It’s that time of year when dissertation deadlines are looming and students are glued to their work. Stress levels are high but interestingly from what I have noticed, this is due to many students considering their job prospects after university. The Huffington Post recently reported a third of graduates have been looking for work for more than six months, often applying for an average 100 jobs. This fills many students graduating this summer with a great level of uncertainty and gloom.
Of course, in this current state of recession, it’s not just graduates who are feeling the difficulty of such an unsteady job market. With so many out of work, thousands of people are competing for employment. So what happens to those waiting graduates when they finally get the job offer, is negotiation up for discussion or completely out of bounds?
Salary is one of the biggest factors when applying for jobs. As a graduate, developing a mentality of “I want as much money as I can get” is unrealistic and makes up the ingredients for a terrible employee! Certainly, it’s important to make sure salary covers all living costs from rent, bills, food and travel… anything else is a bonus!
Without being cheeky, negotiating salary can be tricky for a graduate but it’s important to think of the alternatives. Does the job offer include travel expenses, laptop, phone, holiday allowance and pensions – we all get old one day! Most jobs feature a starting probation period therefore is it possible for such factors to be negotiated after 3/6 months?
Do graduates entering the workforce have the right to negotiate their job specifications? The above factors highlight the carefree nature of university. Student loans and grants take away the pressure to produce money for living expenses but without the safety net of such money, it’s down to the graduate. And of course… paying back the student loan starts from here!
I’d like to hear from previous graduates, did you negotiate your first job after leaving university? Future graduates, would you negotiate? It would be great to hear your thoughts.
N.B. This blog post is for my Persuasive Communications assignment as part of my PR & Communications degree. All comments are appreciated and could be used for my overall individual portfolio assignment.
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Communication in the workplace is often very different to communication in a personal setting. We tend to act differently around our colleagues compared to our friends. The difference in communication between our colleagues really depends on the relationships we uphold in our working environments.
During my final year at university, we’ve been learning key skills of assertive communication in order to help us negotiate job offers, reduce conflict and well, to make us students bearable to work with in later life!
Assertion in the workplace means standing up for your actions and rights without compromising the other parties involved. It’s a great quality to possess as a communicator but it has left me quite sceptical… is assertion something we can learn or is it a personality trait?
We can often be faced with tricky situations at work, especially when heading towards deadlines. We prioritise our workloads but then BAAAM… someone throws another piece of work our way. Sound familiar?
The way you go about dealing with this cannot be defined by a text book. Firstly, it depends on who is asking you and what relationship you have with that person which shapes the way you respond. An assertive reply normally involves a compromise.
The difficulty in this situation is making sure your needs do not come across as aggressive for example; “No, I am too busy, I can’t possibly take on another piece of work.” At the same time, you can’t give a passive response such as; “Sure, leave it on my desk” especially if you’re unable to take on the work. Being passive can lead to the work not being completed to a high enough standard or in worst case scenario, not being completed at all…. and then you look like a rubbish employee!
The assertive response would be “I’m currently working on this account but once I have finished, I would be more than happy to help out. When is the deadline?” and if the person asking is of higher authority to you, “I should finish my task by 2pm, is this work more important, would you need me to complete this now?” – Never be afraid to ask questions.
But surely this assertive answer is simply common sense? Surely you cannot plan a response unless you’re there in the moment. This is where I am sceptical as I believe communication; including assertion is a personality trait. The idea doesn’t incorporate your working relationships with colleagues and the types of language deemed acceptable. Communication is not a simple A to B process; you can’t plan personal communication as it’s a natural instinct.
What do you think? Can you think of any situations in the workplace where you’ve had to deal with an issue in an assertive manner? Please share your thoughts; it would be interesting to hear your take on workplace communication.
N.B. This blog post is for my Persuasive Communications assignment as part of my PR & Communications degree. All comments are appreciated and could be used for my overall individual portfolio assignment.
Conflict – hiding behind social media
Conflict… love it or hate it, we experience it throughout all aspects of our day to day lives. It forces people to communicate and change their current behaviours which can lead to achieving personal or business goals. Although subject matters are negative, sometimes causing stress and upset, conflict can bring about positive change and resolve original issues.
Focusing on customer service, I ask the question; are consumers hiding behind social media to avoid conflict?
We can all think of a time when we’ve purchased something that is broken and are faced with the annoyance of taking back the item causing disturbance of time. How do you respond in these situations?
A recent study discovered 1/5 customer complaints were made through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This shows the huge popularity and demand for consumers to directly communicate with companies in this way. Social media provides an excellent platform for those seeking advice but also indicates that consumers are happy to hide behind their computer screens and type out their concerns, avoiding face to face or spoken conflict.
For those who hate conflict and are digitally savvy, it’s perfect. Due to the nature of social media, fast responses can help lower the risk of the original conflict becoming a greater problem. No emotions can be understood (depending on the choice of words used!) therefore communication through this form has the ability to flow nicely between the two parties involved.
Customer service is evolving into a widely used online marketing tool as individual responses are accessible for all to see. The public are persuading, some may say forcing companies to respond so that their outside image shows efficiency by helpfully assisting each issue. It comes down to upholding a good online reputation with the aim of responses and communication reflecting positively on that company.
Using Facebook and Twitter really can work in favour compared to regular channels of communication like carelines and letter writing whereby no one else can see the response. Social media and customer service is breaking down two way communication and becoming an area for those to comment and engage with content.
Have you ever experienced good customer service through social media? Why did you use social media to raise your complaint/issue? Were you hiding behind conflict or simply using it as the easiest form of communication?
If you’re socially talented (and you are because you’ve read this blog!) Next time you have a complaint, embrace online customer service and make it work for you.
N.B. This blog post is for my Persuasive Communications assignment as part of my PR & Communications degree. All comments are appreciated and could be used for my overall individual portfolio assignment.
For more information, great info graphic can be found via Zendesk
#savetheintern
The following tweets have today been sent out from the account held by Labour politician Tom Watson. It has caused a storm on the social networking site with the hashtag #savetheintern trending as a result.
As I am writing this, Tom Watson’s original tweet which is still live on his news feed, has been re-tweeted and added as a favourite countless of times. People are jumping on the bandwagon and joining in with the conversation.
In context, the interns daring tweets were very inappropriate for Tom Watson who has a following of over 65,000. The common phrase “Twit Rape” and “Facebook Rape” are both joke terms given to someone who takes over another’s social network but they are highly out of place in the politics twittersphere.
The public response following the tweets showed a mixed reaction. Some clearly took the incident as a joke whilst others were appalled by the nature and the use of the word “rape”. A backlash from the trend #savetheintern caused many to tweet #paytheintern as a recent report by the Guardian shows many MP interns are unpaid.
So what should happen to this intern? She swiftly apologised for her actions through Watson’s account and has no doubt learnt a good lesson on the etiquette of Twitter. In fact, it really teaches everyone a good lesson… be careful what you tweet, especially if it is not on behalf of yourself. However, Watson must have had quite a good level of trust in his intern to allow them access to his social media, so clearly he is as much to fault.
This is another *heads in hand* moment for the Labour Party as it was only a few weeks since Ed Miliband made the accidental slip up when tweeting his sympathy about the passing of Bob Holness – who hosted the famous 70’s TV show Blockbusters, which he subsequently tweeted “Blackbusters”.
Today’s events highlight how quickly stories from posted tweets can spread through the world of Twitter and beyond. What do you think about the interns behaviour? No doubt this slip up will be splashed across the media for the next few days but I’m sure there is an intern out there regretting her actions.
Then again, as I tweeted earlier… “All publicity is good publicity!”
Meet The Alumni
The yearly Meet the Alumni event was held yesterday (12th January 2012) at Southampton Solent University. Past PR and Communication students spoke with current students studying the degree, sharing insights into how they have personally progressed in their careers since leaving the University. Following a general talk, current students were given one on one opportunities’ to discuss further with alumni, understanding how the current job market works and learning hints and tips on what future employers are looking for in graduate applications.
With the current unsteady job market, there are more people in search of jobs than jobs advertised. These networking events are very valuable for students as making contacts and building professional relationships through face to face contact can set us off to a good start. Hearing how people who have personally been through the daunting task of applying for jobs, surviving rejection and celebrating recruitment was not only interesting but helps students know what to expect in the future when going through the application process.
The points below highlighted what I personally took away from the session. Although the points are common knowledge, utilised well I believe can help future students like me secure possible future permanent employment.
Work experience provides the foot in the door. Reported by the BBC on 11th January, 1/3 of graduate jobs are product of previous work experience positions. Employers are “trying before buying” – it’s a great way to assess future employees and pick up on working habits, strengths and weaknesses which are difficult to recognise through old fashioned CV and interview techniques.
Stand out, don’t be like every other graduate. It’s important to get noticed these days and one major key way is to maintain an active online presence. Social media, blogging, commenting… anything that can have positive effect on how you are seen by the outside world. Find something creative and different that really impresses the employers.
Of course, the biggest networks for students are fellow colleagues and other PR students from around the country. With the internet, expanding that network is as simple as clicking a few buttons so it’s really up to the individuals on whether to use networking to their advantage. They say it’s not what you know, it’s who you know… but if you don’t know anybody worth knowing, it’s time to start networking!
