Seal the Deal: What You Need to Know to Land the Job: Real World PR

For the third session at Real World PR in Atlanta, I attended Seal the Deal: What You Need to Know to Land the Job.  There, Sharon Jones from Ketchum and Tia Jackson from Porter Novelli gave tips on how to land a job.  Below is the list of tips that Sharon gave us:

  1. Start by networking.
  2. Start social networking- Twitter, LinkedIn.
  3. Research the company beyond the Web site.
  4. Send your resume to the company and make it PERFECT. (Sharon said that she rarely looked at the objective on a resume.)
  5. Send a cover letter (but Sharon reads the cover letter LAST).
  6. Follow up after sending in your cover letter and resume.
  7. Rehearse your elevator speech.
  8. When you get the interview, arrive 15 minutes early.  Thirty minutes early is too early.

WHEN you’re in the interview:

  1. Practice being calm, yet energetic.
  2. Listen to the question that you are asked.
  3. Maintain comfy eye contact.
  4. Mirror the formality of the interview and maintain an appropriate level of business.
  5. Come with thoughtfully prepared questions- at least 3.
  6. Write hand-written thank-you notes after the interview.

Tia Jackson from Porter Novelli then spoke about how to behave once you’ve landed the job:

  1. Go the extra mile.  Meeting expectations isn’t enough.
  2. Network.
  3. Meet with your manager and team.
  4. Set goals.
  5. Find our your expectations.
  6. Become actively engaged.
  7. Take advantage of volunteer opportunities.
  8. Meet deadlines.

Tia also gave two tips for phone interviews:

  1. Put a mirror in front of you during the interview so you feel like you’re actually talking to someone.
  2. Smile. You can hear the smile in someone’s voice over the phone.

My experience at Real World PR was very helpful.  Below is a picture of all of the Clemson PRSSA members who attended the conference.