How would you start looking for work after graduation?

Question:

I want to do something a bit different for this pitch. After all the advice and opinions I have given over the past year, I would really like to hear from you.

Today was my last day of college. I am now a card carrying member of the unemployed. Living in a college town is obviously the first thing that I have to do to try to find work, but what else would you suggest?

I now hold a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing communications. My emphasis was in broadcast public relations.

My business elective classes included services marketing and investments.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Answer:

This is completely up to you guys. I would love to hear from everyone! Please leave a comment below.

What you can learn from this ebook

Social Media symbolizes a crossroads for public relations representing the decision we, as individuals, face in our career. In one direction, we can adopt the transparency and the expertise necessary to genuinely and sincerely connect directly with our customers, peers and the influencers who advise them. In the other direction, we can continue relying on hyperbole and jargon filled press releases for coverage, spamming targets with irrelevant information, maintaining a superficial and shallow knowledge of the products and industries we represent, and maintaining distant and removed relations with those we wish to cover our stories.

In 2007, I shared a heartfelt conversation with my good friend Tom Foremski, where we outlined the state of PR and also what was required in order to lead and also survive the transition to the new era of marketing communications. His observation was best distilled with a blunt and poignant statement, “PR won’t change, until it has to.”

As long as PR agencies and consultants are profitable as is, why would they reinvent themselves?

As some of us are learning, not challenging the status quo, especially in this economy, is the most direct path to oblivion…unfortunately, many are learning of the perils of “doing this wrong” through public exposure in a very global town square.

Contemporaneously, other communications professionals or organizations are rushing to capitalize on the new gold rush by adding everything “social” to their menu of services, mission, and experience, misrepresenting the very premise of their ebbing capabilities to masquerade inexperience in an exaggerated cloak of proficiency and expertise. Even in the face of intense competition to own the conversation, agencies are simply folding in new “social” services governed by the same top-down processes that govern day-to-day traditional PR. It’s a survival vs. adaption philosophy.

So, I’ve spent the past few years of my life getting my B.B.A. in marketing communications. I have decided that now would be the best time to start sharing some of the things I have been taught or that I’ve found to be the most interesting over my time at the university.

Since this is the first post devoted to sharing what I know about marketing, I thought I’d let everyone know what classes I’ve taken so hopefully I can answer questions rather than having to post everything from Principles of Marketing to Advanced Campaign Planning.

Here’s a list of the marketing classes I’ve taken:
Marketing Principles
Services Marketing
Advertising and Promotion
Public Relations
Advanced Campaign Planning
Consumer Behavior

If you have any questions about any of these topics, I will be writing articles on Saturdays and Sundays regarding marketing.

So, here’s the first thing I want to share: The 4 P’s of Marketing! Also known as the “Marketing Mix,” the 4 P’s of Marketing are the building blocks of any marketing curriculum. The marketing mix is typically in chapter one of every marketing textbook.

* Product – Product is referring to the tangible item or the service that the client has to offer. For example, this website currently offers information and that would be the product that Lucrative Investing offers. It is important to have a product that makes you unique. The more unique an item is, the more likely that someone will come along and buy it.

* Price – This is, in a very basic sense, how much will your product cost. Pricing decisions should take more into account the value that the customer puts on the product or service, but should also take into account profit margins and competitors’ pricing.

* Place (distribution) – “Location, location, location!!” Place has to do with the distribution channels or locations that the product or service is purchased or consumed.

* Promotion – This, in my opinion, is the most fun part of the marketing mix and the “P” I have had the most classes in. This is the part of the marketing mix that deals with advertising and public relations. It deals with getting the word out to consumers.

All these elements come together to try to reach the target market and get a response from them (hopefully the response is positive and they make a purchase decision about the product). All these elements need to be coordinated in order for the marketing mix to be successful.

Here’s a chart I found on the internet that summarizes the marketing mix:

Yes, their products are sleeker and more stylish, but they’re also slower and not as compatible with software and hardware… Our entire journalism department is full of brand new iMacs and Macbooks. I even own an iPod. My car’s stereo only functions with an iPod, I can use another MP3 player, but I could not use the radio controls to change the songs or volume.

So why has everyone decided that Apple is the gold standard? I’m not very sure. They claim to be stable, but my first 2 iPods crashed so bad they had to be replaced, and when working in the journalism lab, I’ve had the macs crash on me at least 3 times. My personal PC has only crashed once, due to a video card error.

There are cheaper and faster technologies available, so why are people so crazed over Apple?

I am not the only person with this problem. There are plenty of new grads out there hopelessly looking for professional entry level work, who just aren’t finding it. We’re told when you graduate high school, the next step is OBVIOUSLY college, but does it have to be?

People are getting laid off, unemployment is up and student loans are needing to be paid. This is why you’ll find new grads working as delivery drivers for your local Domino’s. They can’t find work anywhere else.

Perhaps its time to give high school students time to really think about what they want to do with their lives rather than sending them blindly into college. Not everyone knows what they want to be when they grow up.