Lesson Number One: Know Your Industry

My First Interview:

I never understood the meaning of "be prepared" more than after my first interview for a marketing position. It couldn't have been more perfect, the company was well respected, medium in size (which is what I personally was looking for), had a hip urban feel to the design and decor internally, and most of all I was one of the first to interview thanks to a referral (which we will talk about the importance of in a later post). So I foolishly think that I am completely prepared, I've researched the company, gone over possible interview questions, I've reviewed my resume and previous experience, and I'm feeling very excited and confident. However, I am completely wrong. Not only am I not prepared but I'm not prepared in one of the most important areas. Let me just play out the scenario for you:

I go through two rounds of interviews which go very smoothly, however the honey moon stage is soon over and I am slapped with a reality check in round three. I am interviewing with five other people that work in various functions throughout the company when one of them asks me this seemingly simple question:

"What brands do you like?"

A vague question which should have been interpreted from a marketing standpoint (since that is obviously the position I'm interviewing for) and answered as a description of the brands I watch and admire, followed by an explanation of why. However, I was not prepared for the question, had definitely not done my homework, and therefore panicked and took the question from a consumer standpoint. What followed was a word vomit of the brands that I like to purchase and why, instead of the brands that I like their marketing and why.

As soon as I left, my mind began racing over the interview and I quickly realized my mistake. I wanted desperately to just run back upstairs and explain the misunderstanding, and give them the perfect answer that I could have. But thats the thing about interviews (and life in general) there usually are no second chances. Instead of a smart, collected potential employer, I probably looked like a babbling idiot who had no idea about the industry she was interviewing for.

My next post will have have a more in depth solution for this problem, but for now just take a tip from the Boy Scouts and always BE PREPARED!

Introductions

Hello all! I am Andrea, a nearly desperate college graduate who has eagerly been seeking a career in marketing/advertising for quite some time now. While I have been through a lot of trials and tribulations while job hunting, I am grateful of the process because it has allowed me to realize exactly which avenue I want to pursue and what kind of company I want to work for.

When I first graudated and began seeking the perfect career I became a bit panicked. I was suddenly terrified of where my skills were going to fit into the job market and what was I going to offer an employer that no one else had. I don't have the technical skills to create a website, nor do I know how to use PhotoShop or inDesign, and tell me to design something in Adobe and I'm baffled. Therefore, I needed to define my strengths and skills not only for myself but so I could present them to an employer. This blog explains how I quashed those fears and became confident in my capabilities and why I knew an employer needed to hire me.

It is my ultimate goal that others can learn and adapt to the job market more rapidly than I did by learning (and probably laughing) from my mistakes while gaining some valuable job seeking tools. I hope those that do follow this learn a little something and help them land a job as well!