My New Online Portfolio

My New Online Portfolio

Today a friend sent me an invitation to join a website in its beta phase: www.pressfolios.com. After playing around with it for a few hours, I’m hooked. It’s an extremely user-friendly website that allows you to create an attractive online portfolio, something that is so important to have, especially when you’re applying for internships and jobs!

Click this link to check out the online portfolio I created – and if you’d like me to send you an invitation to try out the site, leave your email address in the comments!

Mastering the Phone Interview: 10 Tips to Help You Succeed

It’s March again, which means many of you are probably in the process of interviewing for summer internships. In the summer internship world, February is application month, March is interview month, and April is find out and decide month! Often college students will be applying for internships in cities other than where they attend school, which brings us to today’s topic: The Phone Interview.

I’ve heard from so many people that they dread the phone interview, but for some reason, I love it! In my opinion, the phone interview allows you to be the most prepared. Here are my top 10 tips for mastering the phone interview!

1. Do your research on the company, the position, and the interviewer. I like to read through a company’s case studies and choose my favorite, that way I can reference it when I’m asked why I’d like to work for that company. Your answer to this question should reflect why you want to work for their company, not just in the field of, say, PR. Also make sure to have a compete understanding of the job qualifications, that way you can show why you’re the best fit! I also like to look at my interviewer on the company website and/or LinkedIn, so I can get a sense of their professional background and interests.

2. Mirror the company’s phrasing. From your research, you’ll gather that each company has their own way of referring to clients, meetings, continued learning, internship programs, etc. Prove to the company that you fit in by mirroring the language they use!

3. Set up a phone interview kit. When I’m doing a phone interview, I like to sit at my dining room table. In front of me I have a notebook and pen to take notes, a glass of water, a copy of my resume and any other application materials I’ve submitted, and a list of the questions I’m going to ask at the end of the interview. I also like to have my laptop in front of me, with the company’s website and internship description in front of me. It helps me feel more comfortable and allows me to reference specific details of the job!

4. Prepare strong questions. These questions aren’t just to prove you’re interested – you want to make sure you’d enjoy working for this company, too! Some of my favorite questions to ask on an interview are: “What has been your favorite client/account to work on?” “What is the company culture/atmosphere?” “What are some of the qualities exhibited by your best interns in the past?” “How are account teams structured; do interns work primarily with one client, or several?” I also research the company and ask any questions about their specific programs that I’d like to know – be specific!

5. Prepare strong answers. You’ll never know exactly what an interviewer will ask, but there are definitely ways to prepare anyway. “Tell me about yourself” is an opportunity to showcase your strengths, passions, and dedication – not just tell them what they can read on your resume. Some other questions I like to prepare for are: “What stood out to you about our company?” “Why did you become interested in this field?” “What are some of the publications/blogs you read regularly?”

6. Dress the part. Yes, this is important for a phone interview, as well! If you’re too casual, you won’t feel the need to be as professional, especially since they can’t see you. Dress the way you want to feel: prepared!

7. Smile. It will help you sound friendly and also let your personality come across, which can sometimes be a challenge on the phone!

8. Volume, then silent. Leave your phone on full volume to make sure you don’t miss the interviewer’s call, but then flip the switch to silent as soon as you answer. You don’t want the “ding!” of a text message to come through, causing you to miss the interviewer’s question!

9. Prepare your environment. Use the lighting, room temperature, and chair that makes you feel most comfortable for this setting. Make sure not to start your washing machine or dishwasher right before the interview, and if you have any roommates, let them know you’ll be interviewing so they can keep quiet, too!

10. Email your thank-you note. Thank-you note emails have become much more acceptable in recent years (instead of, or in addition to handwritten ones), but especially with a phone interview, an email is necessary. They will definitely make a decision before your handwritten letter will reach them, so I like to send my thank-you email within 3 hours.

How do you prepare for a phone interview? Let me know in the comments or tweet @staceyalevine!

Day in the Life of a Social Media Intern in Silicon Valley

 

Christine Freschi is a junior Communications major at Boston College. This summer she is working in San Jose, CA, as a social media intern in the consumer startup division of a large financial corporation. Her blog “La Comidilla de la Vecindad” (The Talk of the Town) focuses on life as a student, intern, traveler, performer, crafter, and fashion scout.

Christine has been kind enough to write a guest post, sharing with us a typical day in the life of a social media intern. Check it out!

6:30 AM: I wake up and get ready for the day. When it comes to workplace attire, most tech companies and startups in the Bay Area take the casual, hoodie-and-jeans approach inspired by Mark Zuckerberg. In my office, we embrace the startup culture, but we still deal with clients and colleagues from the traditional, financial corporation. Because of this odd dynamic, workers in my office often straddle the line between casual and corporate. Luckily for me, this gives me a lot of options – I can wear jeans or a pencil skirt, a blazer or a cardigan. If I do go casual, I always try to keep it classy.

8:00 AM: Arrive at the office and get settled in. This always involves a cup or two of green tea and a quick scan of my favorite blogs. I check the company’s Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest activity. Then I go through the “Money” sections of a ton of online newspapers and personal finance blogs and choose pages to share with followers. It’s important to engage followers throughout the day, so I use a social media management tool called Sprout Social, which allows me to schedule posts ahead of time; this way the social media flow stays consistent even if I’m away from my computer.

9:30 AM: I start writing for the company blog! I love to write, so I’m always eager to get to this part of my day. Each post has to deal with personal finance, but I have a lot of flexibility and independence when it comes to choosing article topics. Some of my posts have been “Hidden Costs of College,” “How to Save Money in the Workplace,” and “Artists and Money.”

11:00 AM: Weekly Merchandising Meeting. Each week the product management team comes up with email campaigns to promote our services, attract consumers to our online forum, or provide personal finance tips. Last meeting, we strategized a Facebook/Pinterest contest and reviewed the success of our 4^th of July email campaign.

12:00 PM: Lunch. I spend 5+ hours a day reading about how to save money, so when lunchtime comes, I take the bloggers’ advice and bring my lunch from home. My exception is Fridays, when the team picks a restaurant and goes out as a group. Living in Silicon Valley, it’s neat to drive by tech monoliths like Google, Apple, and Ebay, as well as smaller startups sprinkled around the South Bay. On Friday, we ran into an Apple team when we went to a lunchtime favorite, Ike’s Lair, in Cupertino.

1 PM: Pinterest time! Right from the start, my manager had me take the lead on the company Pinterest page. Now she calls me her “Head Pinterest Strategist” which is a ridiculously snazzy title for what it really entails. I pin personal finance articles, inspiring quotes, DIY projects for saving money, “Saving in Style,” tips for students, homeowners, etc. I also try to engage with pinners by repinning their content or commenting on pins, and I scope out our competitors’ Pinterest sites to see how our page compares.

2 PM: Social media analytics. I like to see how much activity the Facebook and Twitter page are getting, so I go to Sprout Social and Facebook Business Analytics to check the numbers. These tools show businesses how many followers are clicking the links they post and sharing the links with friends, plus other interesting data. This gives me a lot of valuable information about how to capture new followers. For example, I sort the data by highest reach to see which article topics perform best or to look for a pattern in the times they were posted. (Do posts at 10 AM perform better than posts at 6 PM?)

3 PM: Internship Project Meeting. This can be the most fun or most stressful part of my day. From 3-5 PM, the interns meet to work on our project, a credit education campaign. Because of the crazy rise in student loans, our project focuses on educating college students about paying off debt and managing credit wisely. The interns pool our strengths (marketing analytics, graphic design, social media, marketing, etc.) to put forward a well-rounded project. I’ve learned so much about the business world through this microcosmic project; it has been interesting to see how different people quickly take on different roles in a team, to note my own tendencies during group work, and to observe how others approach the same project.

5 PM: Time to hit the highway and get some rest and fun in before it all starts over again!

Check out Christine’s blog, La Comidilla de la Vecindad, and follow her on twitter @Cnfreschi!

Interview: Love, Always Couture Jewelry (& 15% off the site!)

I was recently contacted by Stephanie Diaz, founder of the online jewelry boutique Love, Always Couture. She made me aware of not only the wonderful jewelry on the site, but also its charitable side: 10% of all profits from sales go towards different anti-bullying organizations. How great is that?

You can shop Love, Always Couture’s online boutique here. And special for Strategy in Stilettos readers: if you enter the code “STILETTOS” at checkout, you get 15% off your entire purchase!

Cute jewelry that helps bullying prevention? Shop away! Here are some of my favorite pieces from the site (click to enlarge):

I did an interview with Stephanie all about how Love, Always Couture got started, why she choose anti-bullying for a charitable cause, and more. Check it out below!

Strategy in Stilettos: How long have you been a jewelry designer? When did you start the boutique, and where did you get the inspiration for it?

Stephanie Diaz: I started my business about 3 months ago. Believe it or not, I didn’t start off with jewelry; I started with tee-shirts. I quickly came to realize that tee-shirt design wasn’t quite right for me. I did not feel a connection. I believe in order to be successful, one most truly love what it is they are doing. I have always loved jewelry and accessories. When my mom suggested I should transition to jewelry, I knew in my heart it was the right decision.

SIS: Why did you decide on anti-bullying as the cause you wanted to support?

SD: Throughout my life, I have always been involved in community service. I have been a volunteer for years at the Women in Distress shelter located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Bullying has always been something close to my heart. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted my business to be giving back to others. I was originally between Domestic Violence and Anti-Bullying. I decided on anti-bullying because I feel that is a topic that sometimes goes untouched throughout our society; people at times feel uncomfortable in discussing it. Love, Always is an outlook, a sense of hope if you will, for those that have [experienced] or are strongly against bullying. I want victims and just everyone to know that hey bullying is not going unacknowledged. I feel Love, Always does a good job at that.

SIS: Where did the name Love Always come from?

SD: The name Love, Always actually came to me as I filled out a card which was to be given to my boyfriend on our anniversary. Love, Always is symbolic in a way that the actual words are saying to never hate but just to always love. I think the way it is written, with the comma, is really cool.

SIS: How do you choose which other jewelry designers to include in the boutique?

SD: When choosing a jewelry brand, I try to stick with feel good and do good brands. That is why a lot of the jewelry on Love, Always focuses with crosses and karma.

SIS: What’s the one thing you want customers or prospective customers to know about your business?

SD: I want customers to know that Love, Always is all about pleasing. We want our customers to always feel loved and appreciated. No matter how small your order may be, we want you to know how special you really are to Love, Always!

Did you enjoy Stephanie’s interview? For more information check out Love, Always Couture on their website or on Twitter @lovvealwayss!