2010 Job Tip Series #4: Keep your foot in the door
Do you know where you'll work in ten years? If so, congratulations. You're one in a million. You can stop reading here.
For everyone else, continue reading.
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When I was a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill, I thought it was time for me to get started on my career at Capstrat. I applied for an internship. As a freshman, I didn't have the necessary skills required for an internship at Capstrat. I had not completed all the public relations sequence courses. Nor did I have any other work experience to speak of. Thank you, Capstrat, for not laughing at me. They even interviewed me!
Needless to say, I didn't get the internship. Even so, I stayed in touch. In the years following my interview with Capstrat, I completed eight other internships and work studies. Graduation was upon me, and I had no idea where I would work. I was applying for public relations positions across the East Coast. (I believe it was just about this time several years ago that I started sweating.)
During that time, I also applied for the PR Week Student of the Year award. That spring, I traveled to New York to the PR Week Awards ceremony, where I took home second place in my category. Capstrat was a finalist too. And the next day, I got a call. It took four years, a rigorous award application and an event in New York City to help me land a job 10 minutes from my university.
The moral of the story: Never burn a bridge. I'm sure there were many other qualified candidates for my position at Capstrat. But Capstrat and I had a relationship. Networking may seem like it's a lot of hard work, but in the end, the more people that know you and know what you're interested in, the more likely you'll find not only a job, but the right job for you.
The flip side is true, too. Employers you network with are just as interested in meeting you as you are them. Talented people are valuable, and building a relationship makes it more likely those valuable potential employees will want to come to work for employers they already have relationships with.
Keep your foot in the door. You never know when it will open.
Comments
Thanks for your post, Heather - I just did this very thing today, with Karen Albritton! Excellent advice no matter what your age or career stage.
This was a great post Heather. I hope I'm able to apply this in my current job search in Raleigh. It's a bit harder to do from Upstate NY but I hope I didn't close any doors from ECU. Thanks for the advice!
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