Let's Get Ready To Rumble: The Fight For Jobs

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! Tonight is a night that you are witness to a spectacular schmooze match that will make history. In the blue corner, we have the optimistic, young college graduate who hopes to gain enough points to move on to next round. In the red corner, we have another young college graduate who gleams with competitive spirit. The winner tonight not only receives the glory of successfully being recognized as a great candidate for a PR position but may also receive the chance to participate in the semi-finals of an interview. May the best player win!

The arena of job competition can be tough. You must be ambitious, hardworking and enthusiastic. Not only that, you have to compete for these positions against many other qualified candidates. If you possess similar qualifications, how do you differentiate yourself? One must know the art of networking. How do you network? If you know PR, you know networking. Professors and colleagues teach you this from Day One. A great reference for public relations networking strategies is Don Crowthers blog titled, "Public Relations Networking How To Work A Room" at http://101publicrelations.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/152.

I may be a cynic, but I use the term "schmooze" when I refer to the idea of people networking in a forced and artificial way to enhance their agenda.

This I hesitantly bared witness to when I attended the 2007 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Conference. Among the other eager members who sought the same goals as me, I attempted to schmooze and sell myself to potential clients who were recruiting the young and bright for their desirable PR internships. I inhaled the air of competition. Little did I know how much competition I was actually up against.

These competitors were strong, strategic and aggressive. First, They were strong in their willingness to physically push others aside to make way to the front of the line in hopes of being heard before speakers at sessions or visiting agency representatives departed. They were strategic in producing resumes and classy business cards (even though they are students) to hand to the already overwhelmed recipients. They were aggressive in obtaining the representative’s key information as well as employees or contacts information.

For me, this experience proved nauseating and exhausting. Although I did not possess the edge of the other competitors, I felt I put up a good fight and did not lose entirely. I did not produce fancy business cards. I did not engage in insincere, strategic conversations, such as “Oh do you know Eddie Money? He is my second cousin’s friend’s roommate’s brother who works with you.” I also did not feel obligated to sprint up to the front of a line to make sure my voice was heard. Instead, I utilized my outgoing personality, researched clients I was interested in and remained earnest to these representatives.

Even though we all have to inevitably fight in the schmooze arena to get ahead, we must fight in our own fashion without any tricks or unnecessary hostility. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe the best type of a public relations individual is a sincere one.