Old Fashioned Thank You Notes in a Digital Age

It is obvious that one should write a thank you note following an job interview. In the digital, fast-paced age we live in, what is not so obvious is how to deliver said thank you note.

Case and point: I went on a job interview last week and dutifully wrote and mailed thank you notes to each of my interviewers within a few hours of the interview's completion. Note that I said, "mailed," not e-mailed, but actually drove to the post office and dropped handwritten notes into the big blue mail box outside. I was confident that my interviewers would get the thank you notes before making their final decisions as they had said I would hear back about the position early next week. However, decisions were made sooner than expected and I received notification that they offered someone else the job within an hour of going to the post office.

But what about my thank you notes?!?! I realize the notes themselves probably are not the deciding factor in whether I get a job or not, but the notes were now a bit irrelevant (I mentioned in the thank you notes that I looked forward to their decision and reiterated my interest and suitability for the position). So I quickly e-mailed my interviewers to thank them, adding that I had put handwritten notes in the mail just hours before and amending my "I look forward to your decision" to "I will stay in touch and hope to be considered for future positions." Since my e-mail was sent late on Friday, I haven't heard back yet, but I hope that my "amendment" is appreciated and not viewed as an "oops."

However, I can't help but wonder, 'what if I had just e-mailed thank yous to my interviewers?' It certainly would have avoided the need to amend my handwritten statements, but e-mail seems so impersonal to me. There's something about getting a handwritten note that seems so much more real and thoughtful.

Perhaps the solution is to still write handwritten thank yous, but perhaps within an hour of the interview send a quick e-mail thank you, too. Is this overkill? No, not if you make each version of your thank you a bit unique - for example, the e-mail could be a few short lines reiterating your interest and thanking the interviewer for their time; the handwritten note can include more specific information ("I especially appreciate you taking time to explain X and share more about Z").

Maybe the future is sending e-cards to interviewers and recruiters? Given that a lot of that kind of e-mail ends up in junk boxes or marked as spam, I don't know if that will ever take off. I also have yet to come across a real classy e-card. If you have, please share.

My personal criteria for sending thank you notes is more or less this: send electronically while still in the interviewing process, but always send a final handwritten thank you once the process is over. I've sent e-mail thank you notes while I was still interviewing (i.e. I made it through a first round and was moving on to the second), and later sent handwritten notes once the process was complete and decisions were being made. I've even sent a thank you to an interviewer via LinkedIn because I didn't have his e-mail address, only the generic company address I sent my resume to. But once I had been in the office for an interview, I sent a handwritten note. Moving forward, I will definitely include a third thank you via e-mail a short time after the interview - something concise, just to show the interview I appreciated their time and to avoid having to make amendments to handwritten notes.

How do you thank your interviewers? Are e-mail thank you notes the way of the future? Do any recruiters or interviewers out there care one way or another if you get handwritten or e-mailed thank you notes? Have you ever thanked an interviewer on LinkedIn or Twitter?

On being open to possibilities

Remember when you were a kid and you dreamed of being an astronaut? Then you grew up and became an accountant. Okay, maybe this post is not about such extreme changes in your job search. But it is about being open to different possibilities. For example, I went to college and got a degree in public relations. But my job search focuses on so much more than assistant account executive jobs at public relations agencies. It includes, but is not limited to: assistant project manager, marketing research assistant, marketing analyst, business analyst, project coordinator, B2B marketing coordinator, and a host of other job titles at public relations agencies, advertising agencies, branding companies, interactive companies, financial corporations, technology corporations, consumer products corporations, and the list goes on and on.

I think too often college students are conditioned into following one career path, so much so that they miss out on great opportunities or worse they end up with a career they hate. Throughout college I was – without it ever being explicitly stated by anyone – led to believe that after graduation I would go to work at a public relations agency as an assistant account executive. Sure there was the mention here and there about working as a communications coordinator at a non-profit or for a U.S. congressman, but the main focus always came back to writing press releases and developing communication campaigns.

Don’t misread my frustrations; if given the opportunity, I wouldn’t go back and change my major or my university. But I would have listened more to the voice in my head that said, ‘This is not exactly right for me.’ At the beginning of my job search following graduation, my focus was extremely narrow. Now, a year and a half later, I can confidently say that the skills I learned in my PR program are applicable to more than the “typical” entry-level positions taken by students of PR.

The recession and this dismal job market have probably also played a part in my willingness to seek employment in less traditional places – as I’m sure it has done for many people who lost their jobs. Heck, maybe the recession is a blessing in disguise for some people who have been stuck in careers they despised. Whatever the circumstances – you’re still in school, you recently graduated, or you’re looking for what’s next – don’t let yourself be pigeonholed by what you’ve done (your major, your internships, your 15-year career as a financial planner) and be open to opportunities where your skills are transferable and maybe even highly desired.

And since I don’t want to leave you wondering, ‘what does she mean? How is my science major transferable to anything other than being a scientist?’ Here are a few examples:

• Psychology major – understanding human nature is a huge part of being a financial planner or a stockbroker, if you like numbers, too, why not try something in this industry, or get involved in marketing research
• Performing arts major – coming across movie roles is tough, but I bet schools in your area are always looking for great drama teachers or directors for after school musical groups, or if you’ve got one of those great voices, why not get into voiceover work for radio or TV commercials, or maybe you’re a great storyteller, that’s good for copywriting
• Business major – I know most people that study accounting go on to work for one of the big accounting firms, but why not look into consulting, financial planning for a non-profit, or if you’re not a suit kind of person, accounting for a marketing agency
• Engineers – so you’re great with all the technical stuff, but maybe you like writing or events planning, too… why not get into a technical industry through a large company’s communications department or write for a technical magazine
• History major – so you spent most of college writing excessively long papers and decided you don’t want to write history books for a very long time, there’s teaching, working in a museum, your local historical society, not to mention how much government agencies love a history major
• PR/Marketing/Communications people – cross-over! It’s amazing how much we learn to love one aspect of marketing communications when we’re devoted to studying or working in it. Been an account exec at an agency? Why not get into account management at a research firm. Wrote a lot of press release and pitched a lot of media? Why not look into becoming a media buyer?

The possibilities are – supposedly – endless, so explore beyond what you think or what you’ve been told to explore.

One Step Closer to Finding Your Passion

When I started this blog, one of my original ideas for a post was “finding my passion” because I had gone through (and continue to go through) the process and had a lot of great information on the topic. Recently, I’ve been reading several posts about passion that have inspired (read: reminded) me to share my knowledge. See posts by GuruGilbert, Blake Sunshine, and Rohit Bhargava.

Now, on to the good stuff: how do I find my passion?

Flashback to May 2008. I was a fresh graduate, moving back to my home state, looking for a job, but unsure of what kinds of jobs to be looking for. It seemed obvious: I majored in public communication and was president of my school’s PRSSA, I should apply for positions at public relations agencies. Wrong. I tried that strategy for several months, and during that time came to realize that writing press releases and doing media relations was the last thing I wanted to do. Career crisis this early in my career? Yikes. But after a brief period of panic and feeling completely hopeless, I followed some advice from one of my mentors: figure out what you’re passionate about and pursue it.

So I Googled “finding my passion” and started to read everything I could find about the topic. And here is my process:

Part 1: Standard Assessments
1a. Take personality and career interests tests. There are tons of free online assessments that will help you discover things about yourself. The following are some of the tests I took:

Testing Room: This site offers a Career Interests Profiler, Career Values Scale, and Personality Index. Free mini-assessment for each.

LiveCareer: Evaluates your occupational interests, work style, workplace personality, values, knowledge and skills. I found the workplace personality section very useful because it gives you top 5 traits and descriptions (i.e. my first trait was Conventional/Organizer: enjoy supervising others in jobs where rules and tasks are well defined, show careful attention to detail, are organized, follow instructions well, etc.).

Keirsy Temperament Sorter II: This site has lots of different assessments. Great resources for understanding your personality type and overviews of their 4 temperaments: Guardians, Idealists, Artisans, and Rationals.

CareerPerfect: A very simple assessment that helps you understand your work preference. Four characteristics: Focuser (self-starter), Relater (enthusiastic), Integrator (finisher), and Operator (detailer). Each characteristic has brief descriptions of your work style, managing style, values, etc.

1b. From the test results, highlight traits you feel most resonate with your own self-concept and organize similar results into 10 or so personality traits. For example, the results of my assessments often came back with the following overarching themes: organizer, attentive, investigative, enthusiastic, and traditional. Under each of those personality themes, I listed other traits and work style preferences to get a better sense of the whole picture.

Part 2: Personal Evaluation
Now that you’ve evaluated yourself using “standardized” tests, do a little self-evaluation. When answering these questions, write down everything that comes to mind even if you think it’s not pertinent to your career life. The goal is to get as much information about your self on paper so you can step back and see connections.

2a. Take stock of your interests:

• What are ten things I really like to do?
• What activities or experiences feel most meaningful to me? 
• What types of things energize you?
• What activities, subjects, or causes have you been deeply involved with?
• At what times in my life have I felt most passionate or alive?

2b. Take stock of your strengths:

• What are my five greatest strengths at work?
• What are the skills that come naturally to you without much thought or effort?
• What are some areas in which your family and friends consider you an expert?
• What are the types of things that people ask you for help with?

2c. Take stock of you values:

• What would your ideal company value?
• What’s you ideal working environment?
• What values are you not willing to compromise?
• Who are two people I truly admire in business and why?

Part 3: Write a “Me statement”
Now that you’ve evaluated yourself on several levels, start matching your interests with your personality traits. Are there common themes? Do certain personality traits match up with particular interests? You’ll be surprised at the connections. It's also helpful to go over your “results” with a mentor or close friend to get a fresh perspective.

One way to express your career purpose and values is a Me Statement. Here you want to describe your past experience, summarize that experience with 3-5 strengths you possess, and include a statement about your current situation. It’s kind of like a miniature cover letter. I use a version of a Me Statement on my LinkedIn page and other personal profiles:

I am trained in writing, but a natural planner, and always searching for more information. I seek opportunities where I can utilize and expand my skills in strategic planning, ideally working in a marketing AND communications environment. I am an analytical thinker and believe research is key to delivering success. I also have a keen eye for detail that has helped me succeed in a variety of roles and environments.

As a public communications graduate of American University, I participated and led the school's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, serving as a Regional Activity committee member and president. For the past five years I have been an intern with a variety of organizations, from non-profits to corporations and agencies, performing a wide-range of tasks in brand development, event planning, promotions, and research. Following my May 2008 graduation, I moved back to my home state - Minnesota - and I am eager to continue growing in my marketing communications career in the Twin Cities.

Final Thoughts:
The step-by-step process I’ve listed above is by no means a sure fire way to finding your passion or your career. It includes useful steps and evaluations in helping you discover what you're passionate about, but every person is going to find their passion in their own way. I hope the tools and questions above are not the end to your search, but the beginning – the foundation stone to building a successful and passionate career. The point of all the evaluations and the exercise of writing a me statement is to help you define your self and discover potential careers.

Also, don’t feel like every test result or answer to your personal evaluation is pertinent to your career. I love college basketball – it’s something that gets me excited and energized – but a career in sports marketing communications is not for me because it doesn’t fit my work style and values. I found that once I got all this information down and started to draw connections between the different areas, I was able to better define my career aspirations, which is super helpful in explaining them to other people and in job applications. Remember: research, evaluate, and ask questions before deciding on your career.

I’m going to finish this post by saying that I apologize for lack of citations; I’ve gathered a lot of this info over the past couple of years and often forget or lose where it came from in the process. Googling “finding my passion” turns up a lot of good info, so I might start there if you are looking for resources beyond those that I’ve provided. Good luck passion seekers!

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!

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.