I was excited to first of all, be given the chance to gain some experience interviewing, and secondly learn how other people respond during  interviews. It wasn’t long ago that I was a student going through the process, and while I am very happy in my current position, I will undoubtedly be the interviewee again at some point. Today I noted some things that are essential during any interview, but especially for a job that is centered around communication skills.

1. Show your personality – I’ve been told and told again over the years, that employers hire more for a personality fit than your bank of skills. Skills can be taught, but a personality can’t. Always think of something that is special/different/unique about yourself. Something. Anything! Nothing = already forgotten.
2. Have a fresh memory of your different experiences, projects, and accomplishments. While taking a moment to think is welcomed, overly long pauses can come across as being unprepared. It is important to go over your resume beforehand, but also write down points you may want to mention that aren’t included on your resume, but will help paint a picture of why you are best suited for the job.
3. Think of experiences that actually relate to the job. While experience gained from working at the local grocery store is great, the interviewer needs to know that you have at least some skills for the position you’re applying for. Draw out those skills you have that will directly affect your performance for the job.
4. Show interest in the organization, just not in the position. I feel this should be self-explanatory. Yet, candidates made this mistake. This approach sheds some light on your personality, and the kind of employee you would be. If you took the time to look at the organization, what they do, and how you would fit in, it shows you’re interested, you take initiative, and you go the extra mile.

Just some things to note that can make the difference. I also stumbled across tips for PR agency job interview success that is worth reading. One commenter says, “PR skills are important–skills than can be taught and groomed–but creativity is a rare and valuable gift.” Well said!

My Saturday afternoon came to mind when I was listening to Julien Smith (@julien) speak at this month’s Third Tuesday event. Julien is co-author of a book called Trust Agents. I must admit, I haven’t had the chance to read it yet…but WILL be picking it up soon. Julien gave an inspiring and entertaining presentation. I was scrambling to get down some of the great one-liners and advice he was churning out.

I really found his presentation enlightening because he centered it around the idea that we all have fear, but in order to advance we need to leverage it into something useful. Using our basic human instincts, something as simple as curiosity, can lead us to something or somewhere great. Think of all the inventors in the past… the person who first built fire, the person who thought it was a good idea to ferment grapes and drink the juice, (God bless him) or how about Timothy Berners-Lee the inventor of the World Wide Web. All of these people had an idea and moved past a fear of the unknown to create something their entire network (oh, and all of man kind) could benefit from. The idea here isn’t that you have to invent something in order to stand out in your network, but rather to be some kind of leader and differentiate yourself within your networks in order to see your full potential.

Julien used a great example to illustrate why we should be thinking of positioning ourselves as leaders. He showed us a picture of a sled-dog team and said “If you’re the lead dog you get to see the beautiful horizons, but if you’re the next dog in line…all you see is an ass.”

No doubt it is hard to place yourself as a leader in everything you do. Hell some people just aren’t cut out for the job. But I think you can take his advice, step outside the box and build something sturdier. And what is great about his advice is that it can relate to everyone in a different way, whether it’s in a professional context – you can strive to build your networks, build your skills, build your career – or on a personal level by taking up something you’ve always wanted to try (like painting!) or working on a relationship you’ve let slide.

Julien also shed light on a typical habit we all have, in that if we consider an activity where we can’t see any immediate gain, we typically won’t do it. However if we were to put ourselves in the future and envision the benefit of it there, we are more prone to do it. He simply stated “you owe it to your future self.” How true.

The most profound thing he said was that having the attitude of “what can I screw with today?” is essentially a great attitude to have. That is so relevant for every communication/PR professional out there. You have to try new things, or play around with different ideas or concepts constantly and be open to new ideas. Or quit everything and just paint. Ok I’ll stop pushing the painting thing on everyone…for now anyways. If we take Julien’s advice, imagine the people we could become. Who knows what we may be known for in the future, but it’s exciting to think that you could be known for something! So find your something and run with it.

PS – thank you my inspiring and unique little friend for the great Saturday afternoon and all the laughs that came with it!

Anyone who knows me well can you that I’m not one for getting up in the morning, especially any earlier then I have too. However, yesterday morning I made an exception and headed to Ottawa’s Social Media Breakfast #11. I had been anticipating the first event of the fall and even more so when I found out that Tara Hunt was going to be the speaker.

Author of The Whuffie Factor, Tara Hunt

Tara is the author of the Whuffie Factor. This book, outlining social networks and using them to build business, is all the rage right now and has communication professionals fighting to get their hands on it. (It was sold out at Chapters when I went!) Tara gave an impressive talk on how social media isn’t the Band-Aid most businesses/organizations want it to be, but rather a great tool for empowering customers/clients to communicate.

When I left I had enough inspiration and thoughts for a hundred blogs posts, which I still may come back too. However I thought I would share some of the key points Tara made and how I think they play into the overall attitudes of social media concepts.

First,  I appreciated how Tara started out by conveying that social media isn’t the answer to every organization’s needs, and can’t be a helpful tool to any company’s core attributes if used as a Band-Aid to resolve organizational complications. For an example, customers won’t care that you have a great twitter presence or that your blog has an abundance of information if your initial customer service outlets are still known as lousy and fail to offer helpful, timely solutions. By the time a customer expresses their anger on a social network, they are not interested in getting a DM on twitter from the company asking how they can help…now. I agree that some organizations are spending too much time searching social networks to seek out unhappy customers and trying to take action at that point, instead of focusing on the customer services they can provide upfront.

Tara also made a great point, (one that backs up my point of view about Facebook in my last post) that social media is all about being social and that 89% of adults and 91% of teens use social networks to connect with friends. She said that social networks simply mirror what is happening offline. This is an important concept to note in a company’s online marketing strategy. What is annoying to customers offline may be just as annoying, or more so online. And don’t assume that you have solved your outreach efforts by implementing social media tools, because not every customer is tweeting/blogging/facebooking.

Last but not least, her view that organizations should forget trying to attract influencers, and concentrate on their enthusiasts was a great one. I love this concept because it’s a simple but brilliant approach to ultimately, I think, attracting both. Enthusiasts already love what the organization has to have to offer; no time is wasted encouraging them to try the product, like you would have to do with most influencers. Not only that but most enthusiasts are hoping to get the organization’s attention and have already sung praise. Influencers aren’t guaranteed to give a good review and can be hard to reach due to all the other competition. Tara suggested rewarding your enthusiasts, and thanking them in order to keep them loyal and spreading the word about you. I think that if companies took this approach more, increasing their enthusiasts would lead to influencers taking notice without any effort on the company’s part. I feel some organizations think that just because they are implementing social media and appear to be “with the times” so to speak, that it will attract influencers. Again social media isn’t the solution to gain coverage from influential people. Having a stellar product or service with customers that love it will be your ticket to that attention you’re seeking.

I think the underlying message throughout her presentation was that indeed social media is not a Band-Aid. Simply implementing it to repair reputations or put out fires, increase sales/customers or gain praise from the influencers of your industry won’t work if there is not a solid corporate policy in place already. Instead use it to enhance an already effective platform and allow the conversations, connections and sharing that social media tools will create, add to your success.

Thank you Tara for such a great talk. I know when I walk away with pages of notes that I definitely learned something!

Review Tara’s presentation and let me know what you think.