60 seconds of social media looks like this

Here's a really interesting infographic that gives insight to what 60 seconds of social media looks like, thanks to Voltier Digital & Plastick Media.


See the full article here.

The LAGRANT Foundation Scholarship!

Do you want a scholarship? Are you an undergraduate or graduate student pursuing a career in either advertising, public relations or marketing? The LAGRANT Foundation is offering generous scholarships to students that can answer yes to these questions.

TLF is now accepting applications! Click here for more information. The deadline is February 29, 2012.

Internship Opportunity!

Attention PRSSA students: you can apply for the 2012 Daniel J. Edelman/PRSSA Award! Applications are due February 3, 2012--you still have time to check out this amazing opportunity for a paid internship at an Edelman office and a $1,500 cash reward!

Information can be found here. Take advantage of this opportunity. Good luck PRSSA students!

Résumés in the New Year

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But when it comes to opinions of how a résumé should be formatted, they can complicate the making of your résumé. Ultimately, creating and updating your résumé is up to you. Careerbuilder.com offers valuable advice regarding preferred résumé formats versus those that are so last year (or two weeks ago...).

1. Gretchen Weiners couldn't make "fetch" happen. So why try to make "objective statements" happen?
• Your customized objective should be explained within your cover letter.
2. Be specific
• Use specific examples and try to include concrete numbers instead of being generic.
3. Craft a cover letter
• Customize each according to the job position in order to relay aspects of your personality and career/internship objectives.
4. Use their keywords
• If they are looking for a charismatic, social media savvy intern, include the keywords "charismatic" and "social media savvy" in your cover letter and résumé.
5. QR codes are trendy
• Link them to your portfolio or LinkedIn profile so professionals can immediately connect with you.
6. Visual résumés
• These help you stand out from the crowd by accompanying your traditional résumé.
7. Résumé Video
• Go the extra creative mile to show your unique skills and personality.
8. Promote yourself on social media
• Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are your friends. Use them (wisely) to put your personal brand out there.

Here's the entire article so you can finally update your résumé 2012 style. If you haven't crafted a résumé yet, check out the new tools Marist offers through Career Services: FoxQuest.

An interview gone wrong, kind of

I clicked a link on our PRSSA twitter (@MaristPRSSA) that led me to a few essential interview tips. The introduction, in my opinion, was right on target. It reminded me exactly how I felt when I set up three different internship interviews on the same day. Thinking back, why on earth did I set myself up for endless nervousness? Well, it was convenient. I wouldn't want to pay for round trip tickets into NYC any more than necessary.

Luckily, I gave myself some time in between the second and third interview to hop on the subway downtown and relax my nerves. My first two interviews were back-to-back and I believe they went well. I arrived early to give myself time to find my way from the subway to the PR firm, but I ended up getting there an hour early. A generous amount of time to flip through some magazines in the lounge area and carefully read over my resume one last time.

By the time I had arrived at my third interview, I became confident in my ability to talk about myself and my resume. Of course, I had given myself a little too much time as I showed up an hour early again. Just enough time to let my nerves heat up and generate small talk with others waiting to interview for possibly the same exact position. Knowing it is a competition only made me more anxious to get in there and show them what I've got. Too bad I was the one an hour early and the other person's interview was before me.

You're probably waiting to hear where the interview went wrong, right? Well, I narrowed it down to the third interview so you have just enough anticipation for what I am about to tell you.

In the future, make sure you specifically ask which position you are interviewing for. I'm not sure why I didn't ask this question. Oh, that's right...because I assumed I was interviewing for the position I wanted. I had spoken with the HR rep to set up the interview. She asked Sports or Entertainment PR. I said Entertainment, not Sports. But what interview did I show up at thinking it was Entertainment? A Sports interview. I was blindsided. Literally. But I had to play it off like this Sports internship was what I wanted, which I pulled off to some extent.

It got worse, however. I had to meet with three different interviewers. I was forced to keep playing this role of a wannabe Sports person.

Among the three interview tips USA Today College offers, I obviously could have done better with step 3: know your employer. I was studying up on Entertainment when I interviewed for Sports. I learned my lesson: Never assume.

Stress & PR

Handling the reputation of a company in itself is stressful. Adding several deadlines and a few more presentations only increase stress levels. Public Relations has proven to be a stressful job, in fact, it was ranked as the 2nd most stressful job in 2011 by CareerCast. 

Thankfully, 2012 has already proved to be a great year: Public Relations was lowered to the 7th rank of most stressful jobs. Despite its significant downgrade, it is still, of course, sitting among nine other most stressful jobs of which an enlisted military soldier ranks as number one. More information about the rankings of 2011 and 2012 can be found here.

It's beginning to look a lot like a less stressful year, don't you think?