February 2008 – Dream Jobs

I’m starting to get antsy. All of my business-major friends have job offers and I haven’t even applied anywhere. But, in my defense, communications jobs hire on an as-need basis. Applicants must be able to start immediately. Right now, any resume with a May 2008 graduation date will be placed in a circular file, aka the trash.

Even though I can’t apply anywhere this month, there are things I can do to be proactive. I’ve made a list of top places to work, ideal locations, and jobs I’d be interested in pursuing.

Companies:

1.) Conde Nast

2.) E! Entertainment

3.) MTV

4.) Google

5.) Yahoo

6.) Facebook

7.) Whatever presents itself.

Top Places to Work:

1.) New York

2.) California

3.) Washington, D.C.

Dream Jobs

1.) Red Carpet Reporter

2.) MTV VJ

3.) Editor-in-Chief of a magazine

4.) The next Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin

5.) Someone really rich.

These are my lists as of today, but my mind is a little ADD—it changes frequently and gets easily side-tracked.

January 2008 And My First Promising Job Opp!

I have happy news!  My friend Justin reached out to me via e-mail and practially offered me a job as a sales assistant at T+L.  The only problem is that I’m not sure I want to get into ad sales.  Regardless, here’s the e-mail he sent:

Hey there,
Just checking in to say hello and to plant an idea in your head.
One of our assistants should be ready for promotion in July/Aug.  She’d be promoted to a junior sales rep after about 13-15 months as an assistant.  She started in late June and she’s kicking ass now and we expect her to be ready in July/Aug.  I want you to replace her as an assistant and I’m thinking the timing may work for not only your graduation but also your world tour.  Keep this in mind, think positively and let me know your status throughout the next few months.
If you come to NYC, definitely let me know and we’ll set up some appointments for you.
Hope all is well, have a good weekend,
jb

Yay!  Who knew finding a job could be that easy?  I think the hard part, though, is finding your dream job.  My friend gave me a good analogy: “Choosing a job is like choosing a boyfriend. It has to be a place where you feel comfortable being yourself, and it has to be something that’s worth all of the time and effort you put into it.  And you absolutely don’t settle.”  Even if I don’t choose to work at T+L, it’s nice to know that I have a promising option.

Second semester of senior year has started and I’m living the life.  I’m a part-time student and I’m interning for a small company three days a week.  My days consist of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, celebrating my final semester with friends, and occasionally attending a class or two.  It’s still too early for me to apply to jobs and if I reach out to my contacts now, I’ll have nothing to say.  I’m taking this month off from job-hunting to soak up the present.

January 2008

When you’re in college, you have absolutely nothing to do during breaks.  So, I’ve had a lot of time to think about the next phase of my life.  One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was the book, Basic Black by the President of Hearst Magazines, Cathie Black.  I’m really excited to read it because she is a successful woman, offering career advice to all the little people out there.  Maybe she can give me some pointers on how to go about this whole job-hunt/successful career thing.  I’ll get back to you on that.

On Christmas Day, I decided it was time to reach out to my contacts in the working world.  I sent out seven e-mails all saying happy holidays, what I was up to and reiterating my upcoming graduation.  I sent messages to the Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue, an Account Manager at Google, a Senior Account Manager at Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast’s Corporate HR and Editorial HR, the SVP of Interactive at CBS and the online editor for Everyday With Rachel Ray.  Within a week, I received e-mails back from all of my contacts, encouraging me to stay in touch and reach out again closer to my graduation—a small victory!

When I got to college, no one I knew worked in communications.  Fortunately, Syracuse encourages students to make connections and gives them opportunities to do so.  The first major contacts I made were through an advertising conference in New York City called Advertising Women of New York (AWNY).  At the annual conference, business cards are given out along with job information and networking tips.  This is where I met Google Account Manager Rachel S, Senior Account Manager for Travel & Leisure magazine Justin B, and Christie H, an account manager for CBS Digital.

I’ve made other contacts through internships.  Tziona K is in charge of CBS’ campus representatives, and I know I could e-mail her with any questions at any time.

Julie H, the SVP of Interactive at CBS College Sports Network, was my Executive Director at Conde Nast this past summer.  I was quickly drawn to Julie by her motivational yet fun leadership style and her extensive knowledge of all things media.  She is the successful woman I someday hope to be, and I’ve made sure to keep in touch.

Diane D was my mentor at Conde Nast, and she also switched jobs.  She now works for Rachel Ray’s website.  During our summer together, Diane taught me about all aspects of the magazine business and introduced me to at least a dozen contacts in HR, editorial, online, ad sales and marketing.  We continue to chat via e-mail and I frequently turn to her for advice and guidance.  I was so fortunate to have her as a mentor and as a friend.  If I get a job at Conde Nast someday, it will be because of Julie and Diane.

Amy Astley is my most impressive contact.  She runs Teen Vogue and has always made time for me.  I mentioned earlier that I interviewed her for a magazine class paper, but now I’ll be more specific.  Sophomore year, I was given an assignment to write a 20-page paper on a magazine of my choice.  All of the magazines I loved were taken by classmates, so I decided to write about my favorite pre-teen companion, YM.  I quickly discovered that YM no longer existed, and its readership had been taken over by Teen Vogue, a magazine I had never heard of, much less read. Out of time and options, I decided the mysterious Eurpoean-size tween publication would have to suffice.

Part of the assignment was to interview one person who worked for the magazine.  Our professor instructed us to start at the top of the mast-head by sending a letter of correspondence.  I aimed high and sent a letter to both Amy Astley, the Editor-in-Chief, and Gina Sanders, the former VP/Publisher of Teen Vogue.  Before I got the chance to follow up, I received an e-mail from Amy.  She said she’d be happy to answer any questions I had—I was ecstatic.  This powerful woman who knew nothing about me was prepared to waste an hour of her time on a sophomore in college.  I caught a really lucky break.

Two weeks later I phoned Amy and spent 45 minutes discussing her personal life, career and publication.  After I wrote my paper, I sent her a copy with a thank-you note.  Since then, I have sent her one e-mail every semester to let her know I’m still around.  She always responds quickly, which is incredible given what a busy woman she is.

The highlight of my summer at Conde Nast was meeting Amy.  I walked into her posh corner office and sat with her for 45 minutes, face to face, discussing my future career goals, Teen Vogue, and how to be successful in the magazine world.  At the end of our meeting she gave me her business card (which I want to frame!) and said she could see my passion for the business.  She also told me to contact her in May about open positions at Teen Vogue.  Everyone says that part of your career path is luck.  I went from knowing nothing about Teen Vogue to becoming one of the luckiest sophomores in my class.

I have maintained contact with all of the professionals I’ve met via e-mail and, already, it has paid off.  Rachel, the Google Account Manager, was able to give me interview advice.  Justin B helped me secure an internship with Conde Nast by writing a letter of recommendation for me.

People who barely know me keep helping me get a foot in the door.  It’s truly amazing.  All of my contacts have offered me advice, replied to my e-mails, and have been genuine friends.  I met Rachel this past summer for drinks and asked her why she is so willing to help out students like me.  “It’s karma,” she explained.  “People mentored me when I was in college.  I was so grateful to have helpful contacts in the business.  Now, when I help other people, it’s like I’m repaying the favor.  Networking is how everyone in communications gets their first job.  Someday, you’ll help someone out too.”

Interview #1 – Google

November, 2007

Position: Associate Product Marketing Manager

Location: Mountain View, California (SWEET!!)

*First published on The Business Insider:

http://www.businessinsider.com/my-nightmare-interviews-with-google-2009-11

Google came to Syracuse’s campus to recruit new graduates when I was a senior.  I attended the information session and learned which jobs I could qualify for.  I created a fancy cover letter and resume, crossed my fingers and e-mailed them my documents.  One week later I had an email in my inbox from Google.

Google wanted to interview me!  Forbes’ #1 company to work for was interested in speaking with me about an Associate Product Marketing Manager position in Mountain View, California.  I called everyone I could think of, ecstatic and day-dreaming that my job hunt might end quickly and painlessly with me surfing during lunch breaks at the Googleplex.

Everyone says your GPA doesn’t matter when you’re finding a job—those people obviously never applied to Google.  My 3.6 suddenly seemed inferior.  Google also wanted to know if I had received any job offers.  They wanted to know who was recruiting me and how far along I was in my job search.  Talk about salt on an open wound to a college senior.  Sad and dejected, I ticked off the “No” [no one wants me] and “Yes” [I’m still unemployed] boxes.  I should have realized then that this was shaping up to be a grueling interview process, but I was too excited to pay much notice.

To prepare for my two back-to-back conference calls, I googled Google and learned their history, products, current news, founders, locations, business models, competitors, AdWords, investors and mottos.  My heart had never been in anything more and I was prepared for any curve ball they could throw.  I practiced interviewing with friends and felt confident when my cell rang at 4:00pm sharp.

A young man was on the other line sounding just as nervous as I felt.  The first five minutes of the allotted 30 were small talk.  We went over my resume, previous internships and my career goals.  My interviewer, Oliver, nervously cleared his throat between awkward silences during which he recorded my responses.  I was on top of my game.

About ten minutes in, Oliver turned the tables.  “I’m going to ask you a few questions that may sound strange,” he premised.  I paused.  Is there really any good response to a comment like that?  He seemed to read my mind because he elaborated: “These questions are meant to test your analytical thinking.”  Oh no.  He was about to ask me the famous, ridiculously impossible Google questions I had been reading about online.

If you’ve never interviewed with the Internet giant, you may have never heard the types of questions they ask their interviewees.  The searches I had done warned me that Google might inquire how much I’d pay someone to wash all of the windows in Seattle or what I’d do if I was shrunk to the size of a nickel and placed in a blender with churning blades.

“I want you to estimate,” Oliver began, “how much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail ads.”  Oh. My. GOSH.  Was he serious?  The answer depended on so many different factors, none of which I had any clue how to guesstimate.

“Um, you mean a hard number? Maybe…$70,000?”  Oliver’s hearty laugh told me my response was foolish.  “Wait, can you just totally ignore that response?  Scratch it out of your notes and pretend I never said that?”

“Don’t worry,” he mused, “I already did.  You don’t have to give me an exact number, just tell me how you would figure out the answer.”

“Ok,” I began and I regurgitated everything I had learned about AdWords.  “Google places four ads per e-mail opened in Gmail.  Advertisers get to pick their click-through rates, which can be as little as $0.05, and they can set a maximum daily charge, which can be $5.  The amount of money Google would make in a day would depend on the number of Gmail users, the number of e-mails those users receive and open per day, the number of advertisements they click on, and the rates the advertisers are charged.”

This answer wasn’t good enough.  Now I was asked for an exact amount of revenue.  “Say each G-mail user opens seven new e-mails a day.  They would see 28 ads.  If they click on ¼ of those ads, then only seven ads are clicked.  If all advertisers are charged $0.05 per clicked ad, then the amount of revenue would be whatever $0.05 x 7 ads x the number of G-mail users is.  Does that make any sense at all?”

“Kind of.”  Oliver sounded confused.  “You lost me at the ‘only clicking on ¼ of the ads’ comment.  Let’s move on.”

The interview ended shortly afterward.  Oliver politely indicated that HR would contact me again in a few weeks and he wished me good luck.  My confidence was slightly bruised but I felt that, overall, I handled the interview well enough.  I was left with 15 minutes to prepare for my next phone call, all of which I used to regain composure and review what I could have done better.

I thought Oliver was intimidating; the woman I spoke with next put him to shame.  I gathered from Anna’s cold greeting that she did not have much time for me.  We got right down to business.  “Name a piece of technology you’ve read about recently.”

“Ok, today I was reading about Nike and Apple working together to make a shoe with a chip in it that helps you run in time with your music.”

“Now tell me your own creative execution for an ad for that product.”

My mind swirled as I pulled some crazy concoction out of my ass.  “Well, Nike is known for having inspirational ads with little copy.  I guess I would have a person running in Nike shoes, listening to their I-Pod, looking exhausted.  The music would then pick up and each stride would coincide with the beat.  The runner would get a second wind, reach their goal, and the “Just Do It” line would appear on the screen above an I-pod with a Nike swoosh background.”

She laughed a little before continuing which I took as an encouraging sign.  “Now I’m going to ask you math problems.” Math?!  I hadn’t taken a math course since freshman year of college.  I was in trouble.

“Say an advertiser makes $0.10 every time someone clicks on their ad.  Only 20% of people who visit the site click on their ad.  How many people need to visit the site for the advertiser to make $20?”  I froze.  The problem sounded easy but I didn’t want to cause an awkward silence trying to solve it.

“Um…well, ok.  So, 20 out of 100 people click on the ad.  Every ten clicks make one dollar…and you need 20 of them…”  That’s as far as I got before I resorted to guessing answers, none of which were right.  I was panicking and I couldn’t do a thing about it.  My nerves were taking over.  Anna could sense this and began to give me hints.  None of them helped my frazzled brain.

After five painful minutes the annoyed interviewer gave me the answer.  “100 people make two dollars, and two times ten is twenty. The answer is 100 people times 10 which is 1,000 people.”  She made it sound so easy; I felt like a moron.  As if she enjoyed my misery, she immediately fired off another math problem.

“Estimate the number of students who are college seniors, attend four-year schools, and graduate with a job in the United States every year.”  This time I remained poised.

“There are about 300 million people in the nation” I began.  “Let’s say 10 million of those are college students at four year schools.  Only ¼ of those 10 million are seniors, so that would be roughly 2-3 million.  If half of those students graduate with jobs, you’re looking at about 1.5 million kids.”

“Would you say that number seems high, low, or just about right?”

“I would say it sounds low, but maybe that’s because I’m going through the job-search process and I’m wishing the number was higher.”

I didn’t even get a sympathetic laugh.  “That’s all.  Good luck with your job search.”  The phone clicked– I was stunned.  The abrupt sign-off was a clear indication that I wouldn’t be considered for round 2.  Interviewing can be demoralizing, and that’s just how I felt as I sat with my cell in my hand, vowing to switch to Yahoo for life.

Follow Up:  Turns out, my Google interviewer Oliver didn’t know the answers to his questions either! I met him one year later in New York City for a Mixx conference, here’s what happened:

http://www.businessinsider.com/business-news/nov-13-alyson-2009-11

Remember how I said I created a fancy cover letter and resume? I wasn’t kidding.  Here’s the application that got me the two phone interviews (and Oliver remembered me by it at the conference one year later):

December, 2007

I’ve just pulled a week of all-nighters for finals.  My boyfriend and I have been fighting non-stop because, after three years, we still don’t know where our relationship is going.  I deserve a stress-free winter vacation. But no one ever tells you that winter break your senior year of college isn’t relaxing.

Every college student homecoming follows a ritual.  Parents practically pant with excitement as their babies’ cars pull into the drive.  They squeeze you, comment on your fluctuating weight and finally let you sit down.  But when you’re a senior, this ritual has one very big, stressful distinction.  No sooner do you sit down when they pry: “Sweetie, what are you going to do when you graduate?”

Were parents not seniors in college once too?  Do they not remember the instant rise in blood pressure or awkward, uncomfortable feeling that stirs in a 21-year-old’s chest when they are asked that question?   My name is Alyson.  I’m a college senior at Syracuse University and I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life.  I don’t know what I want to do four months from now when I graduate.  Hell, I don’t even know what I’m going to do tomorrow.

Actually, my problem is not that I lack ideas and future goals–it’s that I have too many of them.  I’ve thought of every graduation scenario.  Two months ago I wanted to buy a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, try out for High School Musical 3 and forever steal Zach Efron from Vanessa Hudgens.  My next idea was to be a summer camp counselor or rock climbing instructor.  And, of course, reality is always gnawing at that back of my mind.  I could move to New York City, begin interviewing and embrace the next 40 years of my life.  My parents approve of the latter but I think I want to travel.  Right now it’s a toss up.

If you talk to working-world people about this dilemma, they all say the same thing: “you’ll figure it out; everything always works out the way it should.”  The stories you are told are all about people who have already had it work out.  My story is happening right now.  It’s crunch time for me.  I’ve got one semester left.  I’ve got to find a job and be happy, and I’ve got to enjoy my last four months of financial freedom before the man is officially sticking it to me.

There is nothing special about me; I’m a typical college senior. I’m from Arlington, Virginia and I’m a dual advertising/ psychology major.  I play soccer, basketball, piano, the Wii and I’m in a sorority.  The job frontier isn’t shaping up badly but I still have a long way to go. Here’s what I’ve got going for me:

1. I’ve had four internships, three of which were with big name companies.

2. I have my resume updated

3. I’ve been interviewing…a little.

4. I’m a networking pro.

5. I’m the most motivated person you’ll ever meet.

6.  The communications school I’m in has a good reputation.

7. No one else knows what the hell they want to do either.

I’ve had internships at small companies, big companies, magazine companies and television companies.  Sophomore year I interned with a small Syracuse business and was a campus representative for CBS College Sports Network.  I spent a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia where I not only kicked it with Isaac from The Real World, but I also landed an account management internship at a big ad agency, Leo Burnett.  This past summer I interned at Conde Nast Publications, the magazine giant that owns titles such as Glamour, Vogue and GQ.

I got each of those internships by networking, and that’s the best advice I can give.  Be assertive, be different, and network.  Conde Nast only accepted 3% of applicants into their internship program.  So how the heck did I land one of the coveted spots? Whelp, no clue really , but I have a few guesses:  I interviewed the Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue, Amy Astley, for a magazine paper I wrote sophomore year.  Since then, I’ve kept in contact via e-mail.  But she did not get me the internship interview.

Unless you know someone at Conde Nast, it’s hard to get a foot in the door.  Applying with 3,000 other applicants seems unfair, but it’s what I did.  I just made my application look interesting.  Using Adobe InDesign, I made my application look like a magazine spread.  I photoshopped a cover of Glamour and inserted my own headlines and title page. I created a CV that looked like a letter from the editor.  I also stuck a letter from Amy Astley in the back of my application.  What could it hurt?  Two months later I received an e-mail from the company wanting me to interview for a summer position.

As I get ready to graduate and find a job, I am documenting my process so you can learn from my mistakes and use what works.  As my friends and classmates begin landing jobs, I’ll post their first job stories here too.  Since networking has worked  out nicely for me in the past, that’s how I’m going to try and tackle the job front.  Stay tuned…

As I get ready to graduate and find a job, I am documenting my process so you can learn from my mistakes and use what works.  As my friends and classmates begin landing jobs, I’ll post their first job stories here too.  Since networking has worked  out nicely for me in the past, that’s how I’m going to try and tackle the job front.  Stay tuned…

College Confession – Damn, it Sucks To Be A Senior

How does a college senior go about landing his/her first job in this terrible economy? I have been gainfully employed by The Business Insider for the last year and a half, but I can vividly recall how stressful my job search process was; especially since I had no idea how to tackle it at first. There is endless uncertainty, a mountain of stress, and a lot of character-building rejection that no senior can anticipate until they’re full swing into the process.

After working my butt off in college and putting my high school AP credits to good use, I was rewarded by a walk-in-the-park final semester at Syracuse. I only needed one more class to fulfill my dual major, so I spent the rest of my time working an internship, taking a web-design course for fun, and documenting my job hunt process word for word in more than fifty pages.

I recorded every shameless last detail, from my nightmare Google interview to my eventual offer from Businss Insider, and all the networking in between. Why? Because when I was going through the process, the only advice I could get was from people who already had a job and told me “everything will work out in the end.” You never hear about their struggle to get to the end, which, I feel, is the most helpful part.

So, college seniors: I’m unleashing my story spanning the most stressful 6 months of my life via a series of posts on my blog. Laugh at it, learn from it, and relate to it.  You’re in for one hell of a ride.