Tag: job search

Following up

At the top of my to-do list to day is to follow up with some people I’ve been networking with about open roles. It’s my LEAST favorite thing about the job search because I hate to feel like I might be annoying people.

I’m horribly independent – it’s likely one of my bigger personality faults in this situation. I want to make it on my own merits. But a job search is so interdependent on just the right person seeing your application/resume with the right timing. And if there’s one thing I know about looking for a job, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

So who do you know that might be looking for a good marketing person? Maybe I should be following up with YOU! 

First interview!

Yeah, yeah – it’s a 15 minute HR screener, but I have my first interview on the calendar. Bonus? It’s for a job that I would really like! So of course I started thinking about in-person interviews and consulted my closet to see what I could wear. 

After years of business casual and work from home during the pandemic, my options for interview appropriate attire were sad to non-existent. The pandemic pounds are certainly problematic in more ways than one! So I took myself off to the mall yesterday and bought a few interchangeable pieces that will allow me to have more than 1 interview look and took advantage of things in my wardrobe that still do fit! 

What is interview appropriate these days? Well – I had to consult the internet because I’m not exactly a fashionista. I’m going with slacks and a knit jacket rather than a blazer. Polished but still slightly casual which I think will give me enough comfort to be confident. Here’s the jacket – what do you think?

Analytics

Not really a throwback, but I’m getting enough new data on this site now to start having some fun. Today, I’ll be diving into my site data and seeing what I can tweak to get better readership results. I’m also looking forward to seeing where all my readers are from – in the past, I had a very faithful reader in Ireland so it will be interesting to see if that reader has rejoined me!

I’ll be checking my site using Google Analytics as well as the WordPress tools. Might even swing by SimilarWeb and see if I’m there!

I love diving into data and finding a story in what seems like chaos. I think it goes back to my first job at Young & Rubicam in their media department. I was responsible for going through the Nielsen ratings books and entering the ratings for each of the programs that an Advil commercial aired in as well as our competitors. Mind you, a computer would do this all on it’s own today, but back in the day, we had 2 computers for 40 people on my team so humans did a lot more than they do today!

It was a tedious job and most media planners hated it – but I didn’t. I used it to get REALLY familiar with ratings data and had a field day manually figuring out how to get Advil an edge over our competitors with our programming selections on Primetime TV. That granular knowledge of ratings has served me well over the years and even laid the groundwork for the logic I put into place when programming tools for budget tracking and incentive tracking later in my career.

I think what it boils down to is Curiosity. I am NOTHING if not curious about almost everything. I love puzzles and playing in analytics is just one giant puzzle. So excuse me – but I have some data that really needs to be played in today! 

Wellness Wednesday

I woke up with a horrible headache today – made me appreciate my down time since I didn’t have to push through it to get somewhere by a particular time this morning. It’s one of those headaches that has the potential to be a migraine but I’m fighting it. After some extra sleep, I had some Advil and a hot shower. And really – is there ANYTHING a long hot shower won’t make better? So now I’m up and at it although I’m keeping sound and light to a minimum.

Tomorrow is my annual mammogram. Ladies, are you faithful about them? With the exception of a year during the pandemic (which I think can be forgiven), I’ve always gotten mine since I turned 35. I’m at a higher than average risk for breast cancer since my mom died of cancer that started with breast cancer. She was diagnosed with it in 1969 which for her meant a hysterectomy, radical mastectomy, chemo therapy and radiation. In 1969, the doctors weren’t messing around and treated her very aggressively. It still managed to metastasize to her bones and eventually her liver – but she had 11 years between her initial diagnosis and when she died.

Today, while 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their lives, most breast cancer cases aren’t a death sentence. We’ve come a long way since 1969 thankfully! So go get your mammograms – a few minutes of discomfort could give you the warning time you need to keep cancer in check. Here are some resources about breast cancer and early detection – check them out!

Employee Engagement

I had a really interesting conversation with an old friend yesterday about employee engagement. So I’m going to stretch my Wellness Wednesday topic to be about the health of a team. It’s my blog space – I’m allowed!

We were talking about the challenges of managing a team that is was fully remote during Covid and I remarked that I didn’t find it that horrible. Which seemed a bit surprising to my friend. My team’s engagement metrics actually grew over the course of the pandemic – and I think it’s because I actually listened to my team every step of the way.

Remember those first days of the lockdown when nobody knew what day it was? I used our Teams channel to do a morning greeting to my team EVERY day. To make it more fun, I used a Holiday Every Day website to give us something to “celebrate.” Some days I tried to tie the holiday celebration to what was happening with work – but most days, it was just a way to allow us to pretend we were still all around the table at the office and have a little chit chat to start the day. I did polls, asked for stories from the team and offered funny observations on everything from the weather to what I could see out my window.

More than that, I listened to what they wanted. We did a couple lunch meetings over video but ultimately, the team decided we would do a Friday morning meeting. It allowed us to talk over what had happened over the week, decimation of “news” from team leader meetings and make plans for the coming week.

And from time to time, I sent care packages to everyone. I did holidays with home made cookies and candy. When one of my team members had ankle surgery, I sent a package with all kinds of goodies to make the convalescence easier. I sent electronic gift card “prizes” for a weird trivia contest. I wanted them to have unexpected things that were just plain fun.

In other words, I cared about my team. And if there’s one thing most people respond to, it’s being valued. They were valued – and they engaged. I miss them!

Crazy!

My to-do list is a completely crazy mix of job search and holiday tasks! It just doesn’t seem possible that just 6 weeks ago I was up to my ears in work and trying to figure out when I would even think about heading home for the holidays. I feel like there is a before November 8th and an after life now.

I’ve come to terms with the layoff and a part of me is grateful for the holidays as a distraction. I am totally committed to actually enjoying the holidays this year which is a HUGE silver lining of the timing of the layoffs.

At Walgreens, I was responsible for the post-Christmas clearance events so the holidays were always stressful to make sure I had the item and store lists for each event – post Christmas, Hannukah, New Years and Three Kings – and that each promo event had the correct item discount rates and correct store lists. The lists were ALWAYS a challenge – one year, I worked on Christmas morning to make sure the Puerto Rico stores got the right items/discounts because they gave me their lists late on Christmas Eve! So while I always go home for the holidays, I was always working and missed out on a lot.

This year, I’m all about being fully present with my family for a change. I’ve made plans to lunch with cousins I recently reconnected with. I’m doing a 5K with another cousin – just the 2 of us! We ordered finishing medals online and everything! I’m hoping to take my nephews bowling. It’s going to be a joy to be able to go to all the Christmas activities with everyone and not be so distracted.

And while I have been seriously looking/networking for the job search for the last 4 weeks, after the holidays, I’m going to double down. So look out – if you need a great marketing person, I’m heading your way!

First Job

I’ve read that 1 in 8 Americans have worked at McDonald’s. So I’m in good company since I got my first job at McDonald’s as soon as I turned 16. I loved the McDonald’s I worked at. The head manager there was great and really made an effort to schedule the high school students around their extra curricular activities. For me that wasn’t always easy since I was in Band and Show Choir!

Not me – but I wore this same uniform!!!

I look back at my time at McDonald’s very fondly. My co-workers were almost all people I had known most of my life so it made it really easy to be a tight team. You don’t slack on people you’ve always known!

But I learned a lot of things at McD’s that have stuck with me throughout my career. Shall we review?

  • Multitasking. I usually worked the drive-thru so at any given time, I might have been taking an order, picking up another order and collecting payment for yet another order. I had to learn to be fast – and absolutely accurate. All while being friendly to the customers too! This has paid off for me in almost every job since. I pride myself on my ability to work on multiple problems/projects at one time, keeping everything on time, absolutely accurate and with a smile on my face.
  • Responsibility. I never would have DREAMED of missing a shift without at a minimum calling my manager to let them know why I wouldn’t be there. I knew the team depended on me to be there for my shift and there was no way I would ghost them. Not only would I never ghost a shift – I was never late. Maybe that’s the way I’m built but then again, it goes back to not wanting to make the shift harder for my friends. That has also stuck with me to this day. I show up and give 100% to my job.
  • Attention to detail. The last thing 16 year old me wanted was a customer yelling at me because their order wasn’t right. Customization wasn’t necessarily a big thing at McD’s when I worked there in the old days but if someone ordered a plain hamburger, they got a plain hamburger from me! I was also sure that if you ordered coffee, I asked about cream/sugar and included a tiny spoon to stir. If you ordered nuggets – you got the right sauce for you. This has carried on through my career as well – I’m all about making sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed!

I’m a firm believer that the skills you learn in any job are easily transferable to your next job or just your life in general. What skill did you learn in your first job that you still use today? Tell us in the comments!