Hello everyone! How are you today on this windy week of October? I hope you all have had time to embrace everything October has to offer like hayrides, pumpkin carving, and spending time in this beautiful weather with family and friends. I know I certainly have enjoyed the season so far and have had some interesting experiences thus far! One of them being a marketing conference in Atlanta called SuperNova South. SuperNova South is, like I said, a marketing conference where leaders in the industry come and give talks about what their experiences are in the business world and talk about specific topics pertaining to different aspects of the business. Since the conference was just this past week, I thought I'd make a list to remember all the important tidbits I learned from the experience. Now, as a disclaimer, I'd like to say that most of these are general life advice statements and what I learned from the experience personally, not only professionally.
1. Employers want to know what you are all about and what you can do.
One of the main takeaways I was surprised to learn was that employers not only want to see if you can do the job, but what EXACTLY you bring to the table. This may seem simple in theory and it is, but it goes beyond that. Of course it goes without saying that employers want to know if you can do the job, but they want to know more. They want to know if you have a willingness to learn. They want to know how you fit into the company culture and what you bring to the table. Essentially they're seeking to know if you have all the characteristics that fits their team's needs, not only if you can do the job. They want to know what SETS you apart from the other hundreds of applicants and WHY YOU ARE THE PERFECT person for the position. It's a good thing to keep in mind that what they're after is your skill set as a person, personally AND professionally, and not just looking at the perfect gpa or work experience. I don't know why, but this was a revolutionary concept for me that employers care more about the whole individual and well-roundedness of the individual rather than how perfect the person is on paper.
2. Employers want to see your personality. They don't want only GPAs and numbers.
I heard from multiple speakers that they wanted to get a sense of personality from the person they were interviewing. They want to know what makes you tick. They want to know what motivates you, what causes you to do your best work and what you enjoy. They want flair and someone who has a personality along with being a hard worker. This also brings me to my next point of...
3. Start a project to show off your skills.
Another piece of information I heard from many speakers was to have a project or craft to show potential employers. They want to see pieces of writing. They want portfolios of work that you've created. Good news is, I heard multiple speakers making the suggestion of having a blog..! Yay! Do you write periodically for a website? Show them! Have you improved a business's social media account? Take before and after pictures of how you improved their internet presence and show them!
Along the lines of point 1, interviewers want to know if YOU know your own strengths and weaknesses. Can you be honest and talk about what areas you need to improve in? Do you know specifically what you bring to the work environment? For example, who are you and what role do you play when it comes to group work? For example, I know I'm somewhat of a mix between a cheerleader and an analyzer. I'm encouraging and enthusiastic, but I also want to keep on track and get it done. A weakness is that I'm stubborn and can *sometimes* be closed to new ideas. On the flip side, my stubbornness is also what makes me great. If I want something bad enough, I'll work to get it and won't give up simply because I'm too stubborn to! To find out what your strengths and weaknesses are, read the book Strength Finders 2.0. It was suggested by a professor at the conference and he swore it was a must read!
5. Where you start is probably not where you're going to end up.
I don't think a single speaker at the conference originally set out to do digital marketing specifically. Maybe they had started a business that had involved some marketing, yes, but I don't think any one of them set out with the specific dream of being a digital marketer. Each one of them had a laundry list of different jobs they had had along the way and how it led to where they were now. Just be aware of this. Where you start your career is probably not where it's going to end up. Be flexible, be open. If you're a type A personality like me, it's important to hear this now so that later in life I won't be all bent out of shape because my entire career didn't go EXACTLY like I had planned. It's okay. Where you are now can lead to wonderful opportunities you never expected later!
6. You can get to where you want to go through MANY different avenues.
This was shown to be true by every speaker at the conference. There was at least 20 speakers there to give you an idea. All of the professionals worked in marketing, but how they got there came about 20 different ways. Some people never went to college while others had degrees in history, english, public relations, journalism, political science...you name it! Moral of the story is, you can get to where you want to go even if where you're at now is totally different.
7. Love what you do.
As cliche as it is, it's true. Waking up in the morning and being passionate about what you do is inspirational. It needs to be what drives you. Being passionate will serve you in your professional life and in personal fulfillment. It will show up in your work and is what creates the best pieces of work. Passion for learning more and showing passion in whatever you do will let you go far. Passion is contagious.
8. If you want to live in a big city do it now while you can.
Granted, not everyone had lived in NY or CA, but a few speakers mentioned that if those are places you'd like to go and get experience then do it while you're young! If you want to go to CA and learn employable skills at a small startup then do it now. This will allow you to get it out of your system now, so that when you want to settle down and have a family you can move to a bigger company wherever you'd like to because you've already learned some skills from the bigger cities.
9. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.
In other words, have the ability to work well in teams. The ability to work well with others was mentioned and emphasized a lot. I would almost go out on a limb and say that there's a good chance you won't hired if you flat-out have no teamwork skills. Playing well with others may be more important than you think. Most of the time it's so valued that employers will list it as a job requirement. Think about that.
10. Networking is important, but don't be afraid to reach out to people either.
Something refreshing I heard was that it's okay to reach out to future employers. This could mean everything from connecting with company heads on LinkedIn to calling their headquarters and asking to scout out certain positions. Following up is important as well. If you meet someone cold-turkey one day at an event (cough cough, for example, SuperNova South..) don't be afraid to follow them on social media and even ask them to meet up for coffee one day to ask them specific questions. As you already know, networking and having connections can ultimately end up with having a job.
Alright you all! These were some of my favorite lessons learned from the event and I hope you all learned some insight and enjoyed reading the takeaways. So were YOU at SuperNova South? What was YOUR favorite piece/s of advice?! I'd love to know in the comments below!
Much love,
G
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