Public Relations Matters » job search

Letter of Recommendation Request

Barbara Nixon — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:56:35 +0000

If you’re a student of mine who is requesting a letter of recommendation from me, please fill out the form below. (If the form does not automatically appear, please see form at my Google Docs.)

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Soon-To-Be PR Grads Get LinkedIn

Barbara Nixon — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:15:35 +0000

[Updated from a blog post from February 2010]

As PR students are nearing the end of their college careers and beginning their job searches, one of the most powerful online tools for them is the business networking site LinkedIn. Creating a profile in LinkedIn is a requirement in my Communication Seminar class and is recommended for ALL my PR students.

What’s LinkedIn? In the site’s own words,

“Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.”

So far, I’ve used LinkedIn to:

research companies we are discussing in class
ask questions of other public relations professionals
connect with colleagues from previous jobs
write recommendations for current and former colleagues
find guest speakers for classes
share my professional background with students who only know me as a professor

LinkedIn provides some helpful advice for college students. In summary, the advice is:

I’ve embedded the Get Started video below. You can find the rest of them via the links above.

Also, soon-to-be grads should take a look at the following:

Chris Brogan’s 19-page eBook “Using the Social Web to Find Work.” (Though it was written more than a year ago, much of the advice still holds true.) Visit Chris’ site and scroll down to his fifth paragraph for the PDF. (I chose not to link to it directly because I want you to visit his site first. ) Chris includes many, many tips on using LinkedIn and other sites.
Gini Dietrich’s blog post “Using Social Media to Find a Job.” Be sure to read the comments in addition to the post itself.

When you set up your profile in LinkedIn, consider also doing the following:

Create a custom URL for your profile to make it easier for people to find you (and because it will look nicer on your resume)
Include a good headshot photo of yourself, looking as professional as possible. No pictures where you can see that you cropped out (most of) the person next to you.
Add Applications to LinkedIn, such as a feed from your blog or SlideShare. Only add Twitter if 100% of your tweets are ones that you’d want a potential employer to read.

How do YOU use LinkedIn? How have you benefitted from it? Please share your thoughts as a comment below.

The Top 5 Posts in 2010

Barbara Nixon — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:16:26 +0000

Image Credit: "Logo Top 5 de las 5" by Alberto Carlos Diéguez

The traffic at my blog Public Relations Matters ebbs and flows, much like with most blogs. When my classes are in session, I know for sure that certain posts will gain hundreds of hits, because I post all my assignments on my blog. For the purpose of today’s Top 5 post, I am not counting class assignment posts. Below you will find my five posts that had the most traffic in 2010.

The ONE job interview question: I asked Phil Gomes from Edelman what the ONE job interview question was that he tended to ask in almost every interview for a public relations position. He gave me his choice, in video form, and proceeded to interview several colleagues at Edelman for their choices as well. I show this short video in my classes each semester when I discuss job interviewing.
Five Ways to Keep Current in Public Relations News & Trends: Occasionally, my students ask me how I know so much about what is going on in the world of public relations. It’s simple: I actively try to stay up on news and trends. This blog post explains how I do it, and how PR students should do it, too.
How NOT to Hashtag in Twitter: In early December, the person running the CNN’s Breaking News Twitter account chose to use some tasteless hashtags in a tweet about the murder of a child. I contacted a CNN producer about it. Then I blogged.
AP Style Bootcamp :: Flagging Your 2010 AP Stylebook: Whether you are a journalist, PR pro or student, sometimes it’s hard to find what you are looking for in the AP Stylebook. In this post, I shared my strategy for using Post-It Notes to flag the book for easy use.
10 Tips for Polishing Up Your Blogs, Fall 2010 Edition: Students in all my PR classes blog as part of the course requirements. I’ve read hundreds of student blogs over the past few years. Students typically make the same mistakes from semester to semester. I thought writing a post with the 10 most common mistakes would help my Fall 2010 students. Sigh. If only all of my students had taken the tips I shared to heart.

Are there other posts that you read at my blog in 2010 that resonated with you, but aren’t listed in the “most popular”?

Hire These PR Students/Grads :: Social Media Resumes from #PRCA3030

Barbara Nixon — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:40:24 +0000

In our Social Media for Public Relations class at Georgia Southern University, one option for the students’ final project was to create a Social Media Resume for themselves. Below you will find links to all of them:

Common Errors in Resumes and Cover Letters

Barbara Nixon — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:47:49 +0000

In several of my classes this semester, public relations students are writing resumes and cover letters as one of their assignments. I tend to see the same errors over and over again.

Here are some of the common errors I find:

Appearance / Overall

Having any typos, misspelled words or grammatical errors (some employers will discard your resume if any mistakes are apparent)
Not using same header for all cover letter, resume & reference page
Failing to include your custom LinkedIn URL
Using different fonts for no apparent reason

Cover Letters

Focusing on yourself, not the needs of the potential employer
Too many self-focused statements; starting too many sentences with “I”
Forgetting to sign letter (scan your signature to place into electronic cover letters)
Not stating what you can do for the employer in clear terms.
Not including an enclosure line (such as: Enclosures: Resume & Reference Page)

Resumes

Longer than one page (it’s possible to “earn” more pages once you’re established in your career)
Not including strong action-verbs (too many “to be” verbs)
Providing too few keywords related to the PR field
Including “responsibilites/duties included”
Writing in first person (“I”)
Writing in complete sentences, rather than powerful, short phrases
Burying your education at the end of the resume
Not mentioning your education at your current university
Not describing your major and anticipated graduation date
Including high school, even though there are no relevant honors/awards/achievements
A low (below 3.0) GPA is listed
Extremely short (you can list relevant coursework if you have little related work experience)
Leaving to unclear to the potential employer exactly what you accomplished in your work history
Including too much information about the employer (all you need it company name, city & state — no need for full address, supervisor name, etc.)
Dates listed in chronological, not reverse chronological, order (you should list most recent information first in each section)
References listed directly on resume itself (they should be on a separate page)

Reference Page

Not using same header as resume & cover letter
Not including all necessary information (name, company name, title, full mailing address, phone number & e-mail address)
Fewer than three references listed

Social Media Resume Assignment :: PRCA 3030

Barbara Nixon — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:05:58 +0000

Due: April 28 by 11:59pm in GeorgiaVIEW

Worth: 200 points

Social Media Resume Assignment

One of the ways college grads are helping to market themselves is through creating a social media resume. Dan Schwabel shares some excellent advice on social media resumes in a blog post at Mashable.

Using a free online site like Wix, Weebly, VisualCV, Google Sites or a new WordPress blog, create a social media resume for yourself.

At a minimum, include/embed the following:

At least two SlideShare or Prezi presentations you have created (one can be the Trade Book Review you did for this class)
One podcast (it can be the one you did for this class)
Three work samples (such as PDFs of news releases, brochures, newsletters, ads, etc.) — NOTE: If you have no client work yet, then substitute in at least two items from the Optional list below
A hyperlink to your blog
Hyperlinks to at least three of your favorite blog posts that you have written (to highlight your writing skills in digital media)
A PDF of your traditional resume
A hyperlink to your LinkedIn profile

Optional items to enhance your social media resume include:

A selection of photos you have taken, to show your photography skills
Links to client work you have produced
Links to the social bookmarks you have created
Links to Facebook fan pages or groups that you have created and maintain
A Wordle of key words that describe you
The “Viral” Video you created for this class (if you chose to do one), or another video you have created
A social media monitoring report that you have created (to show your social media research skills)
A short video in which you introduce yourself to potential employers
A link to your Twitter stream (but only if it’s 100% appropriate for a potential employer to view)

NOTE: If you are in my PR Practicum class this semester, this assignment can also serve as your Portfolio.

Here’s a short video that explains this assignment further. NOTE: There may be minor changes/clarifications to this assignment here in this blog post that were not addressed fully in the video.

View on screencast.com »

via screencast.com

Use Technology to Land Your Next Job

Barbara Nixon — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:42:56 +0000

Today I was invited by the Tampa Tribune and TBO.com to share my expertise regarding social media and the job search. Here’s a transcript of the live chat we held at noon, using CoverItLive.

Many thanks to Chris Taylor, AKA @TBOChris, for inviting me to the studio, to Daniela for moderating the chat, and to my longtime Twitter friend & Tampa Tribune writer Jeff Houck (@JeffHouck) for inviting me to lunch at The Taco Bus after the chat session.

Use technology to land your next job