Talented Communications Student Seeks to Use Social Media and Technological Skills in her New Career

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Megan Garza
St. Edward's University
Communications Student
Email: meganlgarza [at] gmail [dot] com
Blog: http://prmediamaven.blogspot.com

Talented Communications Student Seeks to Use Social Media and Technological Skills in her New Career

Joining a successful technology organization is anticipated after upcoming college graduation.

Austin, TX -- November 29, 2007

• Megan LeeAnne Garza - graduating with a Bachelor's of Arts in Communication from St. Edward's University in Austin, TX on December 15, 2007 - seeks a challenging career that will merge her interest in communication and technology.


• Megan plans to utilize her talents in presentational speaking, writing, customer service, and proficient computer knowledge in an online marketing position.
  


• She is often described by co-workers and supervisors as a self-starter who is patient, diligent, organized who thrives in a fast-paced work environment.


• Computer Skills include proficiency in: PC and Mac use, Microsoft Office, Windows Vista OS, Audacity, Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop. She also has blogging experience and is social media literate.


• Megan is "Web Essentials" Certified by St. Edward's University, which includes classes in HTML, CSS, graphics and web accessibility. She also created a web site to be graded for certification in Summer 2007.


• Since August 2004, Megan has worked at the St. Edward's University IT Helpdesk, where she assists students, faculty and staff in-person and via telephone to analyze computer troubleshooting issues (internet connectivity, software support, virus/spyware issues). As a senior student worker, she is also responsible for training new employees.


• In Fall 2007, Megan was granted a Marketing internship at the Austin-based non-profit Knowbility, Inc. Duties included contacting donators, non-profits and affiliated companies via email, making calls to media outlets, writing articles for Knowbility's newsletter, photography and photo-editing, proofreading grant proposals and outgoing emails, and working all events.


• Honors and Awards include: Dean's List since Fall 2004, St. Edward's Trustee's Scholarship, two-time winner of the Dean's Scholarship, and being featured in a 2-page spread of St. Edward's University Viewbook, a booklet mailed to prospective freshmen about her work experience in IT (nominated for the article by her supervisor) in Summer 2006.

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

Download Podcast: Social Media for Non-Profits	Download Web Video Project: Religious Tolerance - "The Golden Rule

QUOTES

Feedback written by Megan's Helpdesk Customers:

• "Megan [was] very helpful and knowledgeable. The time frame was very quick. Going with out a computer is hard, so its good to have it back! Thank you for your help!" - a student, 2007


• "Megan was great in assisting in the matter. You at IT have a great dedicated worker and willing to help someone like me that is limited to computer knowledge. Thanks Megan." - a staff member, 2007


• "Hats off to the Help Desk once again! You all are great to help work through to the resolution of a problem. Even when the first call didn't succeed with what we were trying to do, subsequent calls were able to find a workable solution. A+++++ for effort, determination, and helpfulness. Thanks so much! :)" - a staff member, 2007
  

About Megan:

Megan LeeAnne Garza has attended St. Edward's University for 3 1/2 years pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Communication at St. Edward's University in Austin, TX. Before attending St. Edward's, she attended Communications Arts High School in San Antonio, TX where she won the Faculty Scholarship and was named "Best Senior Communicator" in 2004 by the CAHS faculty. When she's not catching up on her RSS feeds, Megan enjoys reading, drawing (she recently illustrated a storybook for a friend's wedding proposal) and making homemade organic bath products for her friends and family. She lives in Austin, TX with her puppy.

RELATED LINKS

Media Maven: The Social Media PR Blog

Megan's blog for her "Internet and Social Media for PR" class

Megan's Technorati Profile


Megan's LinkedIn Profile

Technorati Tags:
student | job search | public relations | social media | technology | blogging | marketing | communication | St. Edward's University | Megan Garza | customer service | technical support | non-profit

The Future of Blogging: Market your Blog

There's been discussion of my fellow classmates looking to take what they've learned from this social media/internet for PR class and using it after the semester ends by launching their own blogs. I sincerely hope that there are some great new blogs coming out of this class as we pair our interests with our new web 2.0-ness. Today, I'd like to offer a great page of resources from ProBlogger that lists all of the great articles that resulted from their "31 Days to Building a Better Blog" project.

This page, and ProBlogger in general, is a great one-stop shop for blogging resources - especially for those interested in gaining more readers and publicity for your blog (and who isn't?).

If you think you'd like to take this a step further and turn blogging into a job, then check out ProBlogger's Job Board, which lists companies who are looking for bloggers to write about a specific topic or industry.

Who out there is starting their own blog after this semester? I know Aisa is.

Web Video Class Project: Religious Tolerance

For our final group project of the semester, each group had to make a video about a social issue they were passionate about. We used Flickr images to make a video collage about religious tolerance by showing different religions' takes on "the golden rule". Even though each religion practices differently - the message of respect is the same.

The song is "Wisdom" by Delerium.

Religions in order of appearance: Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Native American Spirituality, Islam, Wicca, and Christianity.

And speaking of getting caught by your "social" life...

Check out this article from Valleywag about an intern who said he had a "family emergency" but then submits his Halloween party pics on Facebook from the night he was supposed to work.

This article features his original email, the reply, then the office-wide email sent with his lovely Halloween picture.

Social Media Resume: show off your mad 2.0 skillz

I had starred this post from Marcom Blog as a favorite last month, but now it's particularly pertinent since our next assignment is a social media press release about ourselves - a social media resume.

Classmates, check out the post link above for some examples of other's social media resumes and maybe they can inspire you for your own assignment.

Check out the source of Marcom's entry: a post entitled Die, resume! Die! Die! Die! by Bryan Person, where Bryan details his reasoning in support of the SMR and goes over a list of what you should include in your own.

another example (if a bit too much for our needs, but definitely the right idea): Rohit Bhargava's Social Media Bio

Student Beware: Entry-Level PR and Marketing Job Scams

In researching job prospects here in Austin, I've come across several suspicious companies looking to hire for entry level PR/marketing positions. This post is to warn you of the biggest scam artists preying on the recently graduated here in town.

But Megan, what are the signs of a scam employer? Here are the warning signs I've caught onto:

• Stupid headlines like "Entry Level PR!!" and "Entry Level Marketing - New Firm - WILL TRAIN!!!" should be your first red flag. Most of these are obviously scams, but some are cleverly disguised. My favorite dumb headline, courtesy Horizion Promotions: "Promo & Mkting Reps Needed! MUST Work Well With The Opposite Sex" sounds fun to me! :P
  
• Poor job descriptions that don't tell you anything about the position. Either that or they make it sound too good to be true, which it obviously is. They also will probably not include contact information except maybe a link to their website. Which brings us to:
• They have an ugly,crappy website. Some may be really jazzy, but you can tell the difference between a professionally-made website designed for a serious PR or marketing agency vs. those putting up the front. You'll also notice that there is a lot of homepage space dedicated to "careers" and "apply online now".

So who's promising careers as PR and marketing professionals but are just really wanting door-to-door salespeople to sell their discount cards? I'm naming names:

• Grace Marketing and Consulting: Read a recent college graduate's story about her experience working for this company:

They only money you make is a small commission off of the cards you sell. That equals is about $15 bucks in your pocket for each $50-$40 card you sell. You will spend your own money on gas to drive your own car around town, lunch everyday, permits for solicitation($10-$75 a piece depending on neighborhood), and all other expenses needed to do your job. It all comes from your own pocket and the girl I shadowed sold 2 cards (so she only made $30) for the day despite the fact that we knocked on about 80 doors and hassled about 30-40 people at strip malls and office parks.

• McLemore Advance Concepts, Inc.: "All in all, you end up working 6 days a week from 7:30am-6:30pm for what equates to about $1.00 per hour or less.... This company is not a scam, nor is it in any way illegal. However, unless you want to build your career in a business with absolutely no honesty or ethics, I would steer clear from them."
• Competitive Consulting: This business came up with a long list of complaints. Apparently this company is also known to change their name frequently. They actually sell office supplies out of a catalog, when on their job posting they say they want "sports-minded" marketers.
• Eventive Promotions
• Premier HQ
  

Any other examples I missed? I'm sure this post could be a mile long just in Austin alone. A common theme in these stories is that they interview in a shady place, where the manager will say "we're in the process of moving," etc. Then for the second interview you are sent "in the field" to shadow another seller. At that point, it can't be any clearer.

If you're unsure about the honesty of a company's employment claims and suspect a pyramid scheme, look them up on Rip-off Report, where I found these testimonies. Also check with the Better Business Bureau if you'd like to file a complaint.

Student Beware: is it time for you to do an internet audit before job searching?

While surfing Ars Technica, I found an article posted earlier this year called "Job Candidates Gone Wild: be careful what you post online," which I find extremely relevant as I draw closer to graduation. This is something all students should consider as they prepare to seek professional jobs and opportunities: if a hiring manager Googles you only to find your ridiculous Myspace page or your serial drinking binges and intoxicated escapades on Facebook, this is probably not going to help you (unless that's what your job calls for and in that case, good job!)

Be careful what you post online if you want to be able to get a job in the future. Your blog, web site, Facebook, MySpace, online dating profile, or even forum postings might "out" your salacious activities to a potential employer. According to a survey conducted by business social networking site Viadeo, one-fifth of hiring managers have used the Internet to find personal information about potential job candidates, and a quarter of those have rejected candidates based on what they found. - Jacqui Cheng, "Job Candidates Gone Wild"

So is this fair? This is an argument about public domain: if your crazy photos and epic rants are put out for all to see and read on a publicly accessible site, you should assume that this content is fair game when being considered for a job.

A good place to start would be to see what information you put out there on any social networking sites: if your Facebook page talks about your favorite books and movies that's probably not an issue (unless your employer HATES that movie :P ), but pictures and notes posted that detail your Friday night drunken debauchery may not be what they're looking for.

Another tip would also be to Google your name. Sure many people probably share your name (gosh, look at me - how many Megan Garzas are there!?), but see what comes up that may pertain to you. Example: Google "Megan Garza" and the first hit will be a link to my LinkedIn page that features resume-type facts and shows my list of connections of professionals that I know. This is definitely a preferable result when I think of a manager looking me up on the web.

I think that conducting an "internet audit" to see what pages feature you is an important step for those active on the internet. I took this to heart when I completely overhauled my former MySpace page. For years I had the typical layout but I realized over the summer that if someone searched for me on MySpace they would pull up my crappy page. I then found a clean, professional div-overlay to construct a simple yet very attractive page with minimal information - my page did not show my friends or the comments they left me. I was very proud of it until I recently found out that my account had been phished for the second time which finally convinced me to delete my account.

The moral of the story is that students should consider what they put on the internet in terms of how it will look to others who are considering you. If a resume and a nice suit for the interview is all a part of impression management, so are the pictures you post and the forums you participate in publicly on the web.

What about you all, my fellow classmates and readers? Any great examples?

10/4 Update: Hoi Polloi posted an entry today about investigations targeting employees who have posted ill-advised pictures on Facebook. A 20-year-old RA at OSU lost his job and had to move dorms because of some pictures that surfaced on Facebook featuring under-age drinking. Thanks for putting these examples together, Angelo.