Well readers, I didn’t do well on my Stats exam. Let’s take a moment for the shock that the professor managed to grade that exam overnight! Further, our biggest tradeshow of the year starts in less than a week, so the stress is piling on. Add to that a paper that’s due in about 2 weeks comprised of content that has yet to be submitted from some group members, and I’m thoroughly uninspired. I keep trying to find the cool marketing tactics in day-to-day life, or the really interesting MBA ah-ha moment, but quite frankly, I’m too stressed to see the interesting things right now. This is nose to the grindstone time, and it’s a little disheartening to feel like I have no creativity.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I leave for Las Vegas in just a few days, and some GORGEOUS prints arrived for the office. I feel like I’ll snap out of the funk after an invigorating walk around the tradeshow floor. For now, I’m taking Seth Godin’s advice about writing to relieve writer’s block.

On another note, I’ve been asked about my workout habits by several different colleagues today. The questions are generally phrased as, “You must work out, you walk fast, ” or, “Wow, you have a lot of energy… do you workout a lot?” This is usually said while trying to keep pace as I make my rounds between the offices, or trying to follow the words racing furiously out of my mouth. I tend to think that I walk at a normal speed, and everyone else is just slow, and maybe it’s not that I talk fast, but others should listen faster? 🙂 Either way, I’m apparently determined to pass my frazzled state along to anyone who crosses my path.

So, any other tips for getting my inspiration back? I’d contemplate for an answer on my own, but I’ve got to run!

This is the final post in my 3-part mini-series on lessons from the trail. You can view the first post here and the second post here.

 

 

 

 

I’m a fit person, but my feet were killing me after just a few miles. We’d planned to camp for two nights, but mid-way through the second day of hiking, we determined that it was best not to stay a second night. The biggest factor, was that we felt the payoff wasn’t worth it. Honestly, hiking with a 30 lb. pack, eating freeze-dried food, and going to the bathroom in the woods isn’t all that fun! It’s the scenery and the quiet connection to nature and each other that makes it worth it… but the scenery wasn’t amazing, and the wind was picking up to the point of discomfort. Our feet were in terrible shape during our Half Dome hike, but standing on top of a mountain is pretty good at melting away the pain. I also figured out that the 30 lb. pack was killing my feet more than any other part of my body, but my standard-size backpack during the Half Dome hike didn’t have nearly this kind of impact (even though the load was not well-distributed like it is on a backpacking pack). Basically, the little extras in my pack for a few days had way more impact than the one-time stress of the standard backpack.

So, I have to ask, is your payoff worth it at your job? Is the money, work, and sense of accomplishment actually making the pain worth it? Does the “dream job” measure up? I know we all have bad days at work, and sometimes it feels like we’re ready to retire at 30, but for me, I’m generally happy and satisfied when I’m working at my job. The pain in the job is usually a long commute, boring work, low pay, or long hours, as opposed to aching feet (although, I’ve had my share of aching feet after trade shows!). It’s these “little things” that end up making the payoff less than stellar. For me, a long commute is a pretty big impact on my payoff, as the cost in gas, time away from my husband and my hobbies, and stress of traffic makes me hesitant to accept a job that requires more than 30 minutes on the road (traffic included, hate it!). I’m terrible about rationalizing that the stress isn’t that bad, but the little things add up. And, if you’re waiting for a payoff that never comes, you need to re-evaluate your career path. The “little things” take a mental, physical, and emotional toll, and you need to know when to pack up and head home.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first backpacking trip, but it taught me quite a lot about what is and is not worth it. A little pain is acceptable for the right payoff!

I think I’m grumpy today, so this post may sound a little sour. However, the sentiment is spot-on, so I’m going to attempt to write about it in a balanced, professional manner. We’ll see how it goes!

First, let’s talk about “internships”. I’m not talking about the legitimate, paid, really-gives-you-a-hands-on-look at the business internships, I’m talking about requests for free labor disguised as internships. As a marketer, I possess a soft skill, which means that my role and abilities are often hard to quantify and measure. This makes my role much more susceptible to offers for “internships”. The postings usually go something like this: “Seeking a Marketing Intern for a great opportunity! We can’t pay you, but we’ll provide a fun, passionate environment to help you grow your skills! You’ll learn from some of the industry’s best, with talented mentors and a variety of projects. We expect everyone to pitch in around here, so we’ll need someone who doesn’t mind a little administrative work when it’s needed. Are you ambitious? We’re the company for you!” They proceed to require something like 3-5 years of experience in Marketing, a bachelor’s degree, and several special skills in design software, social media management, event management, and PR or advertising. I’m sorry, but with those credentials, you better stinkin’ pay me! If I’m a freshman in college with a complete lack of experience, you might get away with this, but years of experience and a degree? This is not an internship, it’s a request for free labor. Don’t fall for this, and don’t under-value yourself. You have valuable skills and expertise that this company needs, and you deserve to be compensated for it. Internships should offer some form of compensation, and many will offer college credit as a form of payment. However, be aware that many colleges, particularly for Business majors, require that the internship be paid. Why? Because the whole point of majoring in business is to learn to make money… so there’s a fundamental flaw in working without pay. Don’t get suckered in to an “internship”, but harshly evaluate any opportunities that pretend that a “cool workplace” is a valid form of compensation. (Note that volunteering or pro bono work is completely different. It’s categorized as such, and you know that your compensation is your own personal fulfillment for helping others).

Second, let’s talk about administrative support. Again, I recognize that my skills may be hard to measure and quantify (I make sure that I include specific goals and a “measurement” piece in all my projects to combat this), but they are special skills nonetheless . No, a Marketing Coordinator should not double as a secretary by inputting expense reports and taking phone calls for the boss. If you need someone for these tasks, hire an office manager. It’s not a marketer’s job to keep the white-out and staples stocked. Again, I get frustrated when I see postings that require multiple years of experience, a bachelor’s (and sometimes master’s) degree, specialized skills in a particular area of marketing, and then mention that it’s also the marketer’s job to do admin work. I know that sometimes the lines are a little blurred, as sometimes a marketing role includes activities like “scheduling travel” or “organizing presentation files”. However, the Tradeshow and Event Coordinator should not be required to book random travel for executives and do data entry for their expense reports. This person is responsible for travel related to a trade show, and accounting is responsible for processing expense reports. Individuals should be responsible for collecting their own receipts and putting them into the Excel template that’s given to accounting. Organizing presentation files should not spill over into “filing” random items that have nothing to do with my projects. Again, let each department file their own papers, or hire an “Archival Specialist” to do the filing for the whole company. From a business perspective, it makes no sense to pay a marketer’s salary to someone who is just going to file papers or do data entry (and no, the solution is not to just offer a marketer an admin’s salary, see point #1 about “internships”). If you don’t have enough work to hire a full-time marketing person, just say so, and tell them you need someone for 15-20 hours a week! Just like you need someone with special skills in accounting, engineering, and operations, you need someone with special skills in marketing. Don’t waste your time or money on marketing if you think it’s something that “anyone can do” in between filing papers and ordering office supplies.

All this grumpiness to say, marketers have valuable skills. Experienced professionals with degrees deserve compensation. Your expertise is WORTH something, so be selective in your job hunt and career path. This economy makes people feel desperate, but don’t succumb to an employer’s lowest expectation. Challenge yourself to make the right choice to showcase your skills and expertise, and don’t waste time with dead-end “opportunities”.

I’ve been thinking about career trajectories a lot recently, and memories of my college jobs re-surfaced. The most random job interview popped into my head, and inspired my post about being ready to take an opportunity. I had just moved back to Texas, and I was working as a waitress. I was getting pretty sick of the waitress gig, and I’d told my parents that I was ready to start job hunting again. Then, I started apartment hunting, and my mom joined me for some Saturday tours. While viewing the apartment that I ultimately rented, my mom says, “You know, Ashley, you could do this job. You could be a leasing agent. You should ask her (the leasing agent) about it.” I was not dressed for an interview, and I thought it might be a little awkward to ask the leasing agent if I could interview for her job. After some whispering to my mom about these thoughts, my mom just asked the leasing agent, “You don’t happen to be hiring do you? My daughter would be great at this job.” Surprisingly, the leasing agent replied, “Actually, YES, we really need someone right now. I would LOVE to have someone else in the office, we’re slammed. The manager is downstairs, I’ll tell her you want to talk to her about a job.” Wait a minute, I’m not dressed properly! Wait a minute, I don’t have a copy of my resume! Wait a minute, my mom is here, you can’t go to a job interview and bring your mom! Wait…

The leasing agent told the manager that I was looking for both an apartment and a job, and sent me in to speak with her about 5 minutes later. After apologizing for my lack of professional clothes and resume, I ended up having a great interview with the manager. She suggested that I return the following day with a resume, and ended up hiring me the next day! To this day, she’s a great reference and mentor, and she still laughs about how she took a chance on the girl with no leasing experience, who interviewed in shorts and a tank top.

I tell this story to say that you should always be ready to take the opportunity. Maybe you’re not in your best interview suit, with a nice resume ready to hand out. But, maybe you’ve got the right skills at the right time. Maybe you’re exactly the kind of person they’re looking for, the kind of person who can make a good impression on someone without the mask we all wear during a “formal” interview. Do you have your elevator pitch down, so that when you happen to run into someone with connections, you can speak to your abilities? Do you have a professional email address and your personal voicemail set up in a way that conveys your professional abilities? As career-oriented people, I think we need to make sure that we’re “ready” at all times. This doesn’t mean going to the gym in a three-piece suit, just in case your boss’ boss shows up, and you don’t have to whip out a current copy of your resume every time you step into Starbucks. Being ready is about your attitude, and your willingness to pursue an opportunity when it arises… even if it arises outside your “business hours.” I’ve had several opportunities presented at a time when it wasn’t convenient for me, but I took action and had success.

This is another post that’s been sitting in the queue, unpublished. In my continuing effort to have transparency and credibility on the blog, it’s finally coming out to the world! Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of articles about pay equity and glass ceilings for women. When I first started noticing these articles, I generally brushed them off as, “This doesn’t happen any more, women can definitely rise to the top without a problem!” But, the more I read, the more I started looking at myself, and noticing that I display some of the traits mentioned in the articles. This post is not about “discrimination”, but about self-reflection, and realizing that if you don’t at least consider the issues at hand, you might be part of the problem. So, which issues really hit home for me?

Women are too nice. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois Frankel is on my to-read list, as every article that mentions this book seems to hit home for me. Basically, Frankel argues that being “nice” won’t help you get the corner office. She’s not talking about common courtesy, but rather the niceness that comes across as weak or less than confident. The day I realized I might be too nice: I was writing a bullet point list of action items that needed to be completed in order for me to submit a large purchase order. I’d already written, “please” in the instructions. I then proceeded to write “please” in front of every single bullet point! Now, I know that saying “please” is generally a good way to do business, but before every sentence on a bullet point list? People don’t have time to read all those extra words, and I’d already set the tone of polite but necessary at the top of the form, so there was no need to write “please” 10 additional times!

Women don’t ask. I’m coming to realize that I need to work on my negotiation skills for myself. I tend to do well when negotiating on behalf of the business, but poorly when it comes to myself. This article talks about negotiating first salaries, and many of the articles I’ve read discuss negotiating raises. Study after study shows that women leave money on the table at every stage of their career, and that most assume, “My performance speaks for itself, my bosses will give me a raise because they know I deserve it for all my hard work and achievements.” This really hit home for me, because every time I think about my review, I think about my achievements as either “standard” for my job, meaning they don’t equal a raise, or I think my bosses will get angry at me for asking for a raise. See point #1 about being too nice… I don’t want to hurt the working relationship by asking for a raise, and thus, I’ve now failed on two of the points that contribute to hitting the glass ceiling. I need to “man up” about negotiating for myself!

Women give up too quickly. This article discusses a point that slaps me in the face daily: women are too quick to give up if a task is difficult for them. The article cites a study showing that women are just as capable as men, but we’ve been taught to believe that abilities are innate. Thus, if something is difficult, we can’t change it, learn it, or overcome it, because our abilities just are what they are. Young girls are praised for being “good” or “smart”, while young boys are told, “If you just focus, you can do it. If you just worked harder, you could solve this problem.” I think back on my school years, and that’s the truth. I was always just smart, plain and simple, smart. It wasn’t that I’d studied hard or paid attention in class, I just WAS. My husband has actually been a big part of me realizing that I have the ability to do it, and “smarts” have little to do with my ability to accomplish a task. Particularly regarding technical acumen, he’s always trying to teach me how to do it, instead of just doing it for me (he’s a software engineer by trade, so manipulating WordPress is a walk in the park for him). I think I’m actually making progress toward overcoming this trait, as I’ve started to fiddle around in the code when I need to change something on the blog (note to the engineers, I recognize that WordPress doesn’t really constitute “code”, but there’s syntax and tags that make it look like code to me!) . I’ve started solving problems on the website at work, instead of always running to our IT person to make the changes. Sure, it takes me longer… but I’m reducing the time it takes to complete the steps each time I perform the task. What does this mean? It means I’m LEARNING, putting in the hard work and frustration to learn. I completely agree, at least for myself, that it’s been detrimental for me to attribute my accomplishments to being “smart” over being “persistent”.

I truly believe women are just as capable as men, and that we do possess the intelligence and work ethic to move up the ladder. However, I’m finding out that for me, I’m reluctant to take the step up to the next rung for fear that I’m being pushy and greedy, or that I don’t possess a particular skill set. I’m working on changing my contribution to the glass ceiling for myself, are you?