So often recent grads tend to get the shaft when it comes to annual salary. However, there are some entry-level positions in finance and analysis that go against this standard. If you’re a recent grad and you’re interested in these fields, be sure to check out this list of 10 High-Paying Entry Level Jobs from AOL Jobs. Happy job hunting!
Check out the latest Dear Bev column on Media Post!
Take a look at job postings or talk to any recruiter: Digital is where all the action is these days. So how hard is it to get into the game if you’re a senior executive whose career and reputation is tied to traditional media?
Here are some recent lessons from 20-year print veteran Pam Daniels. She was a former publisher and just became the senior vice president of business development at 9Threads, a digital marketing agency focusing on beauty, fashion and retail. Her search took six months of intensive self-education and a healthy dose of determination.
Go to Media Post for more!
by Beverly Weinstein
There are two companies offering high-quality digital training. In a tepid job market where digital opportunities are as abundant as traditional opportunities scarce, they are worth considering. Neither group guarantees a job, but both supply important tools for any candidate.
The Laredo Group has been offering training courses on digital since 1996. Recently, another group, The Internet Advertising Institute, gives digital job seekers an extra edge. Both provide a comprehensive view of the digital landscape and the language that’s unique to that sector. They are staffed by trainers with hands-on industry experience. IAI is focused on advertising sales and is designed more for entry level and junior candidates; The Laredo Group courses appeal to people working in ad sales as well as in ad agency and client-side marketing jobs.
Open Admission or By Invitation
The newly launched IAI has a limited class size, no more than 15 students per 6-week session. Classes are from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. four days per week. All applicants must apply first and go through an interview process to be accepted. IAI has relationships with a large pool of employers and works with applicants to get them successfully placed. When I checked with lead trainer and CEO Steve Bookbinder in early January, nearly all of the first graduating class had been placed in jobs.
Bookbinder, who also runs an SEM agency, knows about the importance of digital: “No matter what your job is, it either has or will soon have a digital aspect.”
Leslie Laredo, president of the Laredo Group, offers one-day courses geared primarily to ad sales or to individuals that buy or plan media. In addition, she does more customized digital training for companies. “I’ve trained up to 700 employees at a single company,” she noted. Her courses are taught throughout the year in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.
The ages of her students range from entry level to senior executives. Classes start at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 4:30 p.m. Students start with Level I classes. They can opt to continue with Level II and finish with Level III. According to Laredo, most attendees opt for additional levels.
Content
Both Laredo and IAI stress the importance of understanding the digital language. “For decades, it was all about GRP. Online changes daily. We’re always on top of the digital ecosystem and evolving our course content,” explained Laredo.
She has developed and constantly updates a digital glossary with over 500 terms that she gives each student. The courses also have a 250-page manual and a resource list of 125 digital companies. Some of the information is available for free at laredogrouptools.com
In talking about IAI’s course, Bookbinder said, “It’s impossible to fake that you know what’s going on in digital. You have to learn the language and the terms. We use a variety of teaching techniques, ranging from flash cards to jeopardy-like games to role-playing. This is not a college course. It’s 100% practical and will give you what you need to know how to succeed in an interview and at a job.”
Costs
IAI charges students $10,000 for their course. There’s an initial $2,500 payment. A payment plan over two years is available for students. You can apply for their course at their Web site. Currently, all courses are in New York. Future plans are to extend to other markets as well as to offer evening sessions.
The Laredo Group has a variety of plans, and it’s best to check their site for the most current information. If you opt for an early bird sign up, the cost for two, one-day courses might $1,300. Public courses generally have 20-40 students, with 40 as the maximum size.
Why take a class?
Laredo sums it up nicely. “Keeping up-to-date is critical. You need to know what’s going on. We stress the importance of understanding performance, how the numbers work and accountability. You should know how it all works together online, off line or cross platform. You can’t keep your head in the sand anymore.”Dear Bev: How do I get a digital job without experience?
Read the column on MediaPost.
By Beverly Weinstein
Whether it is change in business, technology or your job responsibilities, one thing is certain: change, though sometimes good, is not easy. Here are some great books on tackling and understanding change from media executives at companies ranging from Google to Time Inc. and CBS to OMD.
Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing - by Adam Greenfield
“Although not a new book (2006) and not strictly a business book, this is a totally
absorbing work. It explores the implications of a not-too-distant future where
computers will be embedded everywhere in our physical space, including our homes,
our vehicles and our bodies. Greenfield is a great writer and he discusses both the
scary and encouraging aspects of this inevitability with complete authority.” — Peggy Kelly, EVP, Universal McCann
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — by Malcolm Gladwell
The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: Little changes can have big effects. When small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or “tipping point” is reached, changing the world.
“All of Gladwell’s books are great. This is a classic.” –Gail Stein, group account director, OMD
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove & Leading Change by John Kotter
“We live and work in a time of rapid transformations. There are two business books which are complementary for succeeding in the midst of change. “Only The Paranoid Survive” by Andy Grove (retired CEO of Intel) is the best book ever written on the subject of external change — how to view it clinically, understand it and get out ahead of it. Leading Change by John Kotter (Harvard Business School) is the best management book for leading internal change — how to organize it, lead it and make sure it becomes institutionalized. Taken together, these books are my touchstones for leadership strategies that halt the feeling that your company is a victim of circumstance. Instead, they create the direction by which any company can be empowered to embrace change as a competitive and cultural advantage.”
–Mark McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin Strategy
Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - by Chris Anderson
A New York Times bestseller and winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for best business book of the year, Long Tail introduced the business world to a future that’s already here.
“It really changed the way that I thought about how to aggregating the consumer in different media forms.” –Gail Stein, group account director, OMD
Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies- by Columbia University professor, Jonathan Knee
The media industry is facing multiple financial and operational crises on an unprecedented scale, and Knee focuses in on the usual suspects to analyze and discuss the dilemma.
“It’s controversial. He attacks their business models–acquiring rather than building, not paying attention to shareholder value etc. It’s kind of cool.” –Nick Loria, media executive
The Shift: The Transformation of Today’s Marketers into Tomorrow’s Growth Leaders by Scott M. Davis
“The Shift is a must-read to help marketers and their respective organizations move ahead and thrive.” –From the foreword by Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson and Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Recommended by Mark Hosbein, former SVP marketing at Nielsen Business Media
Book summaries taken from Amazon.com
Read the column on MediaPost’s MediaDailyNews.com
This tricky question was posed to AskTheHeadHunter.com‘s Nick Corcodilos who, like me, answers job seekers’ questions from a recruiter’s point of view.
The woman who wrote in to Corcodilos said her husband had started a new job 2 weeks ago and wasn’t sure if it was ethical to speak with someone about another opportunity or if he should mention that he just started his job 2 weeks ago in the discussion with the hiring manager. It was a job he had applied to but hadn’t heard back from. And now here he is, fresh at his new position and he finally hears back from a job he wanted more. So what should he do?
Corcodilos advised not to divulge anything he didn’t have to in the interview, saying while some might think going on an interview only 2 weeks into a job is an unethical thing to do, simply exploring a better opportunity is not unethical.
I would agree and tend to advise candidates to always learn about new opportunities, at the very least, to stay abreast of what is going on in your industry, to keep in the know about new start ups and new positions, network and meet hiring managers at other companies, and start to think about what may lie on the horizon.
Corcodilos goes on to say that unless the company offers the man in question a job, he isn’t being asked to make any ethical decisions, he’s simply becoming educated.
If and when the new job is offered, however, is where the situation gets sticky. Explaining to a relatively new employer that you’re leaving after such a short tenure, might tarnish your reputation. But Corcodilos says, if you don’t intend on doing this again for awhile, the gains in taking the better opportunity might outweigh the damage to your reputation, that you will eventually recover from.
An interesting and astute point Corcodilos made was that while some might find jumping ship two weeks in to be a pretty unfair thing for an employee to do, it’s just as ethical a concern as downsizing is for an employer.
If the opportunity is a better one in more ways than one (meaning not just salary, but in experience and opportunity for growth), then I say it is certainly worth your time to explore. As Corcodilos said in his column, it’s business, not a tea party. So, while I certainly don’t endorse the idea of up and leaving a post so soon and as a recruiter, I work to find my clients reliable candidates who will stick it out for the long run, exploring and learning about new opportunities is definitely not a crime.
The New York Times recently ran a piece in their “Preoccupations” column about two advertising sales executives who share their job. What pray tell does this mean? Well, just how it sounds, the two women featured in the article tackle one job together. And from the sounds of it, they’ve made the arrangement work pretty darn well for themselves and for their company, Glamour magazine.
The job sharing scheme is appealing to parents who want to balance home and work priorities without either one tipping the scales. Why can’t I be a good parent and a good executive at the same time? The old conundrum that stumps and challenges so many working moms and dads could seemingly be solved by finding a like-minded partner to split the work week and job responsibilities with.
And while the article’s heroines, Joan O’Rourke and Jennifer Turano, have mastered the art of the job share, so much so that they won salesperson–er people– of the year last year, it seems that this arrangement could pose potential problems. “Jen and Joan” as their colleagues and clients affectionately refer to the duo, place great emphasis on both of them being completely involved in every aspect of what they’re doing. They take extensive notes for eachother so that neither one is ever left out of the loop. They never want the company, colleagues, or clients to feel that their situation is problematic or inconvenient and it takes time and effort to avoid the complications that could arise. They are clearly both devoted to the job and not just looking for a light work week with a nice pay check. They are goal oriented and genuinely want to be as successful at their job as at the other endeavors they undertake in their time off (most likely parenting.)
But the author, Jen, admits that they are an expensive team. Glamour obviously pays them each a salary and provides benefits, for a job that could theoretically be done by one person. Of course, they share the commission, but two base salaries is an investment the magazine must have made in what they knew would be two top-notch sellers.
So what if you’re not yet a star player? What if you are a great worker who wants to be given a chance to grow and knows you will one day excel, but don’t necessarily have the track-record just yet? I would surmise that this situation is less likely to come to fruition for you.
Additionally, if this is, as I would imagine, a female dominated sect of employees that seek out this type of work arrangement, will your male counterparts take you less seriously or resent the freedom you have? There’s no doubt in my mind that “Joan and Jen” deserve the respect and appreciation that Glamour gives them. They work hard, and in some ways, maybe harder in their 3 days per week than someone without a partner to keep in the loop. And sure, they make less money because of their shared commissions, but it seems likely that those not sharing jobs could take a duo, who are clearly stating they have other priorities outside the job, less seriously than their fellow cubicle dwellers who are in the office all 5 days.
Would that be fair? Of course not. If “Joan and Jen” can get just as much as one person done without causing any inconvenience and their company is willing to shell out the extra salary for the stellar accounts they bring home, then kudos to them for balancing work and family. More companies, in my mind, should recognize and encourage this type of collaboration. But the real questions is, will they?
What do you think? Please leave comments and let me know how you view this kind of work arrangement and if you have experience job sharing?
By Beverly Weinstein
Recruiters don’t find candidates jobs, they find candidates for jobs — a distinction that’s often misunderstood. In other words, the recruiter’s client is the hiring organization, not the job seeker.
Headhunters (the vernacular term) should be part of your job search, but don’t make the mistake of only relying on them. On average, recruiters only fill about 10% of all jobs. The following is some basic information that should be useful in understanding the recruiter’s role.
Multiple Business Models
There are two basic categories of recruiters: retained and contingency.
•Retained search firms work exclusively, and the client pays them a guaranteed fee for their services.
•Contingency recruiters are only paid if they find a candidate that is hired by the client. Some contingency recruiters may work exclusively, but it’s not unusual for clients to work with multiple recruiters for the same job. That’s why you may get several calls for an opportunity.
How They Find You
Recruiters are in the business of knowing where to look for qualified candidates, regardless of whether those candidates are actively seeking new jobs.
•Candidate sources range from referrals to mining databases to cold calling someone in the same job at a different company. Professional social networks have become an increasingly popular sourcing tool. If the recruiter doesn’t tell how they found you, ask.
•Ways in which recruiters will reach out to candidates include their business phone, email, and social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
How You Find Them
The same tools headhunters use to find you can be used to find them. And when you compile your headhunter list, take some time to do basic research. Keep in mind search firms generally specialize by category(ies) as well as by job level and/or salary level. Be strategic about your outreach and expectations.
•Research the individual recruiter’s name and/or their company name. Take a look at their bios and client list if it’s published on their site. Look for them on LinkedIn. Any legitimate recruiter should have ample information easily available online.
•Not all recruiters will agree to see you if they aren’t working on a search that matches your background. If they won’t meet you, try to at least get a phone appointment for a few minutes or, at minimum, e-mail your resume for inclusion in their database.
What Recruiters Do/Don’t Do
•Don’t expect a recruiter to write or rewrite your resume. Most are willing to make suggestions or point you in the direction of resume writers or information resources on resume writing.
•Headhunters will sometimes offer you career advice or job search tips. However, if you’re looking for help in figuring out what you want to do next, try a career counselor and expect to pay for their time. Some recruiting firms do offer counseling services, but again at a price.
Beware of Promises
The growing unemployment rate has spawned a category of unscrupulous “so-called” recruiters. They take a fee from the candidate, promise resume help, career guidance, and a job. Major newspapers have run articles on job seekers that have written checks to these firms but haven’t gotten results. I recently heard from a reader who made this mistake. It’s a rough job market; it’s hard for even the most well-connected to help their colleagues, friends or relatives get a job. Be suspicious of a stranger promising to do the same!
Read the column on MediaDailyNews.
The latest in interesting career related news and media tidbits :
Job Hunt: We’ve been saying this for awhile, now Reuters agrees: Go Social! (Reuters)
Hired: How to negotiate a good salary despite the bad economy (WSJ)
Fired: 8% of US Companies Have Sacked Social Media Miscreants plus one major Facebook Faux Pas (Mashable)
Words of Wisdom: What’s the best advice Arianna Huffington ever received? She’ll tell you. VIDEO:(Fortune)
Small business: Etsy founders start a “tool for small businesses to market, listen, and respond to their customers using social media,” called Postling. (Mashable)
Media/Social Media: NBC’s new pilot is airing on Facebook first? (Huffington Post)
With the downturn in the economy the numbers of college grads looking to intern in their field of interesting are growing. Finding paid work is no longer a guarantee and many view experience in the industry of their choice as more valuable than a paycheck in an area they have no interest in (ie waiting tables or serving coffee.) But with growing competition, many companies are offering internship services that guarantee a position in a given field, some even with room and board. The New York Times featured an article on the phenomenon of paying for an unpaid job.
Author, Gerry Shih, writes, “But many educators and students argue that while the programs bridge one gulf — between those who have degrees from prestigious colleges or family connections and those who do not — only to create a new one, between the students who have parents willing and able to buy their children better job prospects and those who do not.”
If you could buy your way into the perfect job, wouldn’t you? But what if you can’t? Is there financial aid for for less fortunate people who want to pay to get a job that won’t pay them?
Another issue Shih brings up is if students have their parents pay for their opportunities, how will they learn the skills to get one themselves.
“Other college advisers cautioned that while the desire to help is understandable, parents who pay for an internship program are depriving their children of the chance to develop job-seeking skills or to taste rejection before they have to fend for themselves.”
As so many of the career experts we have quoted note, failure has only led to their success. If students and recent grads never have the opportunity to fail, will they ever learn the tenacity it takes to succeed?
What are your thoughts on this interesting new trend?
Hired: Microsoft agrees to hire at least 400 Yahoo employees as part of the $150M plan to share revenue on Internet search advertising. (CNNMoney.com)
Fired: Planned job cuts announced by U.S. companies numbered more than 97,000 last month, up 31 percent from June. (Reuters)
Business Etiquette: Is it appropriate to imbibe at corporate functions? Everyone else has a drink in hand… (NY Times)
Gen Y…The Bad News: “For College Grads Lucky Enough to Get Work This Year, Low Wages are Likely to Haunt Them for a Decade or More” (WSJ)
And the Good News: Internships abound. Take a look at these 8 lucky new comers who landed the summer’s coolest gigs. (Fortune)
Biz Gadgets: UberTwitter beat out Twitterberry as the most popular Twitter client for your crackberry. Find out why it’s better. (Mashable)
Tech News: Google is set to acquire video compression company, On2Technologies, for a cool $106.5 MM (Google Blog)
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