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The Saxum Perspective Blog | Posts Tagged ‘business’

Finding employment can be a daunting process. Since graduating from the University of Oklahoma more than two years ago, I have been fortunate to have accepted three fantastic positions in the public relations industry, and I can tell you from experience that the key to landing your dream job is recognizing what makes you unique and promoting your individuality. Keep reading to learn the tricks I have up my sleeve.

Let’s start with a few seemingly obvious job interview tips, like making sure you don’t have leftovers stuck in your smile. It’s important that you dress to impress. I suggest wearing a suit; heels for women, ties for men. Women should avoid heavy make up, limit items of jewelry and avoid open-toed shoes and bare legs (wear hosiery if you choose to wear a skirt). Men should be clean-shaven and sport a tame head of hair.

When preparing for an interview, organize a comprehensive, professional-looking portfolio of relevant work, if applicable to the position. Be sure to take plenty professional hard copy resumes and references, even if you have already provided electronic copies.

Mentally preparing for the interview is essential, too. Know their business – future employers love when you can tell them what you know about their company. Know answers to tough questions like, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Why are you a fit for our company?” You may also want to have a few questions of your own in your back pocket to give you a sense of the working environment, such as “What do you like best about your job?”

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I’m headed to Miami this week for We Media, a collection of media innovators, researchers, journalists and big thinkers who will dig deep to understand what’s next for media. Part of the conference is sponsored by Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, led by my friend, Bob Ross. I’m honored to be a part of the panel discussion on Why Community Matters with Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix.

Chris asks a few key questions in his recent blog post about the role of local media. I liked the direction Chris is going with the discussion with an excerpt of his comments here.

“When I think about ‘Community Matters’, it occurs to me that the question is what is the purpose of community? Is it to extol content for the community? Or is it to generate content that the community creates? And then, the larger question becomes how to monetize ‘community’? There are 2 billion users coming online in the next ten years. How do we monetize the value of their content? And, further, how do we deal with “truth” in community-generated journalism? On a community site, truth is subjective. Newspapers must be very cautious about libel issues, and objectionable content is muted.”

I’d like to position a few thoughts for attendees and observers to think about prior to Wednesday’s session.

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