How do you get hired in marketing? Finding a job can be tough especially in marketing where competition is high. When you don’t know what companies are looking for it can make this process significantly more difficult. To make your life easier we’re going to go over some of the main attributes companies are looking for.
Interpersonal Skills
When you’re in the workplace how do you handle conflicts? Do you get along well with others? Interpersonal skills are your ability to have diplomacy and act professionally in the workplace. According to LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner, the biggest skill gap in the U.S workforce is interpersonal skills. What can you do to solve this? Have good manners, show compassion, and be mindful of your body language.
Being Flexible
The world of marketing is always moving. New trends become the norm and old trends completely go away. It’s your job to stay agile and be able to adapt to these changes quickly. In other words, you need to consistently stay relevant to what’s happening. If you need to learn new skills then learn them.
Social Media Expertise
In the 21st century almost everything has a digital footprint. Especially companies. According to SCORE in 2018, 77 percent of the small business in the U.S use social media to facilitate sales, marketing, and customer service. The main platforms you should focus on are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and if you can pull it off, TikTok. Understanding the platforms and how each of them contribute to business is important if you to stand out amongst your competition.
Ability to Analyze Data
Data is everywhere. In order to be a valuable asset to your marketing team you must be comfortable with going into large amounts of data. Then be able to pull solutions from this data and visualize it with charts and graphs. How does it apply to the problem at hand? What are the trends? I recommend taking an excel class or get very familiar with using Microsoft Excel.
Writing Skills
Writing is incredibly important to marketing. If you cant convey what needs to be said in a polite and efficient manner you’re going to have a difficult time in the workplace. You’ll be writing social media posts, blogs, or tweaking websites, so it’s important that you grow as writer. This means double checking your work for grammar mistakes and checking to see if what you’ve written flows well.
Proven Results To Get Hired in Marketing
When companies are looking over your resume, you want to make sure you have highlighted some of your accomplishments. They need to know that you have a great track record of success. Try to highlight key metrics that you have impacted. This helps you stand out amongst your competition.
Conclusion
We know it’s hard out there. Learning how to set yourself apart from others can be challenging and stressful when trying to get hired. We hope this information helps you prepare and gets you ready for your future interview!
This is the time of year when I start thinking about goals and what I want to accomplish next year. As I look through my goals, I realized a few things I want to remember in 2022:
Maybe You’re Already Reaching Your Goals
When I look at the life “buckets” I want to work on next year, I realized that a few of them, namely learning and socializing more, can be knocked out with my participation in Junior League. Junior League offers members classes (we call them trainings) in all sorts of topics, everything from healthy eating to stress management to book clubs to special movie screenings. Each member also must volunteer as part of their commitment to Junior League, where I see old friends and meet new people. It turns out, I have been accomplishing this goal all this time. Maybe you’ve been accomplishing your goals too without realizing it, you’ve just been accomplishing them within the context of what you’re already doing day-to-day.
Productivity Can’t Be Your Only Goal
Productivity is a great economic measure. It’s not so great for measuring humanity.
I had an epiphany one day, while bemoaning my lack of productivity. I remember being so much more productive early on in my career. And then I thought, “Wait a minute. I am doing work that is completely different from the work I used to do.” My work now is more strategic and graphic design takes time. And that’s a good thing – it means I am advancing in my development rather than just churning out tactical stuff.
Seasons Change. So Should Your Goals.
Before you start trying to squeeze just one more task into your day, ask yourself, “Have my circumstances changed? Has my career changed?” I bet you the answer is yes and yes.
The past two years have been a doozy, for a lot of people. I’ve had friends who have lost jobs and started new ones, go through heart-breaking loss, or take on more care-taking duties at home. Considering all of these, its understandable that people would want to cut back in one aspect of their lives to pour more into another part.
Which brings me to…
Be Kind to Yourself
Something Julie reminds us of, especially when things are tough, is that we should give the other person grace. We should give ourselves grace. Be a little kinder. Be the light.
Perhaps instead of New Year’s resolutions or goals, I should keep these three realizations in mind and make them my themes for the year:
Sometimes you can reach your goals without inventing a whole new set of actions to reach them. What goals can you stack together? How can you accomplish your goals within the context of your everyday? For example, if your goal is to exercise more in the new year and spend time more time with your kids, maybe a family stroll after dinner or a weekend bike ride might get you closer to your goal.
Don’t do #allthethings. Do #therightthings. Change up your to-dos in accordance with the seasons of your life. Sometimes your home life will ask more of you than your work life and vice versa. Sometimes your volunteer obligations will take over your life for two weeks straight. Give yourself leeway to accommodate all the aspects of your life when they need to be addressed, not year-round.
Be kind to yourself. In the grand scheme of things, we are on this planet for only a moment. Let’s make it a good one.
Did you know that anxiety is normal? It actually can be a good thing because it means you are paying attention. Whether we internalize or externalize it, everyone deals with it differently. Most people actually experience it from an early age. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, almost 18% of American adults have an anxiety disorder. That is practically 40 million people! The key to managing your anxiety is first acknowledging it. We have provided a guide to help during these stressful times.
Identify Your Triggers
Anxiety triggers will be different for everyone. Caffeine, alcohol, driving/traveling, genetics, and a stressful work environment are common triggers. Once identified, you should try to limit your exposure. Being hyperaware can help you avoid certain situations. If you can’t limit exposure, you may try consulting a therapist to help with changing negative thought patterns using CBT, or even just talking to a professional regularly.
Put Things Into Perspective
Often times our minds spiral and blow things out of proportion. If you find yourself going down the rabbit hole, measure the situation. Imagine a scale with one side being the more reasonable outcome, and the other the out-of-control option your brain has formulated. Chances are, whatever you are worrying about is much closer on the spectrum to the reasonable outcome. This should help you steer yourself back onto the path of positive thinking.
Drink Lots of Water
Hopefully you do this already, but dehydration can spur panic attacks. Be sure to hydrate to avoid those pitfalls and manage your anxiety effectively.
Exercise Daily
Anxiety oftentimes spikes while we are inactive. Getting even 30 minutes of exercise a day will help relieve tension and release endorphins.
Establish A Sleep Schedule
Sleep studies have shown the average adults needs 7-9 hours a night. It is also best to be asleep anytime between 8 and 12. When we are rested we are our best selves! Setting a routine can help manage your stress better. A sleep schedule is one more thing you can control, which can lessen anxiety.
Key Takeaway
We are lucky to live in a time where anxiety is normalized now more than ever. Above all, you need to do what is best for you, whether that be simple DIY tricks, counseling, or medication. We want to help in any way we can, and hope we have provided a helpful guide for managing your anxiety!
E-learning has affected students today in both good ways and bad. Before e-learning I was up at a set time each morning, took the bus to and from class, and had my whole day carved out. There was a distinct accountability system, where I was obligated to show up to class to get notes and participation points.
Now, classes are set up via recorded lectures or live video conferences. I can ask questions in the chats during live lectures and email if I am confused on the recorded lectures. It has shortened the length of most of my classes because we are not directly interfacing. Test schedules remain the same; exams are proctored and timed, using Lockdown browsers. I have less of a schedule, making things harder to time-manage.
What I like/miss about e-learning today? Benefits vs. how it could be improved?
What I like about e-learning is that I save time not traveling to and from class and I have more “free time.” I also don’t have to be up at a given time, I can watch prerecorded lectures at my convenience, and tests are open book.
What I miss about in-person classes is seeing my friends during my classes, walking the campus, interfacing with professors, getting off topic with entertaining teachers, and having a set schedule.
Benefits of e-learning include time spent going to class can be used elsewhere, certain tests are easier, and I can take time to do things I wouldn’t normally do (ex: go to a park, walk a trail, explore Mt. Sequoyah).
Areas of improvement for e-learning today include live lectures to help with questions that need to be addressed. It would be beneficial if classes with recorded lectures could go live once weekly. This also may help with understanding material if one is directly interfacing with the professor. Also, I would appreciate potentially adjusting the test material such that it is not significantly more difficult than any in-class test would be.
Lessons that are applicable to business and working from home:
Lesson 1: Just because you technically have more free time, it may not feel like it. With E-learning today, you must become a time-management expert! It is so easy to procrastinate if one is not physically going to class or work. We are more productive when our work is public rather than private!
Lesson 2: Nail down a routine- whether it be waking up at a specified time each day, setting working hours, or scheduling breaks in between work. Routines keep you on-track, motivated, and they deliver results.
Lesson 3: Keep your videoconferencing as close to “normal” as possible. Test the software before you schedule a call so that if it needs finetuning you are not wasting other people’s time. Be professional and minimize distractions! If you know your dog will bark when the mailman comes, either put yourself at the opposite end of the house or put the dog up while you videoconference.
Whether we realize it or not, E-learning affects students today. Awareness of these small changes can lead to improvements in productivity. Taking advantage of the benefits may change your working or learning style for the better.
Sometimes a big idea can be daunting, especially since it is often much easier to think of brilliant ideas than act on those ideas. In fact, Forbes says “giving ideas life is much like giving birth to a child.” All jokes aside, there is validity here! Since most folks are working from home now, we thought it would be an excellent time to give you some tips on how to turn your ideas into action!
Goal Setting:
Fast Company highlights the importance of first setting a goal. Defining your end result is critical, no matter how abstract. Physically writing down goals rather than keeping them in your head is a great start. Following this step, visualize!
Visualization is an incredibly powerful tool and one that should never be overlooked. That same article explains how “Coming to understand and appreciate exactly what you’re trying to reach is the first step toward actually reaching it.” It is okay to daydream, as long as it is productive! Imagining the feelings and emotions that come with achieving your goal puts you one step closer!
Be Confident:
Another component to bringing ideas to fruition is believing in yourself. Most people quit working towards a goal because the consequences are too difficult. Accountability plays a key role here, and Forbes says this “requires believing in yourself enough to be 100% dedicated to getting the work done.” To build on this confidence, have your own circle of advisers you trust and can learn from. Always be open to suggestions from anyone because you never know when you will hear a good idea.
Have a Road Map:
Roughly jot down how you will get from point A to point B. If you get stuck, take a break. Figure out who from your circle of advisers could help you, or any resources you already have that could be of aid. Once you are done planning it is time to turn those ideas into action. It can be sloppy but needs to be good enough to share with those you trust. Then revisit your rough draft and focus on the details. Once you are ready, plan what channels and tools you will use to share it with others.
Patience is a Virtue:
This is where true grit and determination come into play. As stated earlier, it takes relentless pursuit to make ideas a reality. As the saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” Patience is what separates great entrepreneurs from mediocre dreamers. Adjusting your mindset to welcome risk is a key part of this step. With every new idea comes risk, so learn to expect unexpected outcomes.
Have Passion and a Purpose:
If your passion for your work shines through, you will be an inspiration to others. This will open countless doors for you. Purpose is the fuel behind why you do what you do- without this, you are more likely to quit along the way. The Porch is committed to turning ideas into action; make the commitment to yourself today!
As I was thinking about whether to hit send on my email to Julie, I paused. I had read an article that was interesting to me and I thought Julie would find it interesting too. I momentarily reflected on the longevity of our working relationship together. But, was this article too much? Too personal?
The article was about a topic I care about deeply – but its
also a very decisive topic, one I didn’t want to get into an argument with
complete strangers about, let alone my boss.
I don’t know why I sent it. All I know is that I did.
My last thought before I hit send was, “Well, they say you should bring your whole self to work, right?”
Free Froot Loops For All!
Just like ping-pong tables, free breakfast cereal and standing desks before it, the notion of “bringing your whole self to work” is the latest business organizational fad that promises to revolutionize the world of work. It remains to be seen if this is truly the case, or so much business world mumbo jumbo that bursts like a yoga ball under the weight of sky-high expectations.
None of this was on my mind when I entered the workforce. I had the mindset that I didn’t go to work to make friends, these people were my co-workers, colleagues. Nothing more, nothing less. You go into the office, do your job, do good work, go home. Repeat.
I thought I was being “professional.” Looking back, I think
I came off as aloof and maybe a little uptight.
Imagine my surprise when Julie would ask me on Monday mornings how my weekend went or if I did anything fun or interesting. “You mean you have an interest in my life outside of work?,” I thought. Huh.
But I digress. This blog post is supposed to be about bringing your whole self to work. But what does that even mean and why would anyone want to do that in the first place?
Bringing Your Whole Self to Work: What It Is
Let’s start by defining what bringing your whole self to work is, and then we can get into what it is not.
When you Google around, and look at the literature about bringing your whole self to work, there are a few common themes that come up. I am cherry-picking the 3 that matter most to me. They are Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Appreciation.
Authenticity – Mike Robbins, a popular thought leader on the topic, defines authenticity as honesty, minus self-righteousness plus vulnerability. People who are authentic with others are honest about the situation at hand, even if being honest means looking bad or it opens them up to criticism. Being authentic means being vulnerable.
Vulnerability – Its very difficult to put yourself in a vulnerable place. You don’t know what’s going to happen next. That’s why most people put on their “armor” when they walk through the office door. Best not to admit your fears or faults, lest someone use them against you. But overtime, that armor becomes incredibly heavy. It rusts and calcifies, and after a while, you do too.
Maybe its time to put the armor down, if only for a little while.
Appreciation – I don’t mean gold stars and carrots. Thank someone for the work they put in, not just the stellar end result.
Tell someone you admire the growth you’ve seen in them. Appreciate your co-workers kindness, thoughtfulness, people skills, etc. When you appreciate the little, human things about people, it makes their faults easier to understand, easier to accommodate, easier to work with. It also makes you easier to work with too.
Bringing Your Whole Self to Work: What It Is Not
Bringing your whole self to work is not:
“Letting it all hang out.”
Telling your co-workers about the most intimate parts of your love life.
Berating people over past grievances.
Clipping your nails at your desk, microwaving fish in the company kitchen, or making tacky, vulgar jokes for shock value.
Authenticity, and its close buddy vulnerability, is supposed to be productive when introduced in the office setting. It shouldn’t stop your co-workers in their tracks. It shouldn’t be cringey.
Authenticity should help your company grow and adapt.
Values: Your’s and Your Employer’s
Of course, bringing your whole self to work is a lot easier when your values match your employers and vice-versa. I never really thought I would be the type of person who cared about their work being fulfilling or not. I thought I would just go in, do my work, and that was it.
But a funny thing happens when you do work at a company or a
series of companies where your values match your employers. You get the feeling
that your co-workers actually care about you. Or that the work you do makes a
difference to someone – not just money and profit, but a difference. You don’t
want to let that go.
It turns out, human beings want to work with other human beings. And buy from other human beings. Who’d have thought.
I know this is harder to implement at some workplaces than others. That’s the problem with big, broad solutions – open offices! flexible seating! Mandatory yoga! – that are applied with a thick brush. They fail to take into account the particular contours of a business and its people.
Some businesses need their people to wear the armor,
sometimes literally. Others, not so much. It is really up to each business
leader to set the tone of how much vulnerability is allowed in their
workplaces, how much of their whole selves their employees can take to work
with them. That’s not something that can be decreed with the latest
organizational business trend headline.
Vulnerability Unacknowledged
Front Porch Marketing is in a creative business. Our clients come to us for creative solutions, to find opportunities they don’t see, weaknesses they don’t detect. We can’t do these things without having some empathy for our clients and their customers.
Creativity comes from empathy, an ability to step outside of yourself and into someone else’s shoes. And with empathy, vulnerability often decides to pay a visit too. We must be honest with ourselves and with each other to help our clients. Or else our vulnerabilities can turn into blind spots, dangers just outside our peripheral vision that we know are there but we choose not to see or acknowledge.
But, What Does It Mean?
Anyway, back to that article. Julie and I had an interesting talk about it. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but that’s not why I sent it to her, to convince her one way or another. I guess I wanted to share something that is important to me.
Maybe that’s what bringing your whole self to work means. It
means that you have the opportunity, if you choose to, to share with your
co-workers the things that matter to you, without judgement or fear.
Well, that sounds a lot better than an open office.
I have been to plenty of conferences before, but I don’t think any a conference has resonated with me quite like this year’s Nonprofit Communicators Conference. Judging from the theme alone, “Communication for Social Good, Impact, Authenticity and Executive Presence”, the conference could have been six hours of well-worn clichés. Instead, I came away with a lot of great insights.
Authenticity Matters
When I hear words like “authenticity,” it sounds like one of those touch-ey feel-ey phrases that make me roll my eyes. Why should we care if a company is being authentic or not?
We live in interesting times. Globally, we are experiencing a lack of trust in institutions, including schools, media, government, and yes, nonprofits. With the share of Americans donating to nonprofits in decline, this lack of trust is disturbing news.
For-Profit companies cannot afford to ignore this reality either. Almost two-thirds of the consumers around the world based their purchasing decisions on their beliefs.
Authenticity is knowing your story and owning it. It is your history and your values. These values must be proven over and over again. A company’s history, story, and values are how they can inspire others.
Here are a few authentic brands. Is your brand an authentic reflection of your company?
Leadership Models are Changing
When I saw that there would be a workshop on executive presence and internal communication, I thought it would be someone telling us to “power pose” our way through work. The workshop turned out to be much more than that.
I used to think of a leader as a hard-charging person who was often the loudest or the most extroverted. Sort of like a bull in a china shop, but more charismatic. More of drill sergeant than a coach.
This “command and control” model of leadership is changing. People spend more than 90,000 hours of their lives at work. Our work and personal lives often blend into each other; with many workers who are expected to be “on” 24/7. I think these people deserve better than a drill sergeant for a boss.
Leaders listen, are constantly learning, they always ask for feedback and they are other-centered.
Leaders also have a “magic sauce” called Executive Presence.
Executive Presence is Crucial
What is executive presence? It’s the qualities of leadership that
Character – Qualities of a leader as a person that are fundamental to who they are and give us reason to trust them. These qualities include integrity, concern for others, and humility.
Substance – Cultivated qualities of mature leadership that inspire commitment, inform action and lead to above-and-beyond effort. These qualities include practical wisdom, composure and vision.
Style – Over, skill-based patterns of communicative leadership that build motivation and that shape and sustain performance. Behaviors like intentionality, inclusiveness and assertiveness fall into this category.
Executive presence is an inside>out process, it starts with inner work. The workshop presenter described executive presence with a flight analogy – executive presence is like “putting on your oxygen mask first.” You must know who you are – your story, your voice, your values – before you can expect to lead others.
You can’t bluff your way through executive presence. True leaders are difficult to come by for a reason. Anyone can bark orders at people. Few people can actually inspire others to act.
I know which type of leader I would like to follow and which type of leader I aspire to be.
The Power of Storytelling
Human beings are wired for stories. Stories are a universal language. They carry weight, often even more so than facts because stories can make us feel something – joy, sadness, anger, etc.
Both organizations and individuals must know their story to make an impact in this world. A few questions to think about when contemplating your own story:
What is the story you are telling the world? Do your organization’s values match your deeds?
Whose story are you telling?
How will you tell your story? Does your story lend itself to video? Social media? A podcast?
Stories matter – they inform our world view and they can inspire others to action. What’s your story?
Corporate Culture Communicates a Lot
Today’s workplace asks a lot of its employees, and employees are looking for more in return. In fact, as many other institutions are losing the public’s trust, people are increasingly placing their trust in their employers. Globally, 75 percent of people trust “my employer” to do what is right, significantly more than NGOs (57 percent), business (56 percent) and media (47 percent).
Culture is a kind of communication; it conveys what your company values. When your corporate culture is aligned with your values, when your company “walks the walk,” your employees are more engaged. An engaged workforce is a productive workforce.
And a word of caution from the conference: “Social media has raised the stakes of internal organizational culture.” You don’t want one of your employees becoming so disengaged from their work that they pull an … emergency slide.
The conference resonated with me for a few different reasons, but they basically boil down to this: I feel like I am at a point in my life where questions about authenticity and leadership are becoming more and more important. How we present ourselves to the world, whether it’s in a professional or personal setting, matters. The stories we tell are important. And whether we are being true to our authentic selves, is paramount.
Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve got some inner work to do.
