I’ve been following the millennial discussion for a while. There’s been a lot of good perspectives, especially from Bill Sledzik and Todd Defren. After reading Todd’s post on loyalty, I figured I could offer my perspective since I’ve experienced this throughout college.

I started working at The State News about three weeks after I started college. Since then, I’ve moved up a lot, gained a ton of experience and have a lot to show for it. However, it hasn’t always been easy and I’ve had to make some pretty big decisions. After my second year of working in the advertising department, I applied to be the manager. I didn’t get the job. After my third year, I again applied for the manager position. And again I struck out. Zero for two. Ouch.

Most people (read: millennials) would quit. Honestly, I thought about it. I applied for (and was offered) other jobs. But after a lot of thought and consideration, it came down to loyalty. Call me crazy, but even though I didn’t get the management time (twice), I still stuck around. And it paid off in a lot of big ways.

Here’s why I think loyalty rules:

• No one likes a quitter. Let’s be honest, when someone quits your team, you probably won’t look at that person in the same way, especially if that person quit for the sake of quitting. If you quit, it should be for the right reasons. In my case, while I could say I was looking for new experiences, I would have quit for the sake of quitting. Dedication goes a long way and colleagues will recognize this.
• After building trust, you can build your own job. After each denial, I evaluated what my current responsibilities were and looked for ways to expand upon them. I found new projects to take on, and current, I manage a new and growing part of our business. By building my own job, I can walk into the same place I’ve been for nearly four years and can honestly say my job is different every day.
• The line between dedication and idling. Combining the two previous bullets, there is a fine line between staying loyal and not advancing your career. If you are stuck doing the same job and there is no chance for taking on new projects, it’s time to move on. However, make sure you’ve become an expert at your current job.
• You’ll learn negotiating skills. When I began taking on new roles and responsibilities, part of that was negotiating more money. Honestly, salary negotiation isn’t fun, but the process taught me a lot. I know I’ll be prepared for this in the future.
• Mentoring makes it all worth it. The best part of my job is the people I work with. A close second is helping my colleagues learn and grow, and when you’ve been working at one place for a while, people look up to you for advice.

What do you think about loyalty? Will you be sticking around in a job for more than a year?

Photo by toob on Flickr.

I’ve been working for the past three years at The State News, Michigan State University‘s newspaper. It’s  a particularly interesting time to be at a newspaper, especially with a public relations background, but I’ve found that the skill sets in a sales job translate well into a public relations job.

Here are 10 ways you can make a sales jobs just as valuable as a public relations internship:

1. You learn client management. In sales, you work with clients and you learn how to work with them. This transitions well for public a public relations career. Managing client expectations, learning how to communicate with a client and knowing when you shouldn’t be selling are all key things to develop while in sales.
2. You learn communication skills. Though you’re not writing press releases, you learn how phone conversational skills, how to communicate clearly and effectively, and how to write precise messages — all of which are important in whatever line of work you go into.
3. You learn time management. You can never get good enough at managing your time effectively; working in sales is one more way to enhance this skill. You learn how to balance your client work with your administrative work.
4. You learn how to motivate yourself and others. I think attitude plays a huge part in how you’re perceived in the office. There’s no better way to develop motivational skills than when you work in sales, especially if you take on management positions.
5. You learn how to explain. Though it might sound silly, you really learn to explain why. For me, it’s why my client should be advertising, why a recession is an opportunity and why it’s important to distinguish between competitions. As a public relations counselor, you’re always going to be explaining why. Knowing why for yourself will always be helpful.
6. Pitching new business will become a breeze. In an agency, corporate or nonprofit setting, chances are you’ll have to pitch to start a new campaign or program. In sales, you’re always looking for new business and pitching becomes a breeze. It’s the presentation and communication skills that develop here.
7. You learn the correlation between work and money. Part of sales is working partly or solely on commission. This means the more you work, the more money you make. The bad part is the less you work, the less you make. Sales will train you to always be on top of your game and looking for the next opportunity.
8. You learn teamwork. In college, we’re trained to hate working with people, but working in sales, you’ll learn to trust your team even though you’re probably competing with them.
9. The failures will happen and you’ll figure out how to deal with them. I’ve been hung up on, cursed at and insulted during cold calls and prospecting, but you’ll develop a thick shell from these “failures.” In your career, you’ll make mistakes, and it’s OK. Make sure sure you’re learning from them.
10. The customer isn’t usually right, but you learn how to make them feel like they are. And in the process, you learn how to show how valuable you are.

For me, sales has filled in the gaps of my internship experiences. I’ve also had a blast working with the people I do. Oh, and let me know if you’re interested in advertising with The State News.

Is there anything to add on this list? What other kind of experiences fill in the gaps of a PR education? Anything else help you in your career?

Photo by tofslie on Flickr.

If you had to leave work early today, could you leave and know that your stuff would be taken care of? What if you had to take tomorrow off, too? What if you went on a world cruise and took a week off? A month?

For the next two weeks, I’m going to be multitasking like I never have done before. During this time of year, I’m normally working at The State News, gearing up for another semester of MSU PRSSA and doing that whole school thing at MSU. At the end of my summer internship, I was asked to come back to John Bailey & Associates and be the NAIAS intern in between school semesters. Could I turn this down? Heck no. Can I stay away from my work at the State News for more than, um, two hours? Heck no.

Thus, I had a dilemma. I knew having two jobs was possible, but I also knew I needed some major help. After asking a co-worker and some major preparation, I’ve been able to stay semi-sane and still be able to stay on top of other things.

I’ve come up with four principles that have helped me have two jobs simultaneously. For those of you who have no desire to have two jobs, you can insert “vacation” or “personal time” where I love to express my workaholic tendencies.

• Delegation. Used correctly and properly, delegating tasks to the right people will not only take the load off your shoulders, but it will also have your co-workers learn and grow with you. Used incorrectly and improperly, you can seem like you don’t care about your work and will give it to whomever. Make sure you have a concise list of daily tasks that need to be completed and that it’s not too overbearing for one person. Interns – try to get your hands on some of this work! It’s a great way to step up and take on more responsibility.
• Communication. There’s some people that are out of the office and are out of the office. If you’re the second type, you better hope you have all your bases covered. For most people, it’s a lot more practical to be out of the office while still aware of what’s happening in the office. It’s important to respect the people who are back in the office doing your job. Taking 10-15 minutes out of your personal time to make sure they have a clear understanding of your projects and assignments can probably save them a lot of time. Keep lines of communication with the person that’s helping you out.
• Cooperation. Don’t be afraid of these new challenges – generally, you want to be the one that’s helpful in the office. It’s not always easy to take on new tasks, so do the best you can with what you’ve got. Reach out to the client and your supervisor – communication and explanation can go a long way.
• Return the favor. Show the love with a token of appreciation. Taking on a crappy assignment from your helpful co-worker is great. If you went on vacation, bring something back for that person and help them out with their work. Come up with some other creative ways to say thanks. Also remember to return the favor when they need help.

I’m not saying that I mastered this on my first try. In fact, this is pretty much a list of the things I should have done better during my two weeks out of one office and in another. But, on the whole, I’m able to keep up with two jobs, school and PRSSA mostly because my friends and co-workers have been helping out. I because I have a “support group” of sorts. My good friend and co-worker Gina is doing an incredible job of doing the crappy part of my State News job – scheduling, routing cards and solving production issues. She makes me look good to my clients. Thanks, Gina.

There’s probably some jobs out there that are individualistic in nature and don’t require team work, but I’m quickly finding out that what I’m doing is not one of those jobs.

What do you think? Any advice?