work | NZ Muse

June 18, 2012

When social media is part and parcel of the job

It’s pretty rad.

I remember many years ago (possibly the 2008 Oscars?) explaining to my boss at the time what a URL shortener was and how we could use one in our Twitter coverage of the ceremony.

Today, my current bosses are on Twitter and, I believe, actually have more followers than I do.

But for all the awesomeness that is spending part of the workday on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and G+, it also has downsides.

Social media is an insatiable beast

Unlike my personal accounts, I can’t simply take a break if I’m overwhelmed with other tasks or just don’t feel like being social. You still need to be putting content out there and responding to feedback.

All about the numbers

(Photo credit: The Next Web)

Social media is hard to quantify. So follower and likes numbers are easy to latch on to as something concrete, and the higherups tend to look at those numbers as a measure of success. It’s certainly something that should be factored in, and we shouldn’t be living or dying by that alone, but the more old-school types may take some convincing.

Negative feedback

Being social opens you up to, well, everyone. And they can say anything they want. Learning to deal with criticism in such an open forum is something all brands have to struggle with at some point.

No feedback at all

Posting something that garners no reaction or interaction at all sucks. Doing that multiple times in a row is an even bigger bummer. But this is reality for many of us at some point; we’re not all huge media organisations or consumer brands that can push out anything and instantly see clicks, comments and shares (been there; it’s quite gratifying).

May 28, 2012

Does morality matter when it comes to making a living?

Excellent video. (No? Might just be a Kiwi thing…)

Seriously though.

Would you ever? Are there any companies or industries you would never consider working for?

When it comes to earning a crust … I’ll admit I once entertained the thought of joining the armed forces for about a millisecond, mainly thanks to T’s suggestion. It’s not a bad lifestyle for some people, and it’s definitely one that’s enjoying a resurgence. And if you’ve got a degree, you get to go in at a decent level.

That would be all well and good, as long as you’re not on the frontline. Because infantry = weaponry.

And that’s something I have a problem with. Guns.

T has used pretty much the most lethal ones you can get (during his army stint) and since he’s been back, he’s owned a rifle and a couple of airguns. And yes, I’ll give you that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. (Using guns.)

But you cannot tell me that guns are a neutral thing. They are designed and manufactured to kill, or at least injure.

I see cigarettes in the same light. They do not serve any positive purpose whatsoever.

I’d have to be in dire straits, quite honestly, to consider applying for a job at a tobacco company. Or a company that dealt in arms. (Richard Branson, in Like a Virgin, states that despite Virgin’s famed diversification strategy, he has never considered entering either of those sectors.)

Where does that stop, though? Would you not work for McDonald’s, because no matter how many healthy menu options they introduce, their core business is in flogging artery-clogging excuses for food? Would you not work for an oil company? Would you not work for an alcohol brand? Would you not work in an industry perpetuating harmful body image – in cosmetic surgery, or modelling?

May 18, 2012

5 things you don’t learn at university

5 things you don't learn at university

There are lots of useful things I learned while gaining a degree, but equally, lots of arguably more important things I didn’t learn until I was actually on the job.

Here are five lessons you won’t learn at university….

A blazer is your best friend

It instantly makes you look that much more polished and professional. Everybody needs a basic black blazer in their wardrobe.

How to use email

Sure, you know how to hit reply and send, but did anybody ever teach you when to use reply-all and cc appropriately? What makes a good subject line? How do you phrase a request for something? Should you forward praise emails to your boss? When are emoticons okay?!

That everything is about selling

Even if you’re in a non-revenue generating department – IT, admin, HR, editorial – you still need to know how to present yourself in the best possible light. You’ll need to make it through many job interviews in a lifetime. You’ll need to represent your company to outsiders from time to time. You’ll need to pitch ideas. And if you choose to strike out on your own eventually, you’ll sure as hell need to know how to sell your independent services.

Bring solutions, not problems

Or rather, it’s fine to highlight problems – but it’s infinitely better if you can present the fix at the same time. Bosses like to know that things are working, not that they’re broken. At the same time, be aware not all your brilliant ideas will be used – or worse, they’ll take forever to implement or be warped as they go through many hands in the name of bureaucracy.

The need to toot your own horn

You can do great work, but if nobody knows about it, why bother? (Kind of like that old riddle – if a tree falls in the middle of the woods but nobody is around, does is make a sound?) Self-promotion, like networking, is an occasional necessity (natural for some, nasty for others). Your bosses probably pass on good feedback down the chain to you, but are you doing the same – forwarding on praise, keeping them in the loop on milestones and important updates?

And thus ends my spurt of wisdom for today.

What do you wish they would teach at university?

May 17, 2012

So you want to be a writer…

I’ve worked with a fair few interns in my time. They range from the one who didn’t last a day (so gung-ho at the start but quickly realised the reality of journalism was not what he envisioned) to outstanding candidates I wished we could pay. I’ve been asked by students for industry advice, which I most assuredly do not feel qualified to give.

Ergo: this braindump covering most of the things I would like to tell would-be writers.

You will be overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. Perennially underresourced.

Pay starts low and stays low. It’s not like, say, accounting – where you start on $40k and work on up to $100k in a few years. The industry is relatively flat; it’s not like there is a huge ladder to climb.

You will in all likelihood need to pay some serious dues. Internships help get your foot in the door. (I hope you got yourself qualified, because the degree is practically mandatory now.) Working the crappy shifts will help you get your foot in the door and rack up valuable experience. Although depending what you go on to (breakfast TV? online news? Talkback radio?) the hours may ALWAYS be bad. (At first you’ll feel SUPER IMPORTANT because you’re NEEDED at all hours! And then that novelty wears off and you’ll resent the intrusion.)

It is not (always) as exciting or glamorous as you might think. Sometimes we get to meet important and/or famous people. Sometimes we get wined and dined and plied with crap. There’s also the mundane and often repetitive stuff. You’ll get used to writing stories about similar things: awards, surveys, reports, acquisitions, events, fires, arrests, issues that “spark a debate”, etc. You don’t always get to choose what you write about. The unsexy stuff (tech, business) pays better and has better hours. You might have overbearing subeditors – or none at all.

You’ll need to be fast. Onto it. Understand digital. (I never want to hear “do you use hyperlinks in your web stories?” again.). It will be to your benefit to know what CMS stands for; have a few basic Photoshop skills; have profiles on social media so that you know how those networks work, for starters. You need to exist online. It freaks me out to Google you, expecting to see clips, or at least a Twitter or LinkedIn profile, and come up empty.

It’s thankless. Not just in terms of readers, but also, the self-deprecating, self-mocking culture among us. (From what I can tell, this can be found in academia too – why do we keep doing this? There must be something wrong with us. But we keep plugging away anyway.)

Some of this applies to wannabe pro bloggers, too. I am not one of them, so I won’t speak to this for long (I’ve made a few bucks online without trying but it took me a couple of years; the hourly rate is good but spread out over all the hours I spend on blogging, would be well into the many decimal points of cents).

Again, you cannot simply write about whatever you want and expect to be able to make a living doing so off the bat. You’ll need to learn about SEO and marketing and find a niche, and it’s only getting harder from hereonin as everyone and their dog pursues the lifestyle design movement. You are relatively late to the game; you won’t be a Dooce or Tavi or Gala Darling. (But if that’s the path you want to pursue, you can do it authentically and without being a douchebag.)

If you go the freelance route? Much the same. Learn to pitch. Learn to sell yourself. Learn to market your skills. Read the blogs of those at the top of their game, because you’ll find everything you need to know there: finding outlets, utilising social media, crafting pitches, crafting letters of introduction, setting rates, choosing markets. (See the Career section in my blogroll for some awesome resources.)

I haven’t done the full-time freelancing thing, but I know people who are/have. It’s tough. Rates, at least here, haven’t changed in decades. There are fewer and fewer staff writers these days, which opens up freelance opportunities…but still. Hopefully these days there are also opportunities overseas too.

They tend to supplement writing with non-editorial work (advertorial, marketing, corporate copywriting); many have steady or semi steady/ freelance subbing gigs (it’s infinitely tougher without some regular contracts to rely on). They’re always juggling multiple assignments and looking ahead to securing the next one.

That said, we wannabe writers just keep coming. Most switch over to PR after a couple of years (I’m tempted to sit down and calculate the percentage from my graduating class, but I’ll restrain myself). A few soldier on.

Last thoughts: Like Amy Poehler says in her kickass commencement speech to those who want to follow her into acting, don’t. But if you ignore this and insist on doing so anyway, then you’re probably in the right place.

May 14, 2012

Working from home: a mixed bag

I’m a big fan of working from home, from time to time. This is the first job I’ve had where it’s really possible, and at times, it’s rather nice. Sometimes it’s also practically a necessity when I’m on a print deadline and need to eke out time to write my features, without getting caught up with all my other daily to-dos, emails that come in and what not. And I find it much easier to concentrate on crafting longer-form pieces when I’m in my home environment.

(Also, does overreliance on email bug anyone else? I work in digital – and I hate phone calls; email in the first instance please – but I’m not always glued to a screen. I eat lunch. Sometimes I’m in meetings. Sometimes I even have to leave the office for legit work purposes. Hard to believe, I know. If it’s urgent and you haven’t heard back from me, CALL. My numbers are in my signature; pick up the phone and dial them.)

Pros:

No need to get dressed
No commute
(Hopefully) fewer interruptions – be it fire alarms, network going down, colleagues stopping by

Cons:

Using up electricity and internet data on your own dollar
Potentially MORE, different, distractions
Not having access to everything you would have in the office

I think I’m one of those people that would do really well as a telecommuter, working remotely. I don’t need people contact to stay sane (more like the opposite, in truth). I’m self-driven. I’m not in a position that requires lots of teamwork and coordination.

That said, I’m not a telecommuter. And face time with coworkers and higher-ups is important, too.

Do you ever work from home? Or do you wish you did?

April 27, 2012

5 career lessons I learned as a journalist

What I learned from being a journalist

You learn a few things after being plunged into the world of media.

(For me, it’s been the need to be absolutely ruthless with my time, because I could easily work 24/7. That’s hardly industry-specific, though.)

But there are a few other things that are totally applicable to everyone.

There are no stupid questions

Okay, maybe you’ll look stupid or feel stupid for asking for clarification for what might seem a really basic concept. But you’ll feel even stupider if you don’t, and end up getting the wrong end of the stick. “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” So never be afraid to ask simple questions – WHY? HOW? Unless it’s due to you not doing any research of your own, most people will appreciate that you’re genuinely trying to understand what’s going on, whether it’s in reference to a scientific idea, a financial concept, a new hi-tech product.

The power of silence

People chatter when they’re nervous. They want to fill the empty airspace. Silence is used by salespeople as a tactic to get what they want. Know when to shut up and use it to your advantage, i.e. in negotiations.

Ask “who else should I talk to?”

Sara Ganim won the Pulitzer for breaking the Penn State scandal. And it all started by asking a regular source, “Anything else going on?” This applies to everyone – if you’re looking for work, ask everybody you know, and ask them to put the feelers out. When dealing with a customer, ask for referrals.

Start easy, and ease into the heavy stuff

I’m not a big fan of small talk, but accept it’s a necessity. Sometimes I am even quite good at it. Getting things done is often about greasing the wheels. It’s about setting people at ease, getting them used to you, and warming them up. You wouldn’t march into your boss’ office, sit down without greeting and demand a raise at the top of your voice, right? Before getting into the nitty-gritty, hard-hitting stuff, smooth the path and lay the groundwork.

Just do it

It’s all too easy to put tasks off, to feign that you “need to do more research”. God knows we all did that countless times at journalism school. Nope. What you need to do is pick up the damn phone or send that email. I still occasionally suffer from phone phobia (and sometimes can’t help but wonder, as a die-hard shy introvert, if I’m in the wrong business) but I have no choice but to suck it up and deal to it. It’s usually a lot less scary than you imagine. Whoever is on the other end is just a person – another human being, like you or me. While the worst that could happen can be pretty embarrassing (BEING HUNG UP ON), it’s less daunting having put it behind you, rather than have it hang over your head.

April 18, 2012

Of employment and independence

I greatly enjoy reading Passive Panda. Huge respect for James; if I recall rightly, I first heard about him when he personally reached out to me via email when he was first building up the website and it’s since seen some phenomenal growth.

Recently, he put out the question: are you doing yourself a disservice by working for someone else?

Much like the lifestyle design set (which goes hand in hand with the entrepreneurial set) the self-employed seem to be more and more the norm online. Too often, you’re looked down on if employed by the man.

So not surprisingly, that post pulled in a stupendous number of comments, a couple of which I’ll highlight here (the more nuanced, insightful ones):

Gregory: Working for someone else comes with the benefits of LEARNING from someone else in some instances, that would be my main counterpoint.

Illiya: It all depends on if you’re happy with your job / career or not. If you’re not, go change that. You only get ‘one’ life.

Ben: The thing is, you can work for your self and still settle for mediocrity. Just after high school, I worked in a mom-&-pop computer repair store for almost 5 years. The owners could have been very free and prosperous, but settled for being mediocre and thinking of it as “just a job”. They did themselves – and their customers – a disservice in that.

Faith: Everyone can’t work for themselves, because if we did there would be no employees.

As some astute readers of mine pointed out in an earlier post, the nature of work is that you’re always serving somebody else.

Maybe you don’t have a boss lording it over you. But you will have clients. Those customers are paying you; and you have to deliver the goods.

Maybe you’re not a wage slave to a single company. But you are directly beholden to multiple parties, a responsibility of an entirely different kind and scale.

And some occupations just are not conducive to self employment. Teacher, economist, policy wonk.

I think it’s pretty obvious that you’re only doing yourself a disservice as an employee if you feel that you are.

But what I’ve come to realise is that we all rely on others to get by. To produce the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in. We create our own value and we exchange that for the things we need. In the post I linked to above, I originally asked if true independence is possible as an employee. But in fact, bona fide self-sufficiency is darn near impossible.

April 17, 2012

How to reclaim your work mojo

By: Sean MacEntee

Sometimes we fall into a bit of a work rut. Get up, head to the office, put in a day’s graft, head home. Rinse and repeat. Maybe there’s a never ending stream of tasks, or perhaps there isn’t enough to fill the hours. The days go too quickly, or too slowly – either way, you find yourself wondering where the weeks are disappearing to.

I think I recently sunk into one of these, and didn’t quite realise it until one day I simply woke up eager to get to work and get stuck in. Seriously.

What did it take? Some positive feedback that reinvigorated my enthusiasm, and some fresh success that really proved motivating. When your efforts are paying off, that’s a HUGE shot of re-energisement. Sometimes that’s all you need.

So if that’s you, how can you find your mojo again?

I think it all boils down to one simple thing.

Figure out what it means to you.

Remember why you got into the job. To save money for a round the world trip? To keep going while you build an empire on the side? Get experience and build your resume? To make a difference?

Whatever it is, tap into the factor/s that drive you. Rediscover that lightning bolt and turn it into renewed vigour.

(And if your job sucks, plain and simple, then take action.)

Any other tips of your own to share?

April 2, 2012

It’s your job, but what does that actually mean?

What does your job mean to you

I’m not talking about whether you’re doing what you’re most passionate about.

Let’s not get into that.

I’m talking about whether you feel like you’re doing meaningful work.

Do you find fulfillment in what you do, regardless of what your job actually involves – customer service, admin, engineering, design…? Do you feel like your work has a useful purpose or that it’s making a difference?

Chatting to some of my high school girlfriends, it’s evident (I don’t know if they could all say their job is their passion – I should ask them) their chosen fields are uber rewarding. Medicine. Osteopathy. Audiology. (Oh yes, and law – which if I didn’t have such a love for writing I guess I would have pursued – it is, at least here, the default for smart high schoolers who don’t go into the technical/scientific degrees.)

All crazy important, worthy, noble jobs, helping their fellow humans, huge responsibilities. (Handily, also all very lucrative, which is a bonus; they do have higher education requirements, and high student loan repayments to match their higher starting salaries…but they’ll still make more than me in the long run.)

Sometimes I can’t help but feel inferior, as the least educated and, I guess, the least ‘professional’ of all. Whenever I mention how insanely amazing what they do is, though, they’re always quick to praise me, my creativity, the fact that I’m less about book learning and more about real knowledge (ha). Bless.

While I may not do anything particularly noble on a daily basis – I’m hardly serving the greater good of humanity – I create something new, every day. Stories people read, content they engage with. And maybe I do make a small difference for some of these inspiring and deserving people and companies.

While I can’t really say the same of previous jobs I did before getting into my current field, they definitely had their moments.

Example: I used to hate answering the phones at work. You just never knew what to expect. But when it wasn’t some crank, and when I could actually help the caller with what they were after – that felt really good. I sincerely like helping people, and if they’re grateful for it, that’s just the icing.

At another job, my general office admin tasks were, in all honesty, rather dull. But in transcribing and typing out legal documents, I took real pride in my work, getting used to each consultant’s style, correcting any grammatical errors, doing my best to be a star support person.

I don’t know if that’s quite the same thing as finding meaning in my work per se, but it certainly lifted the job above just something I did to get by.

What does your job mean to you?

March 24, 2012

Link love (Powered by scallops and samosas)

Lately I’ve found myself in some rather foreign situations.

Taxiing multiple times a week (in a day, even)

How do they arrive almost instantly after I hang up the phone to call for one? We’re out in the burbs; it’s not like there are rows of cabs lined up around the corner.

The (horse) races

I find this a strange, kind of anachronistic concept – very old school English – associated with a certain class of person, one to which a girl from the immigrant working class, who finds taxi chits and fancy restaurants daunting, most certainly does not belong.

Yacht sailing

Again, obviously such a moneyed activity. An enjoyable one, though. Also, very, very masculine. It was particularly interesting to see that the majority of fellow sailors were very courteous and friendly, in a crowded harbour, there was also anger – in one case outright yelling from boat to boat, and in another, simply holding up a peeved sign as our yacht passed by.

Anyway, March has been madness on the events front and I’m hoping for/looking forward to a quieter, calmer April. It’s great to get out of the office from time to time but it does mean I get behind on all the other things I have to do.

On a slightly different note… I know I’m often a ring-in, a seat-filler if you like, at events. Sometimes this works out quite nicely (in one case, dinner in a very quirky location and lots of freebies).

But I’ve gotta wonder; do planners overbook for capacity? If so, by how much? And what does that mean when they STILL need to fill spots at the last minute?It has to be said, however, that too often they go overboard. I can’t count the number of inane event invitations that come our way that have zero value – publicity for boring product version 3.1.1.0, or with a deathly dull speaker nobody outside your company cares about – even with the most copious amounts of free and awesome food, there just isn’t any way to justify taking the time out to go.

WORK

I’m at Twenties Hacker pondering when it makes sense to freelance – and when it doesn’t pay

One of the most balanced/nuanced takes on passion work vs plain old work I’ve ever read, from Get Rich Slowly. Two thumbs up

And at Blog Maverick: Follow where your time and effort is, not necessarily your passion

Young and Thrifty shares the worst jobs she did as a teenager

At Journalistics, some tips for bringing online networking into the real world

At Ms Career Girl, a counterintuitive way of dealing with workplace enemies

FOOD

How to plan dinner,at Dinner: A Love Story

Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Enough said. From $120 Food Challenge.

What looks like a straightforward, three-grain bread recipe, by Liberal Simplicity.

LIFE, ETC

Young and Thrifty shares the reasons that led her to quit Facebook.

From the new crop of Stratejoy bloggers, a post on analysis paralysis and discovering values

Yes and Yes features a reader who’s childless by choice

Married with Luggage explains how to go about starting a kickass book club

And finally, from the Atlantic: I didn’t tell Facebook I was engaged, so why is it asking about my fiance?

This totally freaks me out. I will be really unnerved if this happens to me – I am still “in a relationship” on Facebook and plan to keep my status the same until we actually get hitched, and have participated in virtually no wedding/engagement talk anywhere on Facebook since.

Browsing tag: work

Does morality matter when it comes to making a living?