I’m about to go running through my neighborhood because I am so happy to be finished with this project. I wonder if I can get any little kids to run behind me, cheering me on…
Of course, this project is my training for some bruising battles ahead. Just like Rocky, I’m totally up to the task.
Have you ever felt like this after finishing a daunting project? How do you celebrate?
I’d love to hear from you!
-Tina
How to get the most out of your internship
Time magazine is really on the ball with this article by Josh Sanburn. It gives you “seven ways to the most out of an internship.” I’ve offered a summary below, but there are some great tips you can read about by clicking the title of this blogpost.
1) Work with your college career center to find the right internship for you.
2) Always ask questions in the interview about things that are important to you, the intern.
3) Understand what your rights are – particularly if you take an unpaid internship.
4) Find a mentor. Most companies have mentorship programs. They can help you navigate the waters of a new workplace, and they can prove to be influential as you look to your future.
5) At the midpoint of your internship, think about projects you’ve done. Are there things you’d like to get experience with that you haven’t worked on yet? Check with your mentor to see what else you can be doing. They’ll appreciate your enthusiasm.
6) Don’t assume you will get a job.
7) My favorite piece of advice is to write thank you notes when your internship is complete to people you’ve worked with, including your supervisor &/or mentor. Even if the workplace isn’t a good fit for you, these are folks you will want to stay in touch with.
Which tip was your favorite, or maybe one they left out?
I’d love to hear from you!
-Tina
Click the title to read this awesome blog post by Jayme Soulati as part of the Mentor Me PR Series. She uses a GREAT video, Faith Salie’s CBS News clip, to demonstrate the horrible, horrible speech pattern known as vocal fry. (The second video just seems like click bait.)
I want to get the word out about Vocal Fry because it is the most hideous assault on the ears since the jack hammer. It seems to be contagious as well because I’ve caught myself doing it when I’m around other people who do it. YIKES!
“This American Life,” and one or two reporters on “All Things Considered,” have vocal fry and I will turn off the radio/podcast the minute I hear it. You can sound serious and intelligent without vocal fry. Vocal fry makes people sound pretentious, add in a few likes and a slow eye-roll and you come across like an airhead. Yes, that is how I really feel about it.
Whatever it takes, eliminate vocal fry. It could very well cost you a job. In this blog post, Jayme gives great advice to listen to your own voice – particularly on the phone because that’s where a lot one-on-one contact will be done.
Do you know people who vocal fry?
I’d love to hear from you!
-Tina
Courtesy Jessica M. Cross via Examiner.com
It’s time to talk about the energy crisis. I know what you’re thinking, “What on earth could this have to do with PR or social media?” This post is all about your personal energy crisis. If you’re like me you are out of energy and behind on all your projects, you are overwhelmed and exhausted. I’ve got some ideas that will help us out. They are simple – but not easy.
1) Exercise. “WHAT? Who’s got time for that crap?”
This is one of the most important things you can do! You get so much more energy and you are in a much better mood. You won’t want to punch the guy sitting next to you who pops his gum during tests. Yeah, you know that guy…
2) Eat healthy food. “NO FREAKING WAY! I need sugar and caffeine. I’ll eat salad when hell freezes over!”
You don’t have to eat kale every day to eat healthfully. Just cut down on sugar, fat, and salt. Try to cut back on the caffeine too – particularly after lunch. You need to get some sleep.
3) Get some sleep.
Make time. How do you think you remember all this stuff your learning? Your body also needs to repair itself (probably from all the crap you are eating, drinking, etc.)
4) Eliminate stress. “WTH? I have exams and projects that create stress. That’s part of the deal.”
There are some things you can control. You can eliminate jerks from your life, cut back on extra-curricular activities, stop doing things that are going to cause you trouble: hangovers, speeding tickets, procrastination, etc.
All this stuff is hard to do, I know because I pretty much suck at it all too. I do know that when I’m exercising and eating right, people don’t piss me off nearly as much. When I have a regular sleep schedule and get enough rest I’m not nearly as forgetful and lazy. All this stuff really goes hand in hand.
How do you manage your energy levels?
I’d love to hear from you!
-Tina
courtesy begintoshift.com
I am a firm believer in the power of delegating. That’s not simply true because I like to tell people what to do, I also like to get a lot of things accomplished. It’s amazing how effort is compounded when you enlist folks to help you out.
It’s not easy to let go and have other people handle things for you. Sometimes you have to prioritize. For example, I wish more than anything I had the time to handle our landscaping. My time is better spent doing what I do best. The economic term is “comparative advantage.” At work, you may think of delegating to your administrative assistant your filing, setting up your meetings or making travel arrangements for you so you have more time to set your organization’s communication strategy.
Courtesy rightattitudes.com
The other thing I’ve learned about delegation is that – in most instances – as long as the delegatee knows the precise end result you want to see, you can let them do it however they want to. It’s the end result that matters. Don’t micro-manage them, let them complete the task however they wish. If you dictate the terms and watch over their shoulder you may as well do it yourself. Besides, often people will come up with a better way to do something than you could have envisioned.
Are you a good delegator? Why or why not?
I’d love to hear from you.
-Tina
Courtesy CliveSimpkins.blogs.com
It takes practice to see criticism as the gift it is.
The first thing you need to do look at criticism from a little different perspective. This of it as an opportunity. It means that there has been miscommunication or there is a genuine screw up. Both of these things need to be rectified so if someone takes their precious time to let you know about the problem – be glad.
I think of it as someone telling me I have something green in my teeth. Someone who likes you will tell you while someone who doesn’t care about you won’t. Granted, you may not get called names or cussed at when they tell you that there’s something in your teeth, but the favor is still there.
Let me provide a recent example. I work on a fundraising event called Holiday Market. I’ve purchased advertising on Facebook to hit all the women in the area. One of the women in the area was kind enough to leave an unflattering post that was along the lines of “I haven’t supported you since you changed your name to Holiday Market.” Alluding to the fact that we went all PC and changed from Christmas Market to Holiday Market. It’s always been Holiday Market.
This is where charm and grace took over and I thanked her for the post. I didn’t correct her or get defensive. I simply explained the reason we have our name and that I hoped she would join us for the best shopping experience of her life.
I used the opportunity to explain who we were, why we did what we did, that we love her and her input and that we want her in our family. Will she come to our event? Who knows. I do know that she can’t honestly tell her friends and family that we are rude and hate Christmas. Other people who read the exchange will see our organization as kind, attentive and thoughtful. You never know who is watching on social media.
Even if someone cusses you and your mother, stay cool. This could be just the chance you’ve needed to change a broken process; to update outdated information; to find out the way you do things is totally jacked up and needs improvement.
Courtesy ios.wonderhowto.com
I’m not saying it doesn’t suck and sometimes people are mean and life isn’t fair, BUT if you try at some point in the criticism to find the nugget of gold in the pile of bullsh*t you could come out smelling like a rose.
How do you handle criticism?
I’d love to hear from you.
-Tina
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (S. Dali, 1952/54)
You can’t manage time. You have to manage yourself.
I’m looking at a daunting week this week with personal, professional and school work. There have been some interesting articles that I’ve noticed lately on the topic of learning to manage yourself and how you live in time. I thought I would share one in case you feel like you’re drowning too.
3 Beliefs That Transformed My Work-Life Balance by Erin Greenawald for The Daily Muse via Mashable. All three of these I live by to a great extent. Unfortunately, when you are living like your head is on fire and your tail is catching it’s easy to forget.
There are so many resources you can use to help you manage your schedule. The Internet is chock full of them. The article above is a good start.
There are systems and gurus you can refer to. I’ve found a lot of success with Getting Things Done by David Allen, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and – as weird as it sounds – FLYLady by Marla Cilley. I’ve come back to these again and again to tweak how I use the systems, and re-discover tips. Self-management is lifelong effort that changes and evolves as your life changes and evolves.
What are your favorite self-management systems you’ve used? What works for you and what just didn’t click in your life?
I’d love to hear from you.
-Tina
Courtesy ChadKaser.wordpress.com
This seems pretty obvious but I’m willing to bet that there are some knuckleheads who get into this because they are prolific personal social media posters. They think, “How hard can social media for a brand be? You just post stuff and get likes. I’ve got 862 friends on FB and 1637 followers on TW, I’m a freaking natural.”
So what’s the difference?
When was the last time you did research on your personal followers before you posted that picture of the ultimate ice cream sundae on Instagram? Do you know your strategy for your tweets about your displeasure at a college football game? What message are you consciously crafting for Pinterest?
See the difference?
Have I left out any considerations or steps in this social media cycle? Which step do you like best? In which step are you weakest?
I’d love to hear from you.
-Tina
Archive100.com
Seriously, if you can intern every semester of college – including summers – you will not regret it. Better yet, be such a good intern that you get hired while you go to school.
In Mass Comm at ETSU, you only get one three-hour credit for an internship and many students are cool with that. It was my experience however, that the first internship was just to get acclimated to the process. I did learn a LOT – most notably what I wanted and didn’t want in my future job. I didn’t get paid and I worked my ass off.
When my internship was over, I had good experience, great samples for my portfolio, and an A. Most importantly, I got a gig with the company after that. I was a (well) paid contractor doing the same stuff I was doing for free as an intern. If they had an opening I’m sure I’d be working there right now.
I did another internship the next semester after that. I didn’t get a paycheck, but I did get an in-kind payment that both my husband and I were able to enjoy. Everyone was happy. I loved that work experience, have even MORE stuff for my portfolio, and some great relationships.
Now, I’m in the internship that I hope becomes my job after graduation. You listening WETS?!
Through each internship I gained not only valuable experience and cool samples for my portfolio, I developed strong relationships and built a network. I have valuable insights into the work I want to do, the type of employer I want to work with, and I have narrowed my focus and path forward.
A lot of students think that the internship is just to fulfill a requirement, that it doesn’t matter because they’re moving away to follow their career anyway. That’s too bad for them but awesome for me (and students like me). Their attitude makes it easier for me to get a job – even if I move away because the competition has a poor attitude.
Of course, there are students who have to work their way through college. It sucks that our system is set up that way. Because of recent Supreme Court ruling on internships, most companies now have to pay their interns. I doubt seriously they will pay very much, and the intern opportunities will most likely shrink.
That said, you may need to take a look at your finances to figure out how you can accommodate internships that may not pay well. How much spending can you cut? Living like a pauper as a college student is perfectly acceptable. Living like a pauper after college…mmm, not so much. Do you want a good career later, or do you want a good hourly job now? 
Do you want Nine West shoes now or Louboutin shoes later? Good internships are worth the sacrifice now for the career you want in the future.
Also, for the love of pete, don’t wait until the last minute to find an internship!! Start thinking about your next internship before the next semester starts. Be ready to apply, do some due diligence to make sure it’s a good fit. You are more likely to get the internship you want when you start early because everyone else is lazy. Don’t be lazy.
Speaking of lazy competition, imagine what your resume is going to look like when it shows college full time and a roster of awesome internships! Seriously, it makes a difference.
What do you think about internships? Are they worth the trouble?
I’d love to hear from you
-Tina
courtesy static5.businessinsider.com
If you’re getting into this line of work thinking you can just hang out all the time in your jammies at home to work, you’re going to have a bad time.
If you aren’t engaged and productive when you work at home, you will a) have a hard time getting work done and/or b) have a tough time advancing in your career. Let’s look at the pitfalls to watch out for if you work from home.
a) You will have a hard time getting work done.
Check out this video that describes why it can be hard to work at home:
b) You will have a tough time advancing in your career.
I’m not saying that you have to sit in a cube, sucking down coffee and pecking away at your keyboard, heck no! This job is about relationships and you have to develop relationships at work to be successful at your job and in your career. When you do work from home, you have to go the extra distance to develop and maintain those relationships.
If you have the latitude on your work schedule, set times for when you’re in the office and stick to those hours. Make sure folks know when those hours are. If there is a deviation you must be sure people know it. Add your contact schedule in email salutations, include your contact info and monitor your contact devices constantly.
You can work from home and be productive and engaged, just remember that you may have to compensate for not being physically present in your work relationships.
What have your experiences been in working from home?
I’d love to hear from you!
-Tina
One Great Public Radio Intern 