Tag Archives: etiquette

LinkedIn

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At the end of this summer and my fabulous internship, it was time to get serious about how to update my LinkedIn profile. When I started thinking about LinkedIn, I sat there trying to figure out what exactly LinkedIn is. To start with, I realized that LinkedIn is not necessarily as fun as say, Facebook.  Instead I would personally describe LinkedIn as Facebooks really braggy cousin. Now, there are a lot of websites that out there that tell you various different things about how to “do” LinkedIn properly. Most of us have figured out on Facebook, twitter and Tumbler but LinkedIn is something a bit different and way more scary…

According to LinkedIn, profiles with pictures are more likely to be viewed, with this in mind I decided to start here and to try and take a photo. The first thing, of course, is to look respectable, like a professional. This picture is going to be the first impression anyone looking at your profile is going to have. Not to freak anyone out, but it has become an important social networking tool. When I first decided it was time to finally take a picture for LinkedIn,  had just happened to wear a white and blue jacket with a red shirt. With these clothes on, all l needed was an eagle on my shoulder and I would be ready for a perfectly, patriotic picture for LinkedIn. I decided to change out of my accidently patriotic gear, and stood outside my closet for a long time thinking:

This is an important choice,something interesting, but professional, businesslike but also age appropriate. After finally figuring out what to wear, I had to find a neutral wall. Which was apparently more awkward that I thought it would be. My house does not really have neutral walls, my choices were dark burgundy, an awkward yellow color, or the one white wall against my bed. This had me sitting awkwardly on my bed while my mother took a picture.

Though my LinkedIn picture itself looks good, in reality I look something like this:

 

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I am aware of how well the jacket goes with sock-monkey Pj’s, they really bring out the blue tones in each other. The most important thing that I am business on the top half, though perhaps one should not admit that they were wearing Pj’s in reality.

All Organizations Are the Same

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I’ve had wild flashes of deja vu during meetings at my internship this summer. The intense discussion of detail, the intricate dance of stepping up and back, the subtle alliances revealed in body language and tone…they all bring me back to an experience that should be worlds away from my formal internship at a big serious organization. When I was in high school, I was deeply involved in my religious organization’s regional youth group. The denomination itself was wildly liberal, and the youth organization was created to be empowered, intentional, and essentially self-governing. I held a succession of leadership roles starting at age 14 or so, first at events, and eventually on our governing body. These roles haven’t been on my resume in years, but they have so much to do with how I approach the professional world. It turns out the same dynamics exist in discussions with managers and executives about software development, and between 10 teenagers deciding how many gender-neutral bathrooms to have at overnight events. Effective participants make arguments based on principle balanced with logistical practicality. They reference and agree with people with similar arguments to build coalitions. Effective facilitators make the objective, agenda, and rules of a discussion clear. They try to draw every stakeholder into the conversation, focus on decisions and action without cutting off needed discussion, and keep the meeting running efficiently. I’ve had several more formal experiences of public speaking, argument, discussion, and facilitation–in debate, as a youth commissioner in local government, and in class presentations–but the basis of all my instincts for meetings come from the extremely casual district church youth council. Sometimes I get nervous about formal business etiquette, but I’m never afraid to speak up when I have a legitimate opinion based on my knowledge and the organization’s values. That’s a gift I owe to a bunch of teenagers with firm beliefs and ripped jeans.

Organizing discussion groups. We used markers; some businesses would use powerpoint.

Organizing discussion groups at a youth conference. We used markers; some businesses would use powerpoint.

It’s not just meetings, either. All of the organizations I’ve been involved in–from church groups to small museums to government advisory bodies to large organizations–are ultimately made up of teams of individuals. People are people, regardless of business culture or whether you’re talking about decisions that affect youth overnights or huge software projects. When I talk to people about their career path, I often hear of unexpected changes across role and industry. The reason they can pull off these changes is that organizations and problem-solving are very similar wherever you go, even when the problems themselves are very different. It’s a fun feeling, to be reminded of my 15 year old self when in a meeting or just talking about a problem with adult professionals. It’s also reassuring for someone as career-indecisive as me.  I’m grateful that what I have learned and will learn in the future about human dynamics, problem-solving, organizational change, management, and really great meetings will apply wherever I end up.

Assertion and Argument

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In debate, we try to develop full arguments, with assertions followed by reasoning, evidence, and significance. The same is true in most college writing. In the rest of life, most of us speak just in assertions–statements of opinion without much to back them up. In the workplace, being assertive is good, while being seen as argumentative is probably unfavorable. This is kind of silly wordplay–after all, nouns and adjectives have different connotations all the time, and labeling aside, the elements of sound argumentation (reasoning, evidence, etc) are key to workplace success. But somehow these words float in my head when I think about the tension I feel as a young, assertive, and yes, argumentative woman.

I’ve been debating formally since freshman year of high school, and informally for much longer. Seven year old Mia had some truly eloquent speeches about why reading Harry Potter throughout math class was acceptable behavior. As I grew up, I was always an enthusiastic participant in classroom discussion. Supposedly many girls quiet down in the classroom around puberty, but I discovered feminist blogs in middle school, and if anything, got louder.

Now in the workplace, my verbal confidence is mostly an asset, but I’m always tiptoeing at the edge between confidence and impudence. This is my first internship in which I’m regularly participating in meetings and email conversations with adults who have significantly more professional experience than me, but who essentially treat me as one of the team. I’m conscious of my status as an intern, but I also want to add value, which I can’t do with my mouth shut.

I talked to my mentor at the organization about this tension, and she told me that when she began work there, 20 years ago, she was told that she was too quiet. She was actually prompted to attend a leadership development program for women. Her advice, based on the organization’s culture, was to always speak up in meetings, even if it was just in agreement.

So I’m trying my best to not mute my voice, to be professional but fierce. It’s a balance I know how to strike in other areas, but it’s still adjusting to the strictly professional world.

Has anyone been told they are too argumentative or too quiet in the workplace? Is anyone else deeply afraid of the send button on email?

A First-Hand Account of the Internship Search

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Now that the internship search is over, I finally have time to reflect on what I should have done better and what I should do in the future. If you’re thinking about applying for an internship grant in the future (or soon, because you can!), I hope you find this blog post helpful. I would have saved myself much time and energy if someone had told me these things.

1) Seek internship opportunities from your personal network.

I submitted my applications to organizations I had never heard of before and foolishly expected responses regarding the status of my application. This didn’t happen for most of the places I applied to. When I had less than two weeks to secure an internship (don’t put yourself in this kind of position, it’s really bad…), my amazing friend (and #1 fan of my blogs 😉 ) suggested that I reach out to a senior that we both knew through a 5C club who had done internships in areas I was also interested in. A casual, semi-desperate Facebook IM turned into me receiving two internship offers from organizations that our mutual friend had interned with. During the last two weeks, I also reached out to two people I had met at CP&R’s wonderful networking panel during Family Weekend. I found out that one of the parents I contacted was good friends with two members in Congress and would help me set up an internship. Though I didn’t end up taking his offer, he was tremendously helpful and offered to help me again next year if I wanted an internship.

2) Be very clear about your deadlines

This is actually really simple. Last week, I sent my interviewer a thank you email and included a few (very important) sentences about the internship grant deadline that was only three days away. She never responded to this email, but I was sure that she had read it. The night before the grant was due, I sent her a reminder email but changed the subject line to “Status of Internship Application” instead of “Thank You” as I had previously written. My interviewer responded the next morning apologizing for missing what I had written in the previous email and immediately offered me a position.

tl;dr: Subject lines in emails can make a huge difference! Something like “Action Requested: [………….]” would be effective.

3) Learn how to make a realistic budget

I will admit that I didn’t take this section of the internship grant as seriously as I could have. Now that I’m forced to think about travel, housing, transportation, and food, I’m realizing that certain areas (HOUSING) are significantly more expensive than other areas. If you’re currently writing a grant, make sure you know the cost of living of where you’re planning to intern. Fun fact: If you live in a home stay in Spain for the summer, you can actually save much more than if you intern in Washington, D.C.

4) Double and triple check all cover letters and resumes for minor errors!

5) Always express your gratitude and write hand-written thank you notes to anyone that went out of their way to help you!

6) Don’t wait until the last minute to do things! I literally got my two offers the day before and the day of the internship grant deadline. This was a extremely stressful.

7) Remember to do your research about your organization! Tips from an article I read recently: In a phone interview, print out everything you’re going to plan on looking at; i.e. your resume, the “About Us” section of the website, the job description, etc. so you’re not switching between screens. This helps!

I think this is longest post I’ve written this semester. I hope this information is useful to you in the future!

Good luck on finding an internship! 🙂

Working with Others

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As the semester drags on, many students like myself are faced with a grim reality. We’ve ignored it, pushed it to the back burner since the beginning of the semester, and hoped that it would simply go away. Group projects, papers, and presentations plague many a classmate and many with whom I’ve spoken believe that they are a creative and cruel ploy by professors to draw us out of our collective shells. Now, for the sake of transparency, as a science student, my classes often come with a additional laboratory component where I am “forced” to work with others. Recently, I’ve been blessed with a tremendous lab group (shout out to my peeps!), though I haven’t been spared of my fair share of challenging pairings in the past. As such, I’ve learned a few things about working effectively and stress-free with your peers.

Try your hardest to synthesize everyone’s POV, including your own. No one can complete everything at once, so learning to be flexible in group scheduling and time management is key. On the other hand, jeopardizing your schedule, or your sanity, doesn’t help anyone either and, if you respect your group members, you should be able to believe that they respect you and your needs. Finding the perfect balance between compromise and firmness may be your greatest asset in group communication. Though it may be hard when one of your group members loses a file or misses a meeting, try to stay calm and understand that every one of your classmates is only human. If needed, set earlier time windows for you and your group members to account for unexpected issue in a calm, collected way. If you find it becoming increasingly difficult to get anything done face-to-face…

Effectively employ social media and alternate forms of communication. When those early birds and night owls get paired together, frustration is bound to rear its ugly head. Use tools like Facebook Chat, texting, and Google Docs to complete your assignments on your own terms and avoid compromises.

Let your voice shine through in the right ways. Often, one of the most difficult parts of group experiences is the synthesizing of individual ideas and styles. It is the individual responsibility of every group member to make sure they are an active part of the project or paper. Using individualized language or verbiage is a subtle way to insert your voice into a cohesive paper, though it is sometimes important to step back and let others shine as well. If possible, compile the ideas of your group members into a cohesive argument that covers all bases. If, like lab groups, you work together on a weekly or monthly basis, this same concept can apply to the contributions you bring to the group. Some weeks you may be able to command the project, while some weeks you may have nothing important to say. While it is important to be always be actively engaged, don’t be afraid to contribute varying amounts. Hopefully, you can take over when someone else is feeling down, and they can support you when you need it. Speaking of,…

Don’t be hesitant to spread the work around. While I know this is not always instinct for some, including myself, you can rely on your group. Though you may want to get work done quickly or ignore assignments completely, know that your group members may be feeling the same. Discuss with them before hand how you believe you will be able to contribute, so you can all understand from the start how your group style may eventually develop. Your group members may be happy to pick up the slack occasionally, and maybe you can pick up some of theirs every now and again.

The number one rule in group assignments is communicate and address problems should they arise. Do not let group problems fester and built up. From my experience, many in-class groups tend to stay together multiple times over the course of a semester, so if you have a problem that is not fixed, it may likely plague you for many projects to come.