I got hired!

Hey folks!

I bet you missed me. :-)

Sorry for not writting about my job hunting success earlier - I was too busy strategizing my very own information war, more like a battle (p.s. I am gonna tell you all about it later on). So yeah, I got the job and now I am one of those office people wearing fancy suits and having my phone bills covered. Not really...;-) But here is what happened.

More than a month ago I have started this little job hunting experiment, to be precise I started looking for the job in the first week of February. On 19th February I had my first day of work. I now work on TV and do the stuff I love the most - manage PR and media relations.

In order to find the job I have used several techniques with most of them being fairly traditional (I did not make any viral videos, but probably should have). You can take a look at a little visual report below illustrating the progress of the experiment, although, first, I would like to make a little conclusion.

1. Your path to the dream job  almost solely depends on you. 
Knowing me, I can now say with 100% assurance that if I really-really wanted to get the job at Google I could have. I just needed to really work for it and really want it. Of course there always are circumstances you just cannot deal with. Like in my case, I can only work in the countries which do not require the working permit. And believe me this list is like super short. Thus, at this point of my career I decided to establish myself in the filed first before applying to work abroad and having amazing companies to do the paper work for me. So yeah, your success is directly proportional to the efforts behind it.

2. Your CV and your ability to make an impression is 90%, 10% is luck.
Clearly CV and your email, pitch or phone call to come with it is the first thing potential employer gets to know about you. Thus, it should speak for itself. To add something to this topic which I have already covered, you can also consider looking at this latest article on Mashable. The main rule to remember here is tailoring! You may and should have that one perfect universal resume to begin with, but you would very likely have to edit it for each particular job offering.

3. It is personal. 
Out of every channel tried, targeted emails seem to work the best. As you will see on the chart below, I have tried several ways of distributing my CV among the potential employers. If 100 is the maximum efficiency, email gets 100. Every time I have sent personal email with my resume attached to real people (not just HR department or a general email) asking them for a job, I always got the response.
References and letters of recommendations and  are also personal and extremely fruitful, it is like the word of mouth in action, like the true meaning of PR (when the person who says you are cool is actually not you, but somebody even cooler).

4. Social bookmarking works. 
Not just for blogs, but even for the job hunting. As this little technique helps increase traffic site and make your post (CV) more visible. Just imagine if the story of you looking for a job appears on Digg among the most sharable content. I bet somebody would hire you to do their social media.

5. Be creative. 
There is nothing to add here, except that every profession has place for fantasy and talent. If you can show at least 1% of you might add to the job while going through the application submission/CV writing/hiring process, it definitely increases your chances for success. 

Experimental Blog Post: Who Seeks Shall Find

Dear Readers! :-)

Today I am not going to share with you anything I know but rather ask you for a little offer. Could you please share something you know about me with someone you know? If that sounds a little bit confusing, let me explain.

For those who liked my thoughts on CVs writing and job hunting tips, I am starting an experiment in order to evaluate whether social media, word of mouth and basic PR skills can help one get a dream job! Here is how it's going to be:

1. Here is a link to my LinkedIn profile

2. Here is my email address: mzhdanova401@gmail.com

3. Here is my colourful CV

4. Here is what I am asking you to do:

Would you mind sharing the link to this blogpost on your different social media accounts, saying that your friends is looking for a job, please (I hope you view me as your virtual friend;-)? Or if it is easier, you could just share this text:

"Proactive and self-motivated team player with strong communication skills, leadership ability and problems solving talent is looking for a job in the field of communications, public relations and/or marketing. Please, check her CV here: http://ua.linkedin.com/pub/maria-zhdanova/75/287/76a

5. Here is what I am going to do:

I will use social bookmarking tools, my networking talent and this blog to distribute the idea of me looking for a job to as many sourced as possible, so it reaches a potential employer. On the other hand, if you want me to share your CV here at this blog - just email it to me and we will raise a number of variables in our experiment.

6. What's next:

On 1st of March I will publish the results of this mini experiment telling you what was the audience reach for this blog post, how many people contacted me (contacted any of the participant of the experiment) regarding my CV/ how many job offers I go and finally was it all worth doing! :)

Thanks a lot for your help and let us climb the career ladder together! 

What do you do when Google calls you?

Happy Wednesday!

I know it's been ages I last blogged here, but I hope my today's story will be worth such a long wait!

Remember, when I just started my blog I've shared with you some tips on how to make your CV stand out? Well, now I have a little proof my tips really work as I have been invited for an interview by one of my dream employers!

In case you are wondering what are the international companies I would looove to work for/with, here is my TOP-5 list: (my list is a bit different if I were to work in Ukraine)

1. Google because it's Google

2. BBC because working on TV is the best thing ever (trust me with this one as I did work on TV)

3. Apple because it's the ideal place for creativity, innovations and marketing

4. Burberry because I am as classy as their iconic products ;)

5. HBO because they made my favourite TV series

I wanted to make it very intriguing and not tell you what was the company that I had an interview with, but having considered all the pros and cons I went for a 'hooking headline' instead. So yes, it's Google!

Once upon a time I have applied for almost every potentially matching position at Google and started waiting for my lucky day. Nothing happened. :-) Couple of months or maybe even half a year later I read the news story on the new office Google is about to build in London in 2016 - 'I know where I will work in 2016' - posted I on Facebook the very same day. (I somehow believe in the idea of visualisation making dreams come true a little bit faster). Imagine how surprised I was when the following Monday I received an email with a subject line - 'Hello from Google'!?!?

'Hello, to you too', - I thought and could not really believe that their HR manger was inviting me to apply for a position of Associate Account Strategist. At first I was asked to submit a motivation letter in the language needed for the position (Ukrainian) and prepare for a little phone conversation. 

You may have already read (I did that sooo-o-o many times) that Google offers their job candidates at least 3 rounds of interviews before the hire. Depending on the location of the applicant interviews may be conducted by phone, by Google Hangouts or live (on-site interviews are usually the last phase). As I was invited for the first phone interview I checked other people's blogs to get some tips. Now I am sharing my own experience with you. :)

1. First interview is about first impressions

My first impression on the interview was very nervous as I did not receive a call on the agreed day and even though my motivation letter was not good enough or something. The situation was worsen also because I have read an article saying that in the US it's a common practice for the recruiters not to call and not to respond to the emails after. But now I think this is rather an exception, because in my case everything worked out well - I emailed HR staff and we agreed to have that call the day after.

Anyway, the aim of the first interview is to check whether candidates speak understandable English and are generally adequate. :) The HR manager are usually very friendly and nice as they talk a lot about the position, location, Google and the benefits you will get. The questions I was asked and everyone should be prepared to answer are the following (and may vary depending on vacancy):

- Tell me more about your previous experience and highlight how it is relevant to the position you are applying for.

- Have you had any clients-facing experience? Tell me more about it. 

- What is the project you have worked on that you are especially proud of?

- What's the biggest challenge you've overcome?

- If you were about to explain the benefits of Google AdWords to a client, what would you say?

- What are the current advertising trends in the region you are applying to work at?

- What salary would you expect from this position?

- How do you feel about moving to work in another country?

After that I was provided with more details on the recruitment process and the working scheme designed for that particular position, and the next interview date was set up. 

2. The second interview is about your competency and suitability for the particular position

I am a very happy person really, but I am not that lucky, so when something can go wrong - it always does. :) Therefore, when on the day of the second interview (a week after the 1st one) my phone went nuts and 'did not want to pick itself up' (basically I could see the call on my screen, but could not do anything with it until it turned off unexpectedly) leaving me with 8!!! unanswered calls from Google, I was not that much surprised. 

Yes, I was extremely upset and nervous, but luckily HR person emailed me in a minute, so that I explained what happened and asked whether it would be ok for me to call back. Turned out another call did not go through, so we decided to have that interview the next day. Again, not a good sign at all, but to get a job at Google is never easy, is it?:)

The second interview is conducted in the language(s) of the area you will be working with and by the person who works in the department you are applying in. The reason for this is that the person can better test your suitability, qualification and competency. The questions where constructed in a way so that I could provide a more detailed reflection on my previous work and gained skills.

- Tell me why are you applying for this job, what do you think you will bring to this position (your experience) and what is it you would want to learn/achieve from working at Google and at this position in particular?

- Tell me about a situation when you had an ethical dilemma at work, what the situation was, what did you do and what happened after? If the same thing happens again at your new job, what will you do?

- Tell me about a situation at your previous work when you improved a certain process? How? What results did you achieve?

- Have you ever worked with a difficult customer? What the situation was and how did you handle it?

- Did you have any leaving-abroad experience? Tell us about the challenges that you've faced and what have you learnt from them? 

- Imagine that you have a client who wants to sell smartphones in this particular city (say, Glasgow). How would you define target audience and its volume? What solutions in terms of online advertising you would offer?

- What is Display Network and what is the difference between Display Network and Search Network?

The rest of the interview you are encouraged to ask questions, what I did. :)

3. To sum up!

From what I know now - the key to success (both with CVs and interviews) is to tailor everything you write and say to the position you are applying for. 

Calm down, be relaxed and prepared - it's very unlikely you will face the same phone-call-disaster twice (because I already did and bad stuff rarely happens more often), so you will be fine!

Believe in your dreams and you will receive your lucky email. :-)

Keep trying and you will get your dream job - this is what I am going to do anyway!

Best of luck,

Maria 

Job hunting, CV writing and professional profile building

Good Monday morning to everyone! :)

Hope, you had a wonderful weekend! It is a beginning of new week, new life and time to look for a new job. For those who are just about to hand in a CV or two to the desired companies (mine is Google), I thought this post may provide some insights.

Earlier today I came accross this article on Mashable (seems like I only post links to this website) talking about Facebook introducing 'Professional Skills' category. It seems like social networking sites are becoming more and more appropriate for building employer-employee relationships. I believe most of you already have LinkedIn profile. I personally find it very useful for me (as a recent graduate), because of the possibility to connect with influencers, look for new opportunities and make quick applications. However, increased number of users demand certain improvements from the SNS. In addition, for your LinkedIn experience to be fruitfull there are 13 mistakes to avoid.

Anyway, LinkedIn is great, but let me share with you some interesting alternatives for creating professional image online. I would want this tips to be helpful for merketers, PR-people and advertising job hunters, but everyone else is also welcome to read and share:)

1. I always wanted to have a business card (not sure if I do enough business for that), smartly designed piece of recycled paper with my name on it, at least. The World Wide Web made my dreams come true - About.me is a wonderful and easy-to-use service ('nameplate') for making online business cards. Many thanks to my friend TJ for telling me about this one. And! you can easily transform the thing into a short CV and send the link with you paper resume.

2. Some jobs not only require to have a curriculum vitae to be considered as a potential candidate, but ask for the portfolio. If you are a designer, person who makes creative commercials or a web developer - check out Zerply and show your work to the rest of the world.

3. Another alternative to the LinkedIn page is a 'branded web presence' making tool called Flavors.me. This service also allows you to connect all the social media profiles at one web-address; create your resume and personal card; promote your 'personal brand' online.

4. For creative industry workers infographics CV does not look like a bad idea at all. If you don`t feel like making it yourself, don`t have inner designer-self or simply want to have it done quick - I have a solution for you. I heard this is a Russian start-up which proved to be successful allover the world. ResumUP - great took for visualising your Facebook or LinkedIn profile. The advantage is that infographics CV looks really clear and informative, so can be send to employers on its on, whilst the 'comics-looking-like' resumes may need a textual compliment. I have used this service myself and really enjoyed the results!

5. If you are an inspiring marketing or PR-professional, SEO guru or content marketing evangelist who does a lot of talks on the subject, takes active part in conferences, TED talks and other speakers featuring events, you should register with ExpertFile. This is probably not for recent graduates, but who knows what you will achieve in the next 5 years, right? ;-)

Good luck getting your dream job!