Tips for being a successful student
I’m a bit embarrassed about being away for so long, but with finals and moving – time seems to be a little tight.
I don’t know if it is that I am phasing out of the school and into the career mode, but I’ve done a little reflecting and have come up with a couple of great tips for students that are still studying public relations or communication.
These are the tips:
Be Involved: It doesn’t mean you need to join every club on campus, but it means you should involve yourself in both class and any outside experience. It allows you to engage in conversations, learn from your peers, learn from your professors and learn more about yourself.
Be Proactive: You are responsible for where you go in life. Being proactive is a way to stand out from the crowd, take initiative and get noticed. You end up making your career path, instead of letting others define it for you.
Be Positive/Optimistic: A good attitude is the key to success in any task or job. Having this characteristic sets you apart to show others your work ethic. There may be days where everything goes wrong, but a good attitude can pick you up so it doesn’t interfere with your homework and works.
Be Detail-Oriented: Paying attention to little details shows your professors and peers that you care and put full effort into what you do. You may not be the best at everything, but details will show that you try.
Be Passionate: If you have passion in what you do, everyone will be able to see it. It shows that you give 100 percent into everything. It will reflect on your work, personality and professionalism as a learning and growing public relations or communication student.
Image courtesy of Flickr: Pragmagraphr. It was taken under the Creative Commons License.
E-mail management for the PRos
Let me just share some great news with everyone. I recently was offered a spring internship with Waggener Edstrom, which I ecstatically excepted (yay!). But this is not the point of my post.
During the interviewing process, every person I talked to emphasized the importance being skillful at e-mail in every angle. People probably usually think: E-mail, really? Isn’t it just sending a message? Isn’t it just another communication tool?
Yes, no and no. Yes, it is sending a message and it is another communication tool, but it definitely is not something that gets a “just.” For my generation, e-mail began as a fun way to connect with friends, which it still is. But now, it also is a tool for effectively communicating in a business, an industry and with clients and building relationships, especially for PR.
Brian Zafron’s post on Freelance Switch gives great tips for successfully learning the “art of e-mail.” Some of my favorites include: “brand with a meaningful subject line,” “don’t be a pompous jerk” and “brevity is key.” I’d like to add one to the list – manage your responses.
Here are my tips to managing your responses:
- Organize your e-mail inbox into folders. You can stick e-mails you’ve responded to and ones you don’t need to respond to in the folders, so you can focus on the e-mails that need action. The uncategorized ones stay within the general inbox as a constant reminder for responding.
- Flag e-mails by category. Microsoft Outlook and Entourage (not too familiar with Mozilla’s Thunderbird) allow you to color code flag e-mails. Flagging signifies that the e-mail is important, and the color signifies the category or importance (you can choose the one that fits you best – everyone works a little differently) of the e-mail. Plus, you can pull up all the flagged e-mails at once.
- Respond to important e-mails immediately. The business world (and society) is extremely fast-paced, and for anything important, you must respond immediately. Even if you need to do a little more research, a simple – I will research and get back to you within 24 hours – will go a long way. Just don’t forget to actually get back to the person. It keeps the person informed and helps him or her know what is going on. It’s active communication.
- Respond to not-as-important e-mails eventually. I would say the rule of thumb for responding to an e-mail is within 24 hours (probably 48-72 hours, if you get at least 200 e-mails a day). But this is only for e-mails that can be given some time before you respond.
- Learn your e-mailers preferences. If he or she says – get back to me in the next day or two – you better get back within a day or two. Once you begin building relationships with the people you constantly e-mail, you’ll get to know how they work.
- ALWAYS set up an automated response when you are out-of-town or out-of-commission and give another contact for immediate needs. It helps the person on the other side to know that they need to contact someone else, in the case of emergency.
These tips and Zafron’s tips are great starting points to writing and managing e-mails. Everyone works a little differently when it comes to organizing and writing. Start here and begin finding your ways to being a successful e-mailer.
Do you have any other tips for the PRos?
* Image courtesy of Flickr: labanderadeadiosayer.
Airborne: thoughts of how the company is dealing with the false advertisement allegations
Everyone has his or her own tricks to overcoming or avoiding the common cold. For many, Airborne was the answer. In 2006, an ABC report sparked a lawsuit against Airborne on false advertising. Today, media are reporting that a $23.3 million settlement for refunding consumers has been made. Here are my thoughts on the good and bad things Airborne did in reacting to the allegations.
Good:
- Responded immediately
- Providing refunds – although consumers must show receipts
- Revised Airborne Web site and packaging immediately to respond to “deceptive” wording
- The health hotline gives consumers a place to ask questions about the product. I haven’t called it, but the concept shows that the company is listening and answering. It’s especially critical that Airborne directed consumers to physicians about further medical inquiries.
Bad:
- Airborne trusted and promoted inadequate research studies. They should have renounced it as good evidence, once it was found that the trials were not run by scientists, doctors, etc.
- Airborne is not taking responsibility of the false advertising. If the company is settling the lawsuit with refunds, it should not continue to deny any wrongdoing. It was a matter of ethics, and by not owning up, the company will always face the false advertising as an issue. Instead, Airborne should make itself accountable and move forward from there. It shows integrity and transparency.
I believe that in a situation like this, it is important for a company to face it, deal with it, be honest and then move on. It keeps everything simple and saves the image of the company by reflecting its values for its consumers and stakeholders.
* Image courtesy of Airborne.
Thoughts of a generation Y graduating senior
1986. Generation Y. I’ve grown up in a fast-paced, ambitious world. At least, this is one perspective. I’ve also grown up in a value-minded, integrity-oriented environment.
Marshall Goldsmith talked to Eric Chestler, president of Generation Why, about generation Y individuals in the workplace. Personally, I find Chestler’s comments a little negative about the development and values my peers and I have. It may be that I am coming from the perspective of someone in generation Y; it may be that my parents brought me up to work hard for what I want out of life; and it may be that I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But for what it is worth, I think my generation is a little misunderstood.
This is what I’ve seen:
- Many of us are hard workers for the issues and tasks we care about.
- Many of us study all night just to do well on a test.
- Many of us thin ourselves out with activities just to stand out a little more than the other job candidate.
- Many of us work and study, just to alleviate college loans.
- Many of us work unpaid internships and jobs to get the experience required by employers.
I’m not saying everyone in my generation is hard working because I think every generation has individuals that take short-cuts. In fact, I’ve come across peers that join organizations without putting any work in just to stack their resumes. There is some truth to Chestler’s words. I just want to give my view as someone who doesn’t fully categorize herself with the description given.
However, it’s good to know that employers are feeling this way about us. It makes me work harder to prove myself worthy of each position I hold.
*Image courtesy of Flickr: VJ Spectra.
