The Art of Asking For Help During the Job Hunt

Guest blog by Erica Moss

Everyone’s been there: Either you’re new to the job market completely because you were just handed your diploma, you find yourself unexpectedly on the hunt because of a layoff, or maybe you’re just feeling stuck in your current gig and you’re ready for a change of pace.

We all know there are right and wrong ways to approach this process, and I would argue the stakes are a bit higher when you’re in the communications/social/public relations fields because people expect you to be on-point when it comes to written and verbal communication.

Unfortunately, it seems as though some people still haven’t gotten the memo about the importance of being professional, whether you’re asking your college buddy for an introduction to a contact or sending your resume over to an old professor to review. How you present yourself in these seemingly casual encounters can positively — or negatively — influence the level of help you receive from that individual, and ultimately, your ability to land your dream job.

Here are a few easy-to-fix mistakes I’ve seen recently:

3 lessons the NFL could learn about crisis communications

The National Football League has a serious brand problem. The perception of the league has been tarnished by a number of bad moves and it’s getting worse as the days go by.

Since even before the 2012 season began the NFL front office has been making decisions that have been affecting its perception – conflict over benefits for former players, a 132-day lockout of the players, and now locking out the referees.

The latest hit to NFL brand was the final play during Monday Night Football Sept. 24 between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers. A clear interception of a Hail Mary pass should have ended the game in favor of the Packers but replacement referees claim a simultaneous catch and awarded a touchdown to the Seahawks, and the victory.

The reactions were swift and angry from fans, players, and the media.

Message to the front office: Integrate the new with the old

There are still businesses and managements out there that don’t see the value of social media in their strategic plans. And no matter what statistic, value proposition to the consumer, or competitive edge you site, your CEO will not even open the door a sliver to see what’s on the other side.

It’s a frustrating prospect to see your competitors keeping up with technology and relevant communications avenues while your business or management continues to use the tactics they have always done before, and fall behind.

The fact is social media is here, and is here to stay. It is not a passing fad.

Diversification: It’s not just for your portfolio

Operating your communications program in silos is a bad idea. But the death spawn of this shortsightedness is putting all your eggs in one basket; operate in a vacuum; living in a bubble – whatever you want to call it.

I know it seems crazy (who would do something like this?), but it does happen. When it does, it creates a business environment that is doomed to failure.

If there’s only one way for people to interact with your business, you are really asking a lot from a potential customer to find out about your products and services. It’s like using one finger to pick up a spoon. It may be possible, but why put yourself through all that extra effort when you have four more that can make the job so much quicker, easier, and effective? So make it easy for people to find you where they are looking. If you’re not, you can bet on it that a competitor is and that customer is likely going to find them first.

Ohio water park angers breastfeeding moms, lets them take over its Facebook page

Silence is golden … at the movies. In social media it’s like shooting your business in the foot.

Over the weekend, a Columbus, Ohio news station ran a story of a woman told to stop breastfeeding her child while at a local indoor water park. The story made it over to Facebook and soon the very vocal breastfeeding community went in droves to the Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark Resort page to tell them their displeasure with the business’ decision.

First, the water park ignored the news’ request for comment, then it ignored its Facebook page for 49 hours letting hundreds of negative comments and exclamations of lost business pour in with zero response.

Get back to basics when faced with dramatic change

One of the most difficult things I have experienced as a communications professional is working in a very, VERY uncertain environment.

When budgets are cut to the bone, it creates anxiety and uncertainty about how effective you feel you can be in your career. In my experience, even though my job was saved at the very last second, times have been tough to figure out just where I stand in the grand scheme of things.

It has been very difficult to figure out what our identity will be in the face of a direct assault on the job we are trying to do to protect residential utility consumers. I was optimistic that we could make lemonade out of our heaping pile of lemons but then my CEO jumped ship saying she could no longer in good conscience serve under the heinous conditions set up by the legislature and the governor, my optimism waned.