Flipping Burgers and Beyond: Find Your Own Passion in High School, College and Life

Are You Prepared on a Job Interview to Answer the Question How Many Followers You Have on Twitter?

2009-07-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a job and want to improve your chances of doing well in an interview, you need to know about the most important aspects of internet marketing today, including social media such as Twitter, blogging, article marketing and other strategies.

Check out www.TeachMeInternetBusiness.com now to learn how you can get the jump on your job competition.

-- Brought to you by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, a National Internet Business Examiner at www.InternetBizBlogger.com

Following Your Passion: Taking My Own Advice

2008-11-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, the Flipping Burgers philosophy is to follow your passion – to invest your time in doing what you love to do. I have written many blog posts about this philosophy.

Now it’s time to take my own advice. My passion has always been books – reading books, writing books, buying books, studying how to market books.

And as I get more and more involved in internet marketing, I find myself stretched in too many directions with trying to keep up with this blog and my other interests.

True, I also love giving advice to high school students and young people about college applications, internships, jobs and careers. I just don’t love this as much as I love giving advice about book writing and book marketing.

Regrettably I have decided to take the step of no longer adding new posts to this blog, although I will, of course, leave this blog up. After all, many of the blog posts I wrote remain useful. For example, advice on interviewing techniques and proper interview attire is the same whether posted now, a year from now, or several years from now.

Use this blog as a resource archive for when you need to review advice on such topics or to recommend this advice to others.

You can also keep in touch with my activities by checking out my Miller Mosaic LLC company websites www.millermosaic.com and www.queensofbookmarketing.com. And email me with questions or comments at pzmiller@millermosaic.com.

Wishing you much success as you follow your own passion through life.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, college applications, internships, jobs, careers, book writing, book marketing

Networking Events: The Early Bird Has a Good Chance of Catching the Worm

2008-10-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

The October 30th Wall Street Journal article “As Layoffs Rise, Jobless Throng Career Fairs” by Dana Mattioli had a concluding paragraph that caught my eye:

Nicholas Schulz, a 23-year-old from Woodbridge, N.J., looking at jobs in the marketing field, has developed his own trick for making the most of his time. He arrives early to reach recruiters before they get burnt out. “If you get there later on, you can see it in their faces that you’re the thousandth person they’ve spoken to,” he says.

This advice is particularly important for all “networking” activities. If you get to an event early and you recognize a speaker or panelist, that’s a very good time to go up to the person and politely introduce yourself. No, you shouldn’t pitch yourself then. You should focus on spending a few quality moments just talking to the person. Before you turn away, you could ask for the person’s card.

Then after the speech or panel when everyone else is storming the barricades trying to get to the speaker or panelists, you can smile to yourself and go home. You can be secure in the knowledge that you can send a follow-up email expressing gratitude for the public presentation and adding a comment about the pleasure of speaking to the person before the formal presentation began.

You can add in that email an appropriate request that follows from the brief chat you had before the presentation. This might be something such as: I enjoyed talking with you about companies offering internships for marketing personnel. Would you have any recommendations of companies that might be interested now in marketing interns?

Obviously, if the person thinks his/her company would be interested, he/she will say so. Yet you’ve given the person an out – permission to say he/she doesn’t know of any companies at this time. Because you haven’t backed the person into a corner by expressing asking about his/her company, the lines of communication are still open for a future email from you.

While I can’t promise you that the early bird always catches the worm, I can promise that you often have a better chance of catching the worm if you arrive early – and use that time to your advantage.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, Wall Street Journal, WSJ

Elevator Speech Revisited: Be Prepared for Opportunity

2008-10-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I was at the event Penn in Pictures – a sometimes annual event sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Club of LA to strengthen ties with the LA entertainment community.

The event, as usual, had a panel of Penn alums in the entertainment industry talk about their paths to their current positions. Then there was a question and answer session.

This question and answer session could be someone’s opportunity. Not only is the panel made up of Penn alums, but almost everyone in the audience is also a Penn alum. And many people are partial to hiring or helping alums of their own college.

Up shoots the hand of one recent college grad, and she asks how someone might get help in finding a job in the entertainment industry. Naturally enough, a panel member says: What are you looking for?

And did this recent grad have a succinct, specific reply? She did not. She blew her chance of positive exposure by mumbling some insignificant response.

Do not let this happen to you! If you go to such an event AND you raise your hand to ask a question about help getting a job, be prepared with a one-sentence or two-sentence response.

State your goal (I’m hoping to become a television drama writer) and what you’re doing now (I’m currently working at an internet company and taking television drama writing classes). And, if you’re lucky, someone will offer to help you.

Be prepared for opportunity to strike!

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, jobs, careers, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Club LA

How to Avoid Your Own Career “Credit” Crisis – Part II

2008-10-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Here is the second of a two-part series by E. Chandlee Bryan, a certified professional resume writer and career counselor at www.careersincontext.com. She specializes in providing services and career advisement to emerging professionals, and she has worked in career services offices at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and served as director of career services at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. She has also worked "on the other side of the desk" as a recruiter.

3. Ignore the conventional wisdom that the “best school you can go into” is the right school for you

Select the program that best fits your interests, career, and financial goals. Even at Ivy League institutions only an average of 30% of the graduating class begins a career with an employer met on campus. There are multiple reasons for this:

• Even in strong economic times, there are a finite number of available opportunities.

• The application process can be extremely competitive.

• Jobs aren’t always aligned with student interests—they are based on employer need.

4. Evaluate your options

There are many paths to achieve your personal and professional goals—playing the fugitive isn’t one of them. Here are two unconventional paths:

Start at a community college and blow away expectations. Over the years I’ve met several successful Ivy League students who transferred in from community colleges. Many states offer in-state students great programs that can help you with financial planning and assistance towards your education.

Take a break from your loans and get a credit towards your educational expenses. Two popular community service programs -- City Year and AmeriCorps -- offer eligible program participants the opportunity to apply for loan forbearance (i.e. deferment of loan payments during program participation) and service credits of up to $4,725 for one year of service, which can be applied towards past or future educational expenses.

5. Engage in on-going discussion on your career and finances and enlist a few advocates

Regardless of where you choose to go to school or what you choose to do, there are professional advisors who can help you at minimal cost. If you are currently in school or are an alumnus of an institution, you can frequently receive free career and financial planning assistance from school administrators.

If you are not, search online for potential resources and strive to connect with at least three individuals who are willing to invest time in getting to know you and whom you can turn to when you need it.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, E. Chandlee Bryan, www.careersincontext.com, colleges, financial aid, jobs, careers

How to Avoid Your Own Career “Credit” Crisis – Part I

2008-10-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of a two-part series by E. Chandlee Bryan, a certified professional resume writer and career counselor at www.careersincontext.com. She specializes in providing services and career advisement to emerging professionals, and she has worked in career services offices at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and served as director of career services at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. She has also worked "on the other side of the desk" as a recruiter.

Recently, the headlines on CNN.com showcased “student loan fugitives” — or individuals who’ve fled overseas to escape student loan repayments. The subtitle reads like a worst case scenario: “When faced with monthly payments and relentless creditors, some see leaving the country as their only way out.”

As a career coach, I don’t recommend the asylum or escape approach to student loans. If you’ve chosen to move your career overseas, it should be because you want to go.

Prior to starting my own private practice, I spent over a decade connecting students with career opportunities. I worked in career services at three Ivy League schools (Dartmouth, Penn, and Columbia) and two liberal arts colleges (Colby-Sawyer and the University of Richmond).

In the process, I’ve gotten to talk to employers from all industry sectors — from investment banks and engineering firms to new media companies and non-profits. I’ve surveyed students and employers on starting salaries — and voraciously read up on national trends. Here are five recommendations with respect to financial aid:

1. Transparency, transparency, transparency

Don’t hide your debt statements under the mattress. Talk to a financial aid counselor — and get help of an external financial planner. What you pay or don’t pay down will affect your discretionary income as well as your ability to get credit. Know what you will owe.

2. Consider an outcomes-focused approach to education and your career

There are some career paths that have larger financial compensation then others. This should never be the determining factor in what you choose to do, but know that your salary may affect your lifestyle. Gauge starting salaries in fields of interest before you enroll. Sources of information include:

• Salary reports from the National Association of Colleges and Employers

• Statistics on on-campus recruiting and accepted offers (frequently available through career services offices on campus)

• Salary calculators from Salary.com and general job search boards such as Monster.com

Once you have an idea of what you can expect to earn, you can compare financial aid packages, earnings estimates, and school tuition fees. As you start out, you can establish a budget to maintain long-term debt avoidance —and make choices that help you accomplish your goals.

To be continued.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, E. Chandlee Bryan, www.careersincontext.com, colleges, financial aid, jobs, careers

New Experiences: Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

2008-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve written before about having an open mind (and recommended the book MINDSET by Carol Dweck). As it’s such an important topic, I wanted to revisit it again.

Most of us probably have a standard response to things we don’t want to do – NO (if we can get away without doing those things). Yet if you’re in high school, college or your first job – you might want to consider saying yes to things you don’t want to do because of what you may learn or who you may get to meet.

A long time ago my husband and I were asked to take with us to Israel two very bulky sweaters Israelis visiting the U.S. hadn’t been able to take back with them. At the time my inclination was to say no, but I was prevailed upon to say yes as we were taking half-empty suitcases so we could bring gifts home.

The irony is that neither my husband nor I had relatives or friends in Israel at that time. We delivered the sweaters to the head of Israel radio and his wife, and suddenly we had the opportunity to meet real Israelis! A totally unexpected outcome of taking two bulky sweaters in our suitcases.

If a teacher, mentor or boss asks you to help out with a project that at first sounds boring, do not automatically say no. First, get more information about the project. Second, take a few minutes to think about how you might learn something new or meet some interesting people if you do this project. And then, with an open mind, if at all possible say yes.

Being open to new experiences is a wonderful character trait that can lead you to all kinds of interesting things. Of course, we’re talking about LEGAL projects. While you might learn from an illegal activity, this is not something you want to say yes to.

Use good judgment about saying yes to new things – and do say yes when it is appropriate to do so.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, high school, college

Basic Work Etiquette:What Do Millennials Know?

2008-10-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

The October 21st Wall Street Journal had an excerpt from Ron Alsop’s book “The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace.” (Alsop defines the millennial generation as born between 1980 and 2001.)

I’m not a huge fan of grouping an entire generation into one catch-all description, and the excerpt in the Journal didn’t do much to change my mind on this score. Yet this one part of the excerpt did catch my attention:

It may seem obvious that employees should show up on time, limit lunchtime to an hour and turn off cellphones during meetings. But those basics aren’t necessarily apparent to many millennials.

Why do I find this hard to believe? Because most millennials did have to show up on time for school or college classes or a babysitting job or a shift at Starbucks. And in high school there was a specified length of time for lunch and at Starbucks there was a specified break time. And believe it or not, high schools and places where teens get part-time employment do have rules about cellphones.

This is why I am always leery of anecdotal evidence. You can find anecdotes to prove whatever point you’re trying to make.

But in case I’m wrong, and you are a millennial who truly doesn’t know to show up for work on time, take only an hour for lunchtime and turn off your cellphones at work (and especially during meetings), please learn these work etiquette rules right now. And then go out and prove to the world that millennials do know these things.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Ron Alsop, internships, jobs, careers, high school, Starbucks

Internships: What to Do With Conflicting Opportunities

2008-10-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

A friend just told me about her college-age son and his dilemma with internships this past summer.

It seems that he was promised an internship for which he stayed in D.C. for. But the weeks dragged on with no word, and he got a call for a really good internship in New York. He wanted to accept this second internship, but he was worried that he had promised the first internship.

His parents explained to him that it was perfectly acceptable to take the bird in the hand rather than waiting for the bird in the bush.

He went to New York and had a great unpaid internship. Only, near the end of that internship, he got a call to work (paid this time) for the Obama campaign, although he would have to leave his New York internship early.

Again he was conflicted. Until his parents pointed out that this was a paid internship (as opposed to the NY unpaid internship) and was also a unique opportunity to work for a Presidential campaign. He took this unique opportunity.

Why have I recounted this one college student’s internship experience? Because I think there’s an important lesson here.

Yes, you want to be true to your word. But when someone keeps you hanging for weeks without making a decision, you have the perfect right to accept an internship that is ready right now. And when a paid internship for the whole fall semester presents itself, you have the right to leave your unpaid summer internship a week or two early. After all, it isn’t as if you’re leaving early to spend two weeks lying in the sun at a beach. You’re leaving two weeks early for a paid fall semester internship.

The moral of this story? While I think that your integrity is very important, you do have to do what is right for you. If someone keeps you dangling for weeks, you have the right to take an internship that is being offered right now. And if someone offers to pay you for the entire fall semester, you have the right to leave an unpaid internship a couple of weeks early.

Bottom line? Your integrity has to be combined with what makes good sense for you as you find your own path through high school, college and life.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, college

Volunteering: Using Your Passion to Find Unique Opportunities

2008-10-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Volunteering is one of those things that college admission officers are supposedly keen on seeing on applications. Yet I suspect these admission officers are rather good at spotting the less-than-wholehearted volunteering that many high school students do.

What do I mean by this? I mean the routine volunteering that obviously was done as part of a group (no initiative on the student’s part) or volunteering that is the same-old as everyone else, such as collecting food items for a food pantry. Yes, a food drive is a good thing to do, but it probably doesn’t count as much of a volunteer activity in the eyes of college admission officers.

What should you do to show wholehearted volunteering? Take your passion and see if you can use this interest as a basis for volunteering.

Here are some ideas:

You love playing the piano, but you take piano lessons like thousands of other high school students. To distinguish yourself from the pack, you volunteer every Saturday morning to perform show tunes at the retirement home near where you live. The retirement home residents are thrilled by the entertainment, and you’re thrilled to do a volunteer activity of something you love

Or you love knitting scarves and hats for your friends. You find out that a women’s group has a project of knitting scarves and hats for a local homeless shelter. You volunteer to attend the weekly “knitting meetings” where you knit these items and learn from the women in the group.

Or you spend all your free time with a basketball and a net. But your mother says you better find some volunteer activity. You go to the local youth center and volunteer to coach young children on basketball skills.

What ideas do you have for combining your passion and volunteering into a project that you initiate and that differentiates you from the pack in the eyes of college admission officers?

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, volunteering, college admissions, college applications

Elevator Speech: Have a 30-Second Speech for Whoever You Are or Whatever You’re Looking For

2008-10-16T08:33:00.001-07:00

The expression “elevator speech” doesn’t mean a speech in favor of taking an elevator rather than the stairs or vice versa. It refers to a “speech” you could make in a 30-second elevator ride to tell someone who you are or what you’re looking for.

And whether you’re in high school, college or beyond, you should have at least one of these speeches down cold (and maybe more if you have different interests). And by down cold I mean: you know the speech so well you can say it as if it’s spontaneous rather than memorized.

Maybe you’ve noticed an adult asking a teen what she is doing and the teen says “applying to college.” What’s an example of what the answer should be when asked this question by an adult? “I’m applying to top Eastern colleges and I’m particularly hoping to be accepted by the University of Pennsylvania.” Now the adult has enough information to say, for example: “My sister is an alum. Would you like to be introduced to her?”

See the difference? The teen hasn’t asked for help, but she’s provided enough information for someone to offer to help. And if she were in an elevator and had only said “applying to college,” there wouldn’t be enough time for the adult to ask questions to elicit the same information and offer the same help.

At whatever point you are in your life, be prepared with this 30-second speech.

Someone on Facebook just wrote me that her 19-old-son is publishing a book and looking for information on book marketing. But she should have said: “My 19-year-old son is publishing a book on ………...” Although I did respond with advice for book marketing, I might have been more helpful if she’d mention fiction or non-fiction, the title of the book, and when it is coming out.

And if you’ve got different interests, have an elevator speech for each interest so that you’re prepared for any opportunity that comes your way.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, college applications, book marketing

Tutoring Help for a Student: When Is It Time?

2008-10-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

I answered a publicity query concerning when is it time to get a tutor for a student. After I responded to all the questions in the publicity query, I decided to share my responses here:

Several different ways a parent can know whether it's time for a tutor:

1. If the student asks for one.
2. If the student struggles with the material and doesn't seem to "get" it.
3. If the teacher tells the parent the student doesn't seem to "get" the material.

The age has no bearing on this. I've known students who needed a tutor in first grade to learn how to read because the student's learning style was different than the teaching method.

Teachers are usually NOT the best person to decide because a parent can see up close and personal when a student is struggling. On the other hand, when a teacher tells a parent that a child needs a tutor, the parent should listen and not shrug off the suggestion.

The best time of year is as soon as a student needs help (see above).

It would be better if the child is on board (and this can often be achieved in the way the tutor is presented to the student), but not necessary. Students should not be allowed to fail because they are afraid to admit they need help.

Definitely not wait until a student gets a F. (Sometimes short-term tutoring does the trick if the problem is caught soon enough.)

If regular tutoring doesn't seem to help and there are some underlying hints of learning disabilities, testing should be carried out as soon as possible and extensively as possible with a trained educational consultant.

Parents should also read the book MINDSET by Carol Dweck to help ensure that the student is not refusing to try because of a closed mindset. (I feature this book on my Flipping Burgers blog.)

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Carol Dweck, tutors, learning disabilities

Resumes Revisited: Do You Put Your Twitter Username on Your Resume?

2008-10-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

Resumes usually take a rather standard form when it comes to including your name, address, phone number, email, and maybe cell number and fax number.

Here's an interesting question to consider: Should you include your Twitter username, your Facebook profile page URL, your LinkedIn public profile URL or any other social media information on your resume?

Okay, obviously the answer is yes if you're applying for a job in social media. And obviously the answer is no if you've posted inappropriate information about yourself on MySpace or Facebook.

It's the middle ground that leads me to ask the question: Do you want to indicate by, for example, including your Twitter username that you are knowledgeable in one of the popular microblogging platforms? Or are you worried that a prospective employer might think you'll spend too much time on Twitter if the employer knows you're on that social media platform?

I'm not sure there's an easy answer for everyone. Anyone want to weigh in with an opinion?

Related Posts:

Resume 2.0? The question is, when do you think document that we know now will replaced as the "king of resumes"? I don't think they'll ever completely go away, but there is a time in the not so distant future where we will be asking candidates for ...

Six steps to Resume 2.0 Can you think of other ways to start tweaking your resume for Web 2.0? Employers, human resources pros and recruiters - would any of this be helpful for you? Are you using social networks for recruitment purposes? ...

The Social Media Resume: Making Your Mark in a Web 2.0 World The idea of this kind of resume may not be as widespread as its traditional counterpart, but it’s something that web workers might want to consider if they want to take advantage of what Web 2.0 has to offer. ...

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Facebook, Twitter, internships, constructing resumes, jobs, careers

U.S. Economic Situation: Good Time for Internships?

2008-10-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Internships may actually be more available during this economic time. That’s because companies are being forced to lay off employees and this may cause those companies to be short-handed. If you offer yourself as an unpaid intern, you may be snapped up to fill in the gap.

And when a company is short-handed, there’s usually more of a chance for an intern to get to do real work tasks rather than just making coffee and delivering the in-house company mail.

What does this mean for you? If you’ve been wanting an internship to try out a specific career field or get credentials on your resume for a future job, now is the time to do this.

Brainstorm with friends or family about the companies in your area that may need the kind of intern you want to be. Read your local newspaper to see who is laying off large numbers of employees. Then contact those companies if they appear to be the kind of company at which you’d like to intern.

The company’s HR person may not be the best person to contact. He or she is dealing with layoffs and might not take kindly to an intern request when that intern might do the job of a previously paid employee. But a department manager, desperate for more helping hands, might be very open to meeting with you.

Therefore, chose carefully who you will approach. If you want a marketing internship, choose someone in the marketing department. If you want an accounting internship, choose someone in the accounting department.

If you’re good at pitching yourself in writing, then do so for the first approach. If you’re better pitching yourself in a phone call, do that for the first approach.

Remember that with all the issues on the minds of managers today, your request may get buried even though you could really be useful to the company. If you don’t get a response within a few days, do approach the person again. Just be sure to make your approaches in good taste and do not appear to be a nudge.

Be prepared to explain how you can help the manager/company. Then, if you get the internship, do a terrific job of helping out. This could even be your opportunity for a paying job at this company when the economy picks up, or at the very least the opportunity to get a terrific recommendation.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, U.S. economy

On the Job: Share Praise With Those Who Help You

2008-10-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my post today on my blog PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge (see http://snipurl.com/forgiveme, I wanted to talk about the important skill of giving and sharing praise.

Frequently in a work situation your boss might praise you for a project you did. Unless you literally did every single part by yourself with absolutely no help from anyone else, you should remind the boss who helped you. For example, “I couldn’t have gotten this done in such a short amount of time if Mary hadn’t crunched the numbers for me and John hadn’t made the charts.”

In most cases, sharing the praise actually earns you higher esteem than if you hadn’t acknowledged Mary and John’s roles. By including your co-workers in the praise, you’ve shown you’re a team player and someone who doesn’t hog all the credit. People like to work with such generous-minded people.

And, of course, you yourself should praise people when they do a good job or go the extra mile, for example, on a project for which you were responsible. For example, “Nancy, I really appreciate that you turned in your numbers a day before the deadline and that the numbers were very accurate. I’m glad you’re on my team.”

Start practicing this skill when you are young and it should be automatic by the time you’re starting out on your career path.

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Flipping Burgers, jobs, careers

Taking Responsibility for Your Actions

2008-10-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

In spite of all our modern conveniences or maybe because of all our modern conveniences, we still make mistakes such as missing a dentist appointment because we thought it was the next day or turning up late for a birthday party because we thought it started later than it did.

One sign of maturity – whether in a high school student, college student, or young adult – is the ability to say: “I made a mistake and I’m sorry.” In other words, not try to weasel out of responsibility by saying such things as: “Your receptionist must have told me the wrong day” or “I couldn’t understand the voice message you left.”

If you messed up, admit it, apologize and move on. And, of course, try not to repeat the same mistake a second time. But don’t get a reputation as someone who always tries to blame others for what he/she did.

For those of you who will be in synagogue for the Kol Nidre service of Yom Kippur, you will publicly be taking responsibility for your actions of the past year. And you can use this opportunity to consider how you will do things differently in the coming year.

And for those of you who won’t be participating in this public act of taking responsibility, you can still think about taking responsibility for your actions instead of trying to push off the “blame” onto someone else.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, responsibility

Meeting Etiquette: Don’t Allow a Time Hog to Steal the Show

2008-10-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

I listened to a teleseminar that was billed as a panel about authors using social media to promote their books. Instead, one caller hogged the time asking question after question about how to get on Twitter, how to follow someone on Twitter, how to reply to someone on Twitter, etc.

The host of the teleseminar did not stop this caller from hogging the time nor did the panelists stop him. Indeed, they all continued to answer his questions.

What should have happened? The host or a panelist should have said: “We’ll have to continue this conversation offline as this isn’t the focus of the teleseminar.”

A half hour into the hour-long teleseminar I finally hung up. Why should I continue to listen to someone getting personal instructions on how to use Twitter?

If you’re in high school, college or on your first real job, what’s the moral of this story for you?

If you are a moderator or a panelist in a similar time hog situation, you should be prepared to politely end the time hog’s monopolizing and to return to the stated subject of the meeting or presentation.

And if you are the time hog, don’t be. In other words, learn to be considerate of the other people participating in a meeting or presentation. If you require detailed instructions on a subject that is off the spine of the meeting or presentation, do so outside of that meeting or presentation.

If you are worried that you might not have another chance to ask your questions, then you can politely ask for a suggestion as to where to get the additional info that you need.

Whatever you do, don’t get the reputation of a time hog or of someone who lets a time hog take over the show. Be considerate of the other participants and stick to the spine of the meeting or presentation.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, meeting etiquette, jobs, career

College Tutoring Services: Only One of Several Avenues for Getting Help

2008-10-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

My September 22nd post was about how college tutoring is not a stigma and should be embraced as soon as a student feels he or she is falling behind. (See http://snipurl.com/collegetutoring.)

The October 2nd Wall Street Journal Quick Fix column article “Keeping Up at College” by Beth Decarbo has some excellent advice for dealing with the problem of struggling with course material soon after the semester starts.

The solution, of course, includes utilizing college tutoring services. And there are additional avenues for getting help:

Harold Woodard, dean for student academic counseling at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, says that students should visit their professors during office hours for extra help and to demonstrate that the students are trying to learn the material.

And, yes, this does seem obvious, but for some reason it isn’t. Students often think that a professor’s office hours are for some much more important reason than a student having trouble with the material. Wrong! A professor’s office hours are precisely to help students having trouble with the material.

Woodard also mentions forming study groups early in the semester, and that there are websites that offer tutoring services, although there are fees for these services.

Woodard also talks about getting online study guides (some for free), but he believes that students should not rely on guides. According to the Journal, Woodard prefers “that students improve their critical-reading, critical-thinking skills with the texts they’ve been assigned for a term.”

This is excellent advice for your long-term success goals. Critical-reading and critical-thinking skills can help you throughout your life. If you learn these skills in college (where there’s a safety net to help you learn), you’ll be in a much stronger position for whatever career path you follow after college.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, college tutoring services, careers, critical-reading skills, critical-thinking skills, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Beth Decarbo, Harold Woodard, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Social Media: Your Photo Needs to Look Like You Do

2008-10-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here I am again with another "warning" about your photo on social media. First, let's be clear what your photo is there for on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. It's there to make you a real person, someone with whom people can relate, someone whom people can get to know, like and trust (the mantra of doing business on the web).

We've already discussed that this isn't possible if there's no photo. Only this morning I got three Twitter messages of people following me who had no photo with their bios. I did NOT follow these people. If they aren't willing to identify themselves by photo (or real name), why should I trust their advice?

And we've talked about photos with baseball caps that hide your eyes or photos of you on Facebook with two friends and which one is you. And never using a silly photo of you sticking out your tongue or wearing a clown wig.

But yesterday I came across another social media photo mistake -- a photo of a young man with a beard who I had just met clean-shaven in person. The photo looked nothing like the young man. If one purpose of social media is to make an online connection so that when you meet in person you recognize each other, using an old photo with a beard is not going to do this.

Moral of this post? When you dramatically change your appearance (grow a beard, shave off a mustache, change the color of your hair, drastically chop off long locks, get glasses), change your photo. If you want people to know, like and trust you on the web, then don't show a photo that "disguises" the current you.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, social media, photos, Facebook, Twitter

Wall Street Crisis: A Good Time to Help Others

2008-10-01T22:52:00.001-07:00

Most of the time on this blog we talk about getting help for yourself. Yet now is a good time to practice helping others. Because of all the jobs being cut due to the Wall Street crisis, there will be large numbers of people looking for new jobs.

Maybe you have a friend who you think may be one of those people losing his/her job. Why not contact your friend and ask if there's anything you can do to help? This can range from offering to work on a resume if you're really good at this skill to practicing interview questions or brainstorming possible job leads with your friend.

And if you happen to hear of an open position, consider who you know that might be interested in that position and contact that person. If the tables were turned, you'd want your friends to do this for you.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Wall Street crisis, jobs

Career Advice: Tap into Other People's Wisdom

2008-09-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Todd DeFren's PR Squared blog post of September 29th begins this way:

The older I get, the more I care about the young folks’ career development. This may stem from having teenage children; I worry about their preparation for Life, Careers, Happiness. Thus I happily offer college students and new graduates some hard-won (and so-called) wisdom, whenever they ask.

Here’s what a lot of today’s college graduates don’t understand: I am not alone. I am not the only company executive/business owner who’s eager to lend a hand, an ear, or an opinion. Yet, it’s pretty rare for a college graduate considering a PR career to reach out to me for some counsel, or just to grab a coffee.

Read the rest of this blog post at http://snipurl.com/prblogpost. There's valuable advice regardless of what career path interests you.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Todd DeFren, career advice

Standardized Tests: Probably Not Anyone’s Idea of a Good Time

2008-09-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

I was speaking to a mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today whose daughter took the standardized college admission test the ACT rather than the SAT. The mother spoke about the strategy for whether to guess on questions.

This is not my expertise, but it did remind me that it’s important to know the parameters of any standardized test you take for college admission or graduate school admission. In some tests, points are subtracted for wrong answers; in others, there are no points subtracted for wrong answers. You need to know which method is used in the test you will take so that you can better consider your options on questions for which you don’t know the answers.

If you are unable to take any preparation classes for standardized admission tests, try to at least read a current study guide for that test to help you know which strategies to use. Your local library as well as local bookstore should have books on standardized tests. Just be sure to check that you get the latest edition in order to have the most accurate information.

Of course, you may be able to find study help online. Just be sure it is legitimate help and, again, current information.

Perhaps the best additional advice – get a good night’s sleep before the test and eat a healthy breakfast. Make sure your brain has the energy to do what needs to be done.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, standardized tests, ACT, SAT

Business Schools Are Stepping Up to the Plate for Wall Street Alum

2008-09-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

The September 23rd Wall Street Journal article “Business Schools Gird for Wall Street Woes” by Alina Dizik described various actions being taken by business schools to help alum hit by the Wall Street crisis as well as current students planning a career on Wall Street.

If you have been affected by the Wall Street crisis, check with the careers services office at your alma mater to see if special services have been added to help people in your situation.

In addition, according to the article:

Career office staff members are also trying to steer undergrads to alternative careers. Patricia Rose, director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania, deals with undergraduate business school students along with students in other majors. Typically, Wharton sends about 50% of its undergraduates into investment banking. Ms. Rose says she’s recommending Wharton students look into technology or public service jobs, which are more plentiful than coveted finance jobs.

In accordance with the FLIPPING BURGERS philosophy of following your passion – and being willing to find a new passion if the first passion doesn’t work out, I think the accompanying article in the September 23rd Journal is more helpful: “Weighing a New Industry for a New Job Outlook” by Chandlee Bryan.

The article recommends thoroughly researching a possible new field. Here’s some good advice on research:

The recent turmoil at financial firms underscores the need to go beyond research on compensation and industry trends. Educate yourself on how a company or industry runs and pending legislation that may affect the employment outlook in a field. Review analyst reports, scour RSS feeds, and set up Google News Alerts by keyword once you’ve narrowed a field of interest.

This is excellent advice, and it should be coupled with using your network of friends and family to get the inside story. A few years ago I was hired at a web design firm just as it moved to swanky new quarters in downtown LA. Because I was in charge of the content of two major projects, I soon realized that there wasn’t enough work to keep everyone busy. Sure enough, in about two months several people, including myself, were let go.

Even if we had had the same level of internet news access then that we have now, this news wouldn’t have been public. It was only because I had my “boots on the ground” – to use a military expression – that I could see what was happening.

Whether you’re in high school, college or grad school now, talk to people in different careers to learn all you can about the vulnerabilities as well as the opportunities in that field. Keep the information you learned in an organized fashion in order to make reasonable comparisons. And make sure you date the info so you know how “fresh” it is when you later make comparisons.

And remember that you can make your own opportunities if you identify a need that isn’t being fulfilled at a company or in an industry. The responsibility is on you to learn as much as you can and then use that knowledge for your own advantage.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Alina Dizik, Chandlee Bryan, Wall Street crisis, business schools, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, Google News Alerts, RSS feeds

Chicago Tribune Checks in Locally About High School Students and Facebook

2008-09-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

The Chicago Tribune published its own version of the story of college admissions officers looking at student profiles on Facebook by checking in with local colleges and local high school students. (See http://snipurl.com/chicagotribunefb.)

While there were the usual warnings about college admissions officers seeing things you probably don't want them to see, I found the following paragraph very interesting (and perhaps more so because my niece and two nephews graduated from New Trier):

Ethan Goldsmith, a senior, said he, too, already was exercising caution because New Trier Township High School has suspended students from sports teams for brandishing a beer in photos online.

Now here's a new online warning that I haven't blogged about yet. Your own high school could take action based on an inappropriate online photo of you.

It would be a good idea to pay attention to all these warnings. And make it clear to your friends that you do NOT want them to post inappropriate photos of you online or put in their Facebook status, for example, "John is watching his friend Martin throw up after chugging 10 beers."

Protect your own reputation.

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Facebook, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Chicago Tribune, New Trier, college admissions officers, high school students

High School Students Feeling Overwhelmed: Not an Unusual Feeling

2008-09-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today I met a woman whose daughter is in 9th grade in a very academic private high school. Only a few weeks into the school year the daughter is feeling overwhelmed. This is not an unusual feeling for high-achieving students because the pressure today to do well and “beat the competition” is intense.

Yet, as I have written about before, the FLIPPING BURGERS philosophy is somewhat different than the “get the highest grades and highest test scores” philosophy for getting into top colleges.

The FLIPPING BURGERS philosophy says that you should follow your passion in high school. This means trying to arrange a challenging but not overwhelming school schedule so that you have time to follow your passion outside of school.

And the advantage of following your passion outside school is that you will have to pursue activities that are not handed to you on a silver platter (the school’s own activities). Why, for example, join the high school drama club when you can join a local theater group near your home? In this way you will demonstrate initiative to the colleges to which you apply and your experience may be richer for having to learn how to “work” (act) around adults of various ages.

If you are overwhelmed already and this is still September, consider whether you may be able to re-adjust your school schedule so that you have more time to pursue your passion and still take academically challenging (but not overwhelming) courses.

For example, this re-adjustment may mean saving physics until summer school where you can really focus on this subject and, in place of this course during the school year, take a less-strenuous one that will give you more free time after school.

For advice on planning the rest of your high school schedule, you can check out the report THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU SHOULD DO AND KNOW TO GET AHEAD OF THE GAME OF COLLEGE APPLICATIONS at www.millermosaic.com/page1.php

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, high school schedules, college applications

College Tutoring Help: Not a Stigma to Take Advantage of This Free Service

2008-09-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine gave good advice to her daughter starting graduate school in a difficult subject area:

“Your school has free tutoring on any subject. Don’t wait until you fall behind. After you’re done on the first day of classes, go over to the tutoring center and review the material with a tutor. THIS IS NOT A STIGMA!”

I’m not sure why most people believe that getting help implies weakness rather than indicating strength. It is actually a much better plan for life to recognize when free services can strengthen your position and to take advantage of this available opportunity.

Each person learns in a different way, yet repetition of new material can probably help everyone. And, if you’re going over new material with a tutor, you might discover that you misunderstood something that, if not corrected, could set you off in a major wrong direction. Thus, by reviewing new material with a tutor, you can quickly discover where you’re about to go off track.

If your school offers such services and these services could be of help to you, do not refuse to go because you’re afraid this would make you look dumb. Instead, getting help makes you look smart – smart to take advantage of any help you can in order to make sure you’re on the right track.

And this advice is equally good for high school students at high schools with tutoring centers and for students at colleges and graduate schools with tutoring centers. If there’s help to be had, grab it and make the most of it.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, high school, college, graduate programs, tutoring help, tutoring centers

Beware of Facebook: The Wall Street Journal Agrees With Me

2008-09-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

I know some of my regular readers of this blog are groaning because I’m about to talk about Facebook AGAIN. Go ahead and groan now – then read on, because there’s a dangerous sand trap that had never occurred to me.

The September 18th Wall Street Journal article “College Applicants, Beware: Your Facebook Page Is Showing” by John Hechinger reporteded:

A new survey of 500 top colleges found that 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social-networking sites to evaluate applicants. Of those colleges making use of the online information, 38% said that what they say “negatively affected” their views of the applicant. Only a quarter of the schools checking the sites said their views were improved, according to the survey by education company Kaplan, a unit of Washington Post Co.” (Boldface mine.)

What I found particularly upsetting in the Journal article is that college admission officers sometimes receive anonymous tips to check out someone’s Facebook page. Apparently these tips may be from rival applicants.

After reading about this particular sand trap, I visualized a scenario where two top students from the same high school are applying to the same prestigious college. One student calls in a tip about the other student’s inappropriate Facebook page in order to get that student eliminated from consideration.

All I can say is that you can’t stop some people from being underhanded, so the only way you can assure that there’s no dirt for someone to find on you is to make sure there’s no dirt PERIOD.

If you have any questions as to what is appropriate on your Facebook page, check out past posts of mine under the category Facebook. And if you’d like a free copy of the “7 Mistakes to Avoid to Protect Your Image on Facebook,” go to www.millermosaic.com.

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Kaplan,
www.millermosaic.com

Facebook and Other Social Media Platforms: Changing the Use of Email and Privacy Concerns

2008-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

As those of you who are regular readers of this blog know, I often post about the need to be very careful of what you put on your Facebook profile page. I harp on this subject because Facebook is being used more and more for business purposes. And you never know who might see your profile on Facebook – for example, a college admissions officer of a college to which you plan to apply or a human resources recruiter at a company to which you plan to apply.

And today – because of a question sent out by the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) as part of a blog carnival (bloggers invited to write blogs on the topic and then submit their blog posts to MIMA) – I realized that all my harping about your Facebook profile isn’t enough.

Here’s the MIMA question: “Will Facebook, MySpace, and SMS marginalize the role of email in communication between friends, family, and people?” (According to Wikipedia, “Short Message Service – SMS – is a communications protocol allowing the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices.”)

I absolutely believe that Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms will dramatically decrease the use of email. Already I’m much more likely to send a DM (direct message and therefore private) to someone on Twitter rather than email the same person. I know the person will very likely read the tweet before reading the email. Or I’ll send a public tweet telling the person I’ve just sent an email.

What’s the connection between my opinion on this MIMA topic and advice for college applications, internships, jobs and careers? The decrease of email accompanied by the increase of social media communication indicates an increased need to be very careful, for example, what comments you put on people’s walls on Facebook or what you post on a Facebook group discussion board.

Replacing email or text messaging with comments on Facebook and other social media platforms can come back to haunt you if you’re not always thinking with a third eye of the long-term effects of what you’re publicly writing rather than sending in a private email.

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College Application Planning Report Addresses Concerns of 9th Graders and Their Parents and Mentors

2008-09-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

At an 80th birthday party I talked to the mother of a 9th-grade boy who I have known since his birth.

The mother was worried because she and her husband both came to the U.S. from different countries as adults. “I don’t know how the American college system works,” the mother said, “and my son is a really good student and interested in going to Harvard. A family friend said he should take the French horn but he’s not interested in playing a musical instrument.”

Although the boy is not interested in a musical instrument, the advice about the French horn probably comes from the philosophy of being a well-rounded student when applying to college. Yet the theory now is that colleges want a “well-rounded” freshman class – each individual student with his or her particular interests adds to an overall mix of diverse students.

In other words, colleges are looking for “well-lopsided” students whose passions can contribute to a dynamic college campus life. And this current philosophy fits in nicely with my FLIPPING BURGERS AND BEYOND philosophy of helping a high school student to follow his or her passion.

And this is why it is important to start planning a student’s time during high school before he or she starts high school. There are so many demands on a student’s time that it makes sense to plan ahead for fulfilling college entrance requirements and for following a passion.

I’ve just written a special college application planning report called THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW AND DO TO BE AHEAD OF THE GAME OF COLLEGE APPLICATIONS.

If you know of any 8th or 9th graders or their parents and mentors for whom this advice could be helpful, tell them about this report. You may earn their undying thanks if you save them major aggravation and hassles when the student is in 11th or 12th grade.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, college applications, college application report, 8th graders, 9th graders

Email Deluge: How Helping Someone Get Out From Under Could Further Your Career

2008-09-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who is a medical doctor at a large university told me that she gets so many emails a day – close to 200 – that she can’t keep up with them. And that sometimes she misses deadlines for important grant projects because of the magnitude of keeping track of all the emails she does open.

I explained to her that many professionals are now using a VA (virtual assistant) to check their emails and keep track of such things as which emails needed responses and which didn’t need to be followed up. Then I realized that she couldn’t use just any VA. She needed to use someone who could understand the scientific and medical discussions in her emails.

And that’s when I got the idea for a way to help an undergraduate student at the large university and help my friend. If she got a student majoring in pre-med or science to be her VA for her emails, the student would be able to understand the content and also learn just be reading the emails. This would be great for the student to put on her/his resume and great for my friend.

Then I realized that there must be many, many professionals who are overwhelmed with their email inbox. And, therefore, an enterprising student with an interest in a specific area could approach professionals in that area about being a VA. Of course, the student would have to understand the need for confidentiality of everything he/she reads. But this is the same as for any VA.

If you’re looking for a way to demonstrate a passion of yours and, at the same time, learn more about that passion, look around for a professional whom you could help get out from under the email deluge. This could be a win-win for both of you.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, virtual assistants, internships, jobs, careers

Interview Techniques: The Words Out of Your Mouth Can Lose the Job for You

2008-09-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I put a blog post on collegefinder.globalscholar.com that began this way after the headline “Using Appropriate Language During a College Application Interview”:

The three words “like” and “you know” (along with the annoying “um” and “well”) used liberally throughout your conversations may not bother your friends. Yet be assured that a person interviewing you will note the immature and/or annoying language. Other words that bother interviewers include dude, hey, stuff, whatever. And, of course, you should use proper English and not street or slang or colloquial English.

In an email exchange with one of the CollegeFinder people this is what I received:

That post also applies well to interviews! You wouldn’t believe how many just out of college students we interview here who use the words or worse!

Okay, now you’ve heard this warning directly from the mouth of an employer (as opposed to my harping on this subject). And if you take these words to heart, you could have a giant advantage over other job candidates.

If you’re not aware of how you speak (whether you continually use the words “like” and “you know” and whether you use slang), record yourself practicing an interview with a friend. Then listen to the recording.

If the above warning applies to you, take two immediate steps to correct these problems. First, try consciously even when speaking to friends to use proper English and NOT to constantly use the words “like” and “you know.”

Second, practice answering interview questions with a friend over and over again until you eliminate the problems. Record each practice interview to check your own progress.

Any questions about what might or might not be appropriate to say? Leave questions in the comments section below.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, collegefinder.globalscholar.com, interviews, internships, college applications, jobs, careers

Preparing for College Applications: Tips on High School Activities

2008-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

· Do not undertake so much that your grades suffer. Colleges want to see good grades AND additional activities, which can include part-time jobs.

· Do not change activities as frequently as you change your socks. Colleges do want to see some consistency over your years of high school. Trying out a different school club each year (math club, government club, etc.) is probably not as good as sticking to one school club for the four years.

· Do not participate in the “activity marathon,” in which you compete with your classmates to see who can compile the longest list of extracurricular activities. The high school years are a time for you to pursue possible passions. To realistically evaluate the “trying on” of a possible passion, you must go deeper rather than wider in your overall activities.

· Do choose with your heart and soul. That is, truly select activities that both interest you and to which you can contribute in a meaningful way (not just by showing up and sleeping through a guest speaker).

To read the rest of this post, go to College Finder at http://snipurl.com/highschoolactivities

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, high school activities, college applications, College Finder

Clearly Written Communication: Make Sure the Other Person Knows What You Mean

2008-09-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

A college sophomore I know needed to replace all the cell phone numbers he had stored in his own cell phone. So he did what I think was rather clever. He created an event page on Facebook to request that his friends send him their cell phone numbers.

Only there was one tiny problem. He gave the event a weird name – something with letters and symbols that was way beyond my understanding – and didn’t clearly explain what the event was for. After he got several puzzled replies besides mine, he realized that he hadn’t clearly stated the purpose of his event.

I’m bringing this up here as an example of something we all do at one time or another: assume that another person can follow what we mean because it is so clear to us what is needed. What we all need to remember is that another person doesn’t necessarily have all the prior information that we have.

Whatever you write for other people to read must be clear. You need to put yourself in the other person’s place to figure out what he/she needs to know to understand what you’re talking about.

This is true whether you’re writing a college application essay or a memo to your boss about a topic the boss asked you to research or a query letter asking for an informational meeting.

When I was feature editor of the State News at Michigan State University, a reporter on my feature staff said to me, “Phyllis, you know what I mean in this news story.” And I replied, “Yes, I know. But the student who reads this article in tomorrow’s paper may not. You have to write this so that student who doesn’t know what I know can understand what you’re saying.”

The next time you write someone – or create an event on Facebook – make sure that what you’ve said is clear to anyone who does not know the background information that you do. Give the other person enough information so that he/she can follow what it is you’re saying.

If you always keep the point of view of the other person in mind when writing, you’ll be able to earn a reputation as someone who is a good writer and able to communicate well with others. This is a good reputation to have even in the age of IMing and Twitter.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, clear communication, Facebook, Twitter, Michigan State University, State News, clear writing, college applications, jobs

First Jobs: They Can Be Your Entry Door Into Success

2008-09-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

Harvey Mackay always includes Mackay’s Moral at the end of his weekly column. And his morals are always good. Yet his moral this week really spoke to what I believe:

Mackay’s Moral: What you learn on your first job will last through your last job.

If you pay attention to what goes on around you even if you have the most menial job in the company or organization, you can learn a great deal. There are all kinds of “lessons” being unconsciously taught.

Mackay describes a job he had as a teen working at a men’s retail store. One of the things his boss taught was: “Walk the customer to the front door and sometimes even out onto the street and look him in the eye and say “Thanks!’”

Less than two hours after I read this piece of advice I was walked to the door by the receptionist of a local restaurant at which I often eat. Because I had just read Mackay’s column, I took special notice of this courtesy on the part of the receptionist.

Now even if you were a busboy at this restaurant, if you had observed the receptionist’s behavior you would have learned a valuable lesson for life: Do not treat your customers or clients as if they are interchangeable commodities. Instead make each one feel that he or she is special in your eyes.

If you act this way towards customers and clients even when you have a menial job, you might be surprised to learn that your advancement is more rapid than others who don’t act this way.

Keep your eyes and ears paying attention no matter where you are – you can learn from almost anyone and anything.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Harvey Mackay, jobs, first jobs, careers

College Applications: To Interview or Not to Interview Is the Question

2008-09-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

It’s fall now, and with fall each year comes the beginning of the college application frenzy. This is the time when parents, teachers or mentors harass students to get going on filling out those college applications.

If you’re one of these students preparing to apply to college, keep in mind that there are many different aspects to a college application, and each aspect has to be carefully considered. One such aspect is the question about having an interview with a representative from the college to which you’re applying.

And here’s the problem with this aspect: colleges have their own individual polices for interviewing applicants, which can become quite confusing if you’re applying to several schools. Here are examples of the range in policies:

A college does not interview any applicant on campus but requires an applicant interview with an alum of the college in the applicant’s home town.

A college offers interviews to any applicant who comes to campus but does not require an applicant interview with an alum in the applicant’s home town.

A college gives on-campus interviews only to students who are legacies of that college (the student’s parent or grandparent attended the college).

A college does not give interviews to applicants on campus or in their home towns.

Your first step is to find out the interview policy of each college to which you plan to apply. It might be a good idea to create a spreadsheet so that you can keep straight all the different policies. And then, of course, you have to follow the policy of each college.

(The slots for on-campus interviews at schools fill up. Schedule your interview early so you don’t lose out on this opportunity.)

Recommendation: Even if an alum interview isn’t required but is offered as an option, you should say yes to the interview because this shows a more sincere interest in that school on your part.

And who knows? What you learn in an alum interview may give you valuable information with which to evaluate that potential college application choice.

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College applications, college interviews, on-campus interviews, alum interviews

Back to School: What Did You Learn Today?

2008-09-02T23:37:00.001-07:00

Whether this month sees you back in school (high school or college or graduate school) or out on the job market, the fall season signals “back to school” thoughts conditioned by all those fall seasons of new school years.

And it is a good idea to connect the fall season with learning something new – something that isn’t required by your coursework or job work. Just something new that you’re interested in knowing more about.

This something new can be reading information to understand the weather conditions that create hurricanes (due to the nation’s focus on New Orleans this past weekend) or following online instructions for how to create mobiles out of wire hangars.

The point is not WHAT you learn as long as you learn something NEW, something that stretches your mind in a direction it hasn’t gone before. And this new something gives you a new conversation topic when you get together with other people. Suddenly you’re discussing the underpinnings of Category 5 hurricanes with the other weather fanatics. Or you’re pointing out to a new friend that there’s something very soothing about bending wire hangars into new shapes.

If you’re not sure now what new subject area you’d like to learn, keep your eyes open as you go about your regular routines. See if something new doesn’t pop out at you from the most unlikely place after you’ve told your mind to be on the look-out for just such an opportunity.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, back to school, jobs

Interviews, Meetings, Appointments: The Case for Being on Time

2008-08-30T23:13:00.001-07:00

I’m reading Dan Kennedy’s book NO B.S. TIME MANGEMENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS. Kennedy credits motivation speaker Ed Foreman with saying you only need to do three things for rapid advancement in most business organizations:

“Show up.

“Show up on time.

“Show up on time, ready to work. So few do.”

While Kennedy and Foreman may be oversimplifying the way to advance in corporations, the advice about showing up on time is extremely important for you to follow at internships or jobs.

Of course, the advice is even more important for showing up on time for an interview for an internship or job.

If you can’t show up on time for an interview, what possibility is there that you will show up on time each day of an internship or work? If you’re late for an interview, you have a huge strike against you before you even shake hands with the interviewer.

I know a college student who told his parents that he wished they had insisted he be on time for school when he was younger. Now that he has his first real job, he’s finding it hard to get accustomed to being on time.

If you do not already have the “on-time” work mentality, you must immediately teach yourself to have this mindset. You must figure out your own coping skills for ensuring that you show up on time.

If you know your habit is to treat time as elastic, it may be necessary for you to plan to get to work 15 minutes early so that you actually arrive on time. Or you may need to a put a timer in the bathroom and kitchen to ensure that, after your alarm clock wakes you up, you don’t get lost reading in the bathroom or at the breakfast table.

Eventually, if you work hard enough at it, you should be able to keep yourself on schedule without such additional reminders. But if you are truly one of those people with no sense of time, you will always have to rely on outside forces to get you to where you need to be on time.

This emphasis on being on time may seem silly to some of you. You may say: “What’s five minutes?” Yet from the perspective of the person expecting you to be somewhere at a certain time, five minutes can be the difference between keeping your internship/job or being shown the exit door.

Maybe it’s time you took time seriously.

Technorati Tags:
Internships, jobs, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, Ed Foreman

PROJECT RUNWAY and ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL: Lessons from Two Television Shows

2008-08-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL is a reality show currently running on the Sundance Channel. The August 27th episode focused on the Tulane architecture students presenting their designs for building an affordable new home in a Katrina-ravaged neighborhood of shotgun houses.

(New Orleans shotgun houses are long narrow houses with no hall – each room is directly behind the other so, if you shot a gun from the front, the shot would go straight through to the back.)

The presentations would impact which of the student designs would be chosen for the students to actually build. Yet almost all the students were really terribly at presenting and “selling” their designs.

Although all these students wanted their design to be the one chosen – big kudo for an architectural student, yet it appeared most of them had given little thought to the explanation and selling of their designs.

As this show follows Bravo’s PROJECT RUNWAY, I had just seen a fashion designer chosen as the one to be OUT partly because of his unimaginative design and partly because he whined during the critique of his design, blamed his model, and actually complained about the judges’ previous “criticism” of him.

Michael Kors, “top American designer,” said words to this effect: Face it, kid, this is what life is like as a fashion designer. You’ve got to be prepared to take the good and the bad.

What do these two television shows have to do with college applications, internships, jobs and careers? Several lessons:

If you are given an assignment – when you present that assignment, be prepared to assertively but not aggressively sell your vision.

Accept critique willingly and understand that you can often learn more from your mistakes. Do not insist on being the one in the right.

Do not blame others for your less-than-stellar presentation. Accept responsibility.

Watching Michael Kors’ face as the OUT designer left the runway, it was clear that Kors felt this guy just didn’t get it. How much better if the disgruntled designer had graciously thanked all the judges for the incredible opportunity to have been part of Project Runway?

Make sure you are thought of as an amicable person who learns from critiques and appreciates your opportunities. That reputation can take you a long way.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Project Runway, Michael Kors, Architecture School, Sundance Channel, Bravo, Tulane, New Orleans, Katrina, college applications, internships, jobs, careers

Advance Placement Courses: Should They Be Taken in High School?

2008-08-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Whether to take Advance Placement (AP) courses – “college-level” courses – in high school is a BIG discussion topic for students who want to apply to top colleges. This is because how many of the AP courses offered at a student’s high school are taken by a student is a very important criterion for college admission officers.

As one college counselor at a prominent Los Angeles private high school said, there are three things college admission people at top colleges look for on a student’s high school transcript:

1) courses taken

2) grades gotten

3) courses the student could have taken based on the profile of his/her high school (how many of the high school’s offered AP and honors courses the student actually took)

This is the beginning of my second guest blog post at CollegeFinder.GlobalScholar.com – read the rest of the post at http://tinyurl.com/5nojfo.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, CollegeFinder.GlobalScholar.com, Advance Placement, college applications, high school curriculum

Flipping Burgers Has a Guest Post at CollegeFinder by GlobalScholar

2008-08-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

I was pleased to be asked to write a guest post about 9^th grade college preparation for CollegeFinder.GlobalScholar.com/blog. Here’s the beginning of that post:

To many parents and teens the idea of considering – during the summer before 9^th grade – where the student may apply to college in 12^th grade seems way over the top. Why put on the pressure so early?

Ironically, applying to college in 12^th grade may be easier because of some pre-planning before the start of 9^th grade.

Let me explain: When students plan what courses they will take for four years of high school, they may know what their own high school requires (for example, how many years of science, math and a foreign language in order to graduate high school). Equally important, they may not know what courses (and for how many years) colleges will want to see on a student’s high school transcript.

Read the rest of the guest post at http://tinyurl.com/66w7rx.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, collegefinder.globalscholar.com/blog, college preparation

Business Cards: Are They Still Needed in a World of Web 2.0?

2008-08-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

I’m getting ready to get business cards for my younger daughter and me for our company Miller Mosaic, LLC. Up to now there’s been no need for business cards for this new online company, whose website isn’t yet live and whose business model will be part of Web 2.0.

Yet next month my daughter and I will be attending a conference in LA where we hope to meet some of the people we’re following on Twitter and in the blogosphere, such as conference speaker Chris Brogan, a Web 2.0 guru (www.chrisbrogan.com). We want cards to hand out when we meet these people in person.

Considerations for getting your own business card

If you’re starting to look for your first real job, do you need business cards? After all, if you get a job, you may be provided with business cards. And until you have a job, what would go on your business card?

In the “old” days business cards could cost a lot of money. Today there are so many places online and offline to get cards, including cards that are free except for shipping, that cost should no longer be a deciding factor.

And there’s another consideration. Some time ago I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about people having different business cards for different parts of their lives. For example, someone may work as an accountant during the day and have a company business card. Then she may be a slot car enthusiast on weekends and pass out a personal business card when she meets fellow slot car enthusiasts.

Thus, you could get an inexpensive business card now that can be used while you job search and, after you get that first job, can be used on weekends for meeting people at parties or other venues.

What’s needed on a personal business card?

Name, personal email address, and cell phone number are the minimum needed on a business card plus possible a personal website (as long as there are no inappropriate items on the website). No need for an address, which can change, or your landline phone, which can change. In most cases you’ll keep your personal email and cell phone even when you change jobs.

You could add one more element – something that makes you memorable in the minds of people you meet and yet is “professional” enough when giving out a card at a job interview. Such elements might include: website designer (you made your own website), social media expert (you’re a pro at MySpace and Facebook), political commentator (you’re a regular commentator on several political blogs).

While you may be interviewing for the job of an actuary or a social worker, the interviewer should still be impressed at your “talent” because those companies who haven’t yet embraced Web 2.0 will need all the help they can get to do so in the next couple of years.

Who knows? You may be hired for an actuary job and end up the company’s social media guru as more and more companies create such a position.

So say yes to getting a personal business card. (And you can even attach a copy of it to your email signature.)

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Business cards, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, interviewing, MySpace, Facebook, Chris Brogan

M.B.A. Students Choose to Follow Their Own Career Paths

2008-08-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

The August 19^th Wall Street Journal article by Samar Srivastava titled “M.B.A.s Skip On-Campus Recruiting” made my heart sing. The article focused on M.B.A. students who took the road less traveled by looking for their own post-M.B.A. jobs instead of going with the jobs-on-offer through campus career services.

Having an M.B.A. myself from Wharton, I know exactly what those on-campus interviews can be like -- the major companies offer the major jobs. And if one of those consulting or Wall Street jobs is not your cup of tea, you have very slim pickings of on-campus job interviews.

One advantage in choosing your own path and working on finding your own job is that you are often a potential work pool of one person when you get interviews on your own. Thus, if you do your research and connect with the right companies, you can have an excellent opportunity of getting the job that you want.

The Journal article says that Michelle Antonio, director of Wharton’s M.B.A. career-services office, talks about the students who opt for their own job searches working at an internship to gain experience. As readers of this blog know, one of my main emphases is on getting internships to try out careers.

One M.B.A. student interviewed for the article said she took an internship to “show her commitment” to the new career path she wanted to follow. This is precisely the opportunity that can be available if you have an open mind towards finding the path that suits you best rather than following the traditional path of someone who just earned an M.B.A.

The moral of this story? If you don’t want to follow the traditional path, be willing to use networking and other techniques discussed here and elsewhere to find your own path.

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Wharton, M.B.A., Michelle Antonio, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, business schools, Samar Srivastava

Does the Way You Speak Turn Off People?

2008-08-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

People have accents – distinct ways they pronounce words. And I’m not just talking about accents of people now living in the U.S. who are foreign-born. Almost all of us born in the U.S. have some kind of regional accent if not neighborhood accent.

These accents can often be quite appealing. Other times, however, an accent can work against you either by the image the accent unintentionally conveys or in making it difficult for others to understand you.

When I worked at a newspaper office years ago we had an intern with a particularly grating Philadelphia accent. (It’s hard to describe this accent – basically it consists of mispronouncing words in a very distinctive manner.) The other reporters laughed at her accent behind the intern’s back.

I called the intern into my office and suggested that, if she wanted to get ahead in journalism, perhaps she should work on her accent. Her reply: “My parents think my accent is fine but my boyfriend says it’s awful.”

I gently told her that her boyfriend, not her parents, were correct. She needed to lose her particular Philadelphia accent.

How to get help for an unappealing accent?

First, voice pronunciation tapes are available for actors to eliminate their troublesome accents. You can get such tapes from a store catering to actors (such as Samuel French) or from a library to practice on your own.

Second, you can find a friend with the accent you’d like to have and practice how the friend speaks. The friend can record troublesome words and sentences so that you can practice on your own.

And there’s also the internet. Type “eliminate foreign accent” or “eliminate regional accent” on Google and you’ll get several websites.

First impressions in interviews for internships or jobs are so important. It’s a smart move to make sure that you don’t lose out the moment you open your mouth.

Flipping Burgers and Beyond, accents, internships, jobs, interviews

Internship or Job Interviews: Do Not Assume That You Know Best

2008-08-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Interviewing for an internship or job in a different region of the U.S. than where you live or go to college? Be prepared to “go with the flow” when you bump up against unexpected regional differences.

Recently I had over for dinner new neighbors who have just moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Now I’ve lived in different parts of the country: I grew up and went to undergraduate college in the Midwest, lived in Munich when my husband was stationed there with the U.S. Army, and lived for eight years in Philadelphia before moving to Los Angeles.

Yet, I admit, I was surprised at the pronouncements made by the New Jersey couple --sweeping statement about things that just weren’t true out here. And this reminded me of the first time I interviewed for an M.B.A. position in LA:

I was just finishing my M.B.A. at Wharton and ARCO flew me out here for an interview. Although it was only March, I knew it was warm in LA. So for the interview I bought a purple linen spring suit at a department store in Philadelphia.

And I wore that purple linen suit to my job interview at ARCO in LA. Only the other professionals at ARCO were wearing dark-colored clothes because LA does have seasons. No one was yet wearing spring/summer clothes.

Did I feel foolish that I had made an assumption rather than checking with someone who would have known what the correct professional attire would be for LA in March!

If you are flying across country or even going to an interview at a company in your hometown whose on-the-job culture you don’t know – find out ahead of time what the expectations and situation are.

And if, in the interview, the interviewer says something that isn’t true in your region or in your knowledge base, don’t immediately jump to “correct” the interviewer. Listen to what he or she says. You may just learn something that helps you get the internship or the job.

Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, interviews

Looking to Add a Volunteer Activity to Your Resume This Week? Consider Getting People to Donate to Operation Soldier Care

2008-08-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

I’m working with Trish Forant of www.emailourmilitary.com and Nancy Sutherland, sales director of Mary Kay, on Operation Soldier Care to provide sun/skin care products to deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nancy is matching all donations up to $5,000. But we’re only about one-fourth of the way to the goal with a deadline of August 18^th.

If you’d like to add an extra activity to your resume, consider the volunteer activity of getting the word out about this very worthwhile project. Read Trish’s blog entry at http://tinyurl.com/67srcm to learn more.

You can also read my Mrs. Lieutenant blog post at http://tinyurl.com/5wtace about the former army enlisted man who wrote: If I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned what a truly remarkable thing it is to be a combat veteran. Now I want to live an exceptional life for those who never left the desert.

It is for those men and women currently in harm’s way in the desert that we’re doing Operation Soldier Care. So if you can, get the word out about this project through your connections on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

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Trish Forant, Nancy Sutherland, www.emailourmilitary.com, Mary Kay, Operation Soldier Care, Mrs. Lieutenant, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, army combat veteran

Poorly Written Facebook Message Turns Me Off From a Potential Cousin

2008-08-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

I just got a Facebook message from someone in London with the last name of Zimbler who wanted to know my family tree. And instead of eagerly sending this to him, as I had to another Zimbler connection made on Facebook, I sent a reply saying I’d already been in contact with another London Zimbler.

Why did I reply so differently to the second Zimbler request? Because the Facebook message received today was illiterate. And there wasn’t even a profile picture of this Zimbler to go along with his name.

Below is his message with misspellings, no punctuation, etc. I have removed the sender’s first name to protect the guilty.

Hi I am ….. zimbler & have compiled a famley tree Would love to know your parents ,grand parents ect name so I can try to trace you on tree My emaill is ……

This Facebook message made a bad first impression and affected my response. And this reaction is why, in this blog, I am always urging you to be professional in your emails and online messages. After all, why should I take the time to send him my family tree when he didn’t even take the time to use spell check or punctuation or correct English.

If you are going to email or message someone with a request, take a few seconds longer and use correct spelling, punctuation and word usage. The image you protect is your own.

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Facebook, Flipping Burgers, emails, Zimbler

Lifetime TV’s ARMY WIVES Episode Touched on Undiagnosed Learning Disabilities

2008-08-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

You may not be a fan of Lifetime TV’s ARMY WIVES. Yet Season 2’s Episode 10 touched on a subject that may be very important to you.

In this episode Roxy was told by Roland, who’s teaching a GED course, that the reason she failed the practice exam even though she knew the material was because she had a learning disability that interfered with transferring her knowledge to a written test.

True, this reveal was not nearly as compelling as the reveal when fans of THE COSBY SHOW found out along with Theo, when he was already in college, that he had a learning disability that interfered with his test taking. (My tears flowed when Vanessa told her father he should be sorry for all the times he ragged on Theo about his grades.) Or in PUNKY BREWSTER when a 12-year-old couldn’t read the poison antidote instructions that could save her younger brother.

Anyway, while Roxy’s learning disability was a rather brief moment in the overall episode, it could be a very important moment in your life or in the life of someone you know.

Many students have difficulties in school that are recognized/diagnosed in elementary school. Yet, for some students, the realization that extra help is needed in test taking or concentrating techniques or any of a number of other concerns doesn’t crop up until the high school or even college years.

At this point it would be good to see if you can get testing in the areas in which you are having problems. Yet some of you may feel that “something” is interfering with your effectiveness yet you aren’t ready to ask your school or others for help.

In this case, there’s a book that may speak to you. Dr. Mel Levine’s A MIND AT A TIME is a treasure trove of explanations of numerous areas of the brain that can affect things that we do (or can’t do).

The author’s writing style is quite dense so you have to be determined to plow through the material and extract the relevant information. Yet the result may be worth the work, especially if you discover some thing or things that you may have been unfairly beating yourself up about. And now you will be able to seek help – hopefully without any embarrassment because you understand that your problems are genetic. The problems have nothing to do with “laziness” or anything else that you can control.

For your parents, advisors or mentors who might want to help you on your path through high school, college and beyond, Dr. Levine has another dense yet significant book – READY OR NOT, HERE LIFE COMES. In this book Dr. Levine is concerned about what he calls “the startup years” and young people’s “work-life unreadiness.” Buried gold is also to be found in this book.

And there’s a national organization that can help with reading problems: Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (www.rfbd.org) offers textbooks on tape or CD. On the home page of the website click on JOIN NOW.

Don’t be like Roxy in ARMY WIVES and assume you’re stupid because you don’t do well on written tests. Check out if the wiring of your brain is interfering with your abilities. And, if so, get the extra help that will enable you to compensate for your genetic wiring.

Technorati Tags:
Mel Levine, A Mind at a Time, Ready or Not Here Life Comes, www.rfbd.org, Flipping Burgers, learning disabilities, Lifetime TV, ARMY WIVES, THE COSBY SHOW, PUNKY BREWSTER

Who You Know Still Plays a Large Role in Hiring Decisions

2008-08-07T23:48:00.001-07:00

Recently the following comment was left on this blog:

About.com just added 3 new sites to their Top 10 Employment sites list:
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.indeed.com

Only one of them is a social network. Employers and recruiters don’t care if they know someone; they want to hire the most qualified candidate .... nothing will ever change that.

This comment was probably generated by a software program that looks for blogs on which to leave comments that connect to someone’s website. At least I would prefer to think this than to think that someone would purposely write such an idiotic comment.

This comment has NEVER been true in reality even if the hiring manager says he/she wants to hire the most qualified candidate. Unless forced by diversity programs and/or government regulations, people hire who they like. And who they like is usually who they feel comfortable with – which frequently translates into a close copy of themselves.

Now the advent of social media networks has somewhat changed the playing field. Today people can connect in non-traditional ways (outside the men’s locker room and the golf course) and become “friends.”

And LinkedIn.com – the one site above that is the social network rather than a job website like the other two sites – is really a business recommendation site much more than a true social media network.

Here’s the thing: There can be so many equally qualified applicants for a job. If you were the hiring manager, wouldn’t you rather hire either someone you know personally or someone recommended by someone you know personally (even if that person is known only through a social media relationship)?

For those of you starting out on your path in life, remember that who you know is still very important in the larger picture. And you also need to be prepared when you discover an unqualified candidate has just been hired in your department. In this case, a good question to ask yourself is: Who does this new employee know either online or offline?

The moral of this story: You should always strive to be the best qualified candidate for any position to which you apply – and finding someone to recommend you who knows the hiring manager is also a good idea.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers, internships, jobs, careers, LinkedIn.com, Realmatch.com, Indeed.com, About.com

U.S. Olympians Must Also Train on Correct Behavior While in China

2008-08-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

The August 6^th front-page Wall Street Journal article titled “U.S. Olympic Training Features A New Requirement: Etiquette 101” by Christopher Rhoads made me smile.

Why this hadn’t been obvious from years ago is a mystery. We Americans are not well-versed in other cultures nor are we particularly well-versed in manners in general. (That’s why I often blog about such seemingly minor things such as getting rid of your gum BEFORE you walk into an interview meeting.)

Apparently in the past the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has only given 15 minutes to guidance on behavior. This new course – given in five cities throughout the U.S. – is mandatory, usually lasts two days, and includes role-playing and group games.

One piece of the instruction included this: “Also discussed was how to hold the American flag during a victory lap. (Answer: not upside down.)”

Whether you are competing in the Olympics or competing for an internship or job, your behavior in public reflects on your overall image. Make sure you’re a gold medal winner when it comes to achieving a positive image.

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U.S. Olympic Committee, Olympics, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Christopher Rhoads, internships, jobs, careers

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Bravo TV’s FLIPPING OUT Jeff Lewis Rants About Entitlement

2008-08-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

My younger daughter showed me a brief segment of episode “Tapped Out” of season 2 of Bravo TV’s series FLIPPING OUT (www.bravotv.com). She wanted me to hear Jeff Lewis – the “obsessive-compulsive house flipper” in LA whom the show follows – talk about his new assistant Chris.

Chris is changing careers and hopes to become a project manager under Jeff. And you know that I often write about the need to take an internship to try out a new career. But Chris is getting paid to try out this new career – and, unfortunately, he has a problem.

Chris unrealistically expects to be a project manager in six months. Jeff informs the camera that he’s been doing this for 20 years. And if everyone could change careers after three weeks on a new job, Jeff would be an astronaut in three weeks.

Jeff is actually hitting on a major problem with young people today – the feeling of entitlement. This is a feeling that everything is due you without any effort or work on your part. And I know that Jeff’s assistant isn’t an isolated case. My cousin who works at a large computer company has complained to me about the entitlement attitude of the interns with whom he works.

How do you know if you are exhibiting this behavior? One clue might be if you say or mutter negative things when asked to make copies of something or to pick up an envelope from the receptionist.

Another clue might be always demanding to do things that you haven’t yet learned how to do well or even been shown how a company wants that task done.

The expression “everyone has to pay his/her dues” is a good one to remember for young people starting out on their own career paths. Or another good expression might be “you have to crawl before you walk.”

For example, although my uncle was chairman of a national food service company, my cousin with a degree from Wharton started out as a cook at one of the food service contracts. For his whole first year of marriage he left the house at the crack of dawn, leaving a good-morning note for his bride. But it was important to learn the business from the bottom up as he rose up the ranks.

The next time someone asks you to copy papers – don’t pout or raise your eyebrows or look annoyed. Instead, smile and eagerly fulfill the task. First, you might learn something from the papers that you’re copying. Second, you’ll be appreciated much more than another new hire who does pout.

Entitlement only comes when you have paid your dues and then some.

Technorati Tags:
Bravo TV, Flipping Out, Jeff Lewis, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers

New Face for Facebook – More Opportunities for Effective Networking

2008-07-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to MaryPat Kavanagh – social networking and joint venture expert for entrepreneurs (www.queenofmarketing.com), I’ve had an early peek at the new Facebook. (If you have an account, you can change your old page to the new one by going to www.new.facebook.com. And according to MaryPat, everyone’s page will soon be changed over to the new look).

My comments: First, I’ve barely learned the ins and outs of the old Facebook. Still, there are already things I like better, such as an actual visible home button instead of having to mouse over to find the invisible home button.

From a professional point of view, the best new feature may be the opportunity to put a very short bio (only a little longer than the one allowed on Twitter) right under your profile picture. So when, for example, someone is on your Wall page, the person can see something about you without going to your Info page and scrolling down under Personal Information to About Me.

Below is what I wrote for the little bio under my profile picture. Full disclosure: it took me some time to fit what I wanted to say into the space allowed:

I'm a marketer and an author with a recently released novel and three blogs. I'm launching a FAMILY of info product websites with estateplanningforyou.com.
~
I just connected through Facebook with Zimblers in England -- possible distant cousins.

(The photo of a dulcimer at the beginning of this post is representing the tsimbl, an Eastern European stringed klezmer instrument that originated the Jewish surnames Zimbler and Zimbalist. I’m working with a new possible cousin in England found through Facebook on a theory involving the supposedly most famous klezmer musician Mikhail Guzikov (1806-1837), who toured “the great opera houses of Europe from Odessa to Paris” according to an article by Pete Rushefsky. In our Zimbler cousin case the opera house in Odessa is a possible key to a mystery we’re trying to solve.)

If you’re not already on Facebook, this is a great time to start. You’ll be learning the new look while the old-timers will be learning it too, so you won’t be that far behind.

Just remember my constant warning – choose a profile picture that has a professional look to it. No funny faces, funny hats or funny anything.

And if you read this column come friend me on Facebook – just be sure to mention my FLIPPING BURGERS blog in the friend request message you send me.

Technorati Tags:
MaryPat Kavanagh, www.queenofmarketing.com, Facebook, Zimbler, Zimbalist, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, tsimbl, Odessa, Mikhail Guzikov, Pete Rushefsky

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Another Facebook No-No – Sending a Friend Request to a Job Interviewer

2008-07-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

The July 29^th Wall Street Journal article by Sarah E. Needleman entitled “Thx for the IView! I Wud (heart) to Work 4U!!;) Young Job Candidates Find Too-Casual Tone of Textspeak Turns Off Hiring Managers” surprised me.

I wasn’t surprised that young job candidates didn’t know better than to use texting abbreviations in their thank-you notes to interviewers. I’ve written before about the need to use proper English (spelling and grammar) for such communication.

But I admit I was surprised that young people on Facebook send friend requests to interviewers with personal pages on Facebook. This assumes a peer relationship that doesn’t exist. And this action can be fraught with peril if the job applicant has been indiscreet on his or her Facebook profile page.

Although Facebook is now being used more and more for business, there’s still a major difference between Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook is a social media site first, a business site second. LinkedIn is a business site first, a social media site second.

Therefore I do believe it would be appropriate to send an add to network request to an interviewer on LinkedIn because presumably the interviewer is on the site for business purposes.

But to send a friend request to an interviewer who is on Facebook in her or his personal capacity and not on a company page is presumptuous. Regardless of what you may think, the interviewer does not want to share her or his likes in music and movies with you.

As in everything else on the internet, you have to use good judgment. Every time I want to send a message to someone through Facebook, I stop and consider whether this is something that could be put on the person’s wall or whether this is something that should only be seen by the recipient. These messages can’t be dashed off without any thought.

Just because you can send a message around the world in a flash does NOT mean that you should disengage your brain from your activities.

And, according to the Journal article, interviewers are worried about hiring someone who text messages a thank you using abbreviated language. What kind of business correspondence can this young person be trusted to do? After all, every communication that person sends if working at a company reflects back on the company.

Next time you’re tempted to dash off a thank you from your BlackBerry five minutes after you’ve left an interview, consider whether that is the best positioning of your image. While you don’t have to produce a hand-written thank-you note, a well-formulated email could go a long way towards demonstrating that you know professional communication standards.

Remember, as always, the job opportunity that you impact positively or negatively by your actions may be the one that you really want. Don’t jeopardize it by two-thumbing a sloppy, jargon-laced thank you.

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Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Sarah E. Needleman, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, internships, jobs, careers, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media, BlackBerry, job interviewers

Yet Another Facebook Profile Photo Warning – Take This Advice Seriously!

2008-07-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Peter Shankman’s www.helpareporter.com email alert had this query:

Doing market research for an article:

What, if anything, are kinds/young adults taught in grade school/high school and/or college re: online profiles and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.?

What if you found out that your college-age nephew, who is slated to take over the family business after college, looks like a total idiot online? How do we teach our upcoming “young professionals” that posting pics of themselves in nothing but a diaper at Halloween is just not appropriate?

Of course I immediately responded to this query because I often blog about this problem of inappropriate photos and personal info on social media. I even forwarded to the reporter my post of June 6^th (see http://tinyurl.com/5g9hgr).

And then I went on Facebook because I’m working with a young woman and her mother to more effectively use Facebook and LinkedIn (and start on Twitter) to help establish their professional brands. And what do you think I found on the young woman’s profile page?

A profile photo of her making a face (she’ll be 27 in September), and for “interested in” on her profile she had put Men.

I immediately emailed her that she must:

a) replace that goofy photo with an appropriate profile photo

b) eliminate the “interested in” entry and instead use the “looking for” entry of Friendship and Networking

Was I annoyed that I had to tell her this? Yes and no. Yes, because she should have known better. No, because obviously from the reporter’s query there are lots of young adults who don’t know better.

If you’re a reader of this blog, I sincerely hope you’ve taken my warnings to heart. Be sure your profile photos on all social media sites of which you’re a member are appropriate as well as having appropriate comments on your profile pages.

The career that you do NOT sabotage if you follow this advice is your own.

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Starbucks Asia Pacific President Stresses Passion and Building Personal Relationships

2008-07-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

John Culver, president of Starbucks Asia Pacific, could be a spokesperson for my FLIPPING BURGERS AND BEYOND philosophy:

The July 21^st article by Tor Ching Li in The Wall Street Journal was titled “Culver of Starbucks Asia on Getting Started: ‘Be Passionate.’”

Music to my ears.

And the blog post I did just before this one (see http://tinyurl.com/6kd4eh) ties in nicely with this quote from Culver in response to what was the biggest lesson he learned on his first job:

“I washed dishes and waited on tables when I was still in high school. The biggest lesson I learned is to treat people the way you want to be treated. As humans we all share a desire to be acknowledged and recognized, whether it is a warm greeting or a sincere thank you. It is the little things that build personal relationships.”

And in response to what’s the one thing he wished every new hire knew, Culver said:

“It is important to have the basic knowledge and skills, but it is more important that you choose a career path or company that you are passionate about and aligns with your values as a person.”

These are topics that I talk about again and again as part of the FLIPPING BURGERS AND BEYOND philosophy. And I strongly believe in the earlier the better for you to start following your passion to see where that leads.

It’s your own life in which you’re investing energy. And it’s much easier to invest that energy if you’re enthusiastic about what you’re doing.

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Wall Street Journal, Tor Ching Li, John Culver, Starbucks Asia Pacific, internships, jobs, careers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Internships, Jobs and Careers: There Is No Such Thing as an Unimportant Job

2008-07-25T17:04:00.001-07:00

Today my younger daughter and I had lunch at a nice restaurant in West LA where we have eaten before and had excellent service. But, today, with the restaurant half empty (a summer Friday in Los Angeles), the service was lousy.

The waitress, who was off-putting, missed every opportunity to provide a pleasant dining experience. One small example pointed out by my daughter:

She and I shared a platter of miniature samples of the dessert. Then my daughter ordered a whole piece of cheesecake. The waitress asked hadn’t the cheesecake been on the sample plate? Yes, and now my daughter wanted the whole piece.

As soon as the waitress left, my daughter told me the waitress should have said: “I’m so glad you found a dessert you especially like. I’ll bring it right out.”

As a coach of teens and young people, I find it hard to believe that this waitress can easily change her mindset when she has a more “serious” position. I can picture her in a meeting with her future employer’s important client. Instead of graciously responding to the client’s interest in a new company offering, she replies: “Don’t you have enough of a similar product already?”

The point of this story? Even in jobs that are “unimportant” to you (except for the paycheck and tips, obviously), you must work on cultivating the correct mindset. Then when you have a job that you really want, you’ll be ready to be an excellent addition to your employer’s team.

Tip for those of you who want to really get the concept of fabulous customer service: Read “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service” by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles with a foreword by my favorite business guru – Harvey Mackay.

This is a book of few words and monumental ideas. Years ago, when I was communications officer at the Visiting Nurse Association of Los Angeles, I organized a one-day workshop for top management based on this “simple” book.

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Internships, jobs, careers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles, Harvey Mackay

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Tell the Truth – It Can Save a Great Deal of Time

2008-07-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

In an internship/job situation, telling the truth often makes things go much easier. And here’s the example of this that I want to share with you:

For the last two days I’ve been trying to launch an online information product website. There are some problems between the html coding of my website designer in Canada and the html coding of the company providing the shopping cart function of the website.

From the emails of my website designer – who I think is very talented – I knew English is probably not his first language (I’ve never spoken to him on the phone). So when I emailed him that my shopping cart company wanted to talk directly to him, he balked at doing this. Instead he tried to figure out what to do and then sent an email to the company.

After 24 hours of not getting anywhere, I realized that he probably didn’t want to speak to the shopping cart company because of his unsure command of English. But he didn’t want to tell me this because of potential embarrassment. (There’s nothing to be embarrassed about – I’m lousy at every foreign language I’ve ever tried to learn.)

With this realization, I called support of the company myself, and the support person with whom I spoke was incredibly helpful (thanks Rachel at www.1shoppingcart.com). Even though I don’t know how to do html coding, by asking the right questions and getting the right answers, I was able to get the needed information to give to my website designer.

The moral of this story? If your boss gives you an assignment and you don’t understand it or have a problem with it, do NOT spend hours trying to figure out what to do. Ask for help. In most cases your boss will be thrilled you let her/him know right away, thus saving a great deal of potentially wasted time.

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www.1shoppingcart.com, internships, jobs, careers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Internships, Jobs and Careers: Do You Have a 30-Second “Elevator” Pitch?

2008-07-22T23:12:00.001-07:00

Imagine you’re in an elevator with a well-dressed person in his/her 40s. The person asks you: “What do you do?” And you reply ….

When you're looking for internships, jobs and careers, opportunity can strike at any moment. Maybe the person in the elevator with you is looking for an assistant. Or maybe he or she knows of an opening with a friend’s business.

Be ready with a well-prepared but unstilted elevator speech: I just finished my junior year at UCLA and I’m looking for an unpaid summer internship in the field of interior design.

Or: I just graduated from UC Santa Barbara and I’m applying to advertising agencies with the goal of becoming a media buyer.

You never know who somebody knows. And it would be a shame to waste your 30-second window of opportunity with the answer: I just finished college and I’m looking for a job.

Because just as the person is about to ask you what kind of job or which college, the elevator doors can clang open and you’ll have lost your opportunity.

At each stage of your life be prepared with a 30-second “elevator” pitch that you can use at cocktail parties, in line at movie theaters, in line at Starbucks, and even in elevators. Remember, the person to whom you give your elevator speech may end up being your next boss.

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Internships, jobs, careers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, elevator speech

Internships: Showmethereel.com Offers Entertainment Industry Advice That’s Also Helpful for Other Internships

2008-07-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

To find an internship and then be successful in that internship most people need as much advice as they can get. My older daughter Rachel Miller – co-partner of Showmethereel.com – has just had two new articles accepted at ezinearticles.com:

one on finding an internship in the entertainment industry
the other on being successful in an entertainment industry internship

Both these articles give good advice that is also useful for other internships.

Here is sample advice from Rachel’s first and second articles:

When do you need to start interning?

To get the maximum benefit, you should intern at a company for at least 3-4 months for at least three days a week so that you really become part of the team and so that your colleagues will remember who you are.

Do NOT waste your time interning over your short college spring break - no one will remember you for only a week or two. Instead go somewhere fun over short breaks and focus on finding an internship for the summer or during the semester.

How do you turn your internship into a job?

The easy answer is: do a GREAT job as an intern - not just an okay job but an outstanding job. Always be there on time, do the work, come in with a smile and be enthusiastic!

Ezinearticles.com is one of several article aggregators on the internet. After submitted articles are accepted, they can be used for free by anyone as long as the author’s resource box (last paragraph in the article) is included. Many ezines, blogs and websites utilize these free articles.

To read these two internship articles at ezinearticles.com, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/6nqxpq for “How You Can Find the Right Entertainment Industry Internship to Jumpstart Your Career”
http://tinyurl.com/6659c4 for “How You Can Succeed in an Entertainment Industry Internship to Jumpstart Your Career”

(A tiny url is a free system for shortening long URLs. You simply go to tinyurl.com and paste a long URL into the box and voila! out pops a short URL.)

FYI – www.showmethereel.com is a new online entertainment community where writers, directors, production designers, hair and make-up artists, composers and many other entertainment industry professionals can showcase their work. If you have a passion in one of these fields, you can consider showcasing your work here.

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For Internships, Jobs and Careers: Network by Joining Groups on Facebook

2008-07-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve talked about Facebook in several posts – mostly what NOT to do to protect your professional image. Yet there are many things you CAN do on Facebook to help your networking efforts.

I have to admit that at first I didn’t really understand how to effectively use Facebook. But as I l earn more, I understand that the opportunities for networking on

Facebook can be quite numerous. (Yet as with most things in life, you have to be willing to give in order to get.)

Examples of two Facebook groups to which I belong

This month I’ve been part of a four-session teleseminar called “The Law of Action 2.0” put on by the BlogSquad (Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff) and Kathleen Gage with an accompanying secret Facebook group that does not show up in profiles.

On this secret Facebook group page are discussion topics connected to the teleseminar course. Here we can ask questions and get answers from each other. And in this spirit of helping, we get and give friend requests from and to others in the group.

I also now belong to the Facebook group Virtual Coffee Dates – which is an open group that anyone can join – started by MaryPat Kavanagh (www.queenofmarketing.com).

This group had a virtual coffee date on Friday -- and it was my first time on a Skype IM chat. For me this was an amazing opportunity to “chat” with some very successful women in the internet world. One woman even recognized my name as being in “The Law of Action” Facebook group with her. And another woman on the chat was Mari Smith, whose area of expertise is using Facebook “for fun and profits” (http://whyfacebook.com).

Find groups on Facebook that are of interest to you

If you click on GROUPS under “Applications” on your Facebook account home page, a search engine for groups will pop up. Put in a description of your interest (I just tried bird watching to see how many groups would come up – lots) and you’ll get a list of groups connected to that subject.

Click on each group’s pages to read about the group and then choose a couple of groups to join. Be an active participant in discussion topics (that’s the giving part) and begin to get and make friend invites in the group (the getting part). And you can always drop out of a group if you later decide it’s not right for you.

This is an organic way to start making friends with people of similar interests – and a first step towards utilizing Facebook connections “for fun and profits” as Mari Smith would say.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Facebook groups, BlogSquad, Kathleen Gage, www.queenofmarketing.com, http://whyfacebook.com, internships, jobs, careers

Interview Etiquette: When Does the Interview Actually Begin?

2008-07-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

When interviewing for internships or jobs, it’s important to remember that everything you do from the moment you arrive at an interview location may be observed and noted.

This could be something as unexpected as the parking attendant noticing how dirty your car is to the receptionist noticing whether you read the company annual report or sit staring at the wall while waiting in the reception area.

Three quick to-dos before entering the interview location:

· Discard your chewing gum or Starbucks coffee container

· Pop a breath freshener in your mouth and then discard before speaking to anyone

· Turn off your cell phone (and that means completely off – do NOT leave it on vibrator to distract you while you are being interviewed)

When you enter the location, treat everyone from receptionist to CEO with the same courtesy and respect. (Please and thank you go a long way.)

This is both the correct way to act towards others and you may be saving yourself. Who knows if the temporary receptionist is actually the daughter of the CEO? And guess into whose ear she pours the information on how rudely you acted?

Without becoming paranoid, picture Big Brother watching you from the moment you arrive at the interview location. This will guide you NOT to say silly things to the other people waiting in the reception area or to pester the receptionist as to when you will be called into the interview.

And remember to smile – people like to see a pleasant face!

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Interviews, internships, jobs, interview etiquette, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Finding an Internship or a Job: Using Twitter Revisited

2008-07-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

On Monday I posted about using http://Twitter.com to research internship possibilities and described the Twitter client application Summize. Such is the speed of the internet that this info was out of date just as I posted. Because, also on Monday, Twitter announced it had just acquired Summize and that the URL for this feature is now http://search.twitter.com.

You can access this function without a free Twitter account. So if you want to see what people are saying on Twitter about a certain subject, go ahead and type in the subject and see what tweets pop up. (I just put in the word internships and got some interesting tweets.)

And for the last two days I’ve been trying out http://twhirl.org after MaryPat Kavanagh (www.queenofmarketing.com) advised me that she uses Twhirl to access Twitter. (Twhirl is a desktop client for Twitter based on the Adobe AIR platform, which I downloaded for free.)

At the moment I’m of two opinions about Twhirl: On the one hand I like the pop-up tweets that appear in the bottom right-hand corner of my computer screen whenever anyone I’m following posts a tweet. On the other hand I get distracted from what I’m doing by reading those pop-up tweets. So for now the jury is still out on what I think of this client application.

And here’s a Twitter feature I’ve just started using – http://twitter.com/direct_messages. It’s when you want to tweet someone on Twitter but you don’t want everyone following you and following the tweet receiver to be able to read the tweet. I’m using the direct messages feature to send my primary email address to someone with whom I’ve been exchanging tweets on a specific topic.

Okay, I’ve now given you more research tools for finding contacts for internships and jobs. Let me know if you use these tools and if they help lead you to what you want to find.

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Twitter, Summize, www.queenofmarketing.com, MaryPat Kavanagh, internships, jobs, careers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Internships: Using Twitter to Research Internship Possibilities

2008-07-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Internships to follow a passion or to check out possible career paths are a big part of the FLIPPING BURGERS philosophy. I’ve always advised researching possibilities by brainstorming with friends, family and mentors and by talking to people you know and people who know people you know.

Now I’ve been giving some thought as to how to utilize social media networks to research possible internships. Below is an example using the free microblogging site www.Twitter.com.

Let’s suppose someone who we’ll call Laura wants an internship with an internet marketing company. And she knows the name of one company in her hometown that offer internet marketing services. (She knows this because she’s been keeping notes on companies she runs across that might be of interest to her.)

Laura is already registered on Twitter. First she goes to www.Summize.com (an application for Twitter) and puts in the words internet marketing. Up pop tweets (the 140 character messages on Twitter) that mention these two words.

Laura reads the tweets and clicks through to the blog posts whose URLs are in the tweets. This is background information to help her learn more about internet marketing.

Then she goes directly to Twitter and searches on the words internet marketing. Up pop profiles of people on Twitter whose bio or other profile info mentions internet marketing. Laura reads these profiles and chooses some to follow on Twitter.

And then she searches on the name of the president of the internet marketing company in her hometown and comes up with nothing. Next she searches on the company name. And, hooray, she has struck gold! A profile pops up identifying the profiled person as a vice president at the local internet marketing company. Laura hasn’t run across his name before on the company’s website or in a Google search. Maybe he’s new?

Now she can send him a tweet directly through Twitter. And because Twitter is direct communication of only 140 characters (no emails to click open), it’s very likely that the VP will see the tweet and respond to her.

Of course Laura will have to figure out how to write a compelling message in only 140 characters. Yet given the conversational tone of tweets, she can say something along the lines of: Love to meet with you about possible internship. I’m 3 miles away from your office.

The VP getting this tweet can click on Laura’s Twitter profile, and if she’s used her brief profile effectively, there should be enough info for the VP to consider meeting with her.

Thanks to Laura using Twitter, this approach has a much better chance of success than submitting a cover letter with a regular resume and hoping that the assistant to the VP will even show the query to the VP. (And in addition, at this moment in Twitter’s existence, there’s a certain “club” atmosphere with the other people on Twitter. So Laura is already put in a more favorable light by having used Twitter to approach the VP.)

Do you have other examples of how you can use social media networks to pursue internships or jobs?

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jobs

Asking for Something: What’s in It for the Other Person?

2008-07-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve been listening to several teleseminars about using social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter for business purposes. The basic premise is that people do business with people they know, like and trust.

According to several of these teleseminars, there’s another premise that should be considered when you are trying to get someone to do something you want or to buy from you. What’s in it for the other person?

Okay, you may be saying. But what does this have to do with college applications, internships, jobs and careers? Let’s look at these topics:

College applications: When you are preparing to write college-application essays you should be thinking: What do I have to offer the colleges to which I’m applying? Sure, you’ve already thought about what the colleges have to offer you as you made a tentative list. But now you have to switch your mindset:

Have I followed my passion during high school so that I have something interesting to add to the freshman class? Something that will contribute to the range of college life? Or am I one of thousands of high school students whose main resume items are class president, high school soccer team, worked as a camp counselor during the summer, got good grades and good SATs?

Internships: When you’re ready to apply for internships you should be thinking: What do I have to offer these companies to which I’m applying? Again, you’ve already thought about what the companies have to offer you. Now switch your mindset:

Have I demonstrated any interest before in the kind of work the company does? Can I get a letter of recommendation from someone that I have demonstrated such an interest before? Have I presented myself to the company in emails and phone calls in such a way that the company will understand that I could be an asset as an intern instead of a drag on training time because I don’t even know how to write a professional email or speak on the phone in a business-like manner?

Got the idea? And the same concept is applicable to looking for a job and for looking for a position in a career path.

When you want college admission offices or internship, job or career possibilities to seriously consider you, take the time to prepare yourself so that you can present yourself in a way that demonstrates convincingly that there’s something in it for them.

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Internship: A Golden Opportunity If You Know How to Spin Gold Out of Straw

2008-07-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

The playbill for the 2008 “Free Shakespeare in Barnsdall Park” (Los Angeles) by the Independent Shakespeare Company (www.independentshakespeare.com) listed the company members for the production of HENRY IV (parts 1 and 2). I noted the last item on the company list – intern – and a male name. Yes, I said to myself, someone is getting a chance to follow his passion.

Now I don’t know whether this particular passion is acting or directing or stage management or theater company management. But I do know that someone is getting to see a theater production up close and personal. And whether this bird’s eye view encourages the intern to continue pursuing his passion – or turns him off forever to anything connected with the theater – the intern should be able to avoid regrets of never trying to follow his passion.

And while I also can’t know what the HENRY IVth intern is doing for the production, I read with interest Erin Chambers’ Wall Street Journal July 1^st article “Tips to Make the Most of Summer Internships.” In general I agreed with many of the tips, which are as true for paying jobs as they are for unpaid internships.

I disagreed with the information under the heading “Don’t get discouraged.” Here’s what Chambers wrote: “If it’s been a few weeks, and you’re still just making photocopies, don’t fret – or complain. Request a meeting with your supervisor to ask about new projects.”

In many industries an internship is exactly that – making photocopies. But what goes along with making photocopies is usually the ability to read anything you’re handed to photocopy:

If you’re handed an office memo to photocopy, read it to learn how office memos are written. (Obviously you don’t repeat what you’re read.)

If you’re handed movie scripts to photocopy (entertainment industry), ask if it is okay to make a copy for yourself to read. (Again, obviously you don’t show this to anyone else outside the office.)

A summer spent photocopying may seem dull. Yet if you’ve made the best use of your time – such as carefully paying attention to what goes on around you concerning office politics – you will have learned a great deal of valuable information for your future path. Plus you may get enough insight to know whether you want to consider pursuing a career path in this field.

Good interns take lemons if that’s what they’re handed and make lemonade for their own learning experience. And those same good interns often get great letters of recommendation because they were team players and didn’t expect entitlements. (A relative of mine works with interns at a large company and told me he’s constantly surprised by the sense of entitlement the interns have.)

If there were an intern bill of rights, it would state:

You are not promised to get to do fascinating and challenging tasks at the workplace.

You are promised to learn a great deal if you keep your eyes and ears open.

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Erin Chambers, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Independent Shakespeare Company, internship, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ, intern

Public-Service Agencies Offer Unique Opportunities for College Graduates

2008-07-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Volunteering as a way to check out possible career paths is something I often discuss. Yet, after reading The Wall Street Journal’s July 3rd Careers article “Altruism Meets a Weak Job Market” by Anne Marie Chaker, I wanted to talk about a different kind of “volunteering” as a way to do good and, at the same time, increase one’s transportable skills.

First, what do I mean by transportable skills? If you have learned how to help get consensus in a sub-Sahara African village between members of different tribes, you probably can help get consensus between two different factions of a corporate argument.

The Journal article cites rising college graduate interest in such public-service agencies as:

· Teach for America (www.teachforamerica.org)

· Peace Corps (www.peacecorps.gov)

· WorldTeach (www.worldteach.org)

· AmeriCorps (www.americorps.org)

While young people volunteer (apply) for positions with these agencies, this isn’t, strictly speaking, volunteering because there is some form of payment, depending on the agency. And there are often other benefits, such as education awards, access to alum of these programs, and career advice. (These positions are for a definite period of time – usually between one to two years.)

Yet, for the most part, young people who sign up for these public-service stints “volunteer” to teach in low-income public schools or in African villages without plumbing or in impoverished rural areas in the U.S.

If you want to share your expertise with people less fortunate than yourself, consider applying for a position through a public-service agency. Who knows? This new path may lead you to a future you otherwise never would have considered.

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Creating Workplace Opportunities: Going for the Gold

2008-07-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Creating your own opportunities for internships and jobs is a topic about which I frequently blog. And the following story is a great example of creating your own opportunity.

Jane (not the person’s real name) spotted a job opening at a major computer software company. She didn’t have any of the requirements listed for the job except she knew she had the contacts and skills to achieve the desired end result. And she really wanted that job.

Knowing she wouldn’t get an interview based on her resume, she used her contacts to convince the company to fly her out for an interview for the position, for which the company had been looking for eight months for the right person to hire.

At the interview she said that the reason the company hadn’t been able to hire anyone was that the company sought the wrong requirements. In fact, it was her skill set that was needed to get the job done. And after a few more interviews (flying back and forth between the coasts), she got the job.

Of course, the contacts she used to get the first interview had been nurtured for a long time. And when she went in for the several interviews, I’m sure she was dressed appropriately, had the correct body posture, handshake, etc. I also know she is very careful about what she puts on her Facebook profile and other social media networking sites.

The moral of this story? If there’s a job you really want and you believe you can achieve the desired end result, do not be put off by a list of job requirements that you do not have. If you know that those requirements are not truly needed to do the job and that you have other skills that are needed, go for it. The job you win may be the one you’ve always wanted.

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Volunteering for College Applications – and for Life

2008-07-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Most high school students applying to college know that volunteering activities are important to have on their resumes. Yet, as with everything else on a good resume, there’s volunteering and there’s volunteering.

It’s easy, for example, to volunteer to help with a food collection drive sponsored by your high school. Any student can do that simply by signing up and following through.

Yet, for the other kind of volunteering, what about coming up with a volunteer project yourself that demonstrates initiative, creativity and results?

As described in my post today at www.dogooderscrooge.blogspot.com, I’ve just returned from the Philadelphia wedding of my nephew. It was a lovely, lovely wedding, and I cried as the bride and groom stood under the chupah. Yet I also cried much later in the evening – while a fantastic band played – when I opened the wedding guest gift:

Each guest received a gift certificate for $18 (in Hebrew 18 represents chai – life) to www.donorschoose.org – a nonprofit website where “public school teachers submit proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn.” And then donations bring these dreams to life.

At the wedding I talked to my nephew about the gift certificates. He said he and his bride-to-be had been thinking of giving each guest a $10 gift when they realized what they could do with a different kind of wedding guest gift.

This morning I went to www.donorschoose.org/gift to redeem my gift certificate. There were so many good projects from which to choose. And any of these projects could be the basis of initiating your own volunteer project.

Example of creating your own volunteer project

Let’s suppose you read the following project listed at www.donorschoose.org/gift

Pushing Our Way into Literacy: Book Carts For the Classroom

Last week was Teen Read Week. The media specialist and I created a book cart around the theme Get Active and visited 28 classrooms during the week. With each class, we did a book pass of books we thought would be high interest reads for the students and then allowed them to check out books. During the week, there was a 280% increase in the number of books checked out. We received an overwhelmingly positive response from the staff as well, who reported that for the first time their students were reading.

We would now like to purchase a number of carts to create themed book mobiles for teachers to check out. We know that reading comprehension is the most critical component of student education, and placing high interest reads into the hands of our kids is the key to developing that comprehension.

I need two book carts to enable me to provide high interest young adult reading materials to the students in my school. The cost of this proposal is $833, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

You could take this idea and brainstorm with friends, family, teachers or mentors how to adapt to your own community. Maybe you and three friends could make presentations in classrooms of your favorite books, and your enthusiasm could ignite the interest of students who normally don’t read books.

Or you and three friends could raise money to send to www.donorschoose.org to support this project. And you could offer to send a letter about books you enjoy to the project creator to share with the school’s students.

If you’re going to spend time volunteering – make that volunteer time truly count. Start a new volunteer project that shows your initiative, creativity and commitment.

Technorati Tags:
Donorschoose.org, volunteering, volunteer, college application, college applications, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

When Asking Questions in the Workplace Is the Right Thing to Do

2008-06-26T12:47:00.001-07:00

Asking appropriate questions in the workplace is something that comes naturally to some people and to many others it is difficult to do. If you are in the second group, one reason may be that you’re worried you may look stupid. That fear can be overwhelming – and can actually get you into hot water if you don’t ask a question when you should.

Let’s say you’re an intern at a company and you are asked to assemble a huge written report with lots of numbered exhibits. You’re not sure whether the numbered exhibits should be inserted into the report where they are referenced, or whether all the numbered exhibits should be placed at the end of the report.

You MISTAKENLY assume that which way to do this is so obvious that you’ll look stupid if you ask. So you don’t ask. And you put the numbered exhibits interspersed throughout the report. Then you bring your report to your boss – who is annoyed because you’ll have to take the time now to remove all those numbered exhibits and put them at the end of the report.

Yes, the boss didn’t tell you. But she may have forgotten that interns don’t know standard company policy. Which is why you should have asked. Instead of being annoyed at being asked, your boss might have replied: “Thanks for asking. I’d forgotten you don’t yet know our company policy. What we do is ………”

I’ve talked before in this blog about NOT opening your mouth at work when it’s not appropriate to do so. Now I’m saying that you MUST open your mouth at work to ask questions when you are unsure what to do.

Of course, ask in a polite way. And don’t interrupt your boss in the middle of a conversation with someone else in order to ask your question. Stand patiently to one side while waiting. If your boss is a good manager, she’ll take the hint and ask if you have a question.

Oh, yes, and do NOT say “no problem” after your boss tells you which way to do the report. Instead say thank you – a little thanks goes a long way.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, work etiquette, intern etiquette, jobs, job, careers, career, internships, internship, intern, employment, etiquette

Fixed Mind: Saying No to Yourself Before You Ever Start

2008-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

I’m a huge fan of the book MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

According to Dweck, a person with a growth mindset eagerly tackles new experiences even if that person knows he/she may not at first be successful. A growth-mindset person understands that what’s important is the learning that takes place in trying new experiences. It’s not a question of how smart or how stupid someone is. It’s a matter of willingness to learn new things even at the risk of failing.

In my own life I extend this concept to business. Although I know a great deal about marketing, I can learn new ideas from almost anyone. Therefore, I’m always open to suggestions and recommendations. And if at first a suggestion doesn’t seem to fit my personal brand or my project, I’ll consider how that suggestion could be changed in some way to fit my personal brand or project.

In my treadmill-for-two exercising at the local gym, my business partner and I frequently take ideas and push them and pull them into different shapes before finding the shape that best fits our needs. This is classic brainstorming.

And it is important for teens, young people, and people much farther along in their careers to have a growth-mindset in order to be open to suggestions from others. Obviously, each suggestion has to be evaluated on its own merits. Yet there’s often a kernel of a good idea even in an idea that seems way out there. That’s where the classic brainstorming with friends, family, teachers or mentors comes in – so you can uncover that kernel and then nurture it in new directions

I encountered a particular version of a fixed mindset a few months ago. That time I totally missed the signals that the person wanted her writing validated rather than being open to suggestions in improving her writing – the ostensible reason for which she contacted me.

Moral of this post? Two points: First, a growth-mindset is a wonderful life asset. If you don’t have it, read Carol Dweck’s book in order to start opening your mind. Two, when dealing with people who have asked a specific question of you, make sure that they really want an answer rather than simply validation of their own opinion. You will be saved aggravation if you learn to spot early on the people who simply want validation.

And, of course, if that person is your boss, the question of validating someone else’s opinion takes on a wholly different meaning. We’ll leave that subject for another post.

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Carol S. Dweck, Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Mindset

Facebook Photo Part II – Choosing a Profile Photo

2008-06-22T23:02:00.001-07:00

Have you ever been frustrated on Facebook when you want to see what a male teen looks like – and his profile picture is of three teen guys? Which one is he? Or a female teen trio that gives you no clue as to which one of these three teens is the profile page bio about?

In my June 6^th post I talked about NOT using an idiotic photo as your profile picture because Facebook is becoming more and more a business site. (See http://flippingburgersandbeyond.blogspot.com/2008/06/facebook-warning-beware-of-profile.html)

On the flip side, a head shot just of you (so your face is big enough to be seen and so we know this is you) should be used for the profile picture. Then pictures of you with friends can be included in your photo section.

And which head shot you choose should be given consideration. I personally feel that, for a teen male -- even one in college, a formal head shot in a suit is too stiff for a Facebook profile picture. My opinion is that the picture should be a good head shot with a nice shirt (no tie). And for a teen female, a nice top that is NOT too low is a good choice.

If the head shot appears so dark on Facebook that no one can see your features, use a different photo. A photo of a face that can’t be clearly seen isn’t any better than no photo at all.

With even cell phones taking pictures these days, you should be able to snap enough shots to find one good profile picture for your Facebook page. Remember that your Facebook page can be your business/career card to the world.

Extra tip: Of course as you grow older you’ll change your photo. Yet, at any one time on the internet, it’s preferable to use the same profile photo across all social media platforms of which you are a member in order to promote the good will generated by the recognition factor.

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Facebook, social media platforms, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Summer 2008 Gloomy Job Market = Opportunity for Teens to Follow Their Passion

2008-06-20T10:49:00.001-07:00

The economic situation this summer offers a terrific opportunity for teens to follow their passion. First, the situation:

In Harvey Mackay’s June 19^th email column, he reported an economic statement about summer teen employment from The New York Times:

“The job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work. Little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948."

Second, the opportunities:

Teens whose parents wanted them to get a full-time paying job as a “rite of passage” – for example, at Starbucks or Wal-Mart – can point to the economic situation as a reason to use this summer instead to further their passion.

Teens who wanted an unpaid internship this summer and haven’t found one yet have more “ammunition” to convince an employer that an unpaid intern can help fill the gap in a company where budget cuts have eliminated job positions.

Now it’s up to the teens to make lemonade out of lemons. And that means brainstorming to think of “outside the box” ways to pursue passions. For example, for a teen who is considering a career as a veterinarian: Why not see if a local vet needs a free extra pair of hands? This is a terrific way to learn whether you can really put up with all those animals all day long. Better to find this out before you apply to veterinarian school.

Or a teen who is interested in architecture can ask to tag along for the summer with an architect working on a major building project. Up close and personal is the best way to find out what headaches an architect deals with – clients, builders, garbage removal, etc. – and what negotiating skills are needed to navigate this maze of frequently conflicting objectives.

Or let’s consider artistic fields. You want to be a painter and your parents are convinced in such a path you’ll starve. See if you can spend the summer being the unpaid assistant to a currently successful painter. During the time you spend with the painter, you should have ample opportunity to talk about the obstacles the painter faced before becoming successful.

And consider volunteering for an organization that does good works. Even though this may not be in a possible career field, you can learn a great deal by watching the dynamics of an organization. Even when you’re making the coffee, keep your eyes and ears open to learn as much as possible.

Make the summer of 2008 the summer you followed your passion. Hopefully you will learn a great deal about pursuing a current passion as a possible career path. And, if nothing else, you should have good material for writing application essays for college or grad school.

Technorati Tags:
Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Harvey Mackay, teens, summer jobs, The New York Times

Parental Responsibility for Teens Over Age 18?

2008-06-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Today on the website www.communati.com a parent posted a very well-written blog (http://communati.com/jellen) asking about parental responsibilities for a teen under and over age 18. Here’s a small part of that post:

Does age 18 make my daughter an adult or just a legal one? Do I parent her as an adult or a dependent child? Do I require of her to dress with modesty because she is still in our home, or do I let her dress as she wills because she is an adult?

And here’s the comment I left on her post – addressing only a part of what she wrote:

I have a different take than many parents. I believe that high school does NOT prepare a teen for the adult world. There are so many, many things that are NOT taught. And these can range from things such as the difference between a savings account and a Certificate of Deposit to major subjects such as what happens to your credit standing if you don't pay your rent on time. I think it is the parent's responsibility (regardless of whether the child is past age 16 or 18) to continue providing real-world advice.

What I think is most lacking in young people's preparation for life is someone who works alongside of the teen to prepare him/her for adult life in the working world. For example, teens do NOT understand without help that dressing incorrectly can hurt their image – even when applying to a job such as a barista at Starbucks.

What I think you need is to find a mentor for your daughter who is not you so there are no mother-daughter issues to get in the way. This can be an actual person or an online person. As an example, I met with a high school junior two years ago and I was very upset that a kid who had so much going for him did not seem to "get" what he needed to do. A month ago – two years later – he emailed me out of the blue to tell me how he has been following my advice.

(See my blog entry http://flippingburgersandbeyond.blogspot.com)

I strongly urge you to find someone who can work with your daughter. (Not necessarily for pay.) This could be a career counselor at her community college or a former teacher who your daughter liked. It is so important though difficult for teens to understand that what they do now can affect the rest of their lives. And as parents we want to help make those lives as happy and productive as possible.

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Communati.com, teens, parental responsibility, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Internet Brave New World: “Final” Frontier for Business/Careers

2008-06-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

Twitter, Twhirl, Flock, Plurk – No, I’m not talking in Klingon. I’m naming a few of the new social media applications available on the web. And if you’re young – say a business major in college – you want to learn about these applications sooner than later. Why? Because this new frontier will be your world.

A great place to start learning is to go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/blogcatalog and listen to the two free webinars sponsored by BlogCatalog.com featuring social media consultant Erica O’Grady. I listened to these two programs live and learned a tremendous amount of info. (I typed notes while listening.)

The next free webinar with Erica O’Grady is June 30. Get online a few minutes before so you can sign up for a free ustream membership. That way, when you type in your comments during the webinar your username will show up instead of something such as ustream 2789.

Of course, you can visit the new social media sites directly. Yet with Twitter, for example, I needed to learn more about it before I could even begin to get the benefits from sending tweets. (Actually, I usually send updates through Ping.fm on my Facebook account, which updates Twitter and several other of my social media sites.)

A great place to watch short free videos that explain such things as RSS feeds and social bookmarking sites is www.commoncraft.com. And if the free info you find on such sites doesn’t do it for you, check out the special reports section of www.publicityhound.com. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart has short inexpensive reports that make things really clear. I particularly like her special report on Twitter.

As opposed to me – who is trying to become a princess (queen would be expecting too much) of internet marketing in a very short period of time – if you’re young you can take time to learn about all the new online possibilities for business and career success.

Oh, yes, if you join Twitter (free), follow me at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller. And you can even send me a direct message by putting @ZimblerMiller in the What are you doing box on the home page.

Technorati Tags:
Twitter, Twhirl, Flock, Plurk, BlogCatalog.com, Commoncraft.com, PublicityHound.com, ustream.tv, Erica O’Grady, Ping.fm, Facebook, Joan Stewart

5 Ways to Avoid Embarrassment on the Web

2008-06-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you who have been following my posts will think that I harp endlessly on this subject of avoiding embarrassment on the web. You may be right. But here’s the thing:

When a federal judge of the Ninth Circuit – reported in the June 13th Wall Street Journal to be “considered a brilliant jurist” – is forced to acknowledge that “he posted sexually explicit images to a personal website,” it can’t hurt to say this another time:

NEVER, EVER POST ANYTHING TO THE INTERNET THAT COULD BE DAMAGING TO YOU OR YOUR REPUTATION – NO MATTER HOW “PRIVATE” YOU THINK THE POSTING IS.

According to the Journal, the judge “thought the material was private, though he acknowledged sharing some with friends.” What part of “brilliant” was this stupidity?

Here are the 5+ ways to avoid embarrassment on the web:

• Facebook: Never post anything here that could damage your reputation.

• MySpace: Never post anything here that could damage your reputation.

• Twitter: Never post anything here that could damage your reputation.

• Bebo: Never post anything here that could damage your reputation.

• YouTube: Never post anything here that could damage your reputation.

• +: Never post anything ANYWHERE that could damage your reputation.

Now are we all on the same page?

Technorati Tags:
Judge Kozinski, Ninth Circuit, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Confidence in Yourself: Everyone Has Something to Offer

2008-06-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

My previous post gave the link to Chris Brogan’s June 11^th blog post about having confidence at meetings and conferences to go up to people you don’t know and introduce yourself. I also suggested reading the comments to this post.

And the comments from this post have been numerous and, mostly, insightful. Yet there’s one sentence in a comment that has been bothering me since I read it:

“… I tend to be very reserved as I question what I have to offer to the people that I am meeting.”

I’ve pondered this all day. Why must this person – let’s call him Tom – have to have something to offer the people he’s meeting? His having come to the conference to hear these people speak is enough of offering “something.” Speakers wouldn’t be speakers if they had no audiences. Speakers need audience members. Therefore, our Tom has already provided something valuable to the speakers.

And if Tom doesn’t mean the speakers he’s meeting, but instead he means the “important” people in the audience, the same thing holds. Speakers wouldn’t have a big audience if the only people they spoke to were “important” people. Speakers need to have “regular people” interested in the speakers’ presentations in order to have a satisfactory turn-out.

Okay, we’ve established that Tom is already offering something to the people he meets – he’s helping form an appreciative audience. And in addition, he’s offering himself.

Here’s the most significant thing to remember: Every person knows things that other people don’t know.

Now, Tom may not know he has unique information, and that unique information may not come up in a brief introduction, but that information is there ready to be mined by the right person. And who is the right person? Someone who is open to learning from anyone, may that anyone be ever so humble.

Let’s face it. Saying you have nothing to offer is hiding behind a façade. You have something to offer every single person you meet at a conference or meeting – be it as simple as where the men’s room is to what’s the next big internet site that will become “hot.”

Go forward and introduce yourself. The person open to learning from you may be the very next person whose hand you shake.

Technorati Tags:
Chris Brogan, confidence, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Chris Brogan Gives Good Advice on Introducing Yourself to New People

2008-06-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

Walking up to someone you haven’t met before at a conference or reception (as opposed to walking up to someone you know slightly – see my June 7^th blog) and introducing yourself can be very intimidating. Yet, if you’ve come to a conference or reception to meet people, that’s the name of the game.

Chris Brogan’s June 11^th blog post on this subject is quite interesting (don’t let the post title throw you):
www.chrisbrogan.com/be-sexier-in-person

Read his post and perhaps the numerous comments to it. There’s a lot of good advice for how to introduce yourself with confidence.

Here’s the comment I left on this post:

“It’s very helpful to switch from focusing on yourself to focusing on the other person. Instead of wanting to get in information about yourself, I think it’s better to establish rapport by getting the other person to talk about himself/herself. This happens by asking an appropriate (not rude) open-ended question that can’t be answered by a simple yes or no.

“If you get the other person talking about himself/herself, eventually you will be able to talk about yourself. And if you get interrupted before that time, you can always send a follow-up email saying how much you enjoyed speaking with the person — and then slip in something appropriate about yourself.”

Leave a comment on Chris’ post or here on what you think of the suggestions.

Technorati Tags:
Chris Brogan, confidence, introducing yourself, Flipping Burgers and Beyond

Videoconference Meetings – Remember to Also Dress from the Waist Down

2008-06-10T23:21:00.001-07:00

I got a chuckle out of the June 10^th Wall Street Journal article titled “Next on the Agenda: Kisses From Honey Bunny” by Dana Mattioli with the subtitle “Virtual Meetings Raise Risk of Embarrassing Faux Pas; A Suit on Top, Jeans Below.”

The article describes a meeting conducted via videoconferencing where a man “was dressed in business attire while he was sitting down, but once he stood up at the end of the conference, the camera revealed that he was wearing jeans.” The article goes on to say that the person on the other end of the camera thus questioned the man’s judgment.

Okay, I know you’re saying: Hey, the guy didn’t plan to stand up. Cut him some slack.

Of course he didn’t plan to stand up. But we all do things on automatic pilot. He was a man videoconferencing with a woman. He may have been taught to stand when a woman leaves the room. So perhaps he automatically stood at the end of the meeting.

The moral of the story: When meeting through a videoconference, dress as if the meeting were actually in the other person’s office. This will save you from any embarrassing “exposures” if you forget that you’re on candid camera.

Technorati Tags:
Dana Mattioli, videoconference, virtual meetings, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, jobs, job, careers, career, internships, internship, intern, employment, Flipping Burgers and Beyond