Working Girl’s Year One

It came rather quickly, I’ll admit. In fact, it wasn’t until this last weekend that I realized that I moved to San Francisco 1 year ago on July 4th and started my job 1 year ago today, July 7th. To think of where I was then, quaking in my new heels, ready to burst with questions and anticipation, head equally full of knowledge meant to prepare me for adulthood, never expecting the road that I’ve traveled to get to NOW.

I adjusted at first — and this could have been shock, at the time — rather easily. Emotionally tackling the sometimes-turbulent road from easing in, yet hitting the ground running, then phasing to swallowing pride and comfort for the challenge of taking criticism, learning to work hard, sleep less and take it all in stride. The last few months have seen the much more enjoyable transition of becoming a team player, (more detail-aware — I’m making progress, people) being confident that a job well done means client satisfaction and not personal gain, and realizing that loving my job makes me luckier than most.

That said, I have sorely neglected this blog, which turned out to be a vehicle for employment for me, and I’d like to take this post on this momentous day to make some resolutions for the new year as a “LaunchSquadder” and an employed person.

For this blog I resolve to:

1. Post 1-2 times a week
2. Write well
3. Discuss current media issues
4. Discuss more challenges for the (intended) benefit of those who come after me
5. Write response posts
6. Link more relevantly
7. Present clear and active thinking about my work, my life, and my goals
8. I will listen more and better

As an employed person I resolve to:

1. Do more phone pitching
2. Read more literature on the train
3. Post on the Exclamation blog more
4. Make fewer typos
5. Continue to be an early-adopter of new technology as it remains a fantastic way to stay engaged in the space
6. Take on more writing-intensive projects
7. Understand the give-and-take with journalists and pursue more mutually-beneficial relationships
8. Recognize my responsibility to myself to commit to more responsibility, initiative and leadership on my teams.
9. Every day, be thankful for my current employment and the daily opportunities presented to learn and be taught.
10. Every day, do better work than I did the day before.

The nice thing here is that I generally believe that this framework will not only make me a better employee and PR professional, but also a better and more committed person to not only my work, but my future and the opportunities it probably bring. Hopefully.

Anyone else closing in on a year and having some thoughts about it? Let me know what you guys are thinking… Maybe I’m the only one who’s seeing this as some existential milestone, but I have a feeling I’m not alone.

Also — a quick “Congrats!” to my coworker, Sara Schulte who also started last year on 7/7 at LaunchSquad.

Savvy in San Francisco

Well, this thing proved useful. I’m now at LaunchSquad in San Francisco because they thought I was very “forward-thinking”, “heavily-invested” and “visible” as far as social and new media. Sa-weet.

I love it. I love it all.

OK – Honestly, it’s super weird just uprooting myself so quickly and so completely. Holy Moses! I have been removed.

My friend Corina and I in - I think it's Russian Hill - January 08

My first week is almost over and have been placed on very active accounts. The tech culture here is ridiculous and I’m falling in love with it. I love being totally immersed in all that I studied in my PR classes and finally getting to use what I learned toward a greater goal.

Expect a new understanding and level of gosh-darn competence.

 

UPDATE: Here is LaunchSquad.

Mind Bloggling

Job-Search Saga: Resume? CV? – Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.

A recent guest post on PRos in Training discussed the idea of the spiritual resume – a documentation of relational and emotional achievements or skills drawn from professional experiences, rather than technical skills learned as with your traditional resume. This is something I have not tackled yet.

I did, though, as of yesterday tailor and rework my resume to send to submit it to several internship locations, most notably, Hill and Knowlton in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Brussels and Paris. You should know that the last three locations were chosen by the mere fact that it would be AMAZING to actually get an internship in one of these cities. I wish, in applying for these internships I had the confidence of a person who has worked at several minimum-wage jobs since the age of 16 and with a college education who is about to apply at McDonalds. But we’ll see, right? This is, after all, only Chapter 1.

One problem I faced, though, in applying internationally, is the subject of the CV – or Curriculum Vitae – versus my resume. Quite honestly, reworking my resume into a CV wasn’t that big of a deal, I just had to include a section that told my nationality and languages known (conversational Spanish and French) as well as my gender. The problem was, however, as I looked over the past 6 years of my life, I wondered just how, with this one document I could manage to sell myself to an international job market.

It’s a daunting thought. But to be prepared, I’d advise making up a CV for the sake of it to anyone who’s job-hunting and perhaps looking overseas. It’s super easy and could very well come in handy.

*Image courtesy of www.fastest-job-search.com/