Mr. Levine gave a great presentation on how to go about presenting ourselves and making the most of our job search. I noticed that I am expanding my job search too wide and I need to start focusing on what I really want to do and head in that direction. He spoke about finding a connection between job descriptions and making sure that they align with what is on your resume or there will be a disconnect and employers will overlook you. I also took away the importance of a cover letter. Levine said that your cover letter should describe you and your personality but to keep it formal. Let your resume tell your skills and your cover letter tell your character.

Another important point I took away was about interviews and how it must be a dialogue, not a monologue. Research the company enough to make good conversation and to ask relevant questions on your potential position and day to day tasks. It is always good to have a better understanding of what you will be doing so you can expect.

Seeing as how I have a high interest in working in print specifically for magazines, it was such a treat to get to see the inner workings of Hearst. Now before I get into all the awesome things I learned, I will say that I had a completely different take on how things were ran. The way professors make it seem is that you have to do everything in a company like Hearst when in reality, each aspect of the design process is worked on by different departments.

If I wanted to work on only retouching images to ensure they look the best on a page, there is a job just for that. If I cared about how the each issue looked on every page and had to work on doing its layout, there was a job for just for that as well. There is even a job just to make sure that the advertisement companies send their files correctly in the proper formats. The point is, it is great to be able to do it all, but you can pick what you are good at, what you love, and wake up every morning doing just that. Some people get a kick at retouching photos and others can find their calling making sure the printer works properly for the hundreds of millions of magazines your company is about to print.

That is my takeaway from the Hearst visit. Before, I was just looking at print as a whole thinking I would be physically making every page and every correction, but in reality I would be a part of a bigger team ensuring that my specific role in the process was completed. This has been really helpful in how I will be applying myself in my future job searches.

After much research into Social Networking sites and tools, there are plenty of resources that you can use as a student and as a professional to elevate the way you market yourself and a business. Depending on your needs, there are plenty of sites you can use to get your brand out there. For personal interactions with companies and people who influence you, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great ways to keep in touch with other professionals and see what they are doing. There is also Youtube and Snapchat if you’d rather watch a video presentation or tutorial. You can even create your own and have vlogs or mini sneak peeks into what you are currently working on.

For businesses there are other tools you can utilize to create social media ads that will automatically post and keep track of your analytics. Some tools let you mass upload your posts with Bulk Buffer, schedule tweets with Hootsuite, better organize your analytics with Quill, and give a creative touch to your blogs with Canva. This is just a short list of the options available to you out there in the marketing world. Get out there and try some out!