Getting over a botched job interview

Botched Your Job Interview? Have no fear.

After today, the best way to describe my interview was a 'botched' interview. Here's some synonyms that encompass my feelings.

 

 

Normally, when I don't get a job--I don't regret it because I know I did well during the interview. But when the interview was off key, it's a bit more shameful to deal with.

 

How do you know you botched your interview?

• You somehow urge the interviewer to label you. "Oh, you're too nice for this industry"
• You feel uncomfortable or out of place the entire time.. (your body language will show it)
• You accidentally forget the abundance of CEO/Partners joining into the interviews names
• You beat around the bush on accident when you can't give an answer that they want
• You answer a question and the interviewer looks disappointed by your response
• THE LIST GOES ON AND ON..

What next?

1. Confide in your mentor. Grieve, exchange thoughts, and listen.

 

Today I spoke to one of my mentors immediately after the interview. It is comforting to have someone to confide in that trusts in you and your work abilities to reassure you that regardless you are going to be okay. Also, it's helpful to have in mind some moment from the interview that made you feel uncomfortable or felt out of place and to receive feedback on those thoughts. Your mentor will open insight for you and to help you rethink your strategy for next time. Also, thank them for their guidance and listen o their wisdom.. they've been there and they want to help you get through your 'botched-interview-stress-disorder.'

 

2. Quickly re-evaluate the company and what they were looking for.

 

Most likely the interview wasn't a good fit. Interviews tend to run smoother if it's a better fit with the personality and overall culture of the company. Realize that both you and the interviewer might've had different needs.

 

3. Give it another go.

 

 

 

If you don't agree with step two, you can always give it another go. Try to use you best judgment, in some instances it's not terrible to acknowledge it was an off interview, explain why, and explain why you'd like another chance. I've actually known several colleagues to overcome their barriers this way by overcoming their fear and giving it another go.

 

4. Your pity party starts now.

 

 

 

It's okay to be sad, embrace it. Do what you need to do.. whether it's a Netflix marathon, McDonalds dollar menu spree, or going for a stroll. Give yourself time to mope for the rest of the day. Reflection is key to decompress your thoughts and behaviors... to "Let it gooooooo," and move forward.

 

You are worth it!

If you got an interview and made it this far, it's because you are worth it. Keep doing what you're doing and proceeding forward. Finding the right job is like dating, remember there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

 

 

Words of Wisdom from CNN Producer, Jill Chappell

While in D.C., our wonderful professor Stephen Whyte set up some great meetings for us to meet and learn from professionals. One of them was his longtime friend, Jill Chappell. Jill, (as you can see in her description) is the CNN Producer for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

It was incredible to listen to her insight and to hear how hard she worked to be where she is today. Jill is not a lady who had her wants handed to her on a platter. She disclosed to us her story of perseverance which has lead her to where she is today...HARD WORK.

Did you know that on average Jill gets over 800 emails per day? Wow. I'm sure if you're a PR professional reading this post, one of those emails could easily be yours. She offered a quick secret to in regards to email pitching:

Less is more. Don't send attachments. Be concise. When writing a headline use her name, title it "Hi Jill," "Hey Jill," If you are trying to get a placement for a client such as an expert with ebola--title it, "Ebola Guest." Also, within the email, be sure to hyperlink a short bio to provide credibility.

Below are some phrases she said that stood out to me. 

• Relationships with others take precedence over your degree. 
• My Rolodex is my bread and butter. 
• No one likes someone who complains all the time.  
• People are still JUST people. These people ARE people! Be Relatable. 

I hope this helps you realize that others, as Jill said, "ARE JUST PEOPLE." 

The Importance of New Friendships

Meeting New People 

The struggle is real, when it comes to branching out to meeting new people at the conference. Here are some tips that I applied to being able to make new friends.

- Be Friendly: Easier said than done. Try to have an open mind and good intentions with everyone you meet.

- Breakaway From Your Bubble: As difficult as it is, it is so important to be willing to break out of your shell and to try things out of your comfort zone. At conference it's easy to stick with the same people, give it a little of variety.

- Use Your Ears: It is bewildering to me how many students struggle with using their ears during a conversation. Be sure to listen and to show in your body language that they are the MOST IMPORTANT person in the room. NO glancing at your phone. NO talking over the other person. This is their chance to shine, be their audience.. they'll love you for it.

- Utilize Your Location & Take Advantage of Every Moment: Realize that if you are at a business conference.. take advantage of what you can't do online.. MEETING PEOPLE. Education is done online, but being able to network with a variety of people and to engage with them is entirely different.

I hope these small tips helped, I basically lived off of protein bars the entire conference because as Ariel from Little Mermaid would said, "I want to be where the people are."

Powell Tate Agency Tour

Powell Tate Rumored as Best Agency Tour at PRSSA Conference.

I'm pretty sure that Powell Tate won me over during their agency tour. As a Midwest girl, I have never been able to tour a big agency.. or any agency in that matter. Powell Tate was beyond organized for their tour. I expected to just briefly walk around the building but they had the whole time slot scheduled out for us.

The biggest take away from Powell Tate is that they welcome diversity, good work, and ethics. They also spoiled us with lots of swag, one on one interactions with staff, a presentation, introduction of their head directors, and a catered lunch with a Q&A session with their employees and even introduced us to their intern coordinator.

Some background on Powell Tate for you. They have over 3,000 employees and are the 2nd largest international agency in the world. Their clients makeup over 50% of the Fortune 100 Company and they were the first bipartisan firm in Washington, D.C.

I also was able to make some great friends while on the tour. This is my friend Kyle Vendebeek from Texas Christian University. She was so much fun and grew up in Los Angeles--it was so neat hearing about her internship at CBS.

Takeaways from Powell Tate:

- "We look for students who are great writers, who achieve with everything that they do." -Pam Jenkins, President

- "When working with clients, ask the right questions. And remember to ask questions thorough delivery. Be sure to set meetings and talk throughout. Be available." - Catie Caborn, Director

- "When looking for internships, have strong skills and prior agency internships."

- "Tell us about what makes you different in your cover letter."

- "Networking tips: find out what they're interested in, what they're working on, and what they're passionate about. Do your research and follow up."

The Apathetic American

I have to write this post quickly, I apologize for the manner that I address issues and information if it does not come across tactfully. Today spent 14 hours, went to 13 different national monuments, and walked nearly 12 miles. Yup, you could say the least that my body is still a bit cranky from the walking.

I consider myself to be a pretty empathetic person. However, there are situations in my life where I intentionally distance or associate myself to cope with pain. I've heard lots of complaints that Americans are apathetic--we just don't care. That's not the case, we care, but with the demands set on us to work and perform we don't have time to sit around feeling sorry and sad about things.

The first place we went in Washington, D.C. was the Arlington Cemetery. I was not sure what to expect. I imagined we would show up, glance for a minute or two and move on. There was a lot to explore at Arlington Cemetery that I was unaware of, we were there for several hours.

The most emotional part of the day happened for me when I was at Arlington. As I was at the monument, they have a ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is symbolic of unidentified soldiers killed at war. During the ceremony that was populated with people, I noticed nearly 100-150 veterans at watch. They were participating in the Honor Flight. The Honor Flight is an organization that flies veterans out to the national memorials who have never been able to see the memorials.

I was overwhelmed with emotion, seeing how strongly they were moved by the ceremony. Overwhelmed to the point of tears. I approached one of the veterans with tears and my eyes and told him thank you. He proudly responded your welcome, I was overcome with emotions. We hugged and my whole being was filled with gratitude being surrounded by veterans who have helped give me the freedoms I enjoy in my life.

There was more I wanted to say, but I must cut this short. Today, was a reminder of the sacrifice for freedom.

Preparing for Your First Impression at National Conference

Making a First Impression at PRSSA National Conference Washington, D.C. 

Networking and making a first impression work hand in hand. When I meet someone new, I am constantly brainstorming new techniques and strategies of how to build authentic relationships with them. This is to show you a bit of the thought process I go through to think up ideas of how to make a nice impression at #PRSSANC

1. Appearance

I am a plus size queen. It's hard sometimes to stand out in an industry dominated by mostly gorgeous women! Since the PRSSA National Conference last year, I haven't lost my winter weight. I was struggling to know what to wear to the conference without having to put a dent in purchasing lots of gorgeous new clothes since I've moved up a size. 

Gwynnie Bee & Rent the Runway. 

I decided to have these two amazing online rental stores take care of me. Gwynnie Bee is a website for extended sizes, size 12-32. Rent the Runway is a website that rents all sizes of amazing hollywood brand apparel. 

PROS: 

• DON'T WORRY WASHING THEM
• FREE SHIPPING
• FREE MONTH TRIAL
• CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE
• HIGH QUALITY, NAME BRAND

The plan is to have the free shipping labels with me and to ship the dresses back to the online stores giving me lots of luggage space for the plane ride home. 

Here's a sneak peek of all the beautiful clothes I'll be sporting in Washington, D.C. 

(Don't worry, I'll remember to bring my cardigan and blazers to complete the #PRPro look.)

2. Business Cards

Business cards are a major part of your presentation at conference and how others are going to remember you. Professionals will come prepared with their cards, ready to trade them with you. Think back to the time all your friends eagerly traded Pokemon cards at school-- it's like that. Here are my cards that I designed for the conference to leave a lasting impression. 

3. Conforming with Apple Products AKA Getting the Iphone 6

I didn't buy my first Apple product until I went to the conference last year in Philadelphia. The reason that I bought it, as silly as is-- a large number of public relations professionals trust and love apple products. I've always heard the quote, "dress for the type of job you want to have." I think it's important to also be familiar with or to use similar technology that others use in your industry. So, I got an Iphone six this week. (Don't worry, I got a good deal with my Sprint plan) 

4. A Memorable Gift

Cleverness, thoughtfulness, and authenticity are key traits that I value, especially when it comes to picking out gift for others. As part of the conference, it's important to bring a small gift from your home state. Utah is known as the 'beehive' state. While, I was pondering gifts-- I decided of something unique to give out each time I make a new connection. Honeysticks, AKA Honeystraws. Honeystraws come in various flavors of raw, creamy honey. I contacted a local seller here and have lots of yummy flavors of honey I'll be bringing with me.. 300 honeystraws to be exact. 

5. Listening and Having a Desire to Learn From Others

Although this is listed as number 5, this is the MAIN INGREDIENT into making a first impression. Yes, you can bribe someone with honey (possibly), catch an eye by wearing designer clothes, look like a PR Pro with an iphone six, or make someone smile with a brilliant business card-- but all of these fade quickly if there is a lack of execution to truly get to network and know someone. I challenge you as you meet people next week at the National Conference to listen, truly engage--ask questions. I assure you, you will be happy that you did. 

11 Brands to Admire for Poking Fun at Bending Iphone 6 #Bendgate

In public relations and marketing, it is so important to be on top of the most current news cycle. Below are brands who you should follow and praise for their quick response to Iphone's #bendgate.


1. Kit Kat

Kit Kat launched a whole tumblr about it! http://kitkatbendorbreak.tumblr.com/

2. Coca-Cola

3. LG 

4. Zazzle Inc.

5. Pringles

6. HTC

7. Heineken

8. Slim Jim

9. Chex Mix

10. Whataburger

11. Lenovo

Three Tips to Building Your Twitter Followers

Twitter is an overlooked amazing tool to connect with your target audiences without having to spend a dime on advertising. Through using the following steps consistently, within three months I went from 1,017 followers 2,045 followers. Due to the nature of Twitter, it is easy to build a following by branding your accounts, providing relevant content, and following active users. 

1. Branding Your Account - When building your personal brand to market either yourself or your company it is important to answer the following questions?

• What information do you want to share with followers?
• What information do you want to follow?
• How do you want others to perceive you? 
• Who is your target audience? 
• Define hashtags you plan to use regularly. 

These questions should make it easy to identify the foundation of your Twitter experience. Through actively using the answers from this plan, I was able to grow one of my clients accounts to 1,000 followers in our target demographic within one months time.

2. Providing Relevant Content - Content is a great way to connect with your audience and share with them the information that is most important to you.

• Create google alerts for relevant key words in your industry. This will keep you on top of relevant, timely news that your audience is interested to know about. Use these alerts to develop content for your followers.

• Use applications to stay up to date with national/international news. Use this as an opportunity to adapt the current news cycle to information relevant for your industry.

• Respond to others tweets. I see so many people on Twitter who, 'Tweet, Tweet, Tweet' but never respond to any of their followers. Engage in a conversation with your audience and those in your industry.

3. Follow Active Users - Did you know that as of April of this year there are over 550 million users who have never sent a tweet, this is over 44% of Twitter users. It is important to carefully follow others on twitter who are actively using Twitter. If you go after the active users this means you are more likely to receive interactions, re-tweets, and follow-backs with your account. 

• Use monitoring tools to follow those in your industry who are active on Twitter. You can do this by using tools such as Tweetdeck to see who is active and running on social media.

• Follow people in similar demographics as yourself, age, religion, ethnicity, interests, education, location, the list goes on and one. 

• How do you find them? The best tips is to follow the followers from accounts of those who are in your industry. For example, when I worked at the Utah Senate, to reach our audience in the Utah Region we would target followers from lists of local news outlets, city/public organizations, and local politicians. This helped us know we were following people in our demographic who also had an interest in Utah Politics due to the other accounts they were already following. 

Through actively applying these steps to your account you will see that you more than capable of building a following on Twitter. I know you can do it, social media is all about engagement--get out there and start engaging! 

Dueling Cats: A Social Media Analysis

Meow Mix vs. Friskies Case Study

Twitter

Meow Mix has nearly 9K tweets on Twitter with 4K followers, this equals out to 0.46 followers per/tweet. Friskies on the other hand has 6.4K Tweets and 14.9K followers, equaling to 2.3 followers per/tweet. Friskies has a 200% gain of followers per tweet in comparison to Meow Mix. The difference? Friskies is much more authentic, personable, and follows cat social media trends and implements them into campaigns.

Facebook

Another interesting thing about the two companies, Meow Mix has 180K Likes on Facebook and most of their engagement on their page comes from San Antonio, TX. Friskies statistics are 837K likes, most of their social media engagement emerging Bangkok, Thailand. Although, Friskies has 657K more likes than Meow Mix on Facebook, it appears that Meow Mix might be more genuine in marketing their FB Page to their U.S. Customer base. Lastly, Friskies has a page specifically for Thailand customers, however their page for U.S. customers has higher interactions from Thailand.

 

Instagram

Instagram is great way to show the behind the scenes of your company and your customers photos as well. Friskies utilizes their instagram by using it as a primary platform to showcase their campaigns. Their most recent campaign was #GrumpyBirthday, celebrating the @realgrumpcat's second birthday. This campaign resulted in numerous media impressions and excited fans anticipating the celebration.

Friskies has 162 instagram posts, 8K followers, resulting in an average gain of 49.5 followers per/post. Meow mix on the other hand has 342 posts, 1.9K followers, resulting an average of 5.5 followers per/post. This means that Friskies has a 900% gain of followers per/post in comparison to Meow Mix.

The difference? Meow Mix has their logo branded on all of their instagram photos, they also do not appear to currently be featuring customer photos, and are not promoting any particular campaign through their instagram account. Friskies demonstrates a clear, concise, interactive platform to ignite passion amongst customers.

Conclusion

First of all, I'd like to reiterate, these statistics are true. I'm actually a cat lady (IG:4lilkittens). I use Friskies wet food and Meow Mix's dry food for my cats.

What can be learned about social media from these dueling companies?

1. Have a concrete driving force and objective.
2. Implement creative ideas to interact and build trust with customers.
3. Avoid looking too crisp and picture perfect. Ads are for beautiful, precise photos. Social media channels are for #selfies

I could go on and on. I am fascinated analyzing how brands compete and represent themselves through social media. I just find this all fascinating, food for thought. There is much to be learned from social media, from better connecting to customers to keeping an eye on competitors.

What social media brands do you keep an eye on?

Developing the Crucial Keys to Your Success

I wanted to expound more upon my writings from earlier this week, Real People Inspire. I prefer to write with a stream of consciousness and believe I left some loose ends. Let me give you some background as to what lead to my unusual train of thought.

Discovering the Hunger Within.

I am officially hungry to find outlets for my creativity, for a long time I have been debating, sketching ideas, and developing a plan to launch my own personal consulting firm for communications. However, one of the key components missing was a firm foundation of understanding the roots of my future aspirations.

Last night, I climbed out of bed, approached my stack of communication books, and pulled one of my most beloved pr books. I told myself, you cannot consult for pr if you do not really understand the basic history and founding fathers of pr. I decided I needed to pick a target. I was going to find the father of public relations and study him like the back of my hand. I then came across who I wanted to study, Edward L. Bernays.

Ground Yourself by Understanding the Past.

As I read through my book about the works of the founding father of public relations, I could not help but feel excitement within me. We had covered the basics of this within my previous classes. Yet, I lacked a true connection and appreciation for this iconic historic figure.

How was I supposed to stand on my own to feet and defend myself, let alone my knowledge for what I'm trying to do if I had not taken the time to learn the simple basics of my field.

Within our educations systems we use many formulas, theories, case studies, etc. How often do we take the time to genuinely study people? I can't speak on behalf of every educational system in America, but I am displeased with the lack of appreciation for the masterminds behind the formulas, theories, and case studies.. why did their names become forgotten?

Imagine how much more we could learn and develop as people if we set aside the time to learn from each other. Before you can progress forward it's important to understand the history that has lead to where you are today.

Identify Your Inspirational Influencers.

Now, this principle can apply to anyone. Each day I challenge you to seek out your own inspirational influencers. You can identify them by one of two ways. 1. Meditate and identify iconic leaders that you respect, connect, and look up to. 2. List out qualities of yourself that you either possess or seek to possess, then research iconic figures who are known for those qualities.

Inspiration is Contagious.

I wish I could map out a genealogy-like-chart to trace back the line of inspirational influencers through the past centuries. If you take the time to study out your inspirational influencers, I guarantee you will discover that they too were impacted by inspirational influencers.

Explore your key influencers of your inspirations, learn of them, study them out, and share that knowledge with others. Stay strong and continue to develop that inspiration within you to contribute to your success. Others are aware of your good doings, you might just become someone else inspiration to help them move forward.

As people learn how to inspire one another other, society progresses forward.