Entry Level

en·try-lev·el

adjective 

At the lowest level in an employment hierarchy
Appropriate for or accessible to one who is inexperienced in a field or new to a market

I've included this definition so all of the HR managers out there reading this blog will quit contradicting their position listings.

Amidst my never-ending search for a job, I have exhausted LinkedIn with my very specific search of a Full-time, Entry Level, Advertising job in the United States. So when I come across a job title that looks like a perfect fit, I expect it to still be one after reading through the position description. Yet time, and time again I read through the position description to find that I need 3 to 5 years of industry experience to apply. I've decided to ignore this request and apply anyway, considering they decided to ignore the definition of Entry Level when posting the opening.

After being frustrated by this, I decided I will search for Entry Level positions in Social Media. How could they expect industry experience with Entry Level web sites? I don't know how they could, but they do. Social Media is the one thing recent grads have too much experience in, but employers are requesting that we have 5 years experience in the workplace to operate their facebook, twitter, youtube, and foursquare accounts. Did these businesses even have a facebook account 5 years ago?

So after reading all of HR's desired skills and experience, I will now list appropriate requests for a Social Media manager:

• Bachelor Degree in Communications or similar field
• Proficient in Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and YouTube
• Able to research additional Social Media outlets
• Previous internship experience preferred

Date Posted: Today
Type: Full-time
Experience: Entry level
Functions: Marketing, Communications
Salary: Negotiable
Benefits: The works

Who Gives a Shit?

To understand fully what this blog is about you can refer to the Focus on U Finale and then select the link on the right-hand side titled 'Do You Give a Bleep?'

If you don't give a shit about watching that video, then I will provide you with a re-cap. As you may know, I am the Concerts Programmer at UWRF, therefore I am in charge of Finals Fest; this year featuring Jason Derulo. Recently Focus on U asked if they could borrow the cardboard cut out of Jason Derulo to do a bit for their Finale show. Seeing as they are a fellow organization on-campus I said to myself "Why not? How nice of them to help promote the show." Turns out they didn't give a shit about the work myself and fellow programmers have put towards Finals Fest this year, as they chose to walk around campus and ask students if they give a shit about Jason Derulo coming to campus. Long story short, the final statement is "Looks like no body gives a shit about Jason Derulo."

Despite the fact we have sold more pre-sale tickets for this show than total tickets of EACH Finals Fest in the past, this student was willing to make the claim that no body gives a shit. So this is what I have to say to everyone out there with an opinion about Finals Fest: I don't give a shit.

I have spent two years asking students what genre they want, what artist they want, how much they're willing to pay, whether they want a national act or local act, etc. and provided exactly what the majority asked for EACH time. I have given you the opportunity to share your opinion, accepted your negative feedback, and noted it for future programmers. But at the end of the day I have a job to do, and that is to book an artist.

I feel as though I've heard at all (but I'm sure I haven't). So here's a taste of what it's like to be the Concerts Programmer:

Regarding Finals Fest 2010 featuring Brother Ali and P.O.S. being moved indoors because it was RAINING:

"Why is the show in the Falcon's Nest? Knowles, Karges, the Ballroom, (the list goes on) holds more people! Looks like poor planning..."Knowles was reserved for a track meet prior to the date even being set for Finals Fest, the Ballroom DOES NOT hold more people than the Falcon's Nest (and the acoustics would be awful), and Karges can't support a concert -- it's an athletic facility. The Falcon's Nest held every person that attended the show. And don't tell me what venues their are on this campus, I'm well aware.

"Give him a mic and he'll give you a show. Brother Ali doesn't care if it's raining."
Yes we'd all love to believe that an artist will perform in any condition but it's simply not true. Brother Ali signed the contract that agreed we would hold the show at an alternative site per the weather. We're required by contract to provide an artist with the exact conditions they request; this usually includes not performing in the rain.

"Looks like Finals Fest failed again."
Looks like you have a different definition of success than the average person. Moving a free concert indoors during the rain is not a failure, it's common procedure. And failed again? Oooh so by failed you mean we failed to provide YOUR taste in music every single year for Finals Fest. Noted.

Moving on to Finals Fest 2011 featuring Jason Derulo:

"You should have booked Kid Cudi"
You should have convinced a couple hundred more of your friends to vote for him in the poll so he beat Jason Derulo.

 "I don't even know who he is?"... Do you know every other artist ever? How many people could have said this about Brother Ali and P.O.S. last year? I'm sure all of those individuals who have heard of Jason Derulo were criticized for saying that last year because they don't appreciate good music like you do. Get over yourself.

"We never have [insert genre here]."
Please see below for a four-year span of concerts offered at UWRF before you try to tell me we haven't had your favorite genre of music yet. And if you're favorite genre of music is ska-metal-rock with hint of indie-experimental, underground roots than I am sorry. We have not programmed a concert to your needs yet. But can you acknowledge that is not a genre the majority of our campus will respond to? Thanks.

Finals Fest May, 2007 • Reel Big Fish • Ska
Finals Fest May, 2008 • Craig Morgan • Country
Finals Fest May, 2009 • Sara Bareilles • Pop
Rock the Riv September, 2009 • Cloud Cult • Indie
Rock the Nest February, 2010 • Dark Cell • Screamo
Rock the Nest March, 2010 • Jamestown Story, We are the Willows, We Are Mountains • Acoustic
Rock the Nest April, 2010 • We the Living • Piano Rock
Finals Fest May, 2010 • Brother Ali & P.O.S. • Local Hip-Hop
Rock the Cause September, 2010 • Solid Gold and Roster McCabe • Indie/Experimental
Rock the Nest October, 2010 • Gold Motel • Indie/Acoustic/Easy Listening
Rock the Nest November, 2010 • We are the Willows • Acoustic
Rock the Nest: Finals Fest December, 2010 • Quietdrive & Dirty Blonde • Pop/Rock & Classic Rock
Rock the Nest/Freeze Fest January, 2011 • Amanda Duncan • Acoustic
Rock the Nest March, 2011 • A.P.R.I.M.E. and Raze • Hip-Hop/Rap
Rock the Nest April, 2011 • Preston Pugmire • Acoustic/Pop
Finals Fest May, 2011 • Jason Derulo • Pop/Hip-Hop


And finally, the inspiration behind this blog, "Looks like no body gives a shit about Jason Derulo".
The most hurtful part of this video was the students who were featured, one of which we have provided countless opportunities to express his talent to our campus. Another has requested to interview myself and fellow programmers for Focus on U segments, to promote events he has appreciated in the past. And finally, Focus on U as whole for airing this video at your finale, and honestly, for even thinking it was a good idea in the first place. I have seen how hard all of you work, and how under-appreciated that work can be. I particularly enjoyed hearing "I don't give a shit about Jason Derulo, but I do give a shit about Sepia Tone performing tonight at the Focus on U Finale!" That's nice. Thanks for tearing down our programming in efforts to promote yours. Seeing as Finals Fest is a similar end-of-the-year celebration to Falcon Programs as the Finale show is to Focus on U, should I go interview students and ask them if they give a shit about Focus on U, and then air it at Finals Fest (in front of over a thousand people attending)? No. I probably shouldn't. And I wouldn't even think to do that anyway, because I respect(ed) the work you put into your shows.

I'm not looking for sympathy because I don't need it. I'm happy with the work I've done for the past two years and wouldn't change a single thing (okay maybe I wouldn't have let Focus on U borrow the life-size cut out of Jason Derulo).So to all of you who give a shit, I'll see you at Finals Fest. And if you don't, enjoy your Cinco de Mayo.

I'm Sooooooo Busy

I need to start this blog with a disclaimer, yet again. Some people have noticed that the things I rant about in my blogs often relates to what they have said to me. Don't be offended if I'm talking about you. I wouldn't be blogging about it unless it has come up with a lot of people. Also, now you know what annoys me with out me having to say it's you.

Anywho.

People are always saying that you shouldn't complain about your problems in life because someone is always going to be worse off than you. (Side note: How much would it suck to be the person worst off in the whole world? Complain away, my friend). I have come to the realization that the times that I thought I was most busy in my life, I was simply delusional. With this concept in mind, my newest issue is with people who complain about how busy they are. I am now going to split these people into categories and provide constructive criticism (or just criticism).

1. High School students: Good lord, shut up. Unless you're the President of Student Council, valedictorian, a star athlete and taking college level courses you really can't complain. Most people in this category fill their lives with so much drama (and after school naps) they can't find the time to study. Then when asked to reflect on why they are behind, it comes down to how all of their teachers are out to get them.
   
2. First and Second year College Students: Seeing as I work with first-year students, and know a lot of second-year students I'm becoming less and less sympathetic towards this group. I'll acknowledge you have transitional issues to overcome, ie. independent living, financial strains, and making new friends but most of these issues aren't even causing you to be 'busy'.
   You schedule your classes from noon to 4pm each day because you want to finally sleep in, but now you're starting your day 4 hours behind the rest of the world. Suck it up and take an 8am.
   You spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday partying and Sunday hungover. So this leaves you with Monday - Wednesday to do homework. But you spend Monday complaining that it's Monday, Tuesday saying I'll do it this weekend, and Wednesday complaining it's still not the weekend.
   And my favorite thing you do, is choose to reward yourself for accomplishing the simplest of task. "I finished a math problem so I get to watch an episode of the Jersey Shore." "I took a 10 point quiz on d2l so now I'm going to play xbox until my eyes bleed." Or my favorite, "I've worked so hard the past few nights I took tonight off and just watched the entire series of The Office."
   You really need to realize that the more time you spend rewarding yourself, the less time you'll be able to truly enjoy a night or weekend off. A honest reward will be going home from class and realizing you don't have a single responsibility because you got your act together when you needed to.
   
3. Juniors and Seniors with jobs and internships, ie. me: No one is making me work two jobs and an internship so why should I complain to everyone about it? If you're life is honestly that hard with all the pressures you've put on yourself, then let something go. If you're not enjoying college then you're going to burn out quickly.
   
4. Adults with full-time jobs: I really don't want to hear "I've had a long day at work." You can have a long day anywhere with that mindset. If you have a job right now, I really don't want to hear you complaining at all (hence the unemployment blog). I'd take a long day of work over a relaxing day at home if it comes with consistent pay checks, health benefits, and real-world experience.

I realize I haven't included every group possible, but I don't have the time to tell everyone why they need to shut up. I'm super busy.

Facebook Sabotage

Facebook has become a necessary evil in my life.

I'll probably retract that statement in two years when I realize that facebook really is not necessary in anyone's life (unless you're Mark Zuckerberg). But here's the deal. Facebook was a great way to keep in touch with people from high school, until I kind of stopped caring about people from high school, aside from those who are still in my life obviously.

So after realizing that, facebook served these purposes in my life:

• Avoiding homework
• Creepin on pictures
• Finding out if some hot kid in my class was in a relationship
• Looking at all the cute babies my friends have
• Keeping track of pictures all my friends take

Now Facebook serves this purpose:

• Making sure I don't look drunk in my pictures (even though I'm 21)
• Explaining to my mom that my status was a lyric and not a reason to call 911
• Coming across things in my newsfeed that I don't want to see
• Remaining friends with people that I'm not really friends with
• Making sure my friends don't post something stupid on my wall

So now I'm told by everyone under the sun that my future employer will look at my facebook  and decide whether I am an appropriate employee based on whether I am drunk in my picture. Am I supposed to believe that before facebook people didn't drink? No, I'm pretty sure they did. If I was falling down drunk in my picture I'd agree I wasn't a fit candidate, but simply having a beer doesn't mean I'm an alcoholic. It means I went to the bar on a Friday night and my friends took a what I deemed to be a good picture of me.

To quote my Senior Sem Prof "Your boss doesn't care if you're hungover, you still have to show up and do work". If you don't care... then don't look at my facebook. Because regardless of whether I am hungover or not, you're going to assume I am if you see pictures of my drinking. I am friends with a few of my bosses on facebook and I show them the respect of putting appropriate pictures online (even if they are at the bar) and they show me the respect of not looking for reasons to fire me.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'd like my facebook to be a representation of me and not constantly have to worry about how someone could perceive something I did or said. I'd like employers to read this blog and reconsider trying to find dirt on their staff. Facebook is a social networking tool. Not a professional networking tool. Find me on LinkedIn.

Teachers and Technology

I feel comfortable saying that I am quite competent in using a computer and know that I am fully prepared to step into the work force with the skills I have, but I believe if a future employer sat in on one of my courses they would question my ability to use a program as simple as Microsoft Word.

As a Marketing Communications major, it is essential that my professors incorporate technology and social media into our lessons. There's one issue with this requirement... professors don't seem to know how to use technology and social media. It is painful to watch a professor struggle through the simplest of task on a browser and it's been a reoccurring issue each semester of college.

It all started in my Computer Science and Information Systems course. Yep, you read the title right. A course about the science of computers and their systems of information, yet I still spent 10 minutes each class period watching my professor try to open an internet browser.

I'm sure we've all experienced a professor attempting to play a 1 minute youtube video, but spending 40 seconds finding the volume button on their podium even though the podium has never moved, nor the button ever changed from being simply on or off. They mumble to themselves about how it was just working and of course the computer is the problem, while we're all well aware it's an operator failure.

Two things triggered this blog.

1. Learning Dreamweaver CS5 in my Senior Seminar course
   I'm convinced my professor was learning Dreamweaver as he was teaching it. It took us hours to do the simplest of tasks, while my teacher was blaming Adobe for each problem he encountered. We were also encouraged to make neon green backgrounds, use animated clip art from Microsoft Word, and have text scrolling across our page. All of this was to build our e-portfolio and claim we were capable of using Dreamweaver. If I created my page the way my professor instructed me to, I would be embarrassed to show it to anyone.
2. Watching my classmates present their Senior Seminar PortfoliosOne portfolio after the next I watched my fellow classmates discuss all of the programs they are 'fluent' in. I'm not going to blame my classmates, because our departments tells us we should know the ins and outs of these programs. But the problem is that are classes haven't taught us these programs well enough. Three weeks on photoshop can hardly cover layers. Two weeks on Illustrator only touches your typeface options. Without my two jobs on campus I would not know much about Adobe at all, yet the MarComm Department says we know it simply from academics.

I'm not surprised that companies aren't hiring creatives anymore. Because they've probably hired one too many from Universities that insist their graduates know it, but they don't. And we won't learn it until our teachers are using it in the workplace rather than re-creating online tutorials as class lessons.

I love my major, but I'm starting to think the topics it covers provides the graduates with quantity, not quality. I can say I understand media planning, advertising campaigns, Adobe Design Premium CS5, the ethics of marketing, event planning, promotional strategies, public relations and more. But most of us can't say that we know them so well that when we enter the workforce of May 15 we won't need a lot of guidance in our position. I've had to take it upon myself to develop my techniques in the specific topics that interest me in hopes I can get a job in that field.

My thoughts are, don't put something on your resume unless you're comfortable performing that task right there on the spot, and don't teach students programs you don't understand yourself. Graduates are the ones who will get screwed over in the end.

Piercings in the Workplace

I'm going to start this blog with my disclaimer: I would be happy to take my piercings out if I worked at a company that did not allow them.

Now that I have covered that, I must say, I am near my wits end hearing about why people with piercings don't get hired. I've participated in two mock interviews in college and both of them marked me at a 2 out of 5 for professionalism ONLY because I have piercings. I'd be happy to mark them a 2 out of 5 for opinions that I care about.

For those of you who don't have piercings, therefore don't have the pleasure of listening to how we're ruining the world one diamond stud at a time, here's are a few statements I'd like to challenge:

1. "I encourage you not to wear your piercings in an interview because they can be very distracting."
   Well I would be happy to introduce you to the medical doctor who can prescribe you something for your ADD, but for now take a look at my resume and portfolio (that is, if you can managed to tear your eyes away from the pink 1mm gem in my nose)! If you are distracted by a gem next to my mouth then you have much bigger problems in life that being short-staffed.  I encourage you not to make up a BS excuse for why I shouldn't keep my piercings in and just acknowledge you have a personal distaste for it.
2. "We understand you're an individual, but we want to you to be a positive representative of our company."My bad. I've gotten so used to negatively representing myself through a temporary, minimalistic hole in my face that I can hardly wrap my head around the concept of presenting myself in a positive light. Remember when people used to say "don't judge a book by it's cover"? That only applies if you don't have piercings.
3. "Piercings are unprofessional."
   Poorly made web sites are unprofessional. Not knowing how to use social media to promote your 'modern' company is unprofessional. Spelling errors in publications are unprofessional. Not responding to job inquiries is unprofessional. I'll take your advice on what IS professional, when your company holds themselves to that standard.
4. "Piercings might be acceptable if you want to work in the music industry or design field. That's where the alternative look 'works'".
   Piercings might be acceptable everywhere if you got the image of a 1950's women out of your head and started focusing on my work instead of my face. If you asked me about my long-term career goals you would know that I want to work in the design sector of the music industry, so stop wasting my time with how I don't fit in with your company, when I never wanted to work for your company. Also, I'm not alternative. If it's not appropriate for me to call you average-looking, than I don't find it appropriate for you to label me either.

Well this is what I have to say about my piercings. I've held two jobs, and two internships throughout college and somehow managed to make it through each one without being held back by my piercings. I'm not making a statement with my piercings, or 'fighting the system' or doing anything other than putting a temporary piece of metal in my lip and nose.

Long story short. I'll take these piercings out when I feel like it. For example, I felt like taking my lip ring out last week and I did. But let's not forget to bring this full circle, with or with out my lip ring, I am still unemployed.

Stay in School, Kids!

This is great advice. Would you like to know why? Because the longer I stay in school, the less I have to worry about getting a job once I graduate.

I have an interesting Catch 22 in my life. I have two AMAZING jobs on campus; Concerts Programmer of Falcon Programs and Communications Manager of the Department of New Student and Family Programs. I love working with design and music, so I essentially have two dream jobs paying my way through school.

For all of my fellow, unemployed graduates you might be saying "why are you complaining about being unemployed when you have 2 jobs!"

Well my jobless friends, it's because the minute I graduate I can no longer be employed by either of these jobs. HOW NEAT IS THAT?

Anyway, I'm going to mull-over this 'stay in school' nonsense. It seems to working out pretty well for some.