Week #13- What Color is Your Parachute- Ch. 11

This week we had to read Chapter 11 of What Color is Your Parachute. It is about the five ways to choose/change your careers. The first way is the Internet. He gives a website that you can go to which shows careers classified in different ways, like what is in demand and largest number of openings. The second way is tests. Which means instruments or assessments. He says he doesn't know how well it will help you decide on a new career, but they will help you to learn different things about yourself to kind of help guide you in the right direction. The third way is using the flower exercise that we've talked about before. There are seven petals of a flower and they all mean something different. He goes through the details of the flower exercise in Chapters 8 and 9. The fourth way is changing a career in two steps. He says you have to change your title or your field, one at a time. Its hard to change both at one time because you probably won't end up getting the job. The fifth one is finding out what the job market needs. You can Google a list of "hot jobs" and that will give you a list of jobs that are in need right now. All of these tips will help you to find a job nice and quick. If not find a job at least get interviews and get your resume out there!

This is the website that he mentions in the first way to change your careers.

Week #12- Hootsuite Certification

For this class, Social Media Marketing, we have to get a Hootsuite certification. That's a plus side of this class, we take it and learn a ton of stuff about digital marketing and we come out of it with a certification!

To get this certification, first, you have to pay $99.00, but since we are in college, we got it for free :) But after that you have take a test and get at least a 65% on the test to get the certification. There are a bunch of different reviews and things to help you understand the material that will be on the certification exam.

This is part of the courses that you can go over to prepare you for the certification exam. You can take the certification exam as many times as you'd like, but you only need a 65% to pass it. 

Week #12- What Color is Your Parachute- Ch. 10

This week I read Chapter 10 of What Color is Your Parachute and it was about our handicaps. This means anything we think that will hinder us from getting a job. Things such as: I'm not pretty enough, I'm too fat, or I'm ugly. Stupid things like that, that actually don't matter when we are applying for a job. Bolles actually says, "If all this were true, there would be only three weeks in our life when we are employable!" He goes on to say that we are all handicapped. No one isn't. We all have those insecurities about ourselves. He says most of us think about reasons why employers won't hire us instead of thinking about the positives and why an employer would hire us.

A way that we can try to help us think about the positives is by creating a chart. On one side of the chart you put skills you do have and then on the other side of the chart put skills you don't have. And find a list of transferable skills from somewhere. There is a list of them in this book in Chapter 8. Once you're done creating the list of skills that you can do, pick out 5 of your favorites and then write down a time when you performed this skill. This will help you to focus on the positive and the things that you're good at.

Another handicap that he talks about is shyness. He says if you are a shy person than you need to go after a job that you are enthusiastic about and you are curious about. This will help you to become less shy. Most employers like you to stand out above the rest, so if you don't because you're too shy, this could be a big problem for you. So that's why you need to find a job you are super enthusiastic about.

Week #11- What Color is Your Parachute- Ch. 9

This week I read Chapter 9 of What Color is Your Parachute, and again it was a fantastic chapter. This one was about how you get to chose where you work. After doing the flower petal exercise you then get to figure this out. The first step is that you have to look at your Flower Diagram and look at the fifth petal and then choose the top three of your favorite Knowledges. Write them down on a piece of paper or on your phone and rank them in order of importance to you. Then look at the Skills petal and chose the top five favorite Transferable skills and again write them down on the same page. Then take this page and show it to at least five people who know you, family, friends, or work professionals who know you and then ask them what what jobs or work that your page suggests to them. Or you can take your skills and make a Venn diagram and see how they all relate to each other to see which job would be best for you. When people suggest all these different things to you, make sure you jot them down so you remember everything. Then once you've talked to everyone, sit down and look at everything people have suggested and circle the ones you like the best and research some things.

The next thing you have to do is to try on jobs before you decide which ones to pursue. Use LinkedIn and see if you can get into contact with people in a field that you are interested in. See if you can go to Starbucks with them just to talk about their job and what they actually do. He gives a bunch of good questions to ask them.

Next, you have to find out what kinds of organizations have the jobs you are looking for. He gives an example of teachers. When people think about where teachers are employed they only think of schools, but he says no, there are tons of other places where teachers are employed at like, corporate training and educational departments, workshop sponsors, foundations, private research firms, educational consultants, teachers' associations, professional and trade societies, military bases, state and local councils on higher education, fire and police training academies and so much more. So do your homework and look to see all of the different options that you might have.

The fourth thing is that you need to find names of particular places that interest you. This way you can use LinkedIn and other platforms like that to help you figure out who people are that work at the places that you want to work and try to get yourself an in with them.

The next thing is that you need to learn as much as you can about a place before formally approaching them. This shows that you've spent the time to learn about the company and it shows that you really want to be there and that you are a hard worker.

The last thing is, you need to send thank you notes. If someone has gotten you in contact with someone important send them a thank you note. If someone gives you their time to go and talk to them about a job, send them a thank you note. 

Week #11- More Facebook Stuff

This week in class we learned about how to look at the views and everything of our Facebook ad that we ran. I did not run a Facebook ad because I am a broke college student and didn't want to spend money that I don't have on a Facebook ad. But we did look at some cool statistics on our professors ads. There is a thing called CTR, which is click-through rate. The click-through rate of an advertisement is defined as the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad is shown. And it is expressed through a percentage. These things are super important for businesses who really need to focus on their advertising. In my case, I'm really not worried about how many people are seeing my ad and how many people are clicking on it.

This is the equation to calculate CTR. Again things like this are really important for major businesses and even small businesses just trying to get off the ground.

Week #10- Facebook Ad

This week in class we learned how to create a Facebook ad, to try and draw more attention to our digital marketing pages. This was super cool, because it was kind of a behind the scenes look of Facebook. I never understood how much work went into making the ad and running it and having to pay for it. I just see these ads and typically scroll right through them. There is a lot of background work that goes into it. You get to chose how much you want to spend on them, and figure out when you want them to begin running and end running, unless you want them to continuously run, that's an option as well. You can also chose what you want your picture to be, like what you want the add to look like. I just chose to make it one of my blog posts that I put on there previously.

This is a preview of what the add would look like when I post it onto Facebook. It says sponsored right under the Lauren Digital Marketing, that's how you know it's an ad. And then it gives the option for people to like it, so the page gets more likes and more people will begin to read my blog! 

Week #10- What Color Is Your Parachute- Ch. 8

In this chapter of What Color Is Your Parachute, he talks about the self-inventory again. This time he talks about the Flower Exercise. "This self-inventory is a flower with seven petals (including the center)." The first petal is You and People. This is where you describe who you are in terms of the kind of people you prefer to work with and to help. The second one is, You and a Workplace, this is where you describe who you are in terms of you favorite workplace or working conditions. The third one is You and Skills, this is where you describe who you are in terms of what you can do, your favorite skills, these are key to being at your best. The fourth one is, You and Your Purpose in Life. This one you describe who are you in terms of goals or sense of mission and purpose for your life. The fifth one is You and the Knowledge you Already Have, you can describe who you are in terms of what you already know and what your interests are. The sixth on is You and Salary/Responsibility where you can describe who you are in terms of your preferred salary and level of responsibility. The last one is You and Geography, this is where you describe who you are in terms of your preferred surroundings, here or abroad, where you want to live and work for a while.

He also gives a bunch of worksheets that are super helpful for every petal of the flower. They really help you to figure out a bunch of things you wouldn't typically think about yourself, so you can find the best job that fits you and your interests.