Regardless of your feelings re: drugs, parenting, etc., there is absolutely no denying her talent. And if you try to deny her talent, I’ll cut you. RIP
Archives for category: Real World
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My favorite Ari Gold moment of all time. Why must all good things come to an end?
Things that happened this weekend:
It rained. A lot. Did someone forget to tell Mother Nature that it's July?
I read 2.5 books. See previous picture.
It ended. We toasted victory with contraband wine.
Spent a super lazy/perfect Sunday with the boyfriend.
The USA lost to Japan.
My dad bought a Nissan Xterra... my mom bought a shanty town to trail behind it.
Shayla + I found a great 2br/1ba duplex. We submitted our rental apps. Now we're anxiously waiting by the phone like giggly school girls waiting for the football captain to call and ask us to prom. I hope he calls soon.
I heard some people didn’t have President’s Day off yesterday, and usually I don’t get a lot of holidays off, but I counted myself among the lucky ones yesterday. So this weekend I ventured south for the UO v. OSU basketball game and some quality time with the boyfriend + little sister + Eugene friends.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I did not spend a lot of time at Mac Court, but I was floored at how amazing Matt Court is. These two photos barely scratch the surface of how crazy awesome the new arena is, so I have another visual aid to offer. I didn’t think to take photos of the leg room space or concourse width at each arena, but a quick comparison on mactomatt.net illustrates just how wide and luxurious each seat and hallway is. Perhaps you’re curious about the bathroom? Question no longer. Now go forth and explore from MAC to MATT.
.jpg "Mac Court")
Mac Court. credit: AP
Matt Court. credit: me
Thanks to the awesome people at Social Fresh Portland, I will be attending next Monday’s conference for the low, low price of $FREE! Yay!!
I’m loving that the focus of the conference is on case studies and getting down to the brass tacks of using social media in business. I’m really trying to bring social media to Generator Group, but in B2B I’m having a really hard time showing the value. I feel like a lot of the social media conversation usually centers around B2C companies so I’m looking forward to the panels geared more towards B2B.
Stay tuned for more in the next week!
It’s been described as “a bastard child of Skype and Stumble Upon.“ I’ll admit it. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to try Chatroulette. I mean, if John Stewart is doing it, that makes it ok. Right?
As funny as John Stewart’s “first-hand” account is, the best article I’ve seen on the subject is The Human Shuffle, by Sam Anderson.
“I entered the fray on a bright Wednesday afternoon, with an open mind and an eager soul, ready to sound my barbaric yawp through the webcams of the world. I left absolutely crushed. It turns out that ChatRoulette, in practice, is brutal. The first eighteen people who saw me disconnected immediately. They appeared, one by one, in a box at the top of my screen—a young Asian man, a high-school-age girl, a guy lying on his side in bed—and, every time, I’d feel a little flare of excitement. Every time, they’d leave without saying a word. Sometimes I could even watch them reach down, in horrifying real-time, and click “next.” It was devastating. My first even semi-successful interaction was with a guy with a blanket draped over his lap who asked if I wanted to “jack of” with him. I declined; he disconnected. Over the course of an hour, I was rejected by what felt like a cast of thousands: a teenage girl talking on her cell phone, a close-up of an eyeball. It started to feel like a social-anxiety nightmare. One guy just stared into the camera and flipped me off. Another stood in front of his computer making wave motions with his hands, refusing to respond to anything I typed. One person had the courtesy to give me, before disconnecting, a little advice: “too old.” (I’m 32.) A girl with heavy makeup looked terrified when my image popped up on her screen—I actually felt guilty, a few rounds later, when the engine of randomness threw us back together and she had to look at my face for another excruciating half-second. My longest exchange was with a guy who seemed to be wearing one of those protective cones you put on a dog after surgery. “LICK YOU ELBOW,” he typed. “Why?” I asked. He disconnected.” [read whole article here]
Probably due to the fact that I’m a girl, and the ratio of men to women on Chatroulette is overwhelming, my experience was a little different than Anderson’s. In fact, I was the one doing the nexting. I was connected to all guys who, thank god, were fully clothed. I didn’t end up talking to anyone for more than a few minutes since I was just trying to get the lay of the land and, honestly, was afraid the conversations might take a turn for the pervy.
Although everyone remanded clothed and things were PG, I still was uncomfortable. One of the first questions everyone asked me, “You got a boyfriend.” Umm, yes. But why does that matter? What did they think was going to happen? We’re going to fall in love over Chatroulette? We’re going to meet up for a casual encounter? No thank you. If I want an internet love connection I’ll go to eHarmony. At least those people always look happy in the commercials and aren’t visually assaulted by male genitalia =D
As it is, I don’t see the value in it. It’s definitely not how I would choose to spend my time. But what if Google got it’s hands on the site? Anderson proposes the idea of filters – picking the type of person you want to talk to based on demographics, geography, interests. I would even go as far as to dream of a day where you could pick to connect to people in your industry or extended Linkedin network. Helllloooo networking opportunity!
Chalk it up to naiveté, being new in the world of marketing, but I thought that the important intersection between marketing and psychology was obvious. It’s one of the reasons that advertising and marketing initially appealed to me. But after reading “Why advertising needs behavioral economics” by Rory Sutherland, it would seem that maybe the world doesn’t value that connection like I thought. Sutherland asks, “Why is marketing – and, more importantly, the vital study of human behavior – so little celebrated in the wider world of business?” Perhaps because I was brought up in the Journalism School that I take for granted the idea that everyone knows that everything should be firmly based on research; and it seems so counterintuitive that you would go forward in business without knowing about people – the people who buy your product, the people who support your business, the people who drive your bottom line.
As the leaves start to turn rust-colored and more frequently we see the dark clouds heavy overhead, it feels weird to not be packing up my room in anticipation of the annual migration south to Eugene. No, this year I will watch as my sister makes the journey alone. Well, not quite alone since she broke her ankle and we have to do all her moving for her, but I’m metaphorically watching her go. You get it, right?
So how will I spend my days if not wading through the giant puddle that is the University of Oregon in the fall? Job Search-apoolza 2009! That’s right. My internship is ending and I’m now in full job search mode. And my first act of job search was to attend the Career Center’s GET CONNECTED. It wasn’t so much the job fair portion of the evening I was interested in, the employers were not exactly what I was looking for, but the actual discussion panel that was there. The panel included:
Heather Flynn, Staffing Manager, Waggener Edstrom
Valerie Larson, Recruiter, Portland Energy Conservation, Inc.
Lisa Weiglin, Senior Recruiter and University Relations Manager, Tektronix
Breelyn Young, Talent Acquisition Manager, GlaxoSmithKline
Jason Abernathy, Human Resources Manager, Fisher Investments
Although my interests aligned closest with the PR field from the above choices, I was really interested to hear from all the fields. They were able to give some great insight into job hunting and the hiring process, which I shall now impart onto you:
The Search.
It’s no secret, a lot of companies prefer to promote from within, through referrals or networking. As cliche or old as the saying is, it really is about who you know. Meeting you in person and talking to you can give them much more than just seeing your resume can do, as impressive as I’m sure yours might be. At least for me, networking seems really scary and throws me out of my comfort zone, but the panelists pointed out, your network is already bigger than you think. Parents, friends’ parents, fellow alum. Start there and let them know you’re looking for a job. Maybe they know of one, maybe they know someone in the business you can talk to. Informational interviews can be gold.
If you have a specific company you are interested in, get their attention on the web. Follow them on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, comment on the blog. If you have something smart to say, they will listen and remember it when they see your name on a resume, for example.
What they want.
Flexibility. Most companies want someone who can do the job today but also grow with the company in the future. The old 80/20 rule comes into play with qualifications. 80 you have, 20 you can grow. But if you don’t have the 80, don’t apply. In this economy there will be someone who does.
Passion. Enthusiasm. Innovation. Integrity. Adaptability. Resiliency. Urgency.
A match for the company culture is paramount. Some say interviewing is analogous to dating. The fit/vibe/chemistry, whatever you want to call it, needs to be there. As my dad always says, liking the people in the office is almost more important than liking the work.
The interview.
It’s the intangible skills make you stand out. Preparation is big. Know the clients, know the work, know the awards and show it with questions – smart questions. Mimic the language they use so they can really start to see you in the company.
You’ve heard this before, but they said it again, you are your own brand/product. Sell yourself as you would a brand. Think of 3 marketing messages you want to really get across and relate everything back to those. Trying to say too many things about yourself waters down the message.
Structure your stories and examples in terms of Problem –> Solution –> Result.
Above all, show that you want the job and follow up with personal thank you note.
I spent the weekend exploring, what I like to call, the Wild West of Eastern Oregon with @amber_mckenna. Stationed in Pendleton for the duration of her Snowden internship, Amber invited me to a little thing called the Farm City Pro Rodeo. Actually it wasn’t little, it was quite large complete with an accompanying fair.
We trolled the fair grounds on Saturday and immediately I was overcome with the urge to buy a funnel cake. As I kept an eye out for a vendor of my favorite fried concoction, I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculous amount of other fried things. Besides the regular funnelcakes, twinkies and elephant ears, there were fried cinnamon rolls, pizza and coke! I was not brave enough to hazard a taste but Amber had tried the coke earlier in the week and did not speak highly of it.
After wondering around for a bit, we found ourselves in the middle of pig auction. Now this is definitely something I can say I had never seen before, nor want to. The smell alone was enough to send me running, but my piqued interest kept me seated. It seemed absurd that these pigs were being sold for over $300, but then again, considering how much we paid for our labradoodle who will not provide us with bacon for a year, maybe it wasn’t that crazy.
We ate dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant and then headed over to the stadium to grab seats for the main event. The entire stadium was filled with cowboy hats, boots, denim and beer.
The first event was the bareback riding, which to me seemed unnecessarily and extremely painful. Yet all the cowboys walked it off and found their way back to the gates on their own after being thrown off.
The crowd favorite was definitely the bull riding. As the crowd chanted and clapped at the announcement of the event, you could feel the heightened anticipation.
Once we saw the first cowboy ride out of the gates and hit the ground, we understood why it was so revered. This first rider didn’t move for about five minutes while the medics tended to him.
Amber and I look fondly at the memories of this weekend and our first rodeo (minus the rodeo clown). But it wasn’t all fun and games, some lessons were learned.
1. Don’t drink too much (bathroom line > beer line)
2. Matching corsets and jeans are perfectly acceptable for friends to wear.
3. Oversized crosses on necklaces and hats are super trendy (especially when accessorized with turquoise).
4. Late night funnel cake + coors lite = bad dreams
5. Always leave a 50 ft. radius between you and any animal barn.
