Networking 101: Getting the Job

Networking one of the most important aspects of the job hunt.  We recently found this really helpful article on the art of networking by Hayli Morrison on http://www.mediajobmarket.com.

Networking: Solutions to Make the Right Connections
by Hayli Morrison

“Become genuinely interested in other people,” wrote Dale Carnegie in his best-selling self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie used real-world examples to show readers just how much they could benefit by putting the needs and interests of others before their own. But to identify the needs and interests of others, a person must first learn to listen. As Manhattan-based attorney and author Alan L. Sklover put it, “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.”

Inadequate listening skills are one of the most common faux pas of networking, according to Ben Yoskovitz, CEO and co-founder of StandoutJobs.com. Too often, conversation focuses on irrelevant small talk about the weather, or focuses solely on what one person has to offer. Sincere, balanced discussion about each person’s offerings, interests and needs will facilitate a breakthrough to truly effective networking.

“If you go in with the idea of selling yourself very strongly, it generally won’t work,” Yoskovitz said. “If you’re looking for work, you’re going to be a little more aggressive, but it’s risky. It generally works better when you go in knowing how you can help people. You have to be willing to help other people first, and they will be more willing to help you.”

Why network?
The old adage is true: “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” For reporters and editors, networking can fill out the Rolodex with more contacts and sources. In turn, this can lead to better stories and maybe even help obtain an award or promotion. Self-employed workers can boost their business like never before with a better reputation, more customers, more money and more vitality, all with a little networking. Ultimately, networking can help get jobseekers and their resumes shuffled to the top of the stack and quickly in the door for an interview.

“No matter what you do from a job hunt perspective – or on the reverse, no matter what a company does – at the end of the day, referrals are generally the number one way of hiring people,” Yoskovitz said. “The only way to generate referrals for yourself is to network. Get out there, meet people, and help other people so they will help you in return.”

How to network?
As good as it sounds, “getting out there” is the part that stumps many professionals. In a day filled with meeting demands and deadlines, it can be tough making time to consciously meet, greet, listen, and engage in conversation. How does a person network when they barely feel like being around other people after a long hard day?

“You can’t go into a networking event without the intent of walking up to people and starting a conversation, and it’s not easy,” Yoskovitz said. “You have to go into a room with the mindset of, ‘I’m going to talk to everyone in this room. I have something to offer.’ I think you can go in with a lot more confidence that way.”

Where to network?
Try networking where you are comfortable and where other people in your profession might be found. Professionals who follow the same career path often have similar personality traits that can create a feeling of connectedness. Therefore, without neglecting the networking benefits offered by general business groups like the Chamber of Commerce, focus more energy on networking within industry-specific groups.

While in-person interactions will never go away completely, networking web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook have soared in popularity. Rather than dealing with the song and dance of face-to-face networking, many professionals are tuning out and logging on. Online networking is good because the pool of potential contacts is much broader, but it is best when coupled with local networking, according to Yoskovitz.

“I’ve got 500 friends on Facebook and over 500 contacts with LinkedIn. The question is, ‘What value is that to me?’” he said. “A lot of people will get hooked on being online and not necessarily extract everything they could from that. It can be a great door opener if you can translate online contacts into success locally.”

So with networking, too much of an introverted approach will get nowhere, while an overly-extroverted approach (i.e. too much talking, not enough listening) can alienate people. Listening and engaging, mixed with a little kindness and consideration, can go very far in making an impression. In turn, making an impression will go very far in making friends and influencing people.

Advertising: Is it the Right Career Path for You?

We recently found a great article on About.com by Apryl Duncan that answers the question that many potential advertising executives ask themselves before entering the business, is advertising the right career for me? This article not only touches on some key aspects of the industry, but also gives some tips about working in the advertising business. Here is the complete article.

Is a Career in Advertising Right for You?
By Apryl Duncan
Originally posted on About.com

Have you ever watched a commercial and said:

“I can do better than that!”

Then you may be considering a career in advertising. But how do you know if this career is right for you? See if these elements line up with your personality and career goals:

The Creative Department
If you are creative and like to write or design, you’ve already added advertising to your top five list of career opportunities. Working in a major ad agency’s creative department is a dream job for most but you may find you would rather work in a small ad agency, in-house agency or even on your own as a freelancer.

You’ll be working as a team and your creative personality will not only be valued, it will be relied upon every day. Even if your copy comes back with red marks all over it, you’re the one the Creative Director is counting on to write that ad. If your design is marked up, you’re still the one that needs to make the changes to get the ad completed on time.

Advertising Jobs Aren’t Just for Creatives
When you think of advertising, you may automatically imagine a room full of creative people hammering out ideas into one solid ad campaign. Copywriters, graphic designers, creative directors, art directors and other creative people do work together in these types of settings.

However, there are plenty of other types of people involved in a successful ad campaign that don’t actually create the ads. Account executives, traffic managers, media coordinators, media directors, researchers and other non-creatives work in the advertising industry.

These people are just as crucial to a client’s successful ad campaign as the creatives who develop the campaign’s concept. Many of the non-creative positions in advertising also work directly with the client. For example, an account executive (AE) is a liaison between the client and the creative department. An AE must work closely with both to make sure the client’s needs are being met in every step of the ad campaign.

High Pressure Environment
People have lost their jobs over a failed ad campaign. When a client pulls his ad dollars because he wasn’t happy with the results, the proverbial heads do roll.

You’re partially responsible for an ad campaign’s success or failure. This is great when the campaign is a huge hit. You share in the glory. When the campaign is a flop, you also share in the bad times with your colleagues.

This high pressure environment isn’t for everyone. Short deadlines, last minute changes and sitting in the boss’ office when it’s time to take the heat for an unsuccessful ad campaign, have caused many ad professionals to change careers.

Wear Thick Skin
You must have a thick skin if you’re going to work in advertising. Not every idea you have is going to be well-received. Your work will pass through many eyes before the ad campaign is released and will undergo many changes.

You may have written your best copy yet but you’re asked to start over and do it again. You have to handle criticism very well. Don’t take offense to being asked for changes to your work. It’s just part of the job.

The client has very specific needs and a very specific vision about his company. You’re part of a team creating the client’s ad campaign and you can take solace in the fact that pretty much everyone on that team is going to be asked to change at least one aspect of what they were working on.

You would be surprised by how many changes a simple print ad can go through before it reaches final approval. This holds true even for major ad agencies with big name clients.

Not Your Typical 9-5
TV and movies make advertising look like a glamorous life. Working in the field is very rewarding but it does take a lot of work and a lot of long hours.

If you enjoy being home by 6 p.m. to eat with your family every night and have season tickets to your college team’s football games every Saturday, you may want to weigh the value of your free time vs. your career time before you start working in advertising. You’ll put in a lot of days and nights that seem to run together. You’ll probably even have last minute changes that come up and your whole schedule has to be cleared on a moment’s notice.

Low Pay…At First
Are you willing to start out at the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up to the corner office with a view? Advertising salaries won’t make you rich overnight when you’re just starting out.

Full-time agency copywriters can start off in the low teens before working their way into $60,000 or more positions. Full-time agency account executives can work their way into positions that pay close to $80,000. You’ll also find many seasoned ad pros making six figures in their accomplished careers. Being determined and hard-working will help you land bigger positions with better pay.
If you’re still unsure about a career in advertising, an internship will help you take a behind the scenes look at an ad agency and also give you valuable connections you can use if you decide to pursue your career in the industry.

Keeping an Eye on the Advertising Job Market

This is a great article by Stuart Parkin about trends in the Advertising Job Market. Although he concentrates mainly on the advertising world, these trends can also be seen among other job markets. This article was initially published on AdAge.com.

10 Trends to Watch in the Advertising Job Market
One Career Coach’s Observations on What’s Happening Out There Now
By Stuart Parkin
Published: October 15, 2009

As we enter the fourth quarter, the advertising and media landscape shows about as much certainty as the weather. Agencies continue to let staff go but, perhaps confusingly, in some cases, are hiring in numbers. One agency CEO explained this as a “retooling of our talent pool” while another explained that “there’s no margin for error. If we get business, we hire and [if we] lose it we fire.” As a recruiter, I can vouch for a re-engineering process that all agencies are grappling with, albeit from different perspectives. And as a result, there are a number of clear trends emerging for the job market.

1. Confidence levels have improved. This plays out in the vernacular used by the media and by Wall Street and this is permeating, to some degree, the overall media landscape. There is a desire to be more positive and to talk things up, at least a bit.

2. More potential candidates, employed as well as unemployed, are contemplating job, if not major career, changes. Individuals are feeling burned out, having worked consistently long hours in streamlined companies, or just feel the business is not evolving fast enough to satisfy their work aspirations. Those seeking work are offering to do more for less. The class of 2008 is offering themselves as interns to gain work experience.

3. Having cut back hugely over the last 18 months, many businesses are stretched and contemplating increasing bandwidth. This process is not clear cut. Agencies are adjusting their talent base. People are being hired while still many are being fired. Much of the hiring taking place is still at the margins of this adjustment or against client wins and losses. Purse strings are still fairly tightly closed, if slackening a tad.

4. The process of hiring people has seen a greater use of internal recruiters. Where external recruiters are used there is, in many cases, a cutting back of the number of search agencies/recruiters used. Search fees have also been squeezed by agencies. There has been a movement to contingency vs. retained searches. There is an increasing use of social networking/digital mediums to find and attract job seekers.

5. Among employees there is a willingness and ability, particularly with the development of social-networking tools, to help connect and recommend others. Digital resources have in themselves (along with typical hiring criteria) made the talent world appear much smaller.

6. It’s taking longer to make decisions. That’s in part because it’s a buyers’ market and also because hiring is often taking place only as extra business is accrued. Further, no one wants to make the wrong decisions.

7. There are still some job-growth areas. These relate to the obvious: digital, the emerging “battlefield’; those with brand/communications planning combination skills; and the perennial — health care — and any results-oriented personnel such as great sales/new-business people.

8. More than ever, candidates need to market themselves. They must have a focused offering, use social networking, have a clear idea of what they want, and should not rely exclusively on recruiters.

9. Recruiters will succeed through taking a longer-term perspective to the business of aligning talent. An increased focus is needed on “relationship building,” not only with clients but with candidates. For clients, it will be increasingly key to understand organizational culture; for candidates a focus on provision of “best advice” will continue to be the best way to build the recruiter’s reputation/business. It will also be key to avoid “force-fitting” candidates to jobs.

10. Optimal talent sourcing will need human-resources departments to have more cooperation and involvement of departmental managers. This is particularly true when it comes to the quality of job briefs. Greater focus on high-quality briefs will both save huge amounts of time for internal personnel, as well as recruiters, and help the company recruit more cost effectively.

We have had a year of slashed budgets as companies improved numbers via cost savings and efficiencies. As 2010 beckons, purse strings are not going to be suddenly loosened, and growth is likely to be very gradual. The question is whether there will be sustainable increases in expenditure occurring from this point and through 2010. To do so it will have to be innovation-led — and this, in turn, makes the hiring of the best talent more important than ever.

Career Advice We Can All Use

Here’s a great article by Joe Hodas about succeeding in the advertising world. Joe’s 11 principles are contain great advice for any profession. We found this article at adage.com one of the best advertising news sites out there.

How to Advance Your Career Without Selling Your Soul
It’s Not About Kissing Ass, It’s About Keeping Your Wits About You
By Joe Hodas
Published: October 28, 2009

Those early in their careers or those who joined the working ranks just prior to the
recession may have a completely skewed perception of career advancement. Their
professional lives have consisted of coping with layoffs, raise freezes and hiring
holds — all the while absorbing more work with shrinking teams and fewer
resources. Career-advancement tips may seem irrelevant while many employees are
operating from a place of fear or are just grateful to have a job.

Throughout my nearly two decades in the marketing industry, I’ve witnessed many
different ways in which people have “moved on up” (apologies to Mr. and Mrs.
Jefferson). And I firmly believe that you don’t have to kiss ass or sell your soul, no matter the economic
conditions, to get ahead. Rather, it almost always comes down to following 11 key principles.

1. Nothing replaces hard work. In an industry where smoke and mirrors are used in abundance, take
heed — nothing can disguise the absence of hard work. And don’t confuse effort with results. I don’t
care how early you arrive or how late you stay — it’s about ROI.

2. We all have a personal toolkit — know yours and how to use it. As my mother told me on
numerous occasions, I have special talents. Specifically, I’m a good consensus builder. You may be a
killer salesman. Or extremely detailed. Whatever your “special talents” are, hone them and let them help
define your personal brand.

3. It’s about teamwork, but know who is and isn’t on your team. I too hate office politics. And
avoid them at all costs. But ignoring their existence is not only careless, but possibly counterproductive.
Even if you don’t engage in them, someone else might on your behalf. Know who has the boss’ ear,
who the players are, and who could take or leave ya. Whatever the political landscape in your company,
it’s your reality and one you’ll have to navigate whether you like it or not.

4. Never lose your shit — at least not in public. Let’s play a little game of association. When I say
Christian Bale, you say what? Probably not “great actor from ‘American Psycho,'” right? Rather, I bet
you said something along the lines of “overindulged jerk who pulverized some poor sound tech on a
movie set for making a mistake.” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be human, but one single outburst —
even if merited — can do permanent damage to your personal brand.

5. Life is not always a box of chocolates — so decide how much you can take before you bail. The
perfect job doesn’t exist. I would imagine that even the taste-tester at Krispy Kreme has complaints
about his gig (though I can’t imagine what they might be). Too often we hit tough times and jump ship
for a lateral move or get frustrated and stop giving 110%. A career is like a relationship, so make sure
you’re putting as much effort into trying to fix the problems as you put into feeling bad about them.

6. Humility goes a long way. Nothing infuriates your boss (and co-workers) more than employees
who feel they deserve something they haven’t earned. I’m a firm believer that raises are for the work
you’ve done, and promotions are for the work you can do.

7. Individuality is to be respected — as long as you’re still part of the team. Sometimes, there is an
“I” in team. It just has to be the right kind of “I” — distinctive yet collaborative, unexpected but on
strategy. Don’t be afraid to stand out, but do make sure you don’t alienate your teammates in the process.

8. Always try to add something smart to the discussion. Ask a smart question or make a great point
that no one else has thought of. But do your homework so you can back up your comments and aren’t
asking things that you should already know the answer to.

9. Sometimes you have to shout to be heard. You’ve heard the phrase, “Squeaky wheel gets the
grease”? Well, take note: Occasionally, persistent voices are listened to. Don’t be afraid to speak up
when you’re passionate about something.

10. Have a perspective on the past, present and future. It’s not enough to do well today. Your boss
wants and needs to see that you have a broader outlook on where you/the client/the work/etc. has been,
is now and will be going.

11. Always be that ray of light in your boss’/co-worker’s day. This one’s simple. Surprise. Delight.
Be the kind if individual you’d like to spend 200-plus days each year with. And to be clear — that’s much
different than kissing ass.

There you have it. Stick to these, and it won’t be long before you-know-who notices. So go forth and
get promoted.