’s North America Corporate Practice, and Kevin Saghy, an Account Executive at Ketchum Chicago.

The basis for Ron and Kevin’s presentation was providing students with a look from both senior level PR professionals and junior pros who are making their mark in the industry. With information from both presenter’s friends and colleagues, the presentation provided great insight into how students can most effectively make an impression in the workplace.

The conversational style and witty back and forth of the presenters aside, it was the quotes from the (older) and (younger) horse’s mouths, as Kevin humorously categorized them, that packed the most punch.

When asked to provide an example of what young professionals can do to succeed, John Iwata of IBM replied, “They don’t confuse activity for results.” This answer really stuck with me. I feel like too many times young professionals feel the need to constantly be doing busywork, just to maintain the appearance of a good work ethic. Or it could be that you have a great work ethic and want to make the most of your time, but if the work you’re doing is contributing somehow to the end result, you’re not going to be seeing a promotion any time soon.

A particularly rewarding aspect of the presentation was the summarized verbal Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the rookie/veteran insights. For example, both groups were asked what young professionals should NOT do. The senior level management said that PR upstarts should not be credit-hogs, looking to bring more attention to themselves or their contributions to the project. Additionally, it was a consistent message that young professionals should not come in with their own, individual agendas.

“In a culture where teamwork is paramount, there’s really no room for self-promotion,” Nicole Merritt of Cox Communications said.

The young professionals, on the other hand, focused on removing the appearance of the sense of entitlement. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had 5 internships globally, when you start out in a new organization you have to pay your dues.

After the session, Kevin talked about an intern who worked with him that always had a positive attitude, no matter what task was given to her, which led to more responsibility and more enjoyable tasks later on.

For those PRospective employees out there, remember to convey a sense of being a team player who is ready and willing to work in your cover letters and interviews. Have you been a part of an intramural team in school? Done a lot of group work for an organization you’re involved with? focus on those attributes to frame yourself as a team player who’s not just focused on that next promotion. If you try too hard to be a social climber, you may notice your rocks slipping 0ut of your fingers.

Do you have any tips on how to succeed in the workplace? What have you seen that is/is not successful?

PRSSA National Conference 2009

Though the reality of the situation has not yet been fully realized, at this time tomorrow, I will be in San Diego, CA, for the 2009 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Conference.

This is the first year I’ve been involved with PRSSA during my time at Ohio University, despite my heavy involvement in PR activities around campus. My absence from the organization was mostly the fault of my work schedule, which put me on the phones with alumni during the meeting time for half of my college career. Prior involvement excluded, I could not be more excited for my impending maiden voyage to our nation’s western-most state.

I’ll be taking my laptop along for the journey, and as long as the hotel has free wireless, I’ll be live-tweeting from my iPod touch (sweet, right?) during some of the workshops. Look for the Hash-tag #PRSSA09 to keep up.

Also, I’m excited to announce that I recently bought a Kodak Zx1 pocket HD video camera, and will be documenting the trip in moving pictures as well. With any luck, I’ll catch a speaker or two for an impromptu interview to share. And with that, I have to go pack!