Entries categorized as ‘Advice that helped me’
I like talking about my job as a waitress, not necessarily because I like it, but because I’ve learned so much from it. We have this phrase in the restaurant world to describe really chaotic, stressful situations in which you just can’t handle doing anything else. The phrase = “in the weeds.” I liken this phrase to finals week, or the week before finals week, when every day you have a paper or a test and you feel like you are just going to explode. As an expert college student, i.e. graduating senior, I’d like to offer my advice about being in the weeds via some restaurant symbolism.
So, if you are in the weeds:
1. Get into survival mood.
Stop for a second. Assess the situation and prioritize. What absolutely has to get done this second? Focus on the most urgent of tasks. Don’t distract yourself from writing the paper that is due tomorrow by stressing out over the final next week. Focus. Focus. Focus.
2. Get some help from friends.
If you were in a restaurant, you’d have someone bring your fifth table bread or crayons or beer or something. If you’re in college, you have someone listen to you whine about lazy group project members, proof-read your papers, help you with your research, or grab a beer with you or something.
Happy Finals Week!
Categories: Advice that helped me · College
Tagged: college advice, how to survive finals week
On a recent class trip to NYC, I received some interesting advice about resumes from Bruce Bobbins of Dan Klores Communications. Speaking to my class about resumes, Bruce said that something he values is an applicant with work experience, someone who shows he/she worked his/her way through college.
This interested me. By senior year, a lot of people find themselves cramming four years of experience onto one page. (General resume advice for entry-level applicants is to keep it to one page. Let me know if you feel differently.) I’ve been told before to delete my waitressing work experience from my resume and to only highlight my most relevant public relations/marketing/journalism experience. His advice kind of contradicts that input - but honestly, I like his take better.
I’ve been doing the restaurant thing (more on than off) since I was sixteen. If my resume tells a story, this is most certainly an interesting/funny chapter. I feel like my resume is a conversation piece, a list of points that can be elaborated on in an interview. I’m always happy to elaborate about the personal growth I’ve experienced from being a server. After all, the restaurant and my customers were my inspiration for my first blog, Gratuity. Work experience on a resume shows that you have a solid work ethic, something that some people think is lost in my generation. No, being a server isn’t public relations, but you are definitely dealing with the public. Learning to deal with difficult people in a professional manner, learning to show up on time, learning to multitask four tables on a crazy Saturday night, learning to play nice with your co-workers - I think it’s great stuff worth mentioning on a resume. Serving has made me a more confident, cool-headed and articulate person. Although these qualities are less tangible than the writing skills shown by my press releases in my portfolio, these qualities will definitely help me in my career and my life. I think that if you also take the time to reflect on your college gig, you’ll find that it not only gave you beer money and paid the electric - but it helped you grow up.
So whether you’re serving chicken parmesan in an Oxford shirt, folding shirts at Old Navy, delivering pizza for Domino’s or making lattes at Starbucks - I say, mention it on a resume if you’re able to talk about what you’ve learned from your experience and how it makes you a better candidate for the job.
Until next time,
Sometimes, I like to pretend that we’re all being punked and the recession isn’t really happening.
JNA
Categories: Advice that helped me · Entry Level Jobs · Public Relations
Tagged: entry-level re
It’s the end of spring break for me, and I’m a little terrified of heading back to school for the home stretch. As usual, I’m doing too much. These days, whenever somebody asks me to describe myself, I find that I often start with “well, I’m busy.”
Stuff I do this semester:
- Internship (three days/week)
- Waitress (three days/week)
- School (three days/week)
- PRIMA Connections, student run firm (basically two days/week, but I send emails every day)
- Other (look for jobs/internships, blog, workout, social life?, sleep?, laundry?)
You guys know the drill. College gets crazy like that sometimes, but I’m trying to enjoy it while it lasts and avoid “Crazy Janet Mode” which involves old habits like losing keys, leaving car lights on, losing cell phones, spilling coffee, frizzy hair, studdering, and stress zits. That’s why I think it’s important to get involved and learn to balance a busy schedule during school. You have to learn to keep your wits about you when you’re under pressure. That way, when you are suddenly thrown into the reality of working full-time, it isn’t a shock when you no longer get a daily afternoon nap.
Nevertheless, being an extracurricular junkie can be overwhelming and it requires a mastery of multi-tasking. Still to date, the best perspective I ever got on multi-tasking came from my Media Writing professor Candace Perkins Bowen at Kent State. She often talked about her Theory of Rotational Neglect and I still think it’s pure genius.
The theory is this: You can’t get it all done. There aren’t enough hours in a day. You won’t completely cross-off your To Do list. But that’s fine, because it isn’t about getting to the bottom of the list. It’s about setting priorities and taking care of the most urgent tasks. You have to sort of surrender to the fact that each day, something won’t get done–it will be neglected. But as long as it isn’t the same thing that gets neglected over and over and over again, it will get accomplished. The thing you choose to “put off until tomorrow” has to change each day. Hence, the neglected piece has to rotate. In this way, everything will even itself out. You will be okay.
She was one of my favorite professors.
Until next time (a digital Post-It to myself),
You only live once. Keep the important stuff (family, friends, fun) in your rotation for the rest of the semester.
JNA
Categories: Advice that helped me · College
Tagged: College, college advice, multi-tasking
I’m coming to Boston on Friday, February 27th!
I had a great conversation about jobs, PR, and life with my professor last night. (Thank you!!!) His advice was that I make use of my spring break travel plans and stop in Boston if I get the chance. There’s always an open invitation to crash on my best friend’s futon at BC, I’m going on spring break with her anyway, I love that city - so why not? Moreover, I realized that it was important for me to learn more about the city I want to work in and get some face time with some people who work there. In conclusion, I’m hoping to set up some informational interviews for that Friday.
Do you know any PR people in Boston that would have 20 minutes to sit down with me and my portfolio and tell me honestly what I’m doing that’s great and what I could do better?
If so, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected] or message me on Twitter. (@janetaronica)
Thanks!
Categories: Advice that helped me · Entry Level Jobs · Public Relations · Uncategorized
Tagged: Boston, networking
