Week 9: What Color is Your Parachute ch. 7

If you are having trouble job hunting or you need to know how to job hunt, I recommend you check out What Color is Your Parachute. I am only half way though this book and I have learned so much about the job hunting world. Things that I will use for the rest of my life. The most recent chapter I read discussed doing a self inventory. The book lists seven steps as to why doing a self inventory is important. Before reading those seven steps the book states that 86% of people who follow these guidelines end up finding a job. Right away I was a little skeptical because; one I have never done a self inventory before and two I could not believe that t 86% of people found jobs just by doing this.  Then reading on I could totally see why these tips would work.

The picture above is called a prioritizing grid. This grid is the same one that was used in the book. The book recommends using grids, charts and visuals to help you match possible jobs or careers that will be a good choice for your self. I really liked this idea because I think everything is easier to understand if there are visuals. I also am a fan of making pro and con lists. With that being said I started to fill out my own prioritizing grid like the one above. I also make made a pro and con list of pros and cons of working in the job field that I plan on going in to. Making the list and following the gird made me feel a little bit better about my desired career path. After I graduate I plan on filling out this same grid to see if any of my answers have changed. 

Week 9: Hootsuite

This week in class we dove deeper into Hootsuite. Before I dive into my new discoveries I wanted to recap do a quick recap of what Hootsuite is. Hootsuite is a way to manage all your social media from one place. You are able to link you personal or business profiles to this site. For example, in the picture below you can see I linked my Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Linking all your social media networks to Hootsuite will make it easier to manage. Once you have linked all your social media you will be able to send posts to those networks from Hootsuite. In the picture below you can see that I am getting ready to send  a test post. This post will be sent to all three of my social media platforms. Not only can I send my post to multiple platforms at one time, I can also schedule when I want my post to be posted. Which I think is pretty cool.

I plan on using this wonderful tool for the rest of my career. I am a communications major and I know that this tool will make my life a lot easier. I plan on managing social media for a sports team in the future. When I land a social media job on a sports team you better believe I will be using Hootsuite. I can't wait to share the new skills I learn as I keep navigating through Hootsuite.

Week 8: What Color is Your Parachute?

Chapter six of What Color is Your Parachute was short and sweet. The chapter talked about what to do when your job hunt is not going well. The book mentions the three most important rules by job hunters who were struggling while looking for a job. Those three rules are; never give up, never give up and never give up. I agree with that one hundred precent. I have not been in the job hunting world for that long, but I have had a few times where I felt like I was not going to find a new job. I did not give up and now I have a small job while going to school full time, its perfect. 

The book also mentions the eleven best and worst traditional approaches to looking for a job. I read through this and I was most shocked by "Looking for employers' job-postings on the Internet". Before I continued reading I thought for sure that looking for jobs on the internet was going to have a high success rate, I was wrong. According to the book looking for employers' job postings on the internet only works about 4% of the time. That was a total shock to me because I thought everyone goes on the internet to look for jobs. Heck, I even regularly look for jobs online just to see whats out there. One way that seemed to be really effective when looking for a job is to actually go to a company and talk to people who work there. I can say I have done this one before and it worked. My employer even told me she was happy I came in to talk to her face to face rather than communicate online. Job hunting is not easy, but it's a learning experience. So what if one job doesn't work out, you could be one step closer to landing your dream job. Never give up!

Week 8: Hootsuite

This week I have been learning about Hootsuite. I had no idea what Hootsuite was and what it was used for until I read chapter seven of my social media marketing book. According Introduction to Social Media Marketing by Todd Kelsey Hootsuite can be described as, "a tool that helps you manage social media by providing assistance on developing and posting content to multiple social networks." My interpretation is that Hootsuite makes your life one hundred times easier when trying to manage all your social media. Since I am starting to go more in-depth with all my social media platforms I know that using Hootsuite will be very beneficial to me. This website may also beneficial to anyone who is trying to push tons of content out on multiple social media platforms.

This chapter of the book also can be used as a guide to create your own Hootsuite account. With the aid of this chapter as well as my professor I created my own account. What's cool is that you can become certified, which is what my class will be doing the rest of the semester. In order to become certified you must pass a test on the website with a 65%. The website gives you a study guide that will help you pass the test. As for my personal use I have not yet taken an in-depth look into the website. I have only touched the tip of the ice burg. However, I do plan on exploring the website and maybe doing a few test posts just to get my feet wet.

Week 7: What Color is Your Parachute?

Back at it again with another chapter review from What Color is Your Parachute?. This weeks chapter was titled "The Six Secrets of Salary Negation", you all know how important this. The first secret I think could be the most important, "Never discuss salary until the end of the whole interviewing process at that organization, when (and if) they have definitely said they want you". I have always wondered when it was appropriate to ask what the salary is going to be for the place that I am interviewing at. In all honesty, for the few interviews I have had I never asked about the salary and that is because I was too afraid I was going to ask and sound stupid. Then again I also didn't know when I should ask either. But now it makes sense that I should ask about salary once you know for sure if you have been hired. Some interviewers may even bring up what the salary may be, which makes asking about it even easier!

Another secret that stood out to me was that you should research typical salaries for the job field you are interviewing for. This is something that I personally have not thought of. With the kind of technology we have now we can find all kinds of information on google about salaries. For example, I looked up the starting pay for a dentist right out of college, the average salary is about 40-50k a year. That is with no experience other than college. So if you were to have an interview for a dental company you would know that you should be getting paid around that much.

When it comes to an interview you can never be too prepared. It's always good to know more so you seem knowledgeable and interested in the job you are looking for. Happy hunting!!     

Week 7: Social analytics

This week in class we talked about how to better understand basic social analytics. In simpler terms this means I got a backstage pass to look closer at my Facebook page activity. As of right now I do not have many followers, you totally should go to Facebook right now and hit that "like" button, but that is okay. I have realized that the more content I post the more people will flock to my page.

After reading up on social analytics I decided to look into my own Facebook page to see what's happening behind the scenes. One cool thing I came across is the chart below. This chart tells me where in the world people are viewing my blog from, which age groups are looking at my posts, as well as the percent of men and women looking at my posts. This to me was super cool. Literally people from all over the world have viewed my page. It's also crazy that Facebook knows the location of these people LOL.

Knowing Facebook analytics can be very important, especially to those using Facebook for business purposes. As for me I think its cool to see to get a deeper look into what happening backstage. I plan on looking behind the scenes at the end of the semester to see how much has changed. Check back in a few weeks to see my update on who's been checking out my Facebook page! 

Week 6: What Color is Your Parachute?

Yet another great chapter from What Color is Your Parachute? This week I read about tips for interviews. I have never really been to an "official" interview before. All the jobs I have had thus far have not had a big interview process. The interviews I have experienced have not been longer than ten minutes and usually the person interviewing me made it seem like the job I was trying to get was not a big deal. With that being said I was happy to see a chapter dedicated to interviewing tips.

One thing that stood out to me was that you are also supposed to ask the interviewer questions. Before reading this chapter I knew I was going to have to ask the interviewer questions I was just not sure of what I was supposed to ask. This section gives example questions; "What does this job involve?" and "What are the skills a top employee in this job would have to have?". I think asking the person who is interviewing you questions is important because it makes it seem like you are more interested in the job, which you should be. After reading this section I plan on making a list of questions to ask during my next interview. I know it will play a big role in getting the job.

Week 6: Twitter

This week my social media marketing talked about Twitter. The chapter discusses things such as pros and cons, what to do and what not to do, and how to create a Twitter. Personally, I love Twitter I use it more than any other social media that I have. It's quick and easy. You can turn notifications on for someone you follow so you see everything they tweet as soon as they tweet it. Twitter is huge with us menials and will continue to grow. Here is a snap shot of my Twitter. Feel free to give me a follow I am always tweeting out the links to my blogs! 

Like I mentioned earlier I believe twitter will continue to grow. For example people can post a picture to Twitter and it can get hundreds of thousands of "likes" and "retweets" in a matter of minutes. For example, you can find out anything that's happening in the world instantaneously because of Twitter. A good way to see what's happening is to look at "trends for". Here you can find anything from news to the latest pregnant celebrity. I am a big Twitter advocate and I will choose Twitter over Facebook everyday.

Here is a screen shot of the "Trends for you" where you can find whats trending right now!