Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Class rundown

So I'm about a week and a half in and so far I can tell this semester will be infinitely better than last semester. For a start, I'm actually enjoying my classes. Crazy concept, I know. Here's a quick rundown of what I'm taking.

English 112 - Reading and Writing Autobiography. I pretty much died when I found out that we'd be reading Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson's memoir about growing up in Des Moines in the 1950s. It was on my Christmas list and to my knowledge this is the first time I HAVE to read a book I WANT to read. Amazing. You know what else is amazing? The professor. I've had her before and I really like her. She smart, funny, talks a lot, and a pretty good person to have at 8:30 in the morning. The final project is kind of a doozy - a 25-page memoir/autobiography - but I'm actually looking forward to it. If you haven't figured it out by now, I kind of like writing about myself.

Journalism 99 - Photojournalism. I can't tell you how many years it's been since Drake has offered a photojournalism/photography course. Mostly because I don't know. I do know it's been a long, long, long time and because I wasn't sure it'd ever be offered again, I snapped it up even though it counts for absolutely nothing towards my major. So far it's going well. We had a cool photo assignment where we had to go out and take pictures of things that look like letters. And the book we have to read is AWESOME. Like it's all about famous photos, photographers, how to approach certain situations... and all sorts of stuff.

English 178 - Critical theory. Um... well, maybe I'll skip over ranting and and raving about this one. We're reading a lot of Kafka. I don't know if you're well acquainted with Kafka or not, but it's really dense... and it sucks.

Journalism 70 - Copy Editing. It sounds nerdy, but I'm really enjoying it so far. It indulges my obsessive compulsive personality or something I guess. So far it's a lot of basic grammar review, but it's good to go back to the basics every now and again. I really like the professor, too. She's funny and she has loads of experience in the industry.

Journalism 120 - Freelance Writing. At one point you'll probably have a class where most of the students had the professor the previous semester. This is that class for me. They have all sorts of inside jokes and stuff and the professor knows all them relatively well so it's kind of a bit awkward. I like what we're learning and I like the assignments and I even like the professor a lot, but there's still awkwardness. I'm sure it'll get better as the semester goes on. And, hey - if some awkwardness is the only thing I have to complain about, I think we're in good shape.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Rejection

The thing about the job hunt is that, sadly, you're gonna be turned down. In fact, you're gonna be turned down a lot. As such, I think it's important to know how you handle yourself after rejection. Do I have an example? Of COURSE I do. I always have examples.

Recently I applied for an internship. I did all the application stuff, went for the interview, thought I rocked the interview, learned more about the position, and walked home with a spring in my step because I was really excited about the job and also confident that I'd be hired.

Mistake - Hope is good. Confidence is good. Assuming you've gotten the job is bad. I'd like to think I didn't go as far as actually assuming I got the job, but maybe I did - it's actually kind of hard to remember now. Just don't make the mistake of thinking it's in the bag because that makes being turned down worse.

The gal I interviewed with told me when they hoped to make their decision by and I rushed to check email constantly just waiting to hear good news. But I didn't get good news. And I didn't get bad news. I just didn't get any news.

Dilemma - Be obnoxious and send an email inquiring? Or be patient and wait to be notified?

Frankly, I had had enough of waiting. Let's be honest, that's the worst part. Being turned down isn't nearly as hard as waiting for news that never comes. So, I decided to go the obnoxious route. There are tactful ways of finding out this sort of information. Just simply explain you're excited about the job and anxious to hear if the hiring decision had been made yet. Maybe you can even throw in that it's not your intent to be obnoxious.

So I sent the email hoping to hear something. Several days passed and I was becoming pretty desperate. I didn't know if maybe it was a really close call and a tough decision and they needed more time, or if I was just turned down without being turned down. I thought about informally contacting someone else I know at the office to see if maybe they knew anything, but couldn't decide whether I should or shouldn't. I never ended up doing it because right as I in the middle of decision, I received an email telling me that the position was filled but thank you for applying ... standard rejection stuff.

I was crushed, to be honest. I mean I was super disappointed. This time was worse than any other rejection because I actually felt like I could get this job. There was less competition and I felt fully qualified ... It was really hard to handle, I'll tell you that. Honestly, I cried. I couldn't help myself. And I spent the rest of the day being mad and sad and angry and frustrated and defeated and disappointed... you name it, I felt it. But you know what I did the very next day? I google-searched media internships in Iowa and found a couple of interesting things to apply for.

I guess that's how you have to deal with these things. I allowed myself time to be upset (maybe a whole day was a bit too much), but I didn't let myself be hung up on it for eternity. Yeah, it still sucks, but I know it's not the end of the world. It's tough right now to find internships and jobs when the industry seems like it's collapsing at every turn, and maybe that's what scared me when I didn't get this internship. I was afraid of having to hunt again and find nothing. What is it people always say? "What do we do when we fall off the horse? We get back on." I don't think I was even on the horse yet.. maybe I just slipped out of the stirrups when I tried to get on. Either way it's important to continue to try. There's always something - it may not be an awesome something but it's a foot in the door (or in the stirrup).

Morals of the story? Don't be cocky, recover quickly from rejection, and never stop looking.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tanner's Tips

Recently I went to New York and met with Tanner Stransky. He's a Drake alum, a writer for Entertainment Weekly, and author of Finding Your Inner Ugly Betty. In short, he's kind of a big deal. I got to sit down with him and learn more about what it takes to get your foot in the constantly contracting journalism industry. Bottom line? It's not easy. Print media is just on the outs. It's a sad reality for people like me. But I did learn a lot from talk to him and now I pass Tanner's tips on to you.

1. Tailor your resume - Don't use the same resume over and over and over for every job you apply for; tailor it to fit the job. If it's an online job, play up online experience. If it's a job like Tanner's in entertainment media, play up your experience with entertainment. You get the point.

2. Use resources on campus - Drake has a lot of journalism professors (and I mean A LOT) who have actual real-world journalism experience. It's a good idea to talk to them and see who they know. A lot of them have good connections at the Des Moines Register and Meredith and even a bunch of other places in and out of state. Journalism has always been about who you know. Don't be afraid to ask.

3. Find alum - I don't remember if this was his tip or mine, but either way it's worth mentioning. Before I went to New York I asked my adviser if she knew any alum I could contact. Advisers like to keep tabs on their students after graduation because they like to brag about them a bit. And that's perfectly fine and totally awesome if they can hook you up with an old alum. I think alumni are the best type of people to meet with because you already have something in common (you both went to the same school) so it takes away a lot of that initial awkwardness.

4. Figure out what you want - This one, I think, is the hardest. Tanner says to tailor your resume, but I pretty much snatch up every opportunity I can find and there isn't exactly a common denominator between all of them. After a while you have to kind of pick an avenue, even a broad one, and pursue it like crazy and get experience in the area of your choice. If you like interior design, find interior design stuff - even if it's just a blog here and there or an random freelance article for the web. If you like sports, write sports articles for the school newspaper. It's good to be well-rounded, too and have a variety of experience, but it's also beneficial to have one interest or specialty because it makes finding real jobs in that field much, much easier when the time comes.

The Revolving Door of Doom

There are some people in this country who are used to the fast paced nature of New York. There are some people who are not.

I am, as you may imagine, not.

Everything in New York seems to move faster. People, life, elevators (not kidding - go to the 22nd floor sometime and see if your ears don't pop) and the evilest and scariest contraption I've come in contact with ... revolving doors.

You wouldn't think revolving doors would be tricky, but don't be fooled.

Here's the story...

I was leaving the hotel in New York and I approach the revolving door. This particular revolving door is automatic. It stops when nobody is using it, but starts going again when someone gets near it.

Well, just as i step one foot in the revolving door it starts revolving and before I know it I'm half in the door and half out of it, pinned up against the entry door frame. Meanwhile, the door is still trying to revolve because I keep setting off the sensor. And this sucker has some force - so much, in fact, that I couldn't get out on my own. The doorman ultimately had to come to my rescue.

I felt stupid. But maybe my story will prevent further accidents.

Just keep all this in mind the next time you're confronted with a revolving door of doom. Be careful and happy revolving.

Expanding horizons

In life, I'm told, it's important to expand your horizons. Push the envelope. Expand your comfort zone. Think outside of the box. All that jazz.

I agree. It's important to do those things. You can't always just stick to who and what you know. You just can't. Where's the personal growth if that's what you're going to do?

But I think it's a misconception that you have to do something drastic to expand your horizons.

I am, to say the least, a safe and cautious person, and I'm ok with that. Some people are more adventurous and take risks - and admirably so. Good for them, but that's not my style.

It was a big, BIG deal for me to pack up my life and move 600 miles away from everyone and everything I knew to go to school in a state I wasn't entirely convinced existed. That was a major expansion of my own personal horizon.

You know what was also a big deal for me? I went to New York recently for a couple of days to meet with some magazine people out there. Granted, it was only two days and, no, New York isn't THAT scary, but I'm not a big city type of girl. At all. I don't like big cities. Maybe I'm just boring that way, but that's how I am. There was another expanded horizon.

Not only was I walking around a big city by myself, but I was also meeting with some pretty intimidating people.

That's a lot of overwhelming stuff for someone like me in such a short period of time. And through all of that I realized that expanding horizons doesn't necessarily involve going to the other side of the country at all. It's as simple as going to a new restaurant. Meeting someone new. Joining a club. Getting a different haircut. Taking an interesting class that doesn't apply to your particular field of study. Trying your brother's new video game and enjoying it even though you convinced yourself you wouldn't.

I think when it comes to pushing your personal envelope you have to understand what kind of person you are. Are you the type who can take massive risks and launch yourself into an entirely different environment and adapt flawlessly? Or are you more cautious and prefer to maximize the comfort zone and minimize discomfort? There's nothing wrong with either, but I think it's an important distinction to make. Expanded horizons aren't necessarily waiting in New York, or any other distant and foreign place - they are, in fact, everywhere. I would even venture to say they're absolutely impossible to avoid.
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