After spending an entire summer in New York City, working 45+ hours per week and getting paid $10 per day, I feel pretty strongly about the need to pay interns. I realize that interns are a great way to get incredibly cheap labor at the cost of less experienced work, but it is incredibly difficult to motivate yourself when you know that you are working for approximately $1.11 per hour.
Once this summer, I was even in charge of recruiting a student from a film school to shoot a video for us. It was stressed to me that I was to make sure that the students being interviewed were well aware that they were not going to be paid. I loved that job -- grrr...
I can understand the fact that there are a lot of people out there looking for experience and I know that if I refuse to take an internship because it isn't paid, they won't care because it is likely that they can find someone else that will work for nothing, but I just feel that it is an unfair way to get cheap labor. At my internship this summer I felt like I was frequently doing jobs that the regular employees do, yet getting paid next to nothing while they brought in a salary.
I'm not asking for millions... I would be happy with minimum wage!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
my amazing discovery
Going on with my recent obsession with job hunting, I started wondering what I can be expecting to make when I find my first job. I have these amazing visions about what it will be like to have a steady paycheck that gives me more than what I'm getting at my $6 an hour internship (oh what we'll do for experience). But my problem was that I wasn't sure what I should even ask for as my salary. I noticed that several of the employers of the jobs that I was looking at want you to give them what you want for a salary. In this there is quite the predicament - you ballpark a figure that is too low, you sell yourself short and settle for less than you could be getting OR you overestimate and the potential employer throws out your resume. Pretty intense stuff. So anyway, I was curious so I checked out the usual salary.com and it wasn't much of a help. I wanted to see something specifically entry level, but it was giving you a general idea. So, I googled "salary for entry level PR" and guess what I found... an entire site devoted to soon-to-be college grads looking for advice and jobs. The site is www.entrylevel-pr.com. I originally found the blog first, and it had really great topics and advice, but this is the main site. I still need to keep looking around, but it seems to be a pretty helpful place for someone like me. I know the blog was written by a woman who was working in PR (maybe in HR) and was in charge of hiring people. So she knows what she is talking about when saying what they look for on resumes and things like that.
So, this is my latest discovery and I hope that someone else can benefit from it as well :) Happy job hunting!
So, this is my latest discovery and I hope that someone else can benefit from it as well :) Happy job hunting!
Friday, October 5, 2007
On the job hunt...
So once again, I'm posting about the job hunt. I can't help it - even though I don't graduate for another 8 months or so, I feel the need to search site after site looking for a potential job. I change my mind once every two weeks or so though, so maybe within the next two posts I'll have a different life goal!
But for right now here is what I'm thinking: Big city (okay, no difference there) working at a PR agency. I'm thinking agency right now mostly because I really don't know what I want to do. My thoughts are that if I work for a PR agency I can get a broad idea of PR. Plus I think that there are positives about working at a large, established firm. One of the other obstacles I have run into is the simple fact that a lot of places aren't looking for an immediate post-grad. Almost everything that I run into is for 3-5 years experience and let's be real - that isn't me. And to be honest, I'm a little scared of the real world and the idea of being thrown into a job that I have no idea what I'm doing is daunting. Working at a large firm, I would probably start out with a paid internship and after three months or so, hopefully be promoted to a Jr. Account Exec. I'm confident that I can work my way up so right now this is looking pretty good.
I already spoke to someone at Edelman about applying for an internship for after graduation in Portland, OR, so I'm feeling pretty good. I just hope everything works out. Real world here I come... well that may have been slightly premature... real world here I come in eight months. Okay, much better.
But for right now here is what I'm thinking: Big city (okay, no difference there) working at a PR agency. I'm thinking agency right now mostly because I really don't know what I want to do. My thoughts are that if I work for a PR agency I can get a broad idea of PR. Plus I think that there are positives about working at a large, established firm. One of the other obstacles I have run into is the simple fact that a lot of places aren't looking for an immediate post-grad. Almost everything that I run into is for 3-5 years experience and let's be real - that isn't me. And to be honest, I'm a little scared of the real world and the idea of being thrown into a job that I have no idea what I'm doing is daunting. Working at a large firm, I would probably start out with a paid internship and after three months or so, hopefully be promoted to a Jr. Account Exec. I'm confident that I can work my way up so right now this is looking pretty good.
I already spoke to someone at Edelman about applying for an internship for after graduation in Portland, OR, so I'm feeling pretty good. I just hope everything works out. Real world here I come... well that may have been slightly premature... real world here I come in eight months. Okay, much better.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Career- say what?
Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do after I graduate and I really just can't seem to figure out what or where that is. My original thought was to pick a place to live and then just go there and apply for a ton of different jobs, but I find myself wondering if that is the best idea. I do a lot of random job hunting and I think a better idea may be just looking for the job that I can see myself in the best and then go after it.
The problem with this is what my good friend's hippie boyfriend told me -- go to a place that makes you happy and it will all fall into place. He said that if you follow a job you end up somewhere that you may not like that much and you'll just be there for the job. I see his thinking, but my problem is that I don't know where I even want to go. I swear I have a different place in mind every week! This week it is Portland, OR, last week Toronto and the week before it was San Francisco so.... what to do??
I think probably the best bet is a combination of the two. Follow a great job, but make sure it is in a city that I can enjoy. The real world is coming fast and I'm excited, but all of these decisions are making my head spin!!!!!!
The problem with this is what my good friend's hippie boyfriend told me -- go to a place that makes you happy and it will all fall into place. He said that if you follow a job you end up somewhere that you may not like that much and you'll just be there for the job. I see his thinking, but my problem is that I don't know where I even want to go. I swear I have a different place in mind every week! This week it is Portland, OR, last week Toronto and the week before it was San Francisco so.... what to do??
I think probably the best bet is a combination of the two. Follow a great job, but make sure it is in a city that I can enjoy. The real world is coming fast and I'm excited, but all of these decisions are making my head spin!!!!!!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Career Fair
I recently attended a day at the career fair on campus and found myself to be severely disappointed. Before I went I looked at the website and looked for potential employers in need of newly graduated PR people. And what did I find? Not a whole lot...
I went ahead and trekked over to Bramlage (mostly on the encouragement of my boss) and walked around checking out the booths. I made one trip around to see if anything looked interesting and basically felt pretty awkward. Employers kept making eye contact with me, but it felt really weird and I just kept going. I mentally noted places that looked mildly interesting, intending to come back on my second trip around. I felt on the verge of stupid with my little name tag reading Public Relations when everyone else was Engineering or Chemistry. I saw one employer that caught my eye and got up the nerve to talk to him. I had no idea what they were about, but their visuals looked interesting and I at least wanted a little more information. The man looked at my name tag, saw Public Relations and went "eee... hmmmm.... uhhhh... Yeah, not sure we have anything for you." He didn't even know what PR was! I stumbled around looking for an explanation, but I was already nervous and felt silly approaching this engineering firm, so I didn't get anything to intelligent out. Turns out the company has a marketing section which he said "told us to get new colors because our old ones gave the a boring impression. So they revamped the marketing so that it is more pleasing to look at." Which is aka creating a brand identity. So as he explained this I chimed in "oh yeah, well that is one of the things that PR technicians do -- working with branding and brand identity." But of course, he was sent to the career fair to recruit engineers and therefore knew nothing about the marketing division. I got a piece of paper and was sent on my way.
And after this whole experience, I was pretty irked that the university makes such a big deal about helping students find jobs after graduation with great things like career fairs. It seems to me that they are forgetting some majors entirely. So all in all -- not very happy with that experience and have come to the conclusion that I may be better off just fending for myself when it comes to my future career.
I went ahead and trekked over to Bramlage (mostly on the encouragement of my boss) and walked around checking out the booths. I made one trip around to see if anything looked interesting and basically felt pretty awkward. Employers kept making eye contact with me, but it felt really weird and I just kept going. I mentally noted places that looked mildly interesting, intending to come back on my second trip around. I felt on the verge of stupid with my little name tag reading Public Relations when everyone else was Engineering or Chemistry. I saw one employer that caught my eye and got up the nerve to talk to him. I had no idea what they were about, but their visuals looked interesting and I at least wanted a little more information. The man looked at my name tag, saw Public Relations and went "eee... hmmmm.... uhhhh... Yeah, not sure we have anything for you." He didn't even know what PR was! I stumbled around looking for an explanation, but I was already nervous and felt silly approaching this engineering firm, so I didn't get anything to intelligent out. Turns out the company has a marketing section which he said "told us to get new colors because our old ones gave the a boring impression. So they revamped the marketing so that it is more pleasing to look at." Which is aka creating a brand identity. So as he explained this I chimed in "oh yeah, well that is one of the things that PR technicians do -- working with branding and brand identity." But of course, he was sent to the career fair to recruit engineers and therefore knew nothing about the marketing division. I got a piece of paper and was sent on my way.
And after this whole experience, I was pretty irked that the university makes such a big deal about helping students find jobs after graduation with great things like career fairs. It seems to me that they are forgetting some majors entirely. So all in all -- not very happy with that experience and have come to the conclusion that I may be better off just fending for myself when it comes to my future career.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Creating and Maintaining Press Lists
One thing that I found very beneficial this summer at my internship, was the way the company managed their press lists. They had a program that allowed every employee to enter new contact information for new press people. There was also an option to add notes about these particular contacts. Our main boss was very, very strict about making us write something for every time that we spoke to someone; whether it was on the phone, in the showroom, or at a random fashion party, we had to write it down.
I think this is very helpful when creating relationships with other people in the business. We wrote down the date that we spoke to them, what we talked about and any other pertinent information. I wrote down things like "So and so told me about the new dog she just got and how it was keeping her up at nights." Although this didn't pertain exactly to our business relationship, these types of things were recorded because it helped us build a more personal relationship with them. The next time we talked to that person we made an effort to ask if their dog was still keeping them up at night -- this way they know that you are paying attention to what they are saying, even if it is something trivial.
PR is all about networking and creating/maintaining relationships with other people in the business. By taking a little extra time to jot down notes about your last conversation, you can help build those relationships into something that is beneficial to both of you.
I think this is very helpful when creating relationships with other people in the business. We wrote down the date that we spoke to them, what we talked about and any other pertinent information. I wrote down things like "So and so told me about the new dog she just got and how it was keeping her up at nights." Although this didn't pertain exactly to our business relationship, these types of things were recorded because it helped us build a more personal relationship with them. The next time we talked to that person we made an effort to ask if their dog was still keeping them up at night -- this way they know that you are paying attention to what they are saying, even if it is something trivial.
PR is all about networking and creating/maintaining relationships with other people in the business. By taking a little extra time to jot down notes about your last conversation, you can help build those relationships into something that is beneficial to both of you.
Friday, September 7, 2007
YouTube
One of the big things that I got to help participate in was creating a short video to use on youtube. Our main objective was to get my main boss more into the public eye. We wanted her to become a host on a show on QVC and in order to get the job, you have to send in a two-minute clip of you to show your on-air quality. We decided that we could hit two birds with one stone by just creating a video for both the QVC application and to post on youtube, which was our latest idea.
Youtube is a place that anyone can put anything. It is free and it gets tons of hits everyday, so promoting our business on the site seemed very logical. In order to cut costs we enlisted the help of a student at a nearby film school (and of course we didn't pay her -- interns don't get paid. period. I'll get into that rant in a later blog...). So we shot the video with the idea to create a short version to send to QVC and a longer 8-9 minute video to be aired on youtube. We had the idea that we could create a bi-monthly segment that we would air on the website.
The summer was spent planning for this and towards the end we finally got the finished QVC video. It looked really good, and I was really excited to see it posted on youtube and to hopefully see my boss someday on QVC. But alas, I searched for the company on youtube just the other day and found nothing... maybe they are still working on it, but I'm guessing that along with many other great ideas, it got shoved to the back-burner so they could focus on another great idea.
But I thought posting on youtube was an inexpensive, ingenious idea and I would suggest people think of that as an alternative way to reach the public. But beware -- you must be original and creative when making your video or you will be left in the dust. People go to the site to be entertained, so you must find a way to keep your audience's attention.
Think about that, and if you know of any aspiring filmmakers, perhaps you can get them to do a little something for you before they become great :) It could happen.
Youtube is a place that anyone can put anything. It is free and it gets tons of hits everyday, so promoting our business on the site seemed very logical. In order to cut costs we enlisted the help of a student at a nearby film school (and of course we didn't pay her -- interns don't get paid. period. I'll get into that rant in a later blog...). So we shot the video with the idea to create a short version to send to QVC and a longer 8-9 minute video to be aired on youtube. We had the idea that we could create a bi-monthly segment that we would air on the website.
The summer was spent planning for this and towards the end we finally got the finished QVC video. It looked really good, and I was really excited to see it posted on youtube and to hopefully see my boss someday on QVC. But alas, I searched for the company on youtube just the other day and found nothing... maybe they are still working on it, but I'm guessing that along with many other great ideas, it got shoved to the back-burner so they could focus on another great idea.
But I thought posting on youtube was an inexpensive, ingenious idea and I would suggest people think of that as an alternative way to reach the public. But beware -- you must be original and creative when making your video or you will be left in the dust. People go to the site to be entertained, so you must find a way to keep your audience's attention.
Think about that, and if you know of any aspiring filmmakers, perhaps you can get them to do a little something for you before they become great :) It could happen.
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