Being Cheryl: Social Media Marketing Tips from Columbus, Ohio

After a daunting first week of classes listening to students talking about how they don’t know or care what they do with their lives, have no experience and no plans to get any before graduating, and pretty much just expect a good paying job that will fulfill all of their heretofore unknown professional dreams to be handed to them when they graduate… I have decided to put my best (and proven!) advice out here.

OMGZ ALL THIS STUFF IS SUPER CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVATE AND I’M GIVING AWAY ALL MY SECRETS NOOOOOOO!

I haz secretz?

(Note: All this stuff is common freaking sense that most people just don’t seem to have.)

1. GET AN INTERNSHIP:

Yours dropped the failball

Your professor’s tell you this all the time. They probably tell you this enough that you have begun thinking you are qualified to be a professor because all you have to do is tell your students to go, get an internship! This is by far the least original but most important piece of advice I can give you. And, hate to break it to you, but that first internship you get probably isn’t going to pay you. In exchange for 10-15 hours per week of your unpaid time, you get real-world experience and something to put on your resume other than a list of classes you took (i.e. “Yoga”) and your job providing “quality customer service” at McDonalds. More than likely you can get college credit for this, too. And after you pull your weight not getting paid and getting people coffee, you’ll be more qualified than you were 3 months ago to apply for a position that will actually help pay your bills. I’ve had 5 official internships (not counting the truckload of other experience), and only the first one was unpaid.

Fitting it into your schedule
The reason people give for not seeking internships that I hear the most is, “I don’t have time.” No, you do have time, you just either suck at time management or refuse to give up that time between 3 and 4 p.m. when you watch Saved by the Bell reruns. Currently, I am pulling 18 credit hours (as always), working 20 hours a week at my primary internship, working 13 hours a week at my work study job, putting in between 2-3 hours of work for my secondary internship, and preparing to devote another 2-4 hours per week on student organizations I am a part of. THIS IS ALL MONDAY-FRIDAY. I have absolutely no weekend obligations, because that’s enough free time to get me through the rest of the week.  No, I’m not overwhelmed by my schedule. And if ever I should be, taking all of my 400 level classes and mastering a new job should be it. But college doesn’t teach you how to be a PR practioner, a marketing pro, a political scientist. It teaches you how to manage your time, how to work with people, how to meet deadlines. (If you haven’t realized that yet… you might want to take some time to reflect on what your BA actually represents.)

Finding an internship
The other reason I hear is that students don’t know where to FIND an internship. This one blows my mind.

Those people who teach your classes, professors, remember them? Most of them have either come to teaching after working out in the real world for a long time or are STILL working out in the real world. And those experienced, tenured folks have a hell of a network that they would be more than happy to tap into for you, if you ASK.

Also, most colleges have a Career Services department who’s sole job is to help you with your career by working with you on your resume, practicing your job interview skills and, dun dun dun, FINDING YOU AN INTERNSHIP! Also, most of these departments have a website that lists internships/jobs in your area and allow you to upload your resume for potential employers to search. Capital’s is www.cucareers.com, and it’s where I found my first two internships, so don’t try to tell me the sites aren’t helpful.

Check for local websites specifically designed for job and internship searches. Columbus recently launched www.columbusinternships.com, which is EXTREMELY useful. I posted my resume on there and still get about one phone call a week asking me to come in for an interview in a position that would be amazing… if I didn’t already have two internships and 18 credit hours! I’ve taken to referring these people to my friends when they call now, two of whom have received calls for interviews after my recommendation. Anyway, check the Interwebz for these things, they’re out there. If there’s not a specific website for your college or community, national job search like www.monster.com post internships, too. That’s where I found internship #3.

Lastly, if you want to scope out an internship before you apply or accept the position, check out www.internshipratings.com. Most of the listings are East Coast at the moment, but it’s a fairly new website and more regions are catching on as we speak.

You’re welcome.

2. BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO

Not such a gud idea akshully

Eh I’ll be honest, outside of Marketing, PR, Business, English and, erm, Art-type majors… I really have no idea what you would put into your portfolio? As a recovering Political Science major I had several policy papers, etc. saved and ready to show anyone who would care, but I don’t know if anyone would have. So, unless you’re in one of the aforementioned fields, take time in this section to go make a sandwich. Oh wait, this isn’t audio, it’ll still be here when you get back. JUST SCROLL DOWN TO 3!

My portfolio started out with clips from Capital’s student newspaper. Layouts I had designed, columns and articles I had written. Pretty boring stuff. Today it is a 4-color fantasy land. And you know what surprises me the most? About half of the stuff in here… isn’t from my internships. I have news releases and newsletters I wrote for OhioHealth and a sample of a book I designed for Priceline.com, but the way I filled my portfolio was not from collecting internships. I have samples of work from a group I volunteered to help with. I have a fabulous 2-page spread press clipping from a news release I volunteered to write for my high school. I have a communication plan I wrote for a student organization I volunteered to do PR for this past summer. The point is, if it’s something you’ve done for class or work that you’re proud of, SAVE IT. If you don’t have anything like that, put yourself in a situation where you are forced to create something you can be proud of.

Note on Student Orgs: I’d make “get involved with student organizations” a separate point in this list, except that some student organizations just aren’t worth your time. Just because the name of the organization fits in with your major/career interests (i.e. PRSSA for PR peeps) doesn’t mean that the chapter at your school is worthwhile. Look into those organizations you think might interest you, and those you don’t. I joined Radio Club last year because I wanted to hear my own voice on the radio (so vain) only to learn that Radio Club had a marketing/public relations team. Ding. I joined theatre because I love acting (I just suck at ti) only to discover that theatre needed a PR team. Ding.  Look outside the “Future Business Leaders Club” to find an organization that needs help developing a business plan.

3. BUILD YOUR NETWORK

We be cheesin

One of the most effective ways you can do this is through internships. Don’t you love that these all come back to internships? If you intern with a company, and you show up and do your job, you’ll leave that internship with a letter of recommendation from your manager and, potentially, other people you worked with. You’ll be connected to people at that company who are connected to people in other companies. And then next thing you know, you meet Kevin Bacon. Aside from internships, most areas have professional networking events open to the public, and typically free. Get out there, MEET PEOPLE.

Social Networking
Surprisingly, I am not referring to the number of friends you have on MySpace. But not too far off, actually. You want to know how I got my current job? Someone I follow on Twitter posted that she was interviewing candidates for an internship. The position intrigued me, so I asked if she was still looking for candidates and she said yes. In asking her this question, someone at a marketing firm saw the “Tweet” and made the jump from my Twitter profile to my LinkedIn profile, was impressed by my experience, and got me in for an interview the next week. A position that did not previously exist was created solely to be filled by yours truly at the firm. Writing this blog has just led to an offer of writing for a local magazine.

Important take away: If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, GO MAKE ONE RIGHT NOW. SRSLY. LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. You know, people with experience, people who you will one day work for and could possibly intern for now. Join LinkedIn, find people you know or want to know, answer questions in the Q&A section, write recommendations for people who deserve them, hope they return the favor, etc. I could write an entire post on the benefits of LinkedIn, but I’ll leave it at this: JUST FREAKING SIGN UP ALREADY.

And this has been a lolcheryl special presentation on career building for college students. Even if my advice completely sucked, you got FOUR QUALITY LOLCHERYL PICS IN ONE POST.