i read a lot of blogs. some are public relations-specific, some not. but one that i read almost on a daily basis is
PR Squared from Shift Communications. this blog provides a great insight into the public relations world and teaches me a lot about the industry i am in. this specific blog post every single person can relate to and learn from, whether you are currently looking for a job or not. sometimes i think we take things for granted and we are expected things to be handed to us. this just proves that people are not willing to hand things to our generation. we do actually have to do some work... so here it is, i just wanted to provide you with a good read. enjoy.
-kteb
Open Letter to Millennials (PR Industry Edition)Riffing off of @BillSledzik’s terrific (and ultimately helpful) rant, “Dear Millennials: Your Parents Lied to You,” I wanted to spend a minute talking to these same Millennials as a prospective employer. Here’s an Open Letter to Millennials (PR Industry Edition).
Hi gang –
When Professor Sledzik suggests that the real-world is tougher than you think, he’s spot-on. Everything counts when you are job prospecting in the early days, including your writing style and use of grammar in resumes and cover letters; your clothes; your advance research and relevant questions in the interview; and, your attention to the niceties of follow-up.
Let me be even more specific. When you are hunting for a job, it’s not about you. It’s about me, the employer. I recently chatted with a fellow industry vet who regaled me with stories of twenty-something job candidates whose questions included, “Why don’t you tell me why I’d want this job?” (That’s a terrible approach, in case you’re wondering.)
Your cover letter should be flawless and interesting. Grammatical errors are perfectly acceptable — so long as you don’t mind if we immediately trash your letter. Get a friend, parent or professor to take a look. Does the letter stand out, in a professional way, or is it generic? Don’t try to be extra clever, just be sincere. I expect that you’ve done some research on potential employers and have made MY agency your top choice. So, why is that? And how can you help us?
Your resume should not be overstuffed with extraneous details. I already know you don’t have a ton of experience; I don’t really expect it. Meanwhile, however, before you even send in that cover letter and resume, you should already be fairly visible on Twitter, Facebook and/or your own blog. You’ve got time to surf the Web for fun; so carve out 30 minutes a day to post relevant content that prospective employers will find when they Google your name (which they will, by the way). If I already know OF you, I’ll be glad to get to actually know you; I’ll be excited to see your resume come through.
Your choice of clothes is also important, when you come in for the interview. Once you get the job, you can wear jeans to the office pretty much every day. UNTIL then, wear a professional outfit. We need assurances that you care about your appearance, that we can trust you to wear appropriate attire to a client meeting.
Take out the nose ring for now, too. While it may be a “part of your personality,” in the job search it’s about sublimating the all-important Y-O-U for the sake of the organization. Yes, we do have a couple of employees who sport (subtle) body-art and metal accouterments… but they weren’t worn (or showing) during the interview.
Got the job interview scheduled? Great! Now do some research. Read the agency’s blog (or all of them, if there is more than one). Read several weeks’ worth of posts. Take a look at the client list. Take a look at the newsroom. Read the bios of the principals and other top execs. Read up on the competition, too. Then, COME WITH QUESTIONS. If you don’t have a handful of thought-provoking questions, it’s a fail, dude.
And if you’ve been in a round-robin of interviews, and exhausted all your questions along the way, I still suggest you never tell your last interviewer, “All my questions have been answered by your colleagues — thanks, though!” Instead, either a) re-ask those same questions, to make the interviewer feel important, or better yet, b) ask follow-up questions based on previous answers. This shows that you can think in-the-moment. That’s a big plus.
OK, now, you GOT THE JOB! Congrats! Give me 2 more minutes to suggest what you do with it…
The Millennial Generation is already known for being self-involved and in-a-rush. Luckily, many of you have the talent and drive to impress curmudgeonly Gen-X and Boomer employers, and we soon learn to look past those smarmy qualities. But the fact remains that those perceptions will be hard to shake. It will only get worse if you engage in a lot of job-hopping to find the perfect fit.
My advice then — and you may see it as biased — is to stay put for a while. I am talking 3 – 5 years, at least. There is no such thing as a perfect fit. You must create the perfect fit. This is your apprenticeship period. It is supposed to suck. There are supposed to be crummy days when you feel under-appreciated. Such days will occur no matter who signs your paycheck.
But there are rewards for loyalty, I promise. When I look around the table of my senior staff meetings at SHIFT, for example, most of the people at the meeting have been with the Agency for 5 – 10 years. Some of them started out as interns, and now they run million-dollar teams. All of ‘em are under 40 (i.e., it doesn’t take forever). I am sure there were MANY days in the course of their careers at SHIFT when they felt underpaid or under-appreciated. But sooner or later, those situations were rectified; adjustments were made; it is a process — one that required loyalty to something bigger than their bank account.
Meanwhile, I can’t tell you how many resumes I receive from “former vice presidents” of large PR agencies who are pretty clearly not VP material. They were overpaid and over-promoted — prizes often awarded to folks who skip from agency to agency in search of a new title or extra $$$. And when the economic downturn made that fact tough to hide, they find themselves scrapping for Account Manager positions.
Summing up? Cultivate your personal brand. Do your research. Commit to quality. Align yourself to the agency’s cause for the long-term. Remember that it’s not all about you. Then go kick some ass.
Thanks for listening,
Your Future Employer (who is HIRING, by the way)
