MyLifeMyCareer.com

Viral Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, Alternate Reality Games. Sign me up.

I was reading an article today on WebUrbanist.com about the five most recent guerilla marketing examples that went wrong. Rather than just coming up with a concept for print or electronic media it would be a blast to come up with crazy ideas to take to the streets or net in unconventional ways.

There was an article several months back in Wired about some of the more notable alternate reality games that were hugely popular among the popular internet crowd that every company, studio, or artist wants on their side. They have the potential to set off exponential growth or popularity - the most likely tipping points if you're a Malcolm Gladwell fan and believer of the theory.

I doubt many business schools or MBA or executive programs are training marketing professionals to utilize social media properly, and the skills required to excel in social media and marketing positions. These skills are less business and more technology research and application in my opinion. I also doubt that many established businesses are putting non-business grads or non-MBA's in their marketing management positions, or embracing social media at all.

The new forms and practices in marketing have already caught fire, and slowly but surely more and more opportunities will arise as companies start to accept the new media practices as equals with their traditional PR and traditional media advertising methods.

Companies To Check Out:
42 Entertainment

Thanks to the Gore Gone Wild or general environmentalist movement, jobs in the life science sector are booming. And by booming, I mean if you have a degree with "Bio", "Chem" or a combination of the two with another word, "Tech", you could probably write your own paycheck if you were an outstanding student in your area of study.

Last month alone, the cover story in three magazines that I subscribe to was about cellulosic ethanol studies and the push to produce this next-gen fuel alternative at a mass distribution level. That movement alone will result in thousands of jobs for all of you future scientists out there.

Science has changed dramatically in the past decade with the introduction of affordable super computing to aid research. If you get a degree in Biotech or Bioinformatics you would be a hot commodity. The point here is to be a scientist with the ability to use technology to complement your research, and not to be a computer scientist with a minor in science as some schools offer. Getting the tech-heavy degrees with very little scientific background is not as attractive degree as they make it out to be.

Science and math are not hot majors for most American higher education students for multiple reasons: not gaining grade school and high school students' interest early on, our perception of the American business person and the glamorous occupations that they have, and the complexity and high degree of intelligence and creativity that is required to strive in the field. I'm sure many high school students enjoy math, but they may not be good at it - a common excuse. If you enjoy math or science, stick with it, work hard, and there will definitely be jobs for you in the industry or academia.

Most business jobs involve fitting into a mold and performing a required function with little room for creativity until you get into a management position or if you are fortunate enough to work for an innovative company. Having the ability to research, strive to find something new, and to create something useful seems like it would be very rewarding. I'm sure you would have days as a scientist where you are just running standard tests, but it seems like you would be able to share your ideas and create your own projects based on research initiatives which would be amazing.

Go for a hot degree if that is where your interest lies rather than going for a degree that seems like a conventional and safe bet.

I went to college in Indiana, and am working my first job out of college in Indiana. Apparently, not everyone does this, and I'm not sure why - 40 degree single day temperature swings, corn, 6 months of no shorts, one large city, corn, etc.

Brain drain, which is better known as smart graduates leaving the state after college, is a large problem because of reasons already stated above. The governor was going to start giving scholarships if students would commit to working for three years in Indiana after they received a degree, but it has never been enacted (Read More...).

It's a cool idea if you know for sure that you love living here, and will be here for awhile. Who knows that they will be happy enough to stay for three long years? The last thing I would want to do was keep working somewhere that I hated simply because I couldn't afford to pay back $20,000.

It would make more sense to me, and make it easier for the state to track graduates over time if the program gave the money back with your state tax return in three incremental payments over the three years - $4000, $6000, and the last and hardest year you would get your $10000.

Good idea gov, but don't make freshmen sign off on something that is basically a seven year contract at that point before they have even switched majors for the first time or bonged their first beer. Are any other states doing something similar to this?

As businesses come up with more and more ways to cut costs in the human resources category, like outsourcing, contractors, part-time instead of full-time, etc., we will begin to see our length of employment with one company decrease dramatically. Telecommuting is still a concept that most companies stray away from, but the cost reduction realized from eliminating a permanent physical office can be quite large. The disconnect between employees and employer is aided by working remotely, so the monetary cost savings may not be as justified as some make it out to be.

A trend that is likely to grow is eliminating the number of full-time employees, and bringing on contractors and part-time employees to quickly train and complete a project before moving on. What's the point of keeping a full-time employee who specializes in a certain type of development or other type of skill when they are only needed for several months out of the year?

There is even a job searching site that is specifically aimed at part-time, freelance, and contractor type positions. Sologig.com could find you a temporary position which may last several months or several years at which point you could find your next position and company. Think about it: we lease cars rather than buy because we love getting something new every couple of years, we rent an apartment or condo rather than purchasing a home because we are always on the move and don't want to be tied down, and we change the channels much more than we actually watch or listen to one thing at a time.

We weren't meant to be tied down to one position, but usually a financial commitment, personal relationship, or some other burden keeps us in one place because of the job security and bi-weekly paycheck. I personally don't feel tied down currently, and like to think that I willingly show up to the office everyday (although, I would be lying some of the time). Starting over and getting re-trained on some new concept, process, or product is not my favorite thing to do, so seeing my hard work in the beginning which can take what seems like forever to learn finally come to fruition is a rewarding experience.

Face it - whatever side you are on, your opinion and view can change the very next day. Our generation is known for job-hopping, but maybe we had it right all along as old-timers and silver haired managers join the wildest game of musical chairs where the music never stops: the current and future job market made possible by the growth and availability of information through new mediums and tools which we created.

If you build it -- and it's cool -- they will come. The business model to support it will come later. - (Wired Geekipedia - Free)

The new business plan is in, and it sounds surprisingly easy: make something neat, let people use it or have it, and you may make a significant amount of coin some day in the future. For a generation that doesn't know how to plan for the future (only time will tell, old-timers), this sounds a lot like investing. Spend a ton of your hard-earned savings on a piece of stock that may be worth something worthwhile down the road, or it may be worthless. You could also spend a lot of your own money and personal time developing a concept into a product or application which could be worthless or worthwhile sometime after the development.

It's important to note that many of these ideas start as just being cool ideas in the eyes of the creator. The intention to launch a business around the idea doesn't come until much later. This is about as pure as it gets in the terms of successful entrepreneurship.

Let's face it, this is the basis of any good business that the owner truly enjoys. You have the person who was always cooking up delicious baked goods, always distributed for free at cookouts and outings, and finally the right person helped them see that they could turn this passion and talent into a successful business.

Too many entrepreneurs start businesses or plan for a business with one thing on their mind - money. I'm sure many of the online applications have been started that way as well, but just as many and many more successful ventures started out of a hobby or enthusiasm for solving problems without realizing that problems were being solved.

Many new businesses fail within the first few years because they were started with an average to solid business plan, but no passion. Much less is at risk if you are doing what you love.

Are all of the hours spent on your social networking site of choice really something that you can leverage in a job interview? Simply put...yes.

If you are a master of MySpace of Facebook you are well on your way to a possible career in advertising through online media and virtual communities. Take a few marketing courses, there should be some offered for non-majors through your business school if you are not majoring in business. If you really want to market yourself, take some entry-level web programming and design courses as well. That would be a deadly mix of education and technical know-how that you could deliver to many companies and recruiters.

It may mean that dodgeball 101 will have to wait, but take some challenging electives that will be rewarding when looking for jobs and also balance out your skill set.

Read more...
Calling All MySpace Addicts: The Ad Industry Needs You - Wired.com (accessed 6.25.2007)

Well, on Jobweb.com there was a fine article on your chances of finding a job in 2007. Another good year with high projections for companies hiring college graduates. Something like a 17% increasing in hirings of those graduating this year. It's always engineering and accounting as the in-demand and hot positions, but nursing is definately a big one if not the biggest. There are even television commercials right now talking about the incentives for new nurses to work in the Indianapolis area, and I know that this need extends across the nation. It's an interesting article, so check it out to see how this prediction may affect you (just a prediction).

Google acquired YouTube not too long ago for a ridiculous chunk of change. Google is an advertising company and Youtube is a "broadcast you" video sharing and community site. Why pay so much when you already have your own video sharing site? Google is going to somehow place ads in videos on YouTube. Who knows how they will do it: before the video plays, a small banner below the video, some kind of embedded text, or something crazy that we don't even know about. Maybe they will be editing the videos and adding cleverly placed products in videos of sleeping cats. So, what does this have to do with you, the college student, looking for a career path after college. If you are going into marketing, advertising, sales, art, design, etc, then you will have many new types of positions available to you. "search engine placement manager", "google adword optimizer", "youtube clever product placement-er" (that last one isn't real...yet). These sound slightly technical, but they really aren't. The advertising aspect is still there, it is just shorter, more targeted, and more efficient and it is presented in a new medium. Get ready to change from year to year with the rise and fall of new technology and trends. That cat almost fell asleep standing up.

If you know you want to work in a certain region or state than check out this link from Fortune Magazine. It lists the top rated companies to work for in every state according to them. I was a little disappointed to see only one company listed for the entire state of Indiana, but it is Indiana. There are plenty of companies listed for the states with major metropolitan areas, so if you are heading to California or the east coast you are in luck. They have a lot of other rankings on their site, so just explore it to get ideas on where to work if you are not sure about companies that are out there. Just remember that the higher ranked the company, the more candidates that you will have to compete with. Be prepared for more rounds of interviews, and much higher standards. I would encourage you to look into smaller businesses and rankings in that venue for more opportunities if you find yourself getting turned down by well known companies. Instead of getting frustrated you need to readjust your strategy otherwise you will burn out looking for jobs.

The large, green rental car company is predicted to hire more graduating college students this year than any other employer. I swear they have been number one for at least the past 3 years. Should it be your number one job choice, though? The manager training program is a rotational program, so it has that going for it. You get to rock out in accounting, sales, and even wash some cars. They really do a good job of showing you the entire business, and you get to experience even the less desirable job duties so that you understand and appreciate how it all works. But it is a car rental business so you have to be good at selling stuff that customers don't necessarily need. I have rented cars from multiple companies and they usually offer insurance, which you don't need if you have personal comprehensive auto insurance, and other things that just increase the cost of the rental. I used to work in an electronics retail store in high school and we had to offer those extended warranties to every customer when we knew how often the services were actually needed (check consumer reports' archive on this, they did a revealing study). I hated pitching it, but others loved it because of the comissions earned. If you can handle the sales with a shade of gray, than I would say this is an excellent opportunity to learn about running your own company and then actually running it. Check out the Enterprise application page to find out about it for yourself.

Jack Welch ruled GE with an iron fist, and they rose to the upper echelon of not only American businesses but the international marketplace as well. I wasn't too pumped to read this book initially, because it had an old guy on the front which gave me the impression of "a lecture is coming". This guy is wise, though. It's not a book about getting a job, although there is a chapter on career searching towards the middle of your reading. He talks about managing and working all aspects of the business, and this gives you a good idea of how companies operate today. I liked it because I took some of the points made in the book and turned them into interesting questions that I used in interviews and at career fairs. I did come away feeling smarter and more confident when talking about jobs and general company info with recruiters. I would definately recommend checking it out at your library or any bookstore.