So You Want A Job?

With unemployment at an all time high, the competition to find a job is fierce! How do you stand out among the competition? Through the years, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and I can tell you what works and what doesn’t:

Here’s what DOES NOT work:

• Wear anything but a suit
• Don’t bring your resume
• Keep talking about your boyfriend or girlfriend
• Tell your prospective employer that you took the 7 year plan to graduate from college
• Talk about how you hate work
• Read out loud to yourself in the waiting room
• Talk with the prospective employer’s turtle
• Mumble during the interview
• Be unprepared — don’t bring your portfolio or any writing samples
• If you are prepared, bring crumbled samples
• Make sure to talk badly about your former employer
• Be late and don’t call ahead
• Don’t send a follow up note
• And remember, if you really don’t want the job, don’t follow up at all!

It’s amazing what people say or don’t say on a job interview!

What stands out to me is a person who:

• shares with me that his/her career is important
• is dedicated, detail oriented and polished
• really wants the job because he/she believe it is a great career opportunity
• is very creative and thinks outside the box!

Years ago when I worked at one of the largest PR firms in the country, I received a press kit from a young man. In it, he included a bio, photo, news release on his job appointment and background information. I was so impressed with the presentation, I called him for an interview.

Yesterday, I was reading a blog written by a man looking for a job. The blog discussed his trials and tribulations of his job search and discussed his qualifications. To make sure that the blog received traffic, he placed a small ad in an online publication. Creative, clever and wants an opportunity…. sounds like a good prospective employee to me!

If you are really looking for a career, especially in a creative field like PR or advertising, make sure that you stand out, be prepared and be honest. The worst thing is to be dishonest, get the job and then the job doesn’t work out!