Adding Projects to LinkedIn

In order to showcase my social media blog and Bailey's Facebook campaign, I am able to include them in my Projects section of my profile. Here is how to do it.

Under your LinkedIn home page, go to Edit Profile and scroll down until you reach Projects.

Once there, you are able to add the project name, months in process, your occupation used to execute the project, it's URL link, and a brief description.

After you are done, click Save.

You are now ready to show the employers any projects you'd like to showcase!

LinkedIn URL

This week in class, the students were to change their LinkedIn profiles URL. By doing this, it will enhance your personal brand.

To change your LinkedIn URL, you must log into your profile and click on the edit profile tab. Once there, you will see your profiles website name. Scrolling over it will reveal a settings key. By clicking on that, it will take you to another editing page for your profile.

On the top right corner will be an option to change your public profile URL. Clicking on the pencil tab, you are able to type in a new name.

Final Project Rough Draft

This week, our professor wanted the students to create a rough draft Powerpoint for our Facebook Ad Campaign. In this Powerpoint, I explained my Project Proposal, Facebook Advertisement, Results, Demographics, and a Conclusion slide.

In the Project Proposal, I explained through bullet points that Bailey is a 10 year old Shiba Inu and that I would expose her through social media. I revealed the dates it ran, as well as the 3 phases. Phase 1: Create a Facebook Ad Campaign. Phase 2: Put Advertisement into motion. Phase 3: Review results of campaign. The last bullet point included the $20 budget. On the Facebook Advertisement slide, I posted the screenshot of the audience definition. In bullet points I listed the Target Market, Potential Reach, the Budget (once again), as well as the start date. The Results slide only showed People reached and Cost per click along with screenshots. On the Demographics slide, I applied screenshots of the ages of all men and women. Women cost $0.14 per click while men cost only $0.03 per click. I commented on how 80% of the likes were from young teenage males, which surprised me. The last slide is the Conclusion. Here I mentioned what my original goals were before I ran the campaign and how the results exceeded my goals.

Facebook Ad Campaign for Social Media Marketing Project

Our class was to make a Facebook campaign for our final presentation. I decided to create a campaign on gaining page likes for my dog Bailey.

       

Earlier in the course, we were required to make a Facebook page just to get an idea of how to do it. I made one for my dog. When this project came about I thought to myself, "Well, she's a real pet and her page is already set up. So I guess I can advertise her and see what kind of people would be interested in clicking on her." We weren't required to actually put money into the campaign, but it was recommended. I put $20 towards a 3 day campaign (11/18-11/20) to gain likes for Bailey's page. I assumed she would have reached about 6,000 people, accumulated 80 clicks, and accumulated at lease 20 likes.

Here are the results:

Results on graph

Ages of audience 

Ad placement

I was presently surprised on many likes Bailey's page got. She accumulated 739 new page likes and reach a little over 7,000 people! That was much greater than what I projected before the campaign ran. I found it interesting that 80% of the total likes gained were from males between the ages of 13-17. I'd expected to attract mostly females and a little bit of an older age group. Either way, I'd say the campaign was pretty successful. 

Ch. 11

In this chapter, Bolles explains how to start your own business.

So what if you can't find a job that suits you? Maybe you just don't want to work for someone else. Well, why not start a business? "According to some surveys, up to 80% of all workers have toyed with this idea at some point in their lives." Some examples of dreams that people may have are opening their own bake shop, selling jewelry,  or even creating their own website where they can teach people how to "go green." You might not even have any ideas yet, but you just know that you want to be your own boss and are open to suggestions.

By giving 3 case histories, Bolles makes his point on how starting a business can be fairly easy or very difficult. After reading them, he points out what things they all have in common:

a.) The individuals didn't need a ton of money to start up.
b.) The individuals had to do a lot of research in order to be successful.
c.) The individuals all used the Internet as s key tool in helping them expose their product, service, or expertise to the public.
d.) None of the individuals went down the traditional path that most would think to do.

If you are unsure what kind of business to launch, you should follow the 4 steps to see what you might do.

Write: Start with reading Chapter 7 again, which is understand who you truly are. It is a good idea to get out a blank sheet of paper and write down any ideas you may come up with. Then, you can write your resume along with the guidance of Chapter 2 on how to write your resume.

Read: By now, hopefully you have 3 different business ventures thought up. Bolles provides multiple websites to take a peek at regarding "all the virtues and perils running your own business." Websites like Working Solo, Small Business Administration, and A Small Business Expert, just to name a few.

Explore: With your business in mind, "you must find out what skills, knowledge, or experience it takes to make this kind of business idea work, by interviewing several business owners." This is known as List A. Then you need to make a list of skills, knowledge, or experience that you have. This is known as List B. By subtracting List B from A, you get what skills, knowledge, or experience you are missing, which is List C. List C is names of friends or co workers that do have these skills that you lack that might be able to help with your business.

Get Feedback: Are you cut out for creating your own business? You can find out on Working Solo. This is link is a self-examination type questionnaire that you can fill out which "encourages you to ask the hard questions."

Ch. 10

In this chapter, Bolles talks about five different ways to choose or change your career.

1.) The first way to go about changing your path is to go online and look at O*Net Online, which is something Bolles mentioned in a previous chapter. On the home page, you will find multiple links that either have you take a career quiz, find job openings, or see what's offered for driving and work from your home jobs. This can be a useful tool whether you are still unsure about your new career choice or you know exactly what you are looking for. I think it's a great website to take advantage of.

2.) The next way mentions career tests. They can be very useful to some people, and not so useful to others. The tests can only be so broad, so they might not be right for you because you are unique and there is no other person just like you. Bolles words it that taking the test "can only describe the family in which you belong." Apparently that's just not enough when picking a career you love! When taking a test, be open minded and don't try to come up with the end result it might give you. Taking several tests can help as well. You might get "mixed reviews" from each test taken, so Bolles provides testing websites like The Dewey Color System, Dr. John Holland's Self-Directed Search, and The University of Missouri' Career Interests Game. 

The Dewey Color System test

3.) Using your Flower Diagram he suggested to make in Chapter 7. This Chapter tells us how to use it to "breakdown and build it up to define a career for you."

4.) You can change a career in two steps. Bolles mentions that we must consider the job title vs. the field in which it's in. "Title is really a symbol for what you do. Field is where you do it, or what you do it with." He provides a diagram to show how there is 3 ways to change careers. One way that he names "the Difficult Path" is jumping right into that line of work that you want to do. For example, if an Accountant suddenly decides he wants to become a reporter on new medical developments, you have to ease into it. Look into being an accountant at a Hospital for medicine research or see how you can get involved with television that leads to reporting. 

5.) Last but not least, you should look into what the job market needs these days. See what's in demand or what is projected to be rising in demand. Going to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and browse around on the site. It would be best to look at the level of education needed for certain jobs that are growing faster-than-average.  

Guide to career information on the T.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Ch. 9

This Chapter talks about how to handle your handicaps or anything else that is holding you down from a job.

When you go to a job interview, you could think of hundreds of ways that you could get turned down. "I never graduated high school/college. I am too fat, ugly, etc. I am Black, Hispanic, etc. I am too shy. I haven't had enough experience." These are just some of statements that people come up with when walking into an interview. Bolles says that yes, a handicap might keep some employers from hiring you, but not all; we cannot generalize all employers. But we can divide employers into 2 tribes, "employers who are interested in hiring you for what you can do; vs. employers who are bothered by what you can't do." For the ones who seem to focus more on what you can't do, respectfully decline their offer and ask if there are other employers who would be interested in your skills. It's okay if it takes a long time to find a job you'd really love and feel respected by the employer.

Everyone is handicapped in their own way, so it's best to not only focus on what you can't do. 

Bolles suggests to get a piece of paper and write a list (side by side) of skills you have and don't have.  He has a list of 246 skills as verbs list on the next page if you are having trouble getting the list long. Once you're done, he says to pick out 5 skills that you like and write examples of how you've done them recently.

Disabilities and prejudices are 2 very different things. "A disability is something wrong with you. A prejudice is something within the employer." But both are considered handicaps because both can prevent you from being hired. Some examples of prejudices are being out of work too long, age, returning veterans, ex-offenders, former patient, and others.

Hootsuite Certification and Enterprise Training Courseware

During the semester, we were to keep in mind that we (the students) had to pass the Hootsuite Exam in order to pass the course. We were to log into our Hootsuite account and watch the tutorial videos about how to use Hootsuite and why it is a useful tool when managing multiple social media accounts and posts.

One of many videos we were to watch for the exam

Our professor suggested we take the test (even if we didn't know everything) just to get a feel for it. What's nice is you can take it as many times as you'd like until you pass. It took me only twice to get a 97% on it. I didn't even watch all of the tutorial videos! I decided to redo a couple of the questions I didn't get correct until I got 100%, but you really don't need to.

My final score on the exam

Ch. 8

This chapter takes the Flower Diagram that Bolles suggested you to make in the last chapter and completing 5 steps along with evaluating it.

You need to find out what careers or jobs your flower points to. You are to combine your interests with your skills and ask your family and/or friends what jobs come to mind when they see your list. Write down everything they tell you (even if you don't like their ideas).

You need to try on careers before you decide which ones to pursue. Bolles compares this idea to shopping for clothes. A shirt might look nice on a mannequin in a store, but when you try it on for yourself, you might not like how it looks on you. His suggestion is to go on our Linkedin profiles we made and look up people in the field or company we are interested in. Contact those workers and see if they can meet up at Starbucks (or just somewhere to talk). Ask them questions about their job like, "What do you like most about your job?" "What do you like least about it?" and so on. Always ask how much training i required for it. If the job requires a lot of school or a degree, see if there are any exceptions and try to get in contact with those individuals. If that doesn't work, then there are jobs that may be similar to what you're looking for. "Instead of becoming a doctor you can go into paramedical work; instead of becoming a lawyer, you can go into paralegal work; instead of becoming a licensed career counselor, you can become a career coach."

You need to find out what kinds of organizations have such jobs. See what kinds of places are our there. They might different hiring options like part time, temporary, consultants, non-profit, or volunteer jobs available. Then talk with the people who works for that organization to get a good grasp of how that job is, if you find one that interests you.

You need to find names of particular places that interest you. Once you do that, "you should choose places based on your interest in them, and not wait for them to open up a vacancy." The book gives a great example. Lets say you want to be a welder. I think we can all agree that is a very broad job market, but once you start adding specificity to it, you narrow that down dramatically. You narrow your interest down to "I want to work in a place that hires welders, within San Jose area, has fifty or fewer employees, and makes wheels" Zoning in on this specific job hunt, you can see what is out there and go get 'em! If not, you might want to slowly broaden your range again.

You need to learn as much as you can about a place before formally approaching them. This last step is an absolute must if you think you've found your dream job. Find out their corporate culture and how they go about doing things in their business. Find out what they want to achieve and how you can help them meet those goals. See if you know anyone who knows about the company (how they treat their employees, their work ethics, reputation to the community, etc.). Ask friends, family, people in that organization. It helps to look up reviews on the internet or even books.

Ch. 7

This chapter talks about finding out who you are and how you can use that to your advantage in the job market.

There are 7 ways that help us understand why this is important.

1.) Your job title isn't designed to explain that you could have many skills to provide. You must evaluate yourself and realize you have multiple skills. Take those and figure out how to place them in your resume along with collaborating in the job market. In this way, multiple markets can open up to you instead of just 1.

2.) By doing this, you can specifically say, in detail, what you are looking for in a career.

3.) Passion rises in the job hunt. Normally looking for 1 job title sounds more like a duty, but with your specific skill set, you have a vision and you will do anything to get this job.

4.) When you know what company you'd like to work for, you don't have to wait for a job opening. You go forward and approach them through your bridge person (like we talked about before). "More often than you would think, they will create a job for you," Bolles mentions in the book.

5.) "You will stand out because you can accurately describe to employers exactly what is unique about you, and what you bring to the table that the others do not."

6.) If you are considering a career change, there are multiple ways to learn about the new job you seek, or to create your own. For example, if you work retail, but decide you want to work in the food industry, you can google how those jobs can be. An even better idea is to talk to actual people that work in that field.

7.) Bolles words this last reason very well. "Unemployment is an interruption, in most of our lives. And interruptions are opportunities , to pause, to think, and to assess where we really want to go with our lives."

The rest of the chapter has about 20 pages of how you can begin to create your "Flower Diagram," which is a visual of  the 7 sides of you. The middle involves knowing your favorite knowledges or fields of interest, and it branches off from there to the petals. He helps you complete each petal through out the rest of the chapter.

Hootsuite

This week we were to connect our social media web pages to Hootsuite and complete a course related to setting up our dashboard.

Our class created our own Hootsuite accounts towards the beginning of the semester. Now we are able to start using it because we have set up multiple social media profiles (Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook). We were to go to our dashboard and add those social networks to Hootsuite by logging into our accounts and connecting them through Hootsuite, which was very easy.

A small portion of my Dashboard

Now that I have all 3 social networks in place, I can go ahead and make a post.

Posting an update to showcase my blog

By clicking on the calendar button (the 2nd button on the right hand side), I am able to actually schedule when my update will post. So if I want to, I can make multiple updates today and they will automatically post spaced out however I decide to schedule them. I clicked on the Send Now button since this is my first one through Hootsuite.

Surprisingly enough, I had gotten 20 new page views on my blog that day. I'm lucky if I get 1 or 2 on a normal day! With that said, I think Hootsuite is a great website to use to schedule posts on social networks.

Ch. 6

This chapter is about what to do when your job hunting just isn't working.

Bolles begins his chapter with quotes. I find this quote, originally said by Franklin D. Roosevelt, quite inspirational,"It is common sense. To take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." When applying for jobs and having interview after interview without luck, it is easy to feel hopeless. Bolles specifically says 3 times to "never give up." You need to not try harder, but find a different strategy to work with. Maybe the one you're using just isn't as useful as another way.

There are 2 ways to hunt for a job, the Traditional way and the Parachute way. The Traditional way is the way we've always done it. Put together a resume, get it out there for companies to see, and if someone gets back to you, then that's great it worked! Then there's the Parachute way where you begin with yourself and not the job-market. Once you realize what you love to do, you must approach the organizations that match that. Except you must approach through what they call a bridge person. Someone who knows them who also knows you to put in a good word for you. So really, when Bolles says you should use a different strategy when one fails, the Parachute way is the other strategy to try.

The last half of the chapter gives a list of the best and worst ways to look for a job. Some of them are using strategies from the Traditional way, and normally don't work. Some of them are pretty successful most of the time. As he goes through his list, he gives percentages of how often that method works when job-hunting. 11 of those approaches work at a range from 5%-70%. The last (but not least) approach is the Parachute way, which is proven to work 86% of the time!

Ch. 5

This Chapter in What Color Is Your Parachute? is about the 6 secrets of salary negotiation.

1.) You should only ask about salary after the organization has given you the job. If they ask you before or during the interview, it's a good idea to just go around the subject until they have made their decision. I would have never thought to do this. I always assumed we should answer every question they had without hesitation.

2.) You have the right to negotiate with the employer what you should be paid. For example, the employer could very well pay you $30 an hour, but will try to keep you down to just $18 an hour. So the range you have is between the $18-$30.

3.) It is a very bad idea to be the one to mention the first salary figure. Even if you're hired, and they ask, "What kind of salary are you looking for?" You should not answer with wages in mind. According to the book, you should respond with something like, "Well, you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I'd be interested in first hearing what that figure is?"

4.) Doing research on the salary range for your position in that company is the smart thing to do. It prepares you. When the employer throws out a number for you, be aware if that number is on the high or low end of the salary range that you researched. By doing this, it can help you gain thousands of dollars per year more pay than you originally would have made! Bolles provides multiple websites to visit when researching.

5.) "Research the range that the employer likely has in mind , and then define an interrelated range for yourself, relative to the employers range." Then the book shows us a table to better understand what that means. So really, if a person below you makes $45,000 and a person above you makes $55,000, then the range for your job would be anywhere between $47,000-$53,000. So the numbers are slightly above the lowest salary and slightly below the highest.

6.) After talking about salary, ask about benefits! It is an important subject to speak about before closing the deal. Also, once the employer tells you your benefits, you should get it in writing and have both of you sign it, because a lot of times, they will forget what they told you or sometimes they are "playing a game," as Bolles words it. I never thought about doing this before because once the employer tells you what benefits there are, that's what I assume is actually going to happen and there should be no further actions regarding the benefits. I always thought they'd just know how to take care of it (but apparently not!). Bolles ends with stating that you have every right to ask for this and a lot of times employers have no problem with it. If they refuse, then there is something wrong.

Stanford Credibility Study

This week, the class talked about what people looked for when determining how authentic a website was. We looked at the article How Do People Evaluate a Website's Credibility? 

In the study, people were to leave comments about the 100 different websites that they evaluated. The table below shows us how frequently certain categories were brought up.

Table 1 from the article

I find it interesting that over 46% determined credibility by design look. How the website looked were the top 2 concerns brought up in the 2,440 comments. I guess in this day and age it is important to keep an updated look or at least have an attractive layout (even back in 2002 when this study was taken!). I'm sure if this study was taken this year in 2015, that percentage would increase. Now that I think about it, it's based on first impressions. It takes a fraction of a second to decide if you like or don't like what you see. So the look and structure can determine whether a potential customer stays to look through your site, or look for another.

The next 4 concerns come to no surprise to me, which is related to information found in the websites. How the website represents itself and how much information is given about them is probably the most important categories to focus on. You can make a website look as pretty as you want, but if the information you provide about your business is not useful or accurate, then it just won't be as successful.

Creating a Facebook Ad Campaign

This week we were to create a Facebook Ad Campaign showcasing our blogs.

We were to go to facebook.com/advertising and select the tab "Send people to your website." We were to purchase a $5.00 lifetime budget for a few days (10/8-10/10). We were to include India in our locations we wanted to reach to increase our chances of clicks we might get. We also added Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing to the interests section, so it would be relevant to who ever were to notice the ad.

After the Campaign ended, I was able to see my results in the graphs that show how much I spent and how many people it has reached during the time limit.

Graph regarding the amount of website clicks within the 3 day campaign

Graph regarding the amount of clicks and views between men and women separated by age groups

I noticed going through my insights, a majority of the people reached were in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and New York. I also noticed that the majority of clicks the ad got was on 10/9, with 9 views.

Articles Regarding Post Frequency

Our class was to read these short articles,

1.) Infographic: How Often You Should Post on Social Media?

2.) Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day, study says

They refer to how often we should post on social media in order to gain or keep the followers interested in the updates we are posting.

Reading the Infographic article, they show a graphic of how many posts on average that brands should post a day. I found it really interesting that Pinterest was the most frequent postings, with 5 a day. Oddly enough, Facebook was only at 2 posts per day "before likes and comments begin to drop off." How funny that is considering that Facebook is the most widely used social network in the world, according to the second article above, "70% of their study group accessed Facebook from their phones- to catch up on news feed updates, mostly- and 61% used it daily." About 14 times (on average) a day to be exact. I guess less is more in the world of digital advertising. There are so many other companies trying to get their name out there that it becomes overwhelming to the users, so they end up ignoring most (if not all) ads that come their way. 

Ch.4

Chapter 4 begins by giving 3 examples of interviews. These interviews depend on what you are looking for and who you are talking to.

1.) Interviews for fun and practice: talking about interests 

2.) Interviews for information: when talking with employees who do the job you are exploring

3.) Interviews for a job: talking to employers 

All 3 of these interviews are also known to be just conversations! The 3rd one is an intimidating conversation, but it's not so bad once you are well prepared for it. Bolles provides 16 tips about the 3rd type of conversation. I will talk about a handful of them that I think are interesting.

For example, there is no such thing as "employers." I thought to myself yeah right. They have that power to hire me. If they're not employers, then what are they? He then explains why they aren't. They are individuals with different personalities and you cannot predict if they would hire you or not. Person to person, your personalities might mix well or they might not. You just don't know. It is also a good idea to do some research about them before you go in for the interview. They are curious to know what you think of the company and this will always be very important (it could cost you the job). When an employer says "Tell me about yourself," they want to see how you respond to an unstructured question. Never should you respond with, "What do you want to know about me?" This is never an attractive response. What they are actually asking how the skills or knowledge you have that might fill the requirement for that job. When it comes to speaking with the employer, half of the time you should talk, and the other half the employer talks, keeping the conversation a solid 50-50. Factors like appearance, hygiene, and habits of biting nails or twisting your hair can really affect the employers opinion of you. Even if you have those bad habits only when your nervous, try to control them when speaking with the employer the first time! I know I have a terrible habit of biting my lips and avoiding eye contact as I speak. In addition, eye contact, body language, and manners really can make you or break you during an interview, as well as a firm handshake. That can make all the difference! Not to mention it is also frowned upon if you bad mouth your previous employers.

Before you leave the interview, a few questions you will want to ask them is, "Can you offer me this job?" "When can I expect to hear from you?" "May I contact you after that date, if you haven't gotten back to me by that time?" You must always send a thank-you note after the interview. This can make you stand out compared to others applying for the same position.

Analyzing Facebook Posts

This week, we were added as administrators to our professors Facebook pages, NPOEx and These Songs of Freedom.

We were to do an analysis on NPOEx's post impressions. You are able to tell who saw the post by looking under each post where it says "People Reached," and how many viewers clicked on it where it says "Post Clicks." Some of these posts were what Facebook calls "Boosted," where Facebook asks if you would like your post to reach more people you normally would "Organically." Of course it comes with a price. For example, one post had a YouTube video about how stock exchange for non-profits could work. By paying $20, the post reached 10,200 people and achieved 20 clicks to the link. That's a dramatic difference compared to the organic reach which was 16 people.We assume that once we post something on our Facebook wall, the whole world is able to see it once it gets a few likes or shares. Most of the time, that's not what happens. There's so many posts and pages that are trying to expose themselves on social media that it's kind of overwhelming. That's why Facebook asks if you'd like to pay them to boost your posts. So chances are if you make a page, word won't spread as quickly as you'd like.

Boosted Facebook post results on NPOEx

Our next page to analyze was These Songs of Freedom, which is a song our professor wrote "for people everywhere who hope for freedom," as it is mentioned in the page info description. We were to look at the insights and tell who visited the page. I first noticed a lot of posts are written in English and Arabic. It looks like Egypt is the #1 country that visited the page with 1,536 fans. Insights also shows what cities fans are from and what language they speak (top languages are English then Arabic) so we know exactly where they are coming from. The page has reached close to the same amount of men as of women, which is 53% men and 46% women. Most of these men and women are between 18 and 24 years of age. This insight information is helpful in the fact that we see what posts work in gaining those fans as well as what may not work to keep them.

Statistics about fans for These Songs of Freedom page

Creating a Facebook Page

Today, our professor wanted us to create a Facebook page. I've never done this before, so I wasn't sure where to begin. It only took a few minutes to set one up. I never knew that you could still be logged in your own personal Facebook account and just create a page so quick and easy.

I decided to make a page about my dog, Bailey. I set her as a public figure under the Pet category. I also was able to change my URL to BaileytheShibaInu. I made the page for her because I wasn't sure what I'd make a page about that didn't already exist. So I thought it would be a cute idea to just make one for my dog. I take way too many photos and videos of her anyway, so I know I would be able to have enough posts for her page. I also have photos of her including my other dog Rex, who is a flat coated retriever, and my cat Pogo, who is a 3 legged rescue we found in our neighborhood when he was a kitten. I will make the main focus on Bailey, but the other animals are included to show how well they all get along together.

For now my page doesn't have much exposure. I don't have any likes just yet, but once I share it on my personal Facebook and Instagram, I think Bailey will start to build up some fans!

Visit Bailey's Page

Ch. 3

Bolles compares finding a job to finding someone you like and then questioning yourself if you should date them. If they end up liking you, do you really like them? It's hard to know based on first impressions (an interview). Then, once you quit a job, it's almost like breaking up (maybe because you're not satisfied with either the work or pay). I can see the relevance when Bolles makes that comparison.

"You are not powerless during the job-hunt." It sure can feel like you are, but Bolles mentions that "the employer does not hold all the cards," and apparently, that will never change. I sure hope he's right about that. I guess what he means is that a business has the power to hire you. They have to decide if they want you on their team or not, and if they do, you have the power to agree or decline their offer. You might have the skills that they are looking for in a new employee. It could be traits as simple as speed, efficiency, and excellent interpersonal skills.

Bolles then leads into the subject of unemployment. If you go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, they report "news about the unemployment rate" every month, and the numbers can get a little depressing. "The month of December 2014, only 252,000 jobs were added to the economy. With some 21,733,000 people wanting work that month- 8,688,000 fully employed..." What people are not aware of is on the same website, if you look at On the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, "December 2014, 5,148,000 people found work, and even so, 5,028,000 vacancies remained unfulfilled at the end of the month." Now that number gives us a little more hope, doesn't it.

Ch. 2

This chapter beings by saying that resumes aren't what we should be too concerned with anymore. "91% of U.S. employers have visited a job-hunters profile on social networks, and more than 69% of employees have rejected some applicants on the basis of what they found."Can you believe that? That statistic really surprised me. I always thought it was a myth, just to scare people so they don't post any offensive posts or pictures. Even though we do have the option to edit our privacy on social networks, there are ways around it and we have no control of what people see online anymore. I don't think that I post anything bad on any of my social accounts (for the most part), but it scares me to think that employers actually look at those things to get a sense of who you are, what you like or dislike, and who you know, even before you meet! Bolles mentions employers might like what they see online and will offer an interview or the job. I guess it just depends on the person, right?

Bolles says that we can do a few things with our "Google resume." We can edit, fill in, expand, and add. He tells you how to make a Linkedin and what information to put on your profile (similar to what we discussed in class). Our profile should consist of everything that we know and whatever experience we have that will give a great first impression. Bolles also tells you to create a blog, like this one I am typing up here! Even though your Google resume has a huge impact on how you represent yourself, a job resume is still an important piece to keep. He explains what would be good information about yourself to put down. Any achievements that you've made, school-wise, work-wise, or even volunteering does the trick.

My job resume

Linkedin

Linkedin was introduced to our class last week. My professor said that we should make one because it is a great tool to have when searching for a job or getting in touch with managers from business we might be interested in pursuing.

I never really ever thought I'd need a Linkedin. I just thought applying online and submitting my resume was the thing to do, but I guess we should be expanding ourselves on the internet in case employers Google us (according to the book What Color is Your Parachute we are reading for class). More like when employers Google us. My professor also suggested to the class that we add skills to our profile, which immensely improves our chances of finding a company to work for, as well as a company searching for individuals who have those skills.

How you express ourselves on the internet can either land you a job you wanted or give a bad impression on an employer. I see now why I should have created one years ago when I was applying for a job I'd like. Where I work now, I know nearly every department and almost everything about the company. My managers know that I am eager to learn more and more about to the company so I can improve my skills and knowledge as employee. Although I am content where I work now, I do want to expand my "online resume" so that after I graduate from school with my Bachelors in Marketing, I will have a higher chance of being recruited to a new company involving work with my major.

Check out my Profile

Ch.1

For each week, we are asked to read a chapter from What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles. So each week, I will give a brief summary of what I read and throw in my thoughts about the book as I go.

The book begins by giving a dozen examples of why the book would be useful to the reader. Whether it be to find out what you have to offer in this world, to figure out what you want the next step to be in your life to be, or figure out how to start up a business of your own. Apparently, employers have changed their ways of finding and hiring new people since the Great Recession of 2008. The problem is that job-hunters have not changed their ways of searching for a new job. What really surprised me is the percentages of employees ages 18-24 don't stay at a job very long. "69% last less than 1 year and 93% last less than 5 years." Those numbers are staggering to me. I currently work at a TJ Maxx Homegoods. I am 21 and have been there for 2 years now. I guess I'm part of the other 31% that stayed at their job for over a year. I will mention that I do notice a lot of the high school aged kids ranging from 16-18 don't seem to last very long at my work (probably a good 6 or 7 months at most). Even though the 16 and 17 year old kids aren't part of that statistic, I'd expect the percentage to increase of they were a part of it.

Bolles talks about how higher paying jobs require people to go to college and it gives a list of careers that have the highest paid salaries. According to Bolles, "41% of middle-class jobs require a college degree today." I have a feeling that percentage won't stay under 50 for much longer and that number is most likely to only rise as the years go by. He then continues by giving a list of 18 ideas for "Successful Job-Hunting in the 21st Century." They explain about how you must realize your passions and what you're good at, so you can go looking for an employer confidently. Once you find an employer who's interested in you for an interview, Bolles lists the top 5 questions they might ask and how to answer them. What I found interesting is at the end of an interview, ask for the job, and you will almost always get hired!

Social Monitoring Activity

What does the public really think about certain celebrities? How can we find out?

We can agree that in our society today, surrounded with constant access to the internet, opinions can swing every which way. Especially since social media makes the public's opinions easier and faster to communicate. Last week in class, Social Mention and Google Trends was introduced. I decided to research Kanye West.

I wanted to research Kanye West in socialmention.com because of all the controversy he had created recently by stating at the VMA's that he will run for president in 2020. I mean, the guy is a great musical artist, but I wouldn't want him running our country.

On Social Mention, his average score of being mentioned at 6 o'clock at night on social media is every 35 seconds. That is a dramatically different number comparing to 10 o'clock that Thursday morning (being mentioned every 3 minutes). He seems to be talked about pretty positively with a 7:1 ratio, which is really surprising to me. According to Google Trends, West reached his peak of interest from the public in September of 2009 after he grabbed the microphone and took over Taylor Swifts speech when she won an award for best female music video. He claimed Beyonce had the best music video and he reached 100% on the Google trend chart. Through the years he has teetered between 15-40%. Within 3 days, he has risen that number from 21% to 74% and still rising. We'll see if he can repeat that record back in '09!

Kanye's score on Social Mention
Kanye's score on Google Trends