I attended PRSSA National Conference in San Diego, California at the beginning of November. I attended keynote speakers and professional development sessions throughout the 5 days I was at the conference.

The final professional development session I attended  was “Building a Professional Image on Paper, Online, & in Person.” The speakers at this session were Walter Bateman II, who is a retired CEO of the Harleysville Group and Natalie Neczypor, a Marketing Executive at Ernst Young LLP.

Walter Bateman II’s key points in being successful in your Job search

• “Job searching is a job in itself”
• Get Organized: buy a manila file & title it “Job Search”; this is where you should keep everything in the searching process
• Look at yourself as others see you, not as you see yourself: ask questions like:

What do you bring to the table as far as talent goes?

What do you represent?

What would represent your ideal long-term career?

What is your vision?

• Strategy: 1 or 2 sentences with HOW you will achieve your goals with your tactics (see below)
• Tactics: Ask yourself who are the engaging influential people in my life (mentors) and what is my knowledge of the economy?
• Keep Notes: Which conversations went well & why others didn’t go very well
• Keep a calendar: Have only follow-up dates for interviews and applications listed on this calendar
• Direct your resume’ to the CEO of the company with an engaging cover letter. Remember: If you send your resume’ to the CEO, they may want to personally meet with you in their office and if you don’t have the “balls” so to speak to sell yourself to him/her then don’t send your resume’ straight to that person.
• Know your value to the company. Most young employees believe they are much more valuable to the company than they actually are. Figure out what your value is & keep it in mind when speaking to your “boss.”
• Be proper in your approach in your cover letter, resume’ and interview.
• AVOID: business “Buzzwords”
• Your resume’ is a selling tool…the product you are selling = yourself
• In the interview, make sure you show your accomplishments along with your commitments

Natalie Necypor’s key points in being successful in your interview

• Awareness: Know who you are (strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments)
• Know where you are going in the next 3 minutes, 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years
• Resume/Portfolio: categorize your experience into 3 categories

1. Experience

2. Impact on experience

3. Results (use numbers, dollars, etc)

• Be your own personal brand & always sell yourself. You are the only person who can sell yourself, nobody else can do that for you, but other people are able to help you along.
• Build Repor: Don’t just talk about the weather, the pictures in the interviewer’s office, typical stuff. Talk about something that matters & work on it so that it is always your ice breaker. The weather, etc., doesn’t make you stand out against other interviewees; everyone that walks into that office talks about that.
• Set an agenda: know what you are going to talk about in what order (give an overview of yourself; ask questions; present portfolio, etc.; conclude)
• You have to spend money in order to make money How much would you be willing to spend to have your dream job?
• Research the company & the interviewer: Ask the person who referred you or got you the interview what questions you should ask; don’t be afraid to use your people resources along with the internet; use words that are found in quotes your interviewer has said in your interview
• Practice: Go to Barnes & Noble and buy the interview CD
• Behavioral interviewing: Even if your interviewer isn’t using behavioral interviewing (i.e. “Tell me a situation where you have shown leadership?”), answer your questions in behavioral interviewing style. It will shock & wow them along with being able to elaborate your experience (stuff on your resume’).
• Clear your entire schedule so that you aren’t rushed to leave the office; you never know when you might be sent through to the next step in the interview process (i.e. to talk to another person in the office).
• Bring Several Resume’s: If you do get sent to several offices to continue the interview process you will want to be prepared to hand over more then one resume’ than just to the original interview.
• Show personality: For men this means in your tie but stick to a blue or black suit, black or blue socks, and black shoes. For women this means in your shirt or bag, but stick to 3 accessories at the maximum, pants/skirt, stockings if wearing a skirt, avoid short sleeves, and wear closed toe shoes.
• Take notes to use during the interview: They will ask you what you know about the company and it is okay to use your notes you brought. They don’t expect you to know everything and they understand you’re nervous so use your notes. Have your questions written down in your notes.
• Questions to ask:
  

What objections do you have in placing me in this position? (Note: take notes when they answer this question, you will want to know what to work on)

• Ask for contact info & a business card
• Send a handwritten “thank you” note ASAP. Keep thank you notes in your car and when you get to your car after the interview, take a minute and write it to the interviewer. Take the thank you note to the nearest mailbox and they will receive it within 48 hours usually.
• Send a “thank you” e-mail: When you get home, send an e-mail showing your gratitude for the interview.
• Thank the recruiter: If you had to go through a recruiter to get the interview, call them and tell them how great the interview went and tell them everything you learned. Chances are they will call the interviewer or tell them the next time they speak how well you thought it went and that you learned so much.
• Call the person who got your resume’ to the top of the pile.
• Call the person who interviewed you and thank them.

• Be open to relocate: If you are willing to relocate, then you will narrow the competition down. If your career is that important to you, then your boyfriend/girlfriend will be there 5 years down the road when you come back home.

• Be ready to do it all: be ready to manage in the beginning, not just be in your entry level position.
• Remember: You are only as good as your last 15 minutes. So make those last 15 minutes count in the interview. This is your time to make a lasting impression.

This session was the one I got the most out of and made the conference completely worth while, even if I had only gotten to go this session. Mr. Bateman & Ms. Neczypor answered all my questions and more that have been sticking in the back of my mind since I have begun thinking about the job search process. I know it will not be easy at all and it will be a hard job looking for a job, but I do believe these tips above have helped me in understanding what companies are looking for and what to do to help show them what they are looking for: ME!

I completed the PoytnerNewsU course Language of the Image today.

What I learned

Before participating in this course I had no idea how many single elements were a part of the art of photography. There are so many different wants to capture a photograph and so many different things (emotions, moods, etc) that can be portrayed to the audience through that photograph. A single photograph can contain a single element or it can contain multiple elements. A photograph could can contain as many as 5 or 6 different elements. Photographs like this can be extremely complex and can take a lot of talent and a good eye to be able to create.

What suprised me

How certain pictures are so pleasing to the eye because of the graphics that are within a picture. Photographs that include repetitive shapes (i.e. circles, lines, designs) are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and are usually considered strong photographs.

Below is an example I found from www.attentiondesign.com.

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The shadow of the railing adds lines to the picture and makes this picture more appeasing to the eye.

I have always thought that photography was just something a person could pick up as a hobby and if you practiced it long enough you could be pretty good. This might be true but there is a lot more to photography than just snapping a picture of something that you or somebody else might find interesting. It is a true art and just like anything else it takes practice and studying of the art form to be able to become a professional.

What I want to learn more about

I would like to learn more about the graphic element of photography. I think it is extremely neat how somebody can capture a picture that has so many graphic elements, even in action shots where the original intention was not to capture the graphic element. I also would like to learn more about how to capture different emotions and moods with the same photograph or different elements of the same scene/person/etc. through separate photographs.

For my Advertising class, we were assigned groups & topics to create a notebook and presentation on. My group was given LinkedIn as our topic. We were somewhat excited about this topic, considering the 4 of us are all majoring in Public Relations and we have recently learned how to use LinkedIn and the importance it has as a professional network. One of my designated elements of the project was to create a timeline of the company’s history and important acheivements. I have included the timeline below and hope to be able to inclue more of my project on my blog as it is completed.

In my Public Relations Publications class, we were asked to pick out our “best practice” in either InDesign or WordPress and turn them into a presentation for our class. I chose to show the class how to place a picture in an InDesign docu ment. I have added my powerpoint version of the presentation to my blog, which I made into a handout for each student in the class to have as their own reference.

There are several different factors that go into designer’s decision on which typefaces (fonts) to use in a publication. A designer should choose a font that “complements the personality” of his/her organization and use it continuously throughout the identity symbols according to Strategic Publications: Designing for Target Publics. The designer should choose a font that reinforces an organization’s identity. The designer must also think about the public they are targeting and if they should stick to a traditional font or go with a more modern one. They have to then consider the size of the font (this will depend on the type of publication being created) and what font style would be deemed appropriate.

According to isnare.com, the best font size to use on a business card is 7 or 8 point for your address and contact information and use one point size bigger for your name. For the company name, you should use a bigger font, somewhere between 12 and 15 point. This website said to NEVER print your address in less than 6 point font, NEVER print your name in larger than 11 point font, and NEVER print your address in larger than 9 point font.

I found this interesting  website, when searching for the correct font to use on a business card. This article detailed the nine most common mistakes made on business cards.

According to smallbusinessbible.org, most fonts for subheadings and headings in a brochure are typically 14 point font and the remaining text is typically around 12 point font. The font in the brochure must be readable by people of all ages, but must not be too big (looks as if there wasn’t enough information to fill a brochure) or too small (difficult to read).

Below, I have listed a couple of websites that I found using Google.com to find free, legal fonts to download to your computer.

www.dafont.com

www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts-l.html

www.princessfonts.com

This is a cool video I found on YouTube.com on how to install new fonts onto your computer.

The client I chose is Prevent Child Abuse Bulloch County.

I believe the main focus of their organization is to inform the public about child abuse and make them aware of how frequently it occurs and to try and raise money to help create that awareness.

This is how I would segment the public for PCABC.

Generation X & Generation Y.

Generation X because they are the generation that either already has children or the younger people in that generation may be just beginning to start a family so they need to be aware of what is happening to children in this country and possibly even some of their children’s friends or classmates. They are also the ones who value their jobs, so they would be able to donate money to this organization in support of their cause.

I also chose Generation Y because they are the generation that either already has children or will be having children in the near future. They are the ones who will be concerned with how their children’s classmates are living and what could be happening to them.  They will be the ones who can turn this age of child abuse around and make the world a safer place for our children and future generations.

I would try not to pick just one social class because children are abused in all social classes. Although I might focus more on the upper class and middle class because they would be most likely where the bigger and more donations would come from.

It would be hard to determine whether to target more women or men. Both are known to be abusers, but I feel women are more likely to feel more compassion when it comes to seeing children who have been abused & wanting to help them out.

I don’t think I would segment the public according to national origin either, because race and ethnicity does not determine whether or not you are a more violent person.

My brochure design might be impacted by how the publics are segmented because pictures might be of all races, ethniticities, social classes, and ages might appear. I would try to incorporate as many different types as I could to try and hit every public. I think people associate child abuse with lower social classes and not really with the upper (elite) class at all. I would try to get the point across in my brochure, that abusing children is not always subject to social class. Upper class families are violent and abusive also.