If you’re in PR and you don’t know Justin Goldsborough, shame on you! If you’re not in PR and you don’t know Justin Goldsborough, shame on you!

Now that some of you are really feeling badly, I’ll give you a break by giving you the inside scoop so you feel like you’ve known him for years and can become friends quickly.

Trust me. You want to do this.

I have zero recollection of how Justin and I met and became friends. It’s not because he’s not remarkable; he is. It’s because it feels like we’ve been friends our entire lives.

To start, I’m pretty sure he has my old office at Fleishman-Hillard. If that doesn’t make us soul sisters (er, friends), I don’t know what does. And we have the same philosophies about new business and the definition of PR and of how much the Royals suck. OK. Maybe not that last one. I made that up. Continue Reading »

If you’re new to Spin Sucks, you may not know about HAPPO – Help a PR Pro Out, which was “invented” last year by Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon in order to help those looking for a job to network and broaden their reach.

The duo asked their friends across the country to champion their efforts in each city and to use social media to leverage relationships and help connect those seeking a job in the PR industry with employers. With some help from the Arment Dietrich team and Debra Caplick in suburban Chicago, I am the champion here.

And we’re hosting a live event in our offices on Feb. 24 from 5-7. Part panel discussion and part networking, we’ll also have adult beverages and snacks. Continue Reading »

I’ve been curious about a phenomenon we’re seeing when we interview candidates these days. Their first impressions suck. Not everyone (we did, after all, just hire Megan Beausang), but I’d venture to say 90 percent of them.Why do they suck? Because they’re not doing any research on Arment Dietrich nor are they reading Spin Sucks before they interview with us.

Maybe it’s because we’ve been using Twitter as our recruiting playground and people have gotten lazy because they feel like they know me, and I know them, so they just have to go through the process before they’re offered a job. But I’m here to tell you, that perception is wrong. It’s actually MORE disappointing to me if we interview someone I feel like I know pretty well online, just to have my team say, “Yeah, Gin. They sucked. They didn’t ask any questions and didn’t know who we work with every day. They’ve never even read the blog.”

I hear that AT LEAST once a week. I hear it so much we’re restructuring the way we interview. When you don’t do your research, you’re wasting my team’s time, you’re wasting your time, and you’re greatly disappointing me. Those first impressions you leave with my team? They’re lasting and nothing you can do will change their perception of what it would be like to work with you. And it doesn’t matter how much I like you online. If someone on my team got a really bad first impression from you, you won’t get a job here.

I’m here to help, though. Following are eight ways you can avoid a bad first impression and make it through the process to interview with the top decision maker (and hopefully get yourself a job). Continue Reading »

During the summer I fell off the InsidePR bandwagon. Not in terms of recording, but in terms of talking about it here. But I’m baaack! And this week, Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and I discuss preparing students and young professionals for the business world.

We’ve talked here before about using the social web to find a job, but this discussion is a bit different. With school back in session, these tips are really for those who need to be figuring out how to begin looking for internships or for a full-time job by summer.

1. Remember your personal brand and that online doesn’t forget. The things you put on the web right now create the person that will follow you around for the rest of your life. You’ve likely already heard it’s a bad idea to not let your friends tag you in photos of you doing body shots, but also think about what you say and what others say about you. As employers, we look at everything about you online to determine what kind of employee you might be and whether or not you might fit our culture. Google sees everything so be cautious.
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Today’s #FollowFriday is for Arik Hanson, the man who created the PR Readers Choice awards and HAPPO (with the uber-charming Valerie Simon) and who is a huge proponent for 12for12K and 30 Under 30. Continue Reading »

On Tuesday I moderated a PRSA social media panel and the conversation has me thinking. While we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about how to find a job through social media, we did touch on it and the message was clear. I wanted to share it with you today to prepare you for Help A PR Pro Out (#HAPPO) day on Friday.

First, to give the panel some credibility in your eyes, this is who I got to spend a couple of hours with during lunch:

* MJ Tam, the editor of Chicagonista;
* Rick Wion, the social media director at McDonald’s;
* Reid Lappin, the co-founder of VOKAL Interactive;
* Jack Monson, a VP at eNR; and
* Adam Keats, the digital practice leader at Weber-Shandwick.

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It’s been a couple of weeks since our launch of HAPPO (Help a PR Pro Out) and, after digging through 131 incredible blog posts we received just in Chicago, and sending them to potential employers, it’s time to draw the winners of some of the free giveaways our industry organizations have so kindly donated.

Before the giveaways, though, please note that potential employers may contact you directly. They likely will mention they received your blog post from HAPPO and would like to learn more. If you get a job, and know it germinated from this movement, please let us know so we can enter you in a drawing for additional donated items!

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I would love to say that I was riding my bike (still stuck inside on the trainer and put in 200 miles last week…so I have A LOT of thinking time) and I came up with this brilliant idea to let you pimp your blog here, but I cannot take credit.

A couple of weeks ago, Toronto HAPPO champion, Danny Brown, invited his blog readers to pimp their blogs in the comments of his blog. You should go check it out – An Invite to Pimp Your Blog – because there are a myriad of blogs on there, which surprised me. I thought it would be all PR, social media, or marketing blogs. When, in fact, those are in the minority. Continue Reading »

Last January I had to make a really tough decision – keep people employed for a few more months and close the business or lay them off right then and save the business. Then (last year sucked), when we realized the business model was completely changing, I had to make another hard decision: Keep people who I really liked having around or let them go so we could hire experts in digital communication. Continue Reading »

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from my friend Arik Hanson. He had an idea that he thought would help out-of-work PR professionals network with the jobs that are becoming more readily available at both agencies and companies.

The big idea:

On Friday, February 19, from 10 am – 2 pm CT, PR bloggers, agency leaders, and PR professionals from across the country will donate their time and talents to help fellow PR pros connect with employers as part of the first-ever “Help a PR Pro Out” day. Continue Reading »