Networking is about friendship, true connection and building mutually beneficial relationships. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Whether you’re looking to expand in your current career or explore a new and exciting industry, it’s the people you meet who will lead your way.

Luckily, San Francisco is a hub of all things career, and not just tech. It’s a city that encourages you to always improve, to disconnect as a way to truly connect, and it’s a place that’s almost overwhelming in its options for how to spend your free time.

So why not kill all three birds with one stone? Here are 10 networking events in San Francisco that can help you accomplish all of the above.

1. Network after Work

This national business event company has more than 500,000 members in cities across the country. Their goal is to help professionals expand their network and create new opportunities. In San Francisco, their events happen at popular spots like roe, The Grand and Manor West.

2. Digital Detox

Network without networking. Digital Detox is about “creating balance in the digital age.” Their events include retreats, device-free drinks and analog zones at conferences. Or, dive in head first by attending one of their summer camps for adults at Camp Grounded.

3. Airbnb Tech Talks

Hosted every other Wednesday at 6pm, Airbnb offers talks for the tech folk in all of us. If you live in San Francisco and work on a computer, these events should be on your must-attend list. Past talks include “using technology to build a better food system” and “engineering lessons from famous projects.” There’s always something to learn here and it doesn’t hurt that the Airbnb offices are gorgeous.

4. Makeshift Society

If you’re intimidated by mingling in a room full of strangers over punch, head to Makeshift Society. This coworking clubhouse classes like DIY Public Relations, book launch parties, mixers and open office hours with their talented members. Makeshift is a great place to build a network as well as leaning on their many opportunities for peer learning and mentoring.

5. Impact Hub

Impact Hub is a global network with more than 7,000 members, but each location has deep community roots which not only offers shared workspace, but amazing events and programs. They really want you connect with other members. Their Berkeley location offers a bi-weekly Lunch and Learn, which covers topics like marketing and app development. Bring your own bag lunch and questions!

6. UX Book Club SF

The purpose of San Francisco’s UX Book Club is to “enhance the abilities and knowledge of user experience professionals” while building a local community. They host regular meetups where the authors of said UX books attend the talks, as well as senior managers at various companies across the city. These events are both an incredible networking experience, but one chock-full of new learnings.

7. Professional Women’s Network

There’s something incredibly supportive and encouraging about women’s only networking. PWN aims to encourage women women in business as employees, entrepreneurs, licensed professionals and small business owners. Their events include monthly luncheons, after work networking and Saturday morning coffees. You can attend up to three while you decide if membership is right for you.

8. General Assembly

This growing educational institution hosts a variety of events from happy hours to panel discussions to hackathons. They’re always well-attended and are a great way to meet the community and feel empowered to pursue the work you love.

9. StartOut

Nonprofit StartOut is dedicated to creating business leaders by fostering LGBT entrepreneurs. Their San Francisco events offer traditional networking mingling, speed networking and more structured demo days where you can learn about getting access to capital.

10. Content Strategy Meetup

This Meetup is always organizing jam-packed talks and events. If you’re in any way involved in the creation and delivery of content (from copyediting to content management), these guys meet monthly to share in their commitment to creating more effective online and interactive content. This group always has amazing speakers, like the content strategists at Pinterest and Code for America.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She landed in San Francisco via New Zealand via London via New York, where she’s now the Marketing Manager at Thumbtack.

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The post Live in San Francisco? Don’t Miss These 10 Hot Networking Events appeared first on Brazen Life.

You know — more or less — how to effectively manage your time. You’ve studied test strategies until you can’t keep your eyes open. And you’ve taken dozens of practice tests.

You’re also exhausted. And to truly ace the GMAT, you have to study more efficiently, not longer. Create rituals, not a more-is-better approach. Access a support network, not just go to a generic study group.

Here are five effective ways to tackle the GMAT you probably haven’t tried yet.

1. Join a Meetup group

Did you know Meetup has an entire website section devoted to helping folks ace the GMAT? Not only can you find study buddies, but people who have already taken the test attend to share advice. Right now there are just over 2,000 members in 17 cities, and there’s no doubt this group will continue to grow.

2. Find your effective study time and turn it into a ritual

The common GMAT study strategy is “more is better.” But if you’re waking up at 5 a.m. to take practice tests when you really work best at 11 p.m., stop it. Stop it right now. This might mean going the library during your lunch break because your brain gets super-focused after you eat. Or sticking to a ritual you know you’ll never miss, like studying every morning for one hour before yoga. This takes a bit of trial and error, but the time you’ll save by studying more effectively more than makes up for it.

Sticking to these rituals will eventually create a natural trigger. Going to your favorite indie coffee shop consistently after work will motivate you the second you walk in the door. Train your mind to be in GMAT mode at a specific time or in a specific place every day. This way, the amount of time it takes to transition into study-mode will decrease. The less time you spend transitioning, the more time you can spend on actually improving.

3. Attend a free strategy session

You know this by now, but the GMAT is not your average test. It takes strategy before you can plan your study (and study before you can take the test). Just like any efficient cubicle-dweller, the 10 minutes you spend planning your day every morning will make that day infinitely more productive.

The good news is that there are many free strategy sessions happening across the country. The Princeton Review hosts free events all the time, both as intro courses or free classes to help you decide if you should sign up for one of their longer-term courses.

4. Do fewer problems

Taking unnecessary practice tests will not help you learn the material well enough to ace the GMAT. Instead of taking 12 practice tests, take three. Then pick apart every single question. Studying the problems might mean doing fewer of them, but you’re not done just because you got it right. Spend twice as long reviewing as you spent doing. Evaluating your practice tests makes all the difference.

A good way to do this is to make a weekly date with a GMAT buddy (who you found through Meetup, right?). Choose five to 10 questions you found most difficult. Take turns going through each question, step by step, uncovering the traps. This will be easier with someone you can talk it out with.

5. Get competitive

Turn your GMAT study sessions into a game. Choose a common book and do timed drills. Bonus points if you have access to a place where you can publicize the scores. Best out of three wins?

Whether a one-minute dance party every half hour or GMAT jeopardy works best for you, this post has great list of 7 ways to make studying for the GMAT fun.

What other unique ways have you found to prepare for the GMAT?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She landed in San Francisco via New Zealand via London via New York, where she’s now the Marketing Manager at Thumbtack.

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The post Ace the GMAT: 5 Ways to Increase Your Score That No Counselor Will Tell You appeared first on Brazen Life.

So why are you still hunting for a job the way your parents did? When will you learn that mass emailing resumes to every job opening under the sun is not the way to get hired?

Maybe you’re just plain lazy — no one likes writing hundreds of customized cover letters. Or perhaps you lack self-confidence — why spend time working hard on an application when no one will even read it?

Whatever the reason, it’s time to put your tech-savvy skills to use and organize your job hunt.

You need to tackle your search for a job with the same enthusiasm and organization as you would a full-time job — because when you’re out of work, job hunting is your full-time job. (Click here to Tweet this thought.)

Stop wasting time with canned emails and generic cover letters. Instead, streamline your job search with these four practical systems:

1. Create a “spreadsheet of opportunities”

Head to Google Drive or Excel to organize every job you’ve ever wanted, heard of or applied for. Be sure to include even those companies where you’ve only dreamed of working. I organized mine by Company, Position, Contacts, Job Application Link, Date of Application, Notes and Status.

Update your spreadsheet daily. It will help you keep track of when to follow up, where you might need to make a new contact and what homework you need to do to prepare for the next interview stages.

This also comes in handy if you’re on unemployment. Having all this information in one place is a great reference guide when you need to prove you’re actively looking for work.

2. Save answers to application questions

Job applications are significantly more complicated than they were just a few years ago.

Many applications now ask specific questions about a project you’re most proud of or require a list of your most useful skills. Instead of just typing this directly into an online form, store those answers (proofread and spell-checked, of course) in a Job Hunt folder in Evernote.

For your next pesky phone screening, keep these questions open during the call so you can quickly reference your best answers. The more you do this, the more comfortable you’ll get answering these questions. (I’ve memorized most of mine by now, which is a bonus since I began to sound really articulate during those calls.)

Evernote also has great a great tagging system, so it’s easy for find responses pertaining to skills or project results when answering new questions on the fly.

3. Save your cover letter templates

Though you should submit a customized cover letter for every job, it’s OK to start from a template. Each template should include your favorite accomplishments relevant to the role you want. This makes applying for jobs the right way easy as pie.

Save your cover letter templates and a PDF of your resume to Dropbox so you can access them from anywhere on any device. So if you meet a lead for coffee and the conversation goes well, you can send your resume right there.

While my title has pretty consistently been “Social Media Manager,” that can mean different things to different people. Instead of limiting myself to roles with the same title, I applied to content strategy and community management jobs as well as more traditional marketing positions. When I sat down to write a cover letter for a position, it was helpful to have a few different templates to start from.

4. Become best friends with your calendar

Randomly applying for jobs will not get you hired. My biggest successes have always come from meeting people in person.

Whether it’s at a formal networking event or meeting a friend of a friend at Starbucks, talking to humans always trumps applying online. Regularly talk to people who love their jobs. Buy them coffee in exchange for picking their brains about work, projects and valuable skills.

This means you need to invest time in organizing your calendar. And don’t forget to pencil in valuable Parks and Recreation time so you don’t go crazy — there is such a thing as too much networking.

Set a schedule for what you will do each day: Who you’ll reach out to, what jobs you’ll apply for and what action steps you can take. With an organized calendar, your job hunt will feel purposeful and productive instead of listless and hopeless.

The result of this obsessive job search? I landed an unbelieveable role at a successful startup in less than four weeks. *Brushes shoulders off.*

How have you made your job search as organized as possible?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She landed in San Francisco via New Zealand via London via New York, where she’s now the Marketing Manager at Thumbtack.

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The post 4 Organizational Job-Hunting Tricks You Haven’t Tried appeared first on Brazen Life.

All the cool kids are social media managers nowadays. And after that brilliant post from Business Insider about avoiding handing out your social media to youngins, it’s becoming more important for both recent grads and hiring managers to better understand what a social media manager actually does.

No, it’s not playing on Facebook all day. (Okay, maybe a little.)

To be a social media manager, you need to be keyed in to two things:

1. Know your subject

If you post about running shoes and you’re not a runner, seriously consider becoming one. Talk to runners, visit the company’s factory, read books and blogs and talk to the engineer who created the shoes. This is so important because it means you can be current in your content and answer questions like you know what you’re talking about.

2. Know your voice (or rather, your brand’s voice)

We all have our own natural writing voice. I use a lot of exclamation points, short sentences, contractions and sarcasm, which might not be right for a custom-made running shoe company. So in talking to people passionate about these things and in reading other marketing material from the company, pay special attention to the words they use. Keep a notebook and jot those words down. Create a persona, and base your postings as if that person were talking, not you.

What your day will look like

Your day will be 75 percent emails. You need a direct connection to customer service, along with alerts set up for every single keyword, account and profile related to the company. Despite popular belief, fans can’t just complain on a Facebook page to get their project taken care of. While a social media manager might want to give them a refund or help solve their problems, most brands have escalation processes, and a manager will need to run it through the system first. Sometimes it goes through public relations and customer service before she can answer the customer’s question. (This doesn’t make it right, but it’s how it usually works.)

So as a social media manager, you’ll need to get in touch with these departments and constantly monitor/harass them for the right information. On top of that, PR and customer service departments usually have no idea what the appropriate answer might be for a social platform. They’ll give you something long and drawn out and skirt around the issue. Your job is to give a recommended response, then when said departments ignore you, convince them to see the light.

Here are a few skills that will also come in handy:

Know how to write — and write well

The daily life of a social media manager involves a lot of writing, a lot of Facebook advertising management and following your subject on blogs, Pinterest, YouTube and more. Then, of course, there’s the actual monitoring of the brand’s page. While I’d love the luxury of checking into my pages every hour on the hour, that’s often just not possible. Plus, it’s not the most productive use of your time.

Be willing to analyze (like, with numbers)

Then there’s the reporting time. Every week or month, you’ll need to analyze Facebook Insights data and report on which posts performed the best, which had the most shares and comments, which resulted in the most unlikes. Sometimes there’s going to be (gasp!) math involved. You’ve been warned.

Organize like a pro

Then there’s the inevitable project management. Most brand pages are always running campaigns you need to not only monitor, but create a strategy around. Brief the designers and the developers and constantly sense-check every little thing. Then go through the bug edits and fixes that always come up on Facebook. This constant page activity means you need to know what’s going live and when, what material you need from whom and have it all organized someplace awesome.

How many of you out there are already social managers? How does your day compare?

For anyone looking into this career, do you think you can hack it?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Think You Have What It Takes to Be a Social Media Manager? appeared first on Brazen Life.

You hopefully know by now that networking is the only real way into your dream job. But are you doing it right?

Last week I experienced the ultimate networking experience. Let’s say hello to Ginny.

Ginny emailed me a week ago. Her subject line was, “I think I love cupcakes more than you.” She got five points in my book right off the bat. See, on my blog’s About page, I talk about my cupcake addition. So she clearly knew who I was and had read my blog, wrote a personal email to me (she didn’t copy and paste) and added a fun touch instead of trying too hard to be overly professional.

Ginny said she too was an American who had recently moved to New Zealand and was looking to getting into digital marketing/social media. She knew I was busy, but would I horribly mind meeting up to tell her a bit about my job and what I do?

Her email was short. Just four or five sentences. Another five bonus points.

Because her email was so charming, I said yes. Plus, it’s rare you meet other Americans in New Zealand, so it was really a treat for me!

She got another five points by being flexible with her schedule. I said I was busy and could only meet Friday afternoon. I chose a cafe right next door to my office and she didn’t complain about having to come to me. Instead, she researched the location, arrived early and offered to buy my coffee.

Then, she simply blew me away with her charm. She asked questions, talked about her experience and I told her a bit about my day-to-day. She was professional without being stuffy and was clearly looking for a job but never shoved her resume in my face or demanded an interview. She was clearly and genuinely interested with my industry, career and listened to what I had to say. Add five points.

She didn’t keep me for more than an hour. She respected my time. THEN, she ended by giving me a little gift. She brought me a cute notebook with a cupcake on the cover. Plus one million points.

The next day I woke up to an email from her thanking me for my time and TELLING ME EXACTLY HOW I HELPED. She puffed up my ego and made me feel good about myself without brown-nosing.

For the past two years, Ginny is the only person I’ve ever met who’s really impressed me.

More often than not, people network like this:

1. Cold emails that get sent to anyone and everyone.

2. Expecting people have hours of time to devote to helping someone they’ve never met.

3. Sending through their resume before you even get to know them.

4. When you do help, they never thank you.

What kind of networker are you? Do you make these mistakes or do you really personalize the experience? I promise you 40,000 points that if you do like Ginny, you’ll be just fine.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post How To Network Your Way Into a Job Without Looking Desperate appeared first on Brazen Life.

My last blog post was written almost two months ago. The one before that was two weeks earlier.

It took me about two solid years of blogging several times each week to crack the five-digit monthly traffic I was proud of. So why haven’t I posted more than once a month for the past half-year?

Instead of checking comments and obsessively tweeting during the past six months, I’ve:

• Managed two website builds from start to finish.
• Run the Facebook pages of five major New Zealand brands.
• Become an active member of the Auckland couch surfing community.
• Gone through an intensive 200-hour yoga teacher training program.
• Visited Australia for the second time with my best childhood friend.
• Traveled across New Zealand via campervan, motorcycle, train, plane and boat.

I wish I didn’t have to give up blogging to make those things happen. I wish I could work full-time, be awesome at my job, study to be a yoga teacher, travel across this stunning country and be part of couch surfing, all while being a hotshot blogger.

But something had to give. While I want to be the kind of Gen Yer that can do it all, my blog had become validation instead of a tool. And I discovered that sometimes dropping something you love—even if only temporarily—can help you experience so much in the real world.

I can’t pretend I don’t feel guilty about abandoning my blog. But this hiatus has taught me three major things:

1. Real-life relationships are priceless

While I can’t deny how amazing social media has been for my career/making friends/meeting new people/finding leads, if you’re ever given the choice between going to a networking event or attending a Twitter chat, think long and hard about the kinds of relationships you want to make during that hour.

2. You can always come back online

I thought blogging was like Hollywood—you disappear for a bit and everyone forgets about you. But my content is there for good. It’s not going anywhere, and I plan on picking right back up where I left off… eventually. Despite a hiccup in my posting schedule, no one gives that much of a crap about what I’m spewing on the internets. There are billions of blogs out there to entertain your readers. They’ll read you when you get back.

3. Blogging is 100% awesome

I wouldn’t trade the past few months’ experiences for the world, but I do know that going forward, I need to make time to write every day. I feel more creative in my daily life when I write on a regular basis. My passion for writing hasn’t waned; it just hasn’t taking priority. Going forward, it needs to.

So, how do you know if you should maybe take a blog hiatus?

I’m not going to give you a checklist of things like “You tweet while you’re eating instead of talking to your partner,” because that’s corny—and if that’s actually the case, you’re acting like an a**hole.

What I will tell you is this: Prioritize your real life over your online life. Always.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post How Neglecting Your Blog Can Help You Accomplish Big Dreams appeared first on Brazen Life.

Raise your hand if you know that person who constantly whines about never being able to find a job. Or – wait for it – you are that person who just can’t seem to find a gig.

If you’re one of those people who has big ambitions but is consistently unlucky in finding a great gig, it must be them, not you. It must be the economy, not you.

Right?

Before you complain to me or your mom or anyone else, you’d better have done everything in your power to secure a job.

You must have the best resume EVER. It must have been crafted by a Pulitzer-prize winning writer, look like it was designed by a MOMA-displayed artist and be presented directly to every hiring manager and recruiter in the country.

You must have researched interesting new startups in your dream field, contacted the head/CEO/president/founder and sent them said gorgeous resume while also connecting with them on LinkedIn and Twitter.

You then must have arranged informational interviews with said dream companies.

When those finished, you must have attended classes to pick up that new skill lacking in your industry like HTML, ebook formatting or video production 101.

You watched every TED talk on the internet made by top speakers in your field, then written an article about each one and posted it on your blog.

You practiced interview skills with your parents, siblings, best friends, dog, cat and the homeless guy next your apartment.

You stopped watching YouTube videos with cats playing the piano, pandas sneezing, and otters holding hands.

On that note, you must have stopped watching TV altogether so you can focus solely on searching for work.

Since you’re not watching TV, you must spend your nights attending networking events, volunteering at conferences, taking your dream mentor out for drinks and joining groups called Young [insert industry here] Alliance.

You’ve clearly accomplished everything on that list. You must be EXHAUSTED. Those recruiters are clearly all idiots. I can’t for the life of me imagine why you’re not employed.

Thanks to this amazing post by Make Sowden for inspiration.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Why You Still Don’t Have a Job appeared first on Brazen Life.

It’s that time of year again! If you’re just about to graduate from college, this post is for you.

Step one: Don’t panic.

Step two: Read these seven stages of college graduation. Remember, for each of these stages, diagnosis is the first step to a cure.

1. Shock and denial

You’ll fall into one of two camps just before graduation: pure excitement about being your own person and jetting off into the real world, or pure and unfiltered terror that consumes you soul.

That pure excitement you feel? It’s actually denial. You’ll hit that terror stage soon, don’t you worry. That stage involves months of sitting on your ass, half-heartedly looking for a job and partying it up with your friends to avoid making any sort of real life decisions.

2. Pain and guilt

This is when you’ll discover the ease of life before and during college does not translate over to life after college. Remember how easy those steps were from birth to 22? Home with mom and dad, then school, then college and internships?

Well, those steps suddenly disappear beneath you after the safety net of university. And that slow discovery is painful and surprising, like you’ve fallen on your ass and the wind has been knocked out of you.

3. Anger and bargaining

This stage could involve anything from accepting a job at McDonald’s to taking drastic measures to get your dream job, i.e. advertisements, fancy resume or harassing your parent’s friends.

Don’t be surprised if you feel angry even if you’re not an angry person. It will pass, I promise. But it has to get worse before it gets better.

4. Depression, reflection, loneliness

Skyping your old college roommate at 2 in the morning? Check. Looking at Facebook photos from the good ole days? Double check. Yup, you’re in the depression stage.

Instead of revealing in the freedom of no longer having to write that thesis, you’re wistfully remembering the good old days. Don’t worry, it gets better after this step.

5. The upward turn

Yes! The positive uptick you’ve been waiting for. You’ll eventually get sick of looking back at said good ole days. You’ll decide enough is enough and you’ll start fantasizing about a better job, a better apartment, a better city. A better life, really. The one you thought you’d have by now.

And guess what? Eventually you’ll hopefully realize you can’t achieve those dreams unless you actually take some action.

6. Reconstruction and working through

Think of this as the break-up stage. You know when you split up with a boyfriend or girlfriend and then do something drastic like cutting all your hair off and dying it pink, or quitting your job to travel across the world? No? Just me?

The reconstruction stage is when we realize we need to actually start doing something to take control of our new lives. This involves anything from seeing a life coach to joining the Peace Corps to going back to school to finally getting a job – the right job. It typically happens around the 1-2 year mark post-graduation. Yeah, it takes that long.

7. Acceptance and hope

You rarely hear someone say that their early 20s were the easiest time of their lives. The months – or in most of our cases, years – after graduation are some of the hardest, frustrating and confusing years.

But those years make way for some of the most adventurous and heartwarming ones, which, yes, make it all worth it. So chin up folks, you can do it.

And P.S. Congraduations!

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post The 7 Unexpected Stages of College Graduation appeared first on Brazen Life.

Have you ever looked back on your degree and thought, “What the hell did I learn that’s actually helped me in the real world?”

With graduation day approaching, it’s time to share an important lesson: though most of us loved college, almost everything that’s truly useful we’ve had to learn the “hard way” — through experience, rather than in the classroom.

I wish I had someone holding my hand the first time I rented an apartment. And I still want someone to sit down and explain how the eff investments work and whether I’m old enough to start thinking about them.

Is this our school’s responsibility? Should those degrees we spend tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars on should maybe focus less on forcing freshman to take sex ed and Bio 101 and instead provide us with courses on how to do our taxes?

Here’s a sample course catalogue that would make our first few years in the real world less about trial and error. Man, how I wish this school existed:

1. Flatting 101: Roommates, Renters and Reason

This course examines the cultural contexts that shape the development of roommate relationships. Emphasis is placed on the steps involved in signing a lease, paying bonds, taking care of rental property, property insurance and tenancy agreements.

After successfully completely this course, you should be able to (1) find the perfect roommate through Craigslist based on your personality and previous flatting situations, (2) set up a house bank account and easily share expenses, (3) pay and receive your bond back in a timely manner and (4) not get screwed over in a rental agreement by a landlord.

The purpose of this course is to help you understand the key elements expected of every housemate. No previous knowledge or skill is required other than an interest (born out of need or desire) in living with other people.

2. Introduction to Credit

Explore the evolution of credit cards, credit score and loans as both theory and practice. The purpose is to provide context for all students in critically thinking about when it’s appropriate to borrow. Students will leave with a strong foundation in understanding the basic credit card structure in simple terms.

Students will be tested on the best way to research their annual percentage rate, the pros and cons of minimum monthly payments and understanding credit line. If time allows, students will also be introduced to credit scores – understanding yours and how to improve it.

3. Investing in the 21st Century

This course covers popular investment schemes including 401k, stock options and basic savings accounts.

Students will learn how to choose the best bank and how to determine what percentage of salary goes into savings. You’ll take away an understanding of basic investment terms such as equity, mutual funds and interest.

By the end of this course, all students will be prepared for the road to financial security and smart investments – so they don’t look like idiots when in normal conversation with adults about such topics.

4. Taxes in Today’s Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach

This hands-on course concentrates on the basics of doing your taxes, mistakes to avoid and stress-relief tactics to implement during tax season.

The objective of this course is to give students enough knowledge to do their own taxes – from filling out forms, organizing receipts, filing deductibles and the ins and outs of hiring an accountant.

Students will be able to (1) fill out a W-2 in ten minutes or less, (2) take advantage of tax credits, (3) increase your deductions and (4) avoid committing suicide during the month of April.

5. The Gen Y Career Revolution: Alternatives to the 9-to-5 Post-Graduation

This course aims to introduce students to the options available to them post-graduation that don’t involve traditional corporate employment. This course will provide you with an understanding of options such as volunteering, travel, freelancing and entrepreneurship, with clear explanations of how these options are just as important and relevant to world economy and society as a traditional job.

After finishing this course, students will have developed a broad knowledge of the various professions and disciplines, as well as tools to help them research, plan and develop for their path post-graduation.

Have a course you would have loved to take to prep you for the real world? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post 5 Life-Changing Courses All Universities Should Teach appeared first on Brazen Life.

It’s not even big news anymore when someone does something “crazy” to get a job. Whether it’s a Google or Facebook advertisement, a shoe in a box, or a resume in Trafalgar Square, job seekers are getting more and more aggressive about standing out.

Personally – and as someone who has taken these measures – I love it. The economy blows and the “traditional” resume isn’t so much of a necessity anymore, especially for less traditional job seekers. So when I came across Loft Resumes, I was immediately smitten.

According to their website, Loft helps job seekers stand out in a sea of sameness with stylish resumes. Think unique typography, bold colors and graphics. They say, “Show [employers] that you’re the type of person willing to invest in the most important document you’ll ever create. That just as your resume isn’t status quo, neither are you. And that’s precisely why they need you.” (Someone hired a great copywriter.)

But I was also immediately skeptical. At least $99 for resume design? I thought about how my dear friend and resume writer extraordinaire, Jenny Foss, critiqued my resume last year and gave me some crucial feedback.

I had spiffed it up with some visuals, my logo, etc., and she told me point blank to tone it down. Not because it wasn’t pretty, but because many companies use applicant tracking systems, and if you use a lot of graphical elements in your resume, it might not pass through the system.

So I sent Jenny the link to Loft and asked her opinion. “These resumes would be great for someone in a creative/design-centric field who plans to send the resume directly to the inbox of a hiring manager or contact,” she replied. “Not so much a good idea for an online application, which will more than likely route the resume through an ATS.”

That’s when I emailed Loft co-founder Dodd Caldwell. He told me that about 70 percent of jobs are found through personal networking, while 30 percent are found through career boards. “We fit well with those 70 percent,” he said. “Great visual design can be a positive add-on for the right folks.”

And then, responding to my question about applicant tracking systems, he said, “Our advice for folks who are submitting to places where resume parsing software may be used is that they have a text version of their resume on hand as well and then use the Loft Resume for interviews and emails.”

The takeaway? Hiring a resume writer or paying for a gorgeous design depends on the kind of job you’re looking for. If you’re eager to work for a small, creative startup, they’re sure to respect an out-of-the-box approach. But if your dream is to work for a big corporate, you might offer a resume in a more traditional style.

Now, I’ve been in the desperately-looking-for-work boat, and each and every time I’ve gotten my foot in the door has been through growing a pair and standing out. I’ve never applied to a company who used ATS, though. I hand-delivered (hand-emailed?) all my resumes and almost every single interviewer commented on how much they liked my style.

So there is a place for gorgeously designed resumes that show you’re different, while also really awesomely displaying your credentials.

Of course, job seekers are also notoriously broke. But I’m strongly of the mindset that you have to spend money to make money. And when it comes to getting the perfect job, it’s hugely important to shell out a bit of dough for a resume that shows you in the best possible light (just like an interview outfit that makes you feel stunning).

Have you ever invested in a service or product to help your job search? Did it pay off?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Should You Really Make Your Resume All Pretty and Fancy? appeared first on Brazen Life.

You’ve probably heard of Evernote – the note-taking app — and its rather cultish following. What you probably didn’t know though, is the hundreds of little-known uses that can really help make shaping your career that much easier.

Here are eight ways to use Evernote to inspire your work, create a rock solid network and manage projects with ease:

1. Take notes… for everything

I used to be a pen and paper kind of girl, but most of us type faster than we talk. Since no one likes having heaps of documents lying around, Evernote is the best way to take notes at meetings, catch-ups with bosses or even when you’re on the train in the morning or en-route to a meeting.

Tag them with the appropriate project or client you’re working on and thank me later.

2. Pen and paper notes

Still love using a notebook? Me too. I have a purple pen and like to draw flowers in the margins during Important Business Dealings.

But raise your hand if you hate flipping through page after page trying to find something you know you wrote about last month. With Evernote, take photos of each page and save it to a dedicated notebook. Evernote can actually search image text, so next time you want to find Project Cobra in your old notes, you can easily search through it without actually flipping anything.

3. Passwords

If you use a computer – and who doesn’t these days? – you probably have an absurd amount of passwords.

Evernote is a great way to save logins for various websites, YouTube channels, social media accounts, etc. They’re easily searchable so I know I’ve saved heaps of time not hunting down passwords whenever I log in and out of something.

4. Project management

If you have a premium account with Evernote, you can share notes with coworkers. It’s been good to have a checkbox list I share with the team so we can all see what has and hasn’t been done.

And another perk: it’s way easier to use than other project management software out there.

5. Inspiration

What inspires you? Blog post ideas? Website designs? Innovative advertisements?

Use Evernote to jot down things you love to motivate you at work. It might even spark some ideas for that project you’re supposed to be working on.

6. Business contacts

Rather than losing business cards in your pursue or wallet, take photos as you receive them. Leave yourself a note about where you met this person, what they look like and any interesting information about the meeting.

This is an awesome way to bring back memories of your conversation so you can meaningfully connect with these new contacts later, when you’re ready to wow them with a unique and personalized LinkedIn invite.

(Oh, and Evernote is on their shit and created Evernote Hello, which makes this process much easier.)

7. Resources

Use Evernote to write down the best printer, stationary store, sushi restaurant or phone repair place near your office. That way you’ll never forget where you went last time and loved AND your coworkers will love you when they ask for advice.

8. Receipts

Take photos of receipts or any expenses you need to share with your boss. When you hand over the receipt, you now have an easy way of tracking everything – and it’s less time-consuming than a scanner.

Do you use Evernote? How’s it going for you? Any new ideas to add to our list?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post 8 Ways to Use Evernote to Rock Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

Loving your coworkers is such a hugely underrated part of loving your actual work. It’s the company you keep that can make the crappy parts of your job so much better (and everyone has crappy parts). Feeling supported can make you more productive, and having fun in the middle of your work day can make you happier throughout those less pleasant daily tasks.

Luckily, I really love my job. Partly because I get to strategize with brilliant people and play on Facebook all day, but also because I have brain crushes on every. single. one. of my coworkers. The people I work with are smart, funny, supportive and just a pleasure to be around.

But I know most people aren’t in love with every single one of their coworkers. That doesn’t mean, however, that your team can’t implement a few tactics to make work more fun and creative. Here are five ideas you can try out at work to develop a stronger office culture:

1. Yammer

Yammer is a social network for the office, where you can update people on what you’re working on, ask a question to the team or – my personal favorite – share fun or interesting links relevant to your profession (everyone loves a good industry inside joke).

We use this as a place to crack a lot of jokes at each others’ expense, but it’s also a super quick way to find out general office questions without clogging up everyone’s inbox.

2. Weekly lunches

I’m lucky in that my bosses buy us all lunch on Fridays (whoohoo!), but even if you haven’t landed the boss trifecta yet, going out socially with your coworkers can do wonders for your office relationships.

Who knew you loved the same books or lived in the same foreign city? And don’t be shy! I promise they’ll be flattered you asked.

3. Team talks

Everyone in the office can learn from each other – I don’t care if you’re the receptionist or part of the legal team. Everyone brings a wide variety of skills to the table, and even if you’ll never use SEO or develop a website in your life, it’s important to understand what the people around you actually do.

Weekly talks given by each member of your team is a great way to show off your skills, teach a cool lesson and be valued for the work you provide.

4. Brainstorming sessions

Know what makes people love their coworkers? Feeling like they’re valued.

My employer makes each and every one of us feel like our ideas are worth something by holding what we call “10 to 10 sessions” – 10 minutes of brainstorming at 10am. Everyone who’s not swamped is required to attend and spitball for 10 minutes on a new brief, client or project.

5. Varied furniture

The atmosphere at a restaurant affects how we value the price and quality of the food. So why do all corporate environments look and feel the same?

While we have our weekly meetings at a boardroom table, we also have a few couches and a bar where coworkers can sit and have a catch-up. This adds a casual element to briefs and brainstorms so you don’t constantly feel like you’re in a stuffy environment and more at ease with your coworkers.

Not the boss yet? Next time you have a one-on-one meeting with a coworkers, suggest you grab a coffee outside of the office. Everyone loves coffee.

What do you do to add a most casual element to your work space? Is this something your current office does well or has it all gone horribly, horribly wrong?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

Image courtesy of Bigstock

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The post 5 Ideas for a More Creative and Fun Work Environment appeared first on Brazen Life.

We’ve all been asked for favors. Introductions, critiques, recommendations… we’ve all been there (and been the one asking for the favor).

But what if you get asked for a favor – and then realize the person asking hasn’t done the first bit of work themselves?

A recent grad wants to know some sneaky tricks about getting a job… and it turns out he doesn’t have an up-to-date resume. A new blogger who’s eager to get more traffic… but still hasn’t written her about page. A freelancer who wants new business… but hasn’t created a pricing list.

“I’m working on it,” they say.

Do you know what I say? “Good luck with that.”

Here’s the thing: if you don’t even have the basics figured out, how could you possibly be prepared for that interview/new blog reader/client? Because not only will you never hear from them again, they also won’t send any new interviews/readers/clients your way. Meaning you’re shit out of luck. And have just made a really bad impression, too.

It’s shocking how many people fall into this trap. Take Twitter for example. Smart, funny, interesting people constantly want to network using Twitter but haven’t written a bio yet. “I’m getting to it,” they say. Or, “I don’t know what to write!”

But do you know what I think it is? Laziness. And a really crappy expectation that people are just always going to want to help you out, even if you don’t help yourself first.

And also? Fear. Too many of us worry about being perfect so we never get started. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do your best – not by a long shot – but there is something wrong never putting yourself out there because of it.

How long does it take to write a Twitter bio so people actually know who you are? You can perfect it later, but for now it’s better for people to have some semblance of an idea of who you are than a blank bio that makes you look like an amateur.

No time to spruce up your resume before you start networking your little face off? Shell out $100 for a resume writer. Not only will they do a better job than you, but then it will be done and you can network to your heart’s content without worrying about how many times you’ll have to say, “I’m working on it.”

Do you have any idea what kind of impression you give when a new client asks for details about your pricing structure and you don’t have anything prepared? Not only do you look unprofessional, but it also makes the other guy easier to hire – which means you probably won’t land the client.

If you don’t have an hour to devote to being prepared, you’re either not that invested or spending too much time watching episodes of Downton Abbey.

Listen, we’ve all been there. I didn’t put my service on my site for six months into my freelance career (but once I forced myself to sit down and actually do it, I suddenly started getting more offers).

But just because we’ve all been there doesn’t make it okay. The people who become successful do so because they take the time to get shit done. So today (not tomorrow) get a cup of coffee, sit down and for one hour work on that one really basic thing you’ve been meaning to do.

Not only will you smash it out in way less time than you thought it would take, but you’ll feel so much better afterward.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

By the way, Brazen Careerist is now on Pinterest! Would love to connect there with all you professional go-getters.

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The post Before Asking for Favors, Puh-Lease Help Yourself appeared first on Brazen Life.

Sometimes I feel like the four years I spent at college were a giant waste of time and everything I’ve learned about myself, life, career and the real world has happened in the years since.

Case in point: my first full-time job. Mostly, it was a disaster. But it also taught me how to deal with shitty situations, when to stand up for myself and when to just quit. And in the years since, I’ve managed to find a job I adore more than cookies and I see my peers slowly but surely finding their own way in the working world.

Some of them – and some of you? Not so much. So I turned to the digital streets and asked some of the top career, lifestyle and Gen Y bloggers what their first job was like and the lessons they learned:

The manager

I was a Management Trainee at a fancy hotel in downtown Seattle and spent my first few months supervising the cocktail bar. I had a regular accuse me of trying to burn her (and steal her husband) because her plate was too hot, got flashed by an old dude because he was stuck in the toilet, and worked 14 hour days on my feet in heels. This is where my Ivy League degree got me!

~ Molly Mahar of Stratejoy

The reporter

My first job out of college was as a reporter for a weekly newspaper (located 60 miles from my home), with an annual salary of $17K. It wasn’t my first choice and I was bewildered that all my hard work in college had led to this. But I gained invaluable skills there that have stayed with throughout my career — how to research, how to manage deadlines, how to perform unsupervised, how to interact with officials and, most importantly, how to drive really fast without getting speeding tickets.

~ Jenny Foss of Job Jenny

The high-roller

I worked on Wall Street. I wouldn’t trade those years, but I also would never go back. Wall Street was everything I assumed it might be, and then some. There were very long hours, stressed supervisors and high rollers. It wasn’t what you’d call a work-life balance type of environment. However, I made great friends I stay in touch with – 15 years later! I learned a lot of skills I still use in my job today, most importantly that having control over my time was a lot more important to me than a big bonus.

I’d encourage new grads to not be afraid to experiment. The worst that may happen is you need to start over, and the best is that you’ll discover something you never knew you would love!

~ Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers

The recruiter

My first job was working as a Technical Recruiter for a staffing agency. The kind of recruiting that I did wasn’t glamorous, but I lasted almost two years there.

What kept me there was success and a great team, despite stress and a lack of tools. When I finally left, I did go on to take a great position, but when I look back, I realize how much I learned, how much fun I had, and how amazing the people were.

Your first job isn’t always going to be so bad. It just might be awesome! Don’t let expectations cloud your vision and force you to leave too soon. Sometimes I wish I stayed longer, but hindsight’s a bitch.

~ Rich DeMatteo of Corn on the Job

The start-up

When you’re at the entry level it’s easy to think that you’re above certain tasks or projects – the beauty is that those are the projects that really allow you to shine and hit home runs, then you’ll be trusted with more and more complex stuff later on.

When I worked at a start-up out of school, I started as the Office Manager. But by showing my skill and positive attitude there, I soon became the Marketing Assistant and Webmaster, rounding out an entry level job that I never thought would be more than filing papers.

~ Jenny Blake of Life After College

What they all have in common

The great thing about first jobs is that no matter what you do or how it influences your career, it always teaches you something – how to deal with people, work hard or, at the very least, what direction you don’t want to go. Or maybe even that a crappy situation can be useful in the long run.

What was your first job? What did it teach you?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

Image courtesy of Bigstock

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The post First Job Tales from Your Favorite Career Bloggers appeared first on Brazen Life.

Raise your hand if you’re really sick and tired of hearing that story.

While we can’t deny the effectiveness of that attempt, trying it now might not result in the desired outcome. More often than not, when people want to meet their idol, snag an interview or land a mentor, they send a half-assed email that neglects to get the job done.

There are other more subtle – but just as effective – ways to get in front of someone you admire:

1. Send a handwritten note

Want to know how many handwritten notes I’ve received this year? One. From my grandma on Christmas. Want to know how many handwritten notes that industry idol of yours has probably received? One. From their grandma on Christmas.

Let’s take it a step further – how many emails do you think they’ve received this year asking for some favor/coffee/Skype/interview? A million billion, that’s how many.

Meaning a handwritten note is the best way we can possibly think of to stand out from the crowd, make an impression and seem sincere in your admiration, all without looking like an asshole.

A great time to send something is after seeing your idol speak or meeting them at an event. Send a quick note (to their office; don’t be creepy) saying how much you enjoyed hearing them speak and how you love everything they do. Be genuine here.

2. Make friends with their assistant

Never, for a second, forget who runs the joint. If your dream mentor has an administrative or personal assistant, you absolutely need to be their best friend. This is important because a) they transfer the calls and can make your life infinitely easier and b) can give you all the inside knowledge.

I don’t mean “make friends” like, be nicer than usual, but actually make friends. Find them on LinkedIn or Twitter or Facebook and invite them out for a drink. Be honest. Say you really admire their boss and would love to learn more about the industry and what it’s like to work for Hotshot X.

This has a 50/50 chance of working as there is some serious creep-sounding potential. But it’s worse to try and make friends with someone only for them to feel used and abused later on. Telling it like it is and getting in with the office in a genuine way can make all the difference.

3. Comment on their blog

A few years ago, when I was looking for a job in publishing, I made a point to read every publishing blog out there. I read, shared, commented and met in person all the bloggers I could. Through one little blog comment, I met a guy who ran a major publishing website. And through that comment I landed my first-ever freelance writing gig.

This is the power of comments. It’s more than just putting your name in front of someone you admire. It’s more than just sending an email. Commenting on someone’s blog shows you read what they write and care about their opinion – and that you have something valuable to share of your own.

Become a regular commenter and you become part of their community. And trust me, bloggers notice when a name comes up on every post. On my own site, I let commenters guest post, answer their emails before anyone else’s and many have become close personal friends. Meaning if you want to be seen, start on the blog first.

How did you end up meeting someone awesome you really admired? How did you meet your mentor? What other tips can you add to this list?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post 3 Clever Ways to Get in Front of Someone You Admire appeared first on Brazen Life.

And so we waffle and jump from job to job. In my personal (and humble?) opinion, we should be spending more time interviewing people from various industries, reading career books and actually doing trying things, traveling the world, apprenticing, etc. Sitting around and whining that we don’t love our jobs isn’t enough.

Here are four things you can actually do right now to figure out the next step in your life:

1. Travel

I know, I know. It’s a bit of a stereotype, isn’t it? 20-something gets job post college. 20-something quits job after a few months. 20-something packs bags and goes somewhere like Thailand or Germany and fucks around for a year.

But I can’t emphasize enough the benefits of travel for figuring out what you want from life. I’ve lived in three countries in the past year-and-a-half, and during that time I’ve learned more about the world and myself and what I want to do long-term than I ever did at my plush Manhattan PR gig, while waiting for something to happen to me.

Travel opens your mind to possibilities. It takes you outside of your comfort zone, helps you appreciate what you have at home, or, on the flip side, helps you discover an alternative, expat lifestyle.

So what are you waiting for?

2. Work an internship

Not getting paid for work is a bit of a joke. Even if you’re making coffee or filing all day, just because it’s called an “internship” instead of “bitch work” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get paid.

HOWEVER. The beauty of internships is that they can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. There’s not a ton of commitment involved, and it allows you to try lots of new things without making a long-term investment with one company. Through internships, you can meet and talk to people honestly from various industries, pick up a few solid skills and learn whether or not you want to actually pursue a career in that field.

For those of you whining that internships are almost as hard to get as real jobs, don’t forget that internships don’t have to be “prestigious” to be beneficial. Tons of startups, websites, freelancers and family-owned businesses would eat their right arm for an intern and will be just as accommodating and useful to your eventual career (if not more so) than a major corporation.

3. Get a hobby – or five

One of my favorite stories ever is of Sydney Owen, who runs the awesome blog over at Sydney: Unfiltered. Sydney got into skydiving while working at her day job, developed an addiction, and ended up quitting said job, going freelance starting her own business and now does work for a skydiving company on digital strategy and events.

If I hear one more person bitch about how they don’t have any passions but sit around on their computer all day dicking around, I might scream. Trying heaps of new hobbies can introduce you to passions you never might have discovered. It gets you out of your house and meeting people.

And, hey, maybe that book club makes you realize you want to own a book store or that windsurfing lesson makes you want to jump on the next plane to Bali and teach. You can’t discover what you want to do with your life if you don’t take advantage of everything life has to offer. (I’m torn between whether that line is significantly too corny for me or really profound. You choose.)

4. Talk to someone

Life coaches. Therapists. Your old high school career counselor. Writing “dear diary” every night isn’t enough. While using something like 750words.com can be really useful in getting to root of whatever block you might be facing, sometimes we need an outside observer to point out things we never would have noticed otherwise.

Above all, the beauty of being GenY is that we’re the first generation to have been given permission to just not know. So calm down. We’re career changers. In the words of Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock, “We are an immigrant nation. The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things; the next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas. The third generation snowboards and takes improv classes.”

Amen.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post 4 Secrets to Figuring Out What You Want to Do With Your Life appeared first on Brazen Life.

Yeah, that happens all the time. And especially when it comes to your career, sometimes the movies just so perfectly represent where you’re at.

In our (maybe not-so-humble) opinion, here are the eight best career movies and the crazy lessons they teach us:

1. The Devil Wears Prada

Plot: Girl gets everybody’s dream job at fashion magazine. Boss is bitch, takes over girl’s life with ridiculous demands. Girl becomes pretty, learns valuable career lesson.

Valuable career lesson: Sometimes from the outside it seems like we should take that amazing-sounding job or do that one little thing for our bosses that’s actually completely inappropriate – until one day we find out the job has completely taken over our lives. When it comes to drastic career moves, trust your gut on what feels right and what feels like too big a compromise.

2. The Pursuit of Happyness

Plot: Man who’s always struggled to make ends meet gets custody of his son, becomes homeless and manages to become a fancy pants stockbroker with a lot of determination and elbow grease.

Valuable career lesson: It’s never too late to change your career and “make something” of yourself. Also? Life is hard. Deal with it.

3. The Social Network

Plot: Facebook. ‘Nough said.

Valuable career lesson: Sell out your friends, be an asshole and you will be one of the most successful people on the planet. But that doesn’t mean you won’t Facebook-stalk your exes just like the rest of us.

4. Jerry Maguire

Plot: Sports agent has an epiphany about the future of his industry and gets fired because of it.

Valuable career lesson: It is, in fact, possible to love what you do, make a difference and have an “important” career without being a completely asshole in the process.

5. Office Space

Plot: Group of friends hate their jobs. Layoffs affect the office place. Group plants a virus to steal money from the company but it all goes horribly wrong! And by “wrong” we mean “oh-so-right.” (This is easily one of the best movies ever and so perfectly depicts what it’s like to be in a job you hate.)

Valuable career lesson: Co-workers are everything. The best thing about this movie is the cast and how the characters work together (and sometimes completely mess with each other). They teach us how you can stand even the worst job when there are awesome people involved. And also that if you don’t have awesome people, you may or may not “set the building on fire.”

6. Clerks

Plot: Classic Kevin Smith movie about two slightly obnoxious guys who work at a convenience store.

Valuable career lesson: Be nice to the people behind the counter. “Just because they serve you, doesn’t mean they like you.”

7. Up in the Air

Plot: Guy has a job that involves firing people. His home is essentially – wait for it – up in the air. He’s all lonely and empty and stuff.

Valuable career lesson: Even with a job as glamorous as constant travel, coming back to a proper home is worth more than you’d think. There’s something to be said for downtime and, as Americans, we rarely get that in the workplace. Which means home needs to be a place where you feel safe, relax and chilled out. We promise it will make you more productive and better at your job in the long run.

8. Wall Street

Plot: It’s called Wall Street, people, which means it’s even more relevant today than in 1987. Stockbroker is ambitious. Stockbroker makes a few dirty decisions.

Valuable career lesson: Don’t work on Wall Street. Greed is bad. Watch out for shady stockbroker mentors.

What awesome movies did we miss?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post The 8 Best Career Movies of All Time appeared first on Brazen Life.

Something we don’t see enough of, however, (and I think this is slowly becoming more and more common) is people taking social to an actual social level and meeting tweeps in real life.

My favorite way to do this? Using Twitter hashtags at events to break the ice and put myself out there.

Attending industry events may be the traditional way to network, but Twitter takes this to the next level. Whether it’s a monthly drinks event, talk, course or conference, most organizers will create a designated Twitter hashtag (if you’re totally out of the loop on what a hashtag is, Google it).

If the organizers are on the ball, they’ll announce the hashtag multiple times; after all, it can only help promote their event and connect their community. If they’re not on top of it, you can figure out the hashtag attendees are using by searching the event name on Twitter.

For example, I recently went to an MSN mini-conference in Auckland, and the organizers hadn’t created a hashtag. But when I searched for MSN in New Zealand, a couple attendees had banded together and made up their own!

The three big reasons you want to use hashtags at events:

1. Pick up on points attendees find useful

People tend to tweet interesting quotes by speakers, statistics or basic event information. I can’t tell you how useful this has been in the past to go refer to later and use as “notes” – regardless of whether I attended the event.

These are especially helpful if you’re reporting back to a boss or writing an event recap on your blog.

2. Meet people

When you follow along with the event hashtag, it’s easy to figure out who else is at the event. And with the beauty of Twitter avatars, you can usually recognize these people when you run into them later on.

I like to use a tweet to start conversations with people I probably won’t have met otherwise. I’ll say something like, “I loved that tweet you sent out about there not being any vegetarian options! What gives?” Then you’ve started a conversation without awkwardly standing in the corner pretending to check your cell phone because you have no one to talk to.

3. Put yourself out there

When you’re regularly tweeting at an event, you’re seen as being involved without being that annoying conference-goer who throws business cards at anyone and everyone. And if your Twitter avatar is clear, you’ll be recognizable.

That means it’s likely people will come up to you and say something like, “Oh, hey, you’re @MarianSchembari, aren’t you?” Boom. You’ve made a new friend. Win-win.

Even if you’re not a huge tweeter before the event, no worries. Here are a few sure-fire topics you can post on the big day:

• Points from the event you’ve found interesting.

Example: Great stat from speaker @BobSmith “66% of statistics are made up.” #awesomeevent2011

• Questions to the speaker. He or she probably won’t respond during the event, but A. you never know and B. this is a great way to start a dialogue outside the event, which can be even more powerful.

Example: @BobSmith What do you mean 66% of statistics? Didn’t you mean 99%?

• Addressing other attendees. Suggest grabbing a drink at Bar X after the last talk or simply ask people’s thoughts on the last speaker.

Example: I’m heading to Awesome Bar after this, anyone want to join? We’re going to talk shop while throwing back tequila shots.

Don’t over-think this, though. Just share points you find interesting and connect with a few people you might not have met otherwise.

Finally, if you’re at a loss for the kind of event to go to, consider doing a search on Twitter for tweetups in your area, ask your co-workers or clients, and pay attention to industry bloggers and sites like Eventbrite. You also might consider joining something like Social Media Club, a network of people who meet up in cities around the world to discuss new technologies and how they effect business. It’s not just for digital folks, so regardless of whether you’re super familiar with social media, it’s a great way to learn new things and meet some pretty cool people. Plus, they always have a hashtag.

How many of you have been active on Twitter during an event? Meet anyone cool because of it?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post The Ultimate Guide to Using Twitter Hashtags at Events appeared first on Brazen Life.

But these aren’t the only things you can learn from each experience. Truth is, you can learn from both avenues and both can help shape your career for the future.

Two-and-a-half years ago, I quit my PR job in New York to strike out on my own. My blog had been doing better than expected, and the Facebook ads that landed me the job in the first place were bringing in some great freelance work.

So for two years I freelanced, slowly building up my client lists, getting more recommendations and figuring out how the hell to balance a real life with working for yourself.

And yet, today I work full-time for a digital marketing agency in Auckland. Seven months ago I would have told you I’d never work for The Man. I liked being my own boss and choosing my own clients and working from my footie PJs (note: I do not own footie PJs).

But let me tell you, the two years I worked for myself taught me more about work and careers and real world more than college ever did. And working at this incredible, small(ish) company has taught me more about collaboration and creativity and the power of marketing more than my puny freelance business ever could.

That’s why, if possible, you should try both these routes. Freelance while working full-time. Get an internship or consulting gig in an office while freelancing. Or do one and then the other. Here’s why:

Freelancing teaches you:

Multi-tasking. From writing your own invoices to figuring out how much you’re worth, and from selling yourself to actually doing the work, you will learn every aspect of running a business.

Hustling. No one is going to find clients for you. To survive, you’ll need to have the guts to go to networking events, cold call, ask for referrals and request recommendations; otherwise you’ll have no clients and no money. Being a freelancer makes you confident in selling your skills and asking for the things you want.

Trusting your gut. When starting out, most freelancers take whatever they can get. But the longer you work for yourself, the more you can be choosey about who you work for. That means you usually love your clients, projects and time you spend at the “office.” Eventually you learn to pinpoint when that email from a prospective client is subtly saying, “I’M GOING TO BE HUGELY DIFFICULT AND CONSUME ALL YOUR TIME.” And if you’ve been a good little freelancer you’ll know exactly when to avoid those guys.

Work when you’re productive. Not all of us are particularly functional at 8 a.m. and do epic work at midnight. “Real” jobs can pretty restricting unless your peak hours are actually 9 to 5. Being your own boss lets you quickly discover the times and places you are most productive, meaning more efficiency, self-awareness and subsequently more time off. Sort of.

Office jobs teach you:

Your idea is never the best idea. During the past few months at Young & Shand, I’ve never once seen one person’s idea come to fruition. Not because the people here aren’t brilliant. They are. It’s because we all meet and brainstorm an idea that ends up morphing into this epic, genius thing we’ll then work on together. Working as part of a strong team can mean all the things that make you awesome are suddenly heightened. Like being a vampire.

Wearing clothes is a good thing. Every freelance website on earth tells you to treat your home job like a real office. Wake up early, get dressed, work at a desk not near your living space. I did not heed this advice. I worked from bed, got up at 10 a.m., and blogged until 2 a.m. Yeah, I personally didn’t have the willpower to work from home. Having an office job keeps you social, sane and hygienic.

Most bosses are better than you. I was a horrible boss. I worked myself to the bone, couldn’t teach myself the ways of the world and had zero tolerance for mistakes. My current bosses are understanding, flexible and patient mentors. I really lucked out with them as I’ve had some pretty crappy bosses in the past, but I do think we’re harder on ourselves than anyone else. When you work for someone you usually grow more as a person and employee.

This isn’t an attempt to convince you one path is better than the other, it’s simply meant to help you think through the benefits and drawbacks of working for yourself vs. working for someone else (and get the gears turning in your head about whether you can do both at once).

What has your work experience – whether getting out there on your own or as part of a company – taught you?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Why You Should Work Both for a Company and for Yourself appeared first on Brazen Life.

So you want to showcase your experience and expertise online, and you hear a blog is a good way to do that.

You’re right. It is.

But what exactly are you supposed to write about?

Most job-hunting blogs fall into one of two categories:

1. Blogging about your job search

The benefit of blogging about your job search is that people get invested in your progress. And when people get invested they become more inclined to help. Pus, chronicling the journey is a) interesting, b) means you never run out of content and c) as relatable of a story as they come. We’ve all been there.

This is your chance to talk about why you’re the perfect candidate. A simple list on why someone should hire you works like a charm. I once brought my post on that very subject into a job interview and ended up landing the job.

The downside of blogging about your job search is that you need to be reealllly careful. You can’t say anything bad because, well, you’re trying to get a job. And people become less inclined to help if you start mouthing off your interviewers.

2. Blogging about your industry

The benefit of blogging about your industry is that people from said industry are more likely to find you via links, comments on other sites and Google search. This is your chance to show off your skills, your knowledge and your involvement. Even if you’re a recent grad without much experience, you can blog about your opinions, changes in the field and how your study applies to said field. There is so. damn. much. opportunity here, it’s unreal.

The downside of blogging about your industry is that it’s really hard to stand out. I don’t care if you’re in Nonprofits for Puppies or Public Relations, there are already 50,000 blogs out there about your industry.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t start a blog. At all. It does, however, mean that in order to get found you really need to do a fabulous job. Have a voice. Don’t be afraid to have an opinion or contradict popular thought.

Also don’t expect employers find you right away. Make sure you’re active and consistent. Just because you’re using your blog as a tool to land work doesn’t mean you can slack off on the marketing side of your site.

Go make a list of the top 10 blogs in your field and add them to your Reader. Comment on those sites, make friends with the bloggers and ask to guest post. Connect with them on LinkedIn.

And here’s one little fun bit of advice: Make sure your blog and your job seeker website are one and the same. Don’t be an idiot and buy bobsmith.com and then start a blogspot.com site. That will completely defeat the purpose of blogging for work.

As much as I wish I could say your hobby blog could get you work, unless it’s really obvious on your site that you’re looking for a job and your post content ties into that, I can’t make any promises.

Instead, start your job-hunting blog with these few post ideas:

1. Thoughts on the changes in your industry
2. Why an employer should hire you
3. Opinion on a major industry new story
4. Things you wish college had taught you
5. Unique ways your looking for work
6. Your favorite job experience or boss or internship and how it helped you
7. Update on your job search and what is or isn’t working
8. The pros and cons of a resume
9. What you’ve learned from your job search
10. A list of your favorite industry bloggers

Are you using a blog to look for work? Have you experienced success? Failure? Meh?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post What to Blog About When You’re Looking for a Job appeared first on Brazen Life.

After four paragraphs of her life story, what she’s trying to accomplish, her work experience, her latest friend drama and her mother’s social security number, she signed off with, I know how to set-up and operate the popular social networks but I really want to learn how to bring in clients for certain businesses. How could you help me with this?

I wish I could say this was the first time I’ve gotten an email this cold, with an expectation that I’ll spend half an hour, out of the goodness of my heart, to help her with this. It’s also not the first time I responded like an 80-year-old grandmother – telling her to shape up and start personalizing her emails.

Of all the cold emails I’ve received, only twice have I written back with a non-bitchy response. What did those people do right?

The first email that warranted follow-up was from a friend of a friend who wanted to start social media consulting on the side. Her email was short and said she’d been reading lots of my blog posts and had a few questions about how to get started. She asked for a 20-minute Skype call to pick my brain.

The second was a LinkedIn request from a recent Davidson grad (my alma mater). The guy was super friendly and having a hard time finding a job. We chatted back and forth for a week and there’s no way in hell I would have given him so much time if he hadn’t seemed so earnest and made me feel valued.

That said, I’m shocked at how few people know how to write a cold email.

First of all, let’s stop right there. The idea of a cold email is a stupid one. Warm that email up right away! Use exclamation points! Tell them how much you love their work or that your dad has talked them up for years and you’d love to buy them a cup of coffee.

I met a woman at Davidson a few years back (Hi Carin!) and she selflessly helped me when I was looking for a job in publishing. While I haven’t asked her why she took so much time to help me out, now we continue to keep in touch, help each other mutually and occasionally talk about boys.

Last month I spent three weeks working on a farm in Queenstown, NZ, helping plant native trees. My host repeated this saying daily: “It’s not how many trees you plant, it’s how many survive.”

And now that I’m experiencing life on the other side of the fence (the one getting asked for help as opposed to constantly needing it), I’m realizing this tree-planting mentality extends to networking (and most aspects of life, actually).

It’s not how many resumes you blindly send out, it’s how many are tailored to the specific job.

It’s not how many cold emails you write, it’s how many develop into a meaningful relationship.

So before you go frantically emailing strangers and asking them for favors, please take these tips into consideration:

1. Don’t send your CV. I know tons of folks say you should, but if they don’t know you that might take it a step too far. Whenever I email someone, I wait for them to ask me for my resume rather than jumping the gun, and it’s always worked as we develop a relationship first before I go begging them for help.

2. Use their name. There’s nothing worse than getting an email that’s obviously been sent to 10 different people.

3. Mention how you know or have heard of them. And it never hurts to add what you like about what they’re doing.

4. Be specific about what you want. Sometimes I get these emails and I don’t know if they want a five-minute answer or whether I’m going to get stuck in an epic back-and-forth series of emails. Simply asking for generic “advice” isn’t going to get you anywhere. If you have a question or questions, ask them. If you want to meet in person for coffee, say that you’re buying and you promise not to take up too much of their time. This is THE most important part so your potential mentor doesn’t feel stuck.

How many of you regularly practice so-called “cold emailing?” Any other points to add?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Why Your “Cold” Emails Aren’t Working appeared first on Brazen Life.

So I’m not going to sit here and talk at you about how the more people you know, the better for your career. Nor will I explain for the umpteenth time how learning social media is a hugely valuable skill for almost any job out there.

What I am going to bitch to you about though is how to position yourself when you do take the plunge.

Raise your virtual hand if you’ve seen someone on Twitter who’s bio looks like this:

Recent grad from Fancy College. ~*~*~ HIRE ME ~*~*~ #communications #marketing #health

Ohmygodshootmenow.

Let’s break down why this bio doesn’t work and what to do instead.

No-no: “Recent grad from Fancy College”

You have 140 characters on Twitter to show off your skills. Do you think anyone will care what college you went to? Maybe, but new graduates often put more emphasis on school than they need to.

Your university can provide a great connection; if someone sees you graduated from their alma mater, that could open some doors. That’s why I added my Davidson affiliation when I was looking for work, not because our network is huge, but because Davidson grads are like a cult. They WILL help you out.

But. Remember that very few of the people you meet on Twitter will have gone to your school. That means maybe your school shouldn’t be your No. 1 selling point.

Instead: Give priority to your skills, experience and passion, and add your alma mater only if you have space. Potential employers will eventually figure out where you graduated from. A LOT of recent grads are looking for work. Do you really want to be yet another unemployed, over-educated kid looking for a job? Avoiding the traditional “Recent grad looking for work” trap will help you stand out.

No-no: “HIRE ME”

There’s something a little desperate about shouting HIRE ME from the social media rooftops. I’m all for being obvious, but there are other ways to show you’re hunting.

Always bring your online behavior back to how you’d act in real life. Would you walk up to someone at your dream company and shout “HIRE ME!” in their face? Please tell me the answer is no.

Instead: Something as simple as “Looking for a communications job in Philly” could work. But I’ve seen some creative job-hunting bios that are likely to be more effective.

Here are a few examples I pulled out of my brains (and do share your suggestions in the comments!):

Design-obsessed marketing pro, specializing in bold ad campaigns. Job hunting in New York. My last agency bosses say I’ll blow your socks off.

Barista in Seattle seeks rad coffee gig. I make a mean flat white. Don’t know what a flat white is? Just you wait…

Perfecting the lost art of the press release while looking for the next big PR job in Chicago. Curious? Read the clips on my website.

Mention you’re looking for work, but don’t shout. And on that note, don’t just mention it, highlight how much you love what you do and the specific skills you bring to the table.

No-no: Hashtags

Putting hashtags in your bio doesn’t make your profile easier to find. Seriously, look at it. Hashtags, like links, make your profile hard to read. It’s not even a freaking sentence.

Instead: Just talk about things you love and what you’re good at; give people a reason to be interested in you. Cut the hashtags and actually form a coherence sentence. Come on, I know you can.

No-no: ~*~*~

Really? How old are you, twelve?

I’ve actually seen grown people use hearts and stars in their bio. This isn’t pretty and only draws the bad kind of attention. Like too much cleavage at an interview.

Instead: Don’t.

So let’s rewrite this trashy bio, shall we? I’ll leave it to you to snazzy it up in the comments. Or, if you prefer, leave us your Twitter bio. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post What a Job Seeker’s Twitter Bio Should – and Shouldn’t – Look Like appeared first on Brazen Life.

While the locations have changed, the situation has not: While I travel, I work. And you’d be surprised how much of my day is consumed with trying to find a decent Internet connection, schedule a Skype call or download documents. Travel and work is not all “lifestyle design.”

So if you’re going through a Quarter-Life Crisis, contemplating grad school or not working full-time, here are a few things you should keep in mind before jumping on this particular bandwagon:

Get a smartphone

I used to scoff in the face of smartphones. Snorted at people walking down the street with their eyed glued to a screen.

But in real life? Don’t leave the country without one. Having unlimited access to my work email has proven to be the most useful thing since Twitter. It allows me to be stress-free while traveling as I can quickly answer questions, snuff out fires and network from the road without having to freak out about finding WiFi.

Research free WiFi

Speaking of WiFi, if you need the Internet to work, you need to understand most countries are not like the States. Starbucks WiFi is not free. McDonald’s WiFi is slower than molasses. My best advice on this one is to find a public library (I’m writing this from the State Library of New South Wales), as they usually have plenty of work space, free Internet and power plugs.

You could also get an Internet dongle to ensure you have a connection and/or the Free Wifi Finder, which — wait for it — finds free WiFi in the form of cafes, bars and galleries in your area. And a simple Google of, for example, “free WiFi Sydney” doesn’t hurt either.

Figure out payment methods

I keep a U.S. account for all clients still in the States, and PayPal works wonders, too. I do, however, wish I had found a bank before leaving home that doesn’t charge such horrible fees for taking out international money.

Bank of America has some decent partnerships, though I’d rather light myself on fire than go back to them. I’ve also heard HSBC is a good place to go if you’re a big traveler. I’m kicking myself for not doing the research as right now I spend at least $40 each month just on fees.

Get on MeetUp

The best part about traveling is the people you meet. But just because you’re meting other travelers doesn’t mean you can’t network, too. Even when I’m in a city for just a few weeks, I find an Americans in Melbourne/Auckland/London Meetup group I can join just to a) meet some people and b) network my face off.

Also ask friends or co-workers at home if they know anyone in the city of your choice, and if you’re a social media kinda guy or gal, put the call out there. I spent my first few weeks in Melbourne in coffee shops because I happened to know people who know people there. It’s been surprisingly good in terms of work and pleasure.

Working abroad right now or considering it? I have to say, even with these obstacles, I couldn’t recommend it more. It’s relatively easy to get a working holiday visa to most countries and, especially in places like Australia and NZ, the economy is hugely better than in the States.

Just food for thought, yo.

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post Want to Work From the Road? It Ain’t Easy appeared first on Brazen Life.

For whatever reason, I freak out that everyone knows each other and no one wants me there, so I hide in a corner and make a grand total of zero new contacts. Regardless of the fact that most other people also hate these events, I still find ways to avoid them.

Problem is, we all know if you want to go anywhere with your career you need to know people. The solution for shy people like yours truly? Grow some balls.

Turns out the difficulty isn’t usually the conversation, but getting the conversation started. So here are some ways to work your way into the crowd and triumphantly come out with a pile of business cards you may or may not throw out later:

Find a break in the clumps

If you’ve ever been one of the lucky few who finds themselves in a clump of chatty people, you’ve probably experienced this phenomenon: You’re in the Clump, talking about health care or whatever and you notice a Lurker, someone who’s found a hole in the clump and is awkwardly trying to join the conversation.

Be that lurker

Thing is, no one actually minds the lurker! It’s not like you’re high schoolers gossiping about Tammi’s new haircut. These folks are all here to network and those lurkers have the right idea.

So if you arrive at an event and notice everyone’s already in little circles making friends, find a break in the groups. Listen for a bit, then chime in with your own story. It will be like you’d been there all along — and I pinky-promise no one will mind.

Find the Loner

I’m better networking one-on-one than trying to charm a group of people, so the trick is to look for the person who looks the way you feel – someone desperately clutching a glass of wine in one hand and pretending to text in the other. Yes, pretending. (I’ve gone so far as pretend to take a phone call.)

Waltz on up to them and FAKE. IT. Act like that charming person who rocks up and makes friends immediately. Say, “Hi, my name’s Francois. How are you getting on?” or even, “What are you doing all alone over here?”

Tell it like it is

While people may look at you weird, it often pays to be really honest in these situations. Sometimes I’ll push my way into a clump and say, “I know absolutely no one here and was standing awkwardly in the corner pretending to text. Will you guys make me look like I have some sort of a social life?”

Doing this successfully not only gives you the confidence to do it again, it helps you realize everyone can relate.

Head to the punch bowl

People usually head to the food and drink area alone, making this the perfect time to laugh with the person next to you about the cheap wine or vegetarian options. So if you’re really lonely, head over the food area often. Just make sure you don’t refill your wine glass every time. (Though, if you do, you might be infinitely better at making new friends.)

Offer your help

Occasionally I’ve arrived early to events and offered to help set up. Doing this can make you feel like you have a purpose other than standing around, and the organizers will get to know you, meaning you have someone to talk to later.

But be wary of getting roped into helping with the whole event. Surprisingly, attendees may see you as “the help” and not make an effort to get to know you. (I was once asked to film a speaker and ended up working the whole night.)

These tricks have seriously helped me be less of a whiny bitch and more of superstar. And by “superstar,” I mean “not a huge embarrassment.”

What can you add to this? Any advice for those of us who still cringe at the thought of networking events?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

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The post How to Grow Some Balls at Your Next Networking Event appeared first on Brazen Life.