Emotional "Reality"

What is it about reality television that just sucks you in and doesn’t let you stop watching until the very end?

I’ve been sucked into many a reality television show unknowingly at first and become a loyal watcher of a handful of reality dramas. I’ve even been channel surfing and stopped on a reality show I’ve never watched before and been completely drawn into a weigh-in or a rose ceremony or a beauty queen crowning for people whose names and stories I know nothing about. People I shouldn’t think twice about take over my TV screen. What’s up with that?

I’m a loyal So You Think You Can Dance watcher (I don’t think I’ve missed but a handful of episodes from over five seasons). Tonight, as I watched the Top 20 dancers being announced for this season’s show, I felt myself unconsciously smiling with a dancer who got emotional when the judges announced he would be in the Top 20. And when a dancer got that look of disappointment for not making the show, I, too felt a little sad. I can understand feeling happy or sad further into the season because I spent weeks emotionally invested in the show and feel attached to certain contestants. But I hardly know anything about any of the dancers this early on in the season.

Another, even stranger example: The other day I started watching The Biggest Loser. I’ve never watched the show in my life, and there I was saying a little “Yeah!” in my head when one of the contestants lost five pounds and another fifteen. What is it about these reality shows that makes them so fascinating that someone would tune-in for a brief moment and feel unwarranted emotion for a reality star?

I don’t believe it’s that I can relate to all these reality contestants. But I do think there’s some satisfaction in sharing in their joy and sadness. I watched So You Think You Can Dance this evening to see who was going to be on the show for the next couple of months. I went into the viewing experience pretty passively, but found myself feeling happy and sad as if I was the dancer on stage learning the fate of my career in reality television.

So do I want to live vicariously through reality television? No. I definitely have no desire to ride around in an RV with drunken co-eds or eat creepy crawlies or even be crowned Miss I’ve Never Heard of This Small Town but What the Heck I Love Any Kind of Be-Jeweled Headgear. But it is nice to sit down, flip on the TV, and lose myself in the suspense and emotion of “reality.”

On the job hunt: Amanda’s List of Useful Tips

It’s hunting season here in Minnesota, but I’m not much of an outdoorsy kind of girl. I am, however, on the job hunt. While I’m no expert, I’ve found some activities are more useful than others, and I’d like to share that information with fellow job hunters.

There are millions of lists online – everything from finding a job, interviewing, writing thank you notes, etc. is available in someone’s list of skills, pointers, and myths. It can be argued that adding another list to the pile is just going to confuse the already overwhelmed job hunter. But I like to get different perspectives and judge which pieces of information are most useful for my own situation (you can’t expect one list to have every bit of information you ever wanted to know on it).

So here it goes… My list of useful tips for job hunters. I engage in some form of the following activities each time I approach a new job hunt (and some even when I’m not actively applying for jobs):

• I’ve already discussed setting up a job search schedule, so I won’t rehash that information here. Just know it’s important to research open positions, research your industry, network, use social media, do personal branding, and engage in personal activities (I cook and read almost every day) to varying degrees throughout your week.
• (Re)-evaluate my passions and career direction: using some of the tools mentioned below and some personal inventories of my interests and skills, I take a look at what I’m doing, what I want to be doing, and how I can make it all happen.
• Get in contact with my network: I have mentors and people in the industry that I go to when I’m in transition (a nice way to say unemployed). To some of these contacts I simply write a quick e-mail to let them know the situation and politely ask them to pass along any opportunities they might know of. The other contacts I meet-up with or engage in on-going e-mail conversation to get ideas and/or help in furthering my career. Past supervisors and professors love to hear how you’re doing and to help out where they can, so don’t hesitate to remain in contact with them.
• Research, research, research: Being that I’m towards the beginning of my career, I’m always looking for more information on the industry and companies in my metropolitan area. I have spreadsheets for different types of companies (agencies, non-profit, corporations) that list information like company size, major clients, values and mission statements, hiring process, and my connections to the company. I also set-up Google alerts on companies that I am interested in working for so I can stay on top of what’s going on with their businesses and/or clients. This is really helpful when you actually get an interview somewhere because you’ve been following the company and already have a base to work from when preparing questions for the interview. 
  
• Informational interviews: This step sort of combines the last two – reach out to your network and see if they have contacts who would be willing to meet with you and discuss the industry and their companies so you can build your research file (and your network). I love learning about people’s experiences because it gives a personal perspective on business. Googling informational interview questions turns up lots of results if you’re at a loss for things to ask. I like informational interviews over networking events because it’s one-on-one and you learn a lot more quality information. It’s my preference, but extroverts may find networking events better suit their personalities.

Finally, there’s the obvious applying for open positions, follow-up, interviewing, and writing thank-you notes. I won’t get in detail here because these are pretty basic activities, but my best advice is to be positive and gracious throughout the hiring process. Even if you’re not a good fit for the position or company, being friendly and leaving a good impression on people can help out in the future. Marketing communications communities are small (at least in markets outside of New York and LA), so chances are a good impression will carry itself into conversations down the road (and likewise so will a bad impression).

I’m going to tack the following links below because my list is neither comprehensive nor the be-all end-all of job-hunting lists. These are lists and resources I find useful in my own job hunt:

20 Steps to Successful Job Hunting: I just found this list today. I especially like the author’s advice to Recount Your Successes. Being unemployed is stressful and can be depressing, so be sure to think about the good things. Give yourself a pep talk! And do this early on in the hunt. Don’t wait until you’re feeling down to pump yourself up.

Six Steps for First-Time Job Hunters: An older list I referred to back when I first started job-hunting after graduation, this is pretty basic, practical information. It serves a nice reminder. I especially like that the first step is pinpointing your direction. It is important to focus and think outside your logical “I majored in X so I’m going to work in X industry as an X-er.” With most liberal arts degrees, you can major in X and end of working in B industry as an Z-er – it’s about matching your skills and your passion(s).

Going along with the last item, here is a useful start on finding a career direction. This is a very comprehensive exercise with really great, thought-provoking questions. Changed my career outlook.

Finally, Wet Feet has tons of lists for job hunters at all stages of their career lives. I reference information here all the time.

Take from this list what you find helpful, re-tool and integrate it to fit your own situation, and keep refining your search to make it successful.

Happy Job Hunting!

Riding the bus to the end of the line

I love lists. Every kind of list. And when I find a good tip in a list, I want to share it. So here is my latest favorite list tid-bit:

Ride the bus to the end of the line.

I found this travel related tip in Real Simple magazine (also see the full list on their website). The author points out that this isn’t safe or advisable everywhere, but even taking the local bus a few stops outside your set travel area or “area of familiarity” is fun.

The picture at the beginning of this post is from a time when I took the bus to the end of the line (or pretty close to the end). Doesn’t it just scream “endless possibilities”? I studied abroad in Scotland during college and I made it point to travel throughout the country as much as my academic schedule and bank account allowed me. Some of my favorite adventures happened when I just got on the bus and saw where it took me. This particular picture is from a beautiful Friday afternoon that took my flatmate and me to the edge of Edinburgh on the shores of the Firth of Forth. We packed a lunch, grabbed our cameras, and let the bus lead us to the edges of the city we were living in for a semester. The firth was gorgeous and the houses, monuments, side streets, and people we saw along the way were a whole new side of Edinburgh we never would have known had we not took an afternoon adventure.

Edinburgh is an amazing city, and I highly recommend spending a week or two there if you get the chance (plus you have fairly easy access to other cities and towns in Scotland by train and bus). I loved that I had the chance to explore this city over the course of four months. Much of that exploration was by way of the local bus system and walking. Looking back on the experience makes me want to explore the Twin Cities more than I have in the past – to be a tourist in my hometown. I’m the type of person that likes to know where I’m going and I almost always try to memorize the route I’m going to take to get there. But I think I’ll heed the travel advice above and spend an afternoon seeing where the bus (or maybe my car, I don’t always trust Metro Transit beyond getting downtown and back) takes me. Maybe I’ll discover a new part of the cities I never knew existed. Stay tuned…

Even if you can’t make it across the pond, try riding to the end of the bus line in your city. Get out of your familiarity zone! You will not regret it (especially if you happen to find a beautiful spot to relax, clear your mind of life’s crises, and enjoy the view).

Social Media Personal Purpose and Usage

I admit I was not an early adopter of social media networks. My friends had to create a Facebook page for me my sophomore year of college because I didn't really see the purpose in having one. But now that I have embraced and accepted (and even defended) the merits of social media, I'm finding that not only am I more willing to use social media but I use my networks in different ways. The following is a break down of my purpose and my use of social media sites.

Facebook: My first experience with social media
As I said above, I did not willingly participate in Facebook at first. I started college right when Facebook was getting big, and I had reservations about the safety of my information online and didn't want every new person I met at college looking me up on Facebook (let's be honest, not everyone needs to be your "friend"). Now, I still maintain a high level of privacy and only friend people I'm actually friends with  (or was friends with in the past). My main purpose in using Facebook is to keep up with friends - not co-workers, professional acquaintances, etc. I'm a member of several groups, post photos, post links (mostly to vent anger about some recent news event or something I'm proud of like my high school or college winning a championship), use some applications (mostly college basketball related), support/fan a couple of political groups/people, and comment on friend's statuses. The main purpose is staying in contact with friends on a friend-level - I don't mix much professional related content with the fun stuff.

LinkedIn: Getting professional about it
Unfortunately, I joined LinkedIn after graduating college. I say this is unfortunate because had I joined earlier, I would have been able to keep in touch with a lot more professional contacts. So if you’re still in college, know that it is never too early to start building your professional network (both online and in-person). I mainly use LinkedIn as an online representation of my resume and to connect with my professional contacts online. I am connected with some former college classmates via LinkedIn, but most work in my industry, so having them in my professional network makes sense. One of my major uses of LinkedIn is to research companies and see if I have connections at companies where I’m interested in applying for a position. I also direct everyone I come in contact with professionally to my LinkedIn profile: I have the direct link to my profile on my personal business cards, my e-mail signature, and on all my other social media profiles.

Twitter: Tweeting my thoughts
I joined Twitter after graduating college, mostly because I didn’t know enough about it before then. At first, I used it mainly to follow other people – news and marketing/communications industry resources, friends from college in the marketing/communications industry, and political people and organizations. Then, once I got a feeling for how people were using Twitter, I began posting my own tweets about interesting articles, current events, meals I cooked, the weather (cause in MN it’s always eventful), and sports. My twitter page is really the 140-character year old brother of this blog. I’ve also started to use Twitter to search for jobs by setting up an RSS feed of certain search criteria. I haven’t had much success with this yet, but through trial and error have been able to refine the search for more applicable results.

Library Thing: I like reading, how 'bout you?
The bookworm’s social media network, Library Thing is a convenient tool for cataloguing your personal library and comparing your reading interests with other users. I don’t remember where I heard about Library Thing, but much like my Amazon wish list and recommendations, this social network helps me find new books to read based on my past reading experiences. I joined a couple of groups on the website and check them every once in a while if I’m looking for a good read that I would probably not have heard of otherwise. A very specialized social network, but one I enjoy participating in for fun.

Brazen Careerist: Young professionals sharing ideas
I just recently joined Brazen Careerist even though I’ve had a Google Reader feed of their featured posts for over year. At first I joined because I wanted to comment on a blog post, but after commenting I was inspired to start my own profile on the Brazen Careerist network and start my own blog (ta-da!). I keep my profile here pretty similar to that on LinkedIn – professional – and I joined a couple of groups both to network and for fun (I joined a cooking group and a book group to get ideas for my own cooking and reading endeavors). I also link my blog to Brazen Careerist so that when I post something here it shows up in my profile on Brazen Careerist and maybe someone out there will read it. I also link to my Brazen Careerist profile through LinkedIn so my professional network there can see some of the other online work and things I’m participating in.

Blog No. 2: Sharing my opinions and advice
The final piece of the puzzle. As I’ve said before, this blog’s intention is to be a place for me to share my thoughts, however random they may be, and to continue writing as much as I can. I link to this blog through Brazen Careerist so my professional network can see what I’m thinking and doing, and it is a much lengthier version of my Twitter page.

So there you have it: my social media purpose and use. To sum up, I keep my personal and professional social networks fairly separate:

• Strictly personal: Facebook, Library Thing
• Strictly professional: LinkedIn
• A mixture of both, but mostly professional: Twitter, Brazen Careerist, this blog

I also keep in mind the purpose of each site when posting information; for example, I wouldn’t post political commentary on LinkedIn because I don’t work in politics (or have any desire to do so). I would, and do, post political commentary on Twitter and Facebook because these are less professional-related sites (for me personally). Even though different sites have different purposes, I think it is still important to be consistent across networks. This doesn’t mean posting identical information everywhere (I wouldn’t advise that), but – at least on professional sites – creating a brand for your self and sticking to it. With all the interconnectivity of different websites, it is quite easy to create a consistent online brand, so utilize the technology.

On the job hunt: Schedules

Creating a schedule for finding a job is something I have found extremely useful and motivating. This goes beyond setting goals and making lists - although I recommend doing those things, too. Creating a schedule helps keep you on task and prevents you from spending the entire day watching daytime television (which I condone only if I've first done everything I could possibly do in support of my job search for that day, you've got to reward yourself!).

My first step in creating a schedule is listing everything you want to accomplish during your unemployed-free time. Here is a sample of the things I included in my "must-do" list:

1. check job post sites (will post my favorites at a later date)
   
2. check companies' career web pages
   
3. read Google alerts on targeted companies
4. read industry news every day
5. networking - examples include: e-mail my contacts, connecting with people on LinkedIn, setting up informational interviews, attending industry events, etc.
   
6. Twitter - both posting and following (I use TweetDeck to organize and follow important topics/people).
7. Read for fun at least 1 hour each day
8. Cook 2-3 times each week (which also entails finding recipes and planning the meal)
9. blogging
10. miscellaneous personal branding (includes improving resume, updating LinkedIn profile and Twitter account, commenting and connecting on Brazen Careerist, blogging, etc.)

Then decide how often you need to do each task. Frequency depends on not only your schedule, but also realistically how often should you be doing each task? For example, I don't check the same job posting sites everyday because realistically I can afford to find a posting a day or two after it is posted. It is easier - for me at least - to search job posting sites a couple times a week to make sure I'm on top of recent postings than to search everyday and maybe waste time doing so because there are no new posts.  This is how I break down the frequency of doing all these activities:

• 3, 4, 6, and 7 are things I do everyday
• 1, 2, and 5 are things I do 1-2 days per week
  
• 8, 9, and 10 are flexible depending on my schedule
  

It's also important to remain flexible. If you have a meeting or need to run errands, scale back on activities for that day and beef-up your efforts the day before or day after.

Here is an example of a typical Monday for me: read Google alerts on targeted companies, catch up on e-mails, check LinkedIn and Agency Spy for new job postings, read industry news,  break for breakfast/lunch, work on some personal branding or job applications, read for fun, and cook a meal for dinner before watching House and Monday Night Football. And I'm on Twitter throughout the day.

I'm a visual person, so here is an example of a schedule:

 

I find it's easiest to create a separate calendar for job search activities (I use Google Calendars, which I love because I can assign a different color to each of my calendars - personal, job search, sports, TV, etc).

Hope this is helpful. Really it's about forcing yourself into a routine so you don't become your former college-slacker self. Once you set-up a schedule and stick to it for a couple of weeks, these activities will become a natural part of your day. You may even get so good at it that you find you have time to squeeze in more activities! Remember to be flexible, but stay on-task. If you get in the mind-set of holding yourself accountable for completing all your tasks it will certainly be rewarding in the end.

Try something new

Like most college-aged people, I never cooked while I was in school. Between barely having time to sleep at night and sharing a very small kitchen with the other 60 people on my dormitory floor, cooking was nearly impossible unless it was in a microwave. I should admit that I sort of just assumed I would be bad at cooking. All throughout my childhood and high school years, my mom always cooked. Even during the vacations and summers home from college, I never tried cooking cause I assumed the worst.

I'm proud to say this is no longer the case. One positive thing that came out of graduating into a recession was the time I had to learn new things, like cooking. I'm by no means a master chef, but I can follow a recipe and even put together some of my own creations. Thank you to Food Network for inspiring even the most kitchen illiterate to pick up a spatula!

Some great resources for aspiring cooks (and herb gardeners):

• The Food Network - both on TV and online - I like watching the shows cause I can see how things are actually supposed to be done, but the website has millions of recipes and some video, too. The website also has great suggestions for side dishes and desserts right along side main dish recipes.
  
• yumsugar - A really great blog with everything cooking-related you could ever imagine. I set up an RSS feed to my Google Reader so I get updates all the time on new posts, which include recipes for in-season foods, party planning menus, kitchenware, etc.
• Your Backyard Herb Garden - I just got this book at the beginning of last summer and have used it extensively since. I decided to plant my own herb garden with basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary, and this book takes you through everything from when to plant, how to use the herbs, and how and when to dry herbs and get them ready for hibernation over the winter. Truly a must if you are going to grow herbs.

So while I'm not ready to enter a Food Network Challenge or compete with Iron Chefs, I have become a good enough cook to serve food to friends and family (much to their delight I hope) and to share some of that knowledge here. All it really took was some inspiration (you can only watch so much good food being prepared before you have to have it on the plate in front of you) and a few simple guiding tools. In fact, I'd venture to suggest that anything can be done with a few simple guiding tools (maybe not brain surgery, think more of the everyday kinds of activities) and I hope I can share with you some more things I never thought I do in the near future.

For now, I leave you with an excellent recipe for the cold days ahead: Baked Potato Soup. This one's from yumsugar and I found it especially helpful to have step by step photographs along with the recipe. I made this soup yesterday and it was delicious! Also good as leftovers today. One thing to note: I added fresh basil from my garden both chopped up in the soup itself and as garnish on top. Yummy!

The Naming of a Blog

What to write... what to write...

The first bit of information should probably be a mission statement of sorts. I've decided to start a blog for a couple of reasons. The first: because I have abundant amounts of time on my hands. I am currently pursuing a career in marketing communications. Last summer I intended to start a blog, but, having just graduated college, was a bit tired of writing. I just completed a nine-month internship. So now as I look for my next career adventure, instead of taking any old job (read: flipping burgers, receptionist, etc.), I've decided to hold out for the perfect job to match my skills and interests. To pass my time and fulfill my second goal - writing more - I am starting a blog. I don't intend to have one central theme or turn this into a career. I simply want a forum to express thoughts and Write More. I used to enjoy writing and hopefully this will help me remember why I enjoyed it. This could be done in the privacy of my own computer hard drive, however, I figure if what I'm writing is of any interest to someone out there in cyberspace, then I might as well make it available to those few people.

This brings me to the naming of my blog: Amanda's Anthology.

As I wrote above, I don't intend to explore only one topic here. I have many interests and often think about a hundred different topics over the course of one day. So allow me to use Answers.com's definition of an anthology:

1. A collection of literary pieces, such as poems, short stories, or plays.
2. A miscellany, assortment, or catalog, as of complaints, comments, or ideas

I don't foresee much literary going on here - although I do enjoy reading, so expect some book reviews. However, the secondary definition suits this blog well: It's a miscellany. And since miscellany doesn't provide a nice alliteration, Amanda's Anthology is born.

Among my many interests are marketing communications, architectural history, cooking and baking, politics, sports, and everyday happenings (think coffee or the weather). And, since I'm in the middle of another presumably lengthy job search (thank you economy and meddling government), I will also provide some tips and tricks for job searching and finding your passion.

To sum up my mission: To provide interesting commentary on a variety of subjects over an indefinite amount of time to willing and open eyes. Pretty vague, I know. But by nature this blog - and blogger - is anything but single-minded.