The world is full of high-achieving, interesting individuals, and one of our goals at Job Brander is to highlight just a few of them. This month’s profile features Molly Mahoney Matthews, a DC based entrepreneur and author who’s new book, ”Unsinkable: Find a Job, Create a Career, Build a Business” was recently released for digital download on Amazon.com.

After selling her healthcare company in 2006, Molly looked back on what she had learned so far, and decided it was time to pass some of that knowledge on to the public…

…Well, not exactly.

“I never thought of myself as an author,” Molly told me, “I started writing the book as a memoir for my daughter,” but after attending some writing workshops, she decided that she could transform her thoughts into a business book, and Unsinkable was born.

Like many entrepreneurs, Molly Matthews has had her hand in a number of projects over the years and not all of them have been as great as she would have liked.  After working as a camp counselor in high school and college, she found herself employed as a research assistant one summer. “It was a disaster,” Molly told me, “I wasn’t interested in the work. I was honestly just doing it for the paycheck,” but the experience taught her a valuable lesson anyway. “Don’t do anything just for the money,” she told me. While it’s a reality that sometimes you have to take a job you don’t care about just to make ends meet, Molly’s advice was to keep looking for the next opportunity to do what you truly love.

And continuing to look for new opportunities is something that Molly is almost always doing. After leaving the hospital she worked at, she looked back at her career and realized that if she continued to follow the corporate path she was on, she was going to keep bumping up against the “glass ceiling.” Like many people who won’t settle, Molly went out on her own. “I started out just thinking, I can get enough clients to just make my salary back,” she told me, and within a few months, she had done just that. Her healthcare company brought in recruits for medical studies, which Molly really enjoyed because she felt that she was helping people with especially difficult diseases and conditions.

As her company grew, she finally realized that it was time to take her business to the next level. “There were six of us working out of a basement,” she laughed, “it was definitely tight.” She saw that other companies in her field were pursuing big government contracts, and realized that those huge multi-year commitments were to key to her company’s success. Soon, she was winning a few of them, and Matthews Media Group was on it’s way to bringing in its 100th employee.

Still, Molly wasn’t sure that the industry was going to remain a good fit for much longer. “I liked hiring people and giving them an opportunity where they didn’t seem to be a perfect fit,” she told me, “but things were changing.” As regulations started to increase and Molly got further removed from the part of her work that she loved, she decided to sell her company to a larger organization, and move on.

Throughout her career, Molly has been involved in numerous non-profit organizations, and has always had a passion for helping others. She told me that’s been one of her most important life lessons, “Volunteering is a great way to make connections and get out there in the community.” She currently sits on the boards of several local organizations including St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she said she’s gotten a great chance to see the quickly changing world of higher education. “The price tag on education is the most critical issue in this generation,” she told me.

While writing, editing, and self-publishing her book, Molly has found a new way to express her passion for helping others. Unsinkable is out now, but Molly hopes to do even more with the book soon – possibly even creating a college course around its content. Meanwhile, she’s also co-founded a new project called Lucky Planet Food that aims to create and market vegan and other health-conscious meals to consumers who may want to eat well, but be unaware of how it’s done. With all of her experience and passion, I feel sure that Unsinkable won’t be the last thing we hear from Molly Mahoney Matthews.

Feel free to connect with Molly on Twitter and check out her book on Amazon.com.

The post Monthly Profile: Molly Mahoney Matthews, Author of “Unsinkable” appeared first on Job Brander.

Initially, I don’t suspect that smart watches will be seen as their own unique channel for marketers. The models currently being released are really just extensions of smart phones, but if the technology improves a bit, we might see independent smart watches that are linked to the internet via their own wireless signals. This will mean new opportunities for app-makers, advertisers, and marketers who want to spread their message in real time to consumers. Here are some of the biggest ways smart watches will change the marketing landscape:

1. Directly tied to users

The biggest difference between a smart watch and a smart phone is the constant proximity to the user. While most people probably keep their smart phones close at hand, they may not feel it buzz in their pocket or they might leave it at the office when they’re on their lunch break. Smart watches are an “always on” experience, and it would be much harder to ignore a buzzing on your wrist than one deeply hidden in a puffy jacket.

2. Location, motion, and time awareness

Like smart phones, smart watches are location and motion aware. On the smart phone, this opened up opportunities for companies like Foursquare, Instagram, and Google to try innovative location-based advertising opportunities. I suspect this trend will only continue as smart watches could potentially determine what activities you’re engaged in (typing at a keyboard sends different motion signatures than walking or running), where you are, and what time you normally eat lunch, buy clothes, or get coffee. All of these factors will make for a more personal experience on smart watches.

3. More selective, full-screen experiences

Screen real estate is scarce enough on smart phones, but it’s scarcer still on smart watches. This will mean that banner ads will have to be crammed down to microscopic sizes or removed completely in favor of full-screen interruptions. Neither one of those options are ideal, but hopefully the relevance of the messages will make up for the lack of space.

4. New, smarter funnels for users

As with other forms of mobile marketing, bringing in new customers will mean creating and testing new funnels. A user who wants to download and use an app on his smart watch will have a dramatically different experience than one who does so on his desktop computer. Inputs will need to be simplified, choices stripped down, and simplicity increased. It’s likely that more will be handled through universal logins, and that might mean more limited access to customer data. Either way, capitalizing on these new customers will be a challenge in the industry.

What do you think about smart watches? Can you think of any innovative ways they might be used in marketing someday? Let me hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The post How the Smart Watch is Set to Change Mobile Marketing appeared first on Job Brander.

1. Priorities

When you don’t take the time to shave, your hair is a mess, and your socks don’t match, most people will assume that you haven’t made your presentation a top priority. Hey, it’s no big deal, we all have our off days, just make sure this isn’t how you look when you walk in on your first day at a new job. If people know that you make your personal appearance a priority, they’re more likely to think that you pay the same attention to detail in your work.

2. Trendiness

While your job may not demand that you keep up with the absolute latest fashions, any job that involves real time marketing will demand that you know what’s going on in the world. If your wardrobe is too far out of date, people will assume that you’re out of touch with current events and pop culture. Maybe this isn’t a big deal in some industries, but if you’re in entertainment or news, you bet it is.

3. Confidence

I’ve worked with a lot of engineers over the years. It’s funny when they get dressed up for a special occasion because you can tell which ones feel comfortable and confident in a suit and which ones clearly wear jeans to work most days. Whatever you wear, make sure that it makes you feel confident, even if that means being a little under-dressed sometimes. Some jobs might require a suit and tie every day, so if you aren’t comfortable in that kind of attire, either get used to it or get out.

4. Social Rank

There are always exceptions to this, but for the most part, we expect people in a certain social class to dress a certain way. I wish that this kind of classism didn’t exist, but it’s not something you’re going to change overnight. If you want people to think that you’re cut out for that high-level executive position, your wardrobe should show it.

How has your personal brand been effected by your wardrobe? Do you make a conscious effort to show yourself in a positive light? Let me hear about it in the comments below.

The post What do Your Clothes Say About Your Personal Brand? appeared first on Job Brander.

1. Ask about the interviewer’s experience with the company

People like to talk about themselves. Once you realize this and consciously apply it to job interviews – especially phone interviews – you can quickly make up for any missed cues in non-verbal communication. Ask the interviewer what he likes about his job and the company, how he got started working with them, and what kind of things he and his coworkers do outside of work. This will also give you some valuable insight into the company’s culture.

2. Ask about the department or company’s vision

The best companies sell their vision to their employees, so you need to make sure you can buy into it. If the phone interviewer is able to quickly and convincingly summarize the company’s vision, and it sounds like something you could get into, that’s a good sign. This also shows the interviewer that you’re interested in the position for more than just a paycheck, and that you want to help the company’s overarching goals.

3. Ask about your direct supervisor and his/her experience

At a large company, your phone interviewer probably won’t be your direct supervisor, but an HR rep tasked with filtering through the large pool of applicants. You might not get to meet your direct supervisor until later in the process, but the more you can find out about him now, the better. See if you can get on your direct supervisor’s radar through social media, and figure out what kind of boss you think he’ll be. Asking this also shows the job interviewer again that you’re interested in more than just the paycheck.

4. Ask about day-to-day specifics of the job

Job descriptions have a tendency to skip a lot of details, so a phone interview is a great time to figure out what the day-to-day aspects of the job are like. If your interviewer doesn’t know, this would also be a great time to get contact information for someone who might. You don’t want to waste time on further interviews if you’re going to hate the job, so it’s best to get a good feel for the ins and outs of the position before you proceed.

5. Ask about the potential for travel and training

Good companies want their employees to get better. If you feel that your phone interview is going well, and you’ve developed a good rapport with the interviewer, let him know that you’re interested in advanced training and open to travel. This will show him that you’re flexible and eager to learn, both excellent traits to have as a potential new hire.

6. Ask about next steps, mention that you’re willing to do an in-person interview

Finally, if you feel that this job is something you really want, let the interviewer know, and ask them what’s next. It’s likely that the interviewer was going to close with this information anyway, so you’ve just made his job a little easier. Since this is just a phone interview, mention that you’d like to come in for an in-person conversation if possible. If you don’t think this position is right for you, don’t do this though. Genuine interest is easy to spot, and you don’t want to waste your interviewer’s or your own time.

What tips do you have for phone interviews? Have you ever had an especially good or bad one? Let me hear your story in the comments below.

The post 6 Questions to Ask During a Phone Interview appeared first on Job Brander.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to happen to you. A crappy internship might teach you what you don’t want to do with your life, but it probably won’t give you the opportunity to learn much useful information. It’s better to avoid this situation before you get hired than to power through it once you’ve already committed to the company. Here are a few ways you can tell that an internship is going to suck before you step foot in the door:

Finding positive reviews of the company is hard to do

There are a ton of great job review websites out there now, but one of the best I’ve found is Glassdoor. You can also check out social networks like Twitter or Linkedin to find perspectives from current and past employees. If you spend some time looking around and you can’t find anybody to vouch for the job, you might be walking into trouble. Double that red flag if you find more negative reviews than positive ones about the company. Maybe your experience will be good, but it might not be worth risking it.

Your interviewer is clearly not engaged

If you get to the interview phase, you can probably learn a lot by your interviewer’s attitude. If he or she is clearly unexcited by his job, there’s a good possibility that you will be too. Companies know that it’s a good idea to send their most enthusiastic advocates out to conduct interviews, and if you don’t get a good impression from your interviewer, you might want to take that into consideration.

Your boss hasn’t ever had an intern before

Having worked as an intern several times and had several of my own interns, I can safely say that the boss’ ability to manage and work with the intern is one of the most important factors in your experience. Some bosses who have never had an intern before think that they can just hand a project off to a brand new intern and it will come back perfectly complete in three weeks. The bad internship boss has probably forgotten how little he knew when he first started, and won’t be very excited to hear that you have questions every day or two about your project.

On the other hand, bosses who have had interns before know the appropriate amount of help vs. independence that an intern needs in order to have a good experience. Be wary of being your boss’s first intern.

The position’s description lacks clarity

Some companies look at hiring an intern as an excuse to have a do-everything lackey around. This kind of internship probably won’t go well. While it’s true that you should be adaptable while you’re an intern, if you don’t have a clear goal and project to work on going into the position, you risk coming out of it with very little real experience. The job position should be specific enough that you can actually describe the two or three primary responsibilities you will have, and if it’s not, your interviewer should clear up any questions you have. Even if they don’t know everything, a good interviewer will get you in touch with your future manager before you start so you can ask him or her.

The company is unwilling to disclose details until you commit to the internship

Anytime a company refuses to answer your questions until you accept their offer, you should be wary. Whether your questions are about the specifics of the job, the hours you’ll work, or your boss’ identity, unanswered questions are a red flag for your future internship. Even if you’re the one who needs the internship more than they need you to work for them you should assert yourself.

Have you ever had a really bad internship experience? Maybe a terrible boss? Let me hear your story in the comments below.

The post How to Know if Your Internship is Going to Suck appeared first on Job Brander.

That’s exactly what Klout aims to do in its effort to connect personal brands with corporate brands. Check out Klout’s COO at South By Southwest last week:

What kind of rewards for lasting relationships does Klout have in store? I don’t know, but I’m sure plenty of influencers out there who are excited about what’s coming next. Either way, it’s clear that your online brand might soon have more tangible value than ever before.

The post Video: How Influential is Your Personal Brand? appeared first on Job Brander.

If you’re just finishing up college and looking for a job, you should be using Twitter to your advantage, and not hiding behind the wall of a locked account. Even if you’ve already got a job, Twitter is a great place to build your personal brand, and it’s really hard to do that if you’ve protected your tweets. My recommendation is to immediately clean up your tweets and open up your account to the public, and here are the biggest reasons to do so:

Twitter is the best place to network with people you don’t know

I’ve used Twitter to connect with dozens of people in real life who I never would have met otherwise. One of my best friends in the world was originally just a person I followed on Twitter, and I’ve landed job interviews just because I followed and tweeted at the right people at the right time. I can’t emphasize how powerful this network is if you’re using it correctly, and by protecting your tweets, you will miss out on Twitter’s biggest advantage over Facebook.

You look like you have something to hide

When I see a protected Twitter account, I assume the person behind the lock is tweeting his drunken adventures every weekend. This usually turns out not to be true, but the secretiveness doesn’t send a good message to those who don’t know you. If you’re using Twitter for something risque like sending sexy messages to your boyfriend or girlfriend, you should probably stop and use a more secure medium.

You can always keep two accounts

While I don’t think this strategy is ideal, if you find that your tweets to your friends just aren’t appropriate for your professional image, why not open up a new, public account for professional purposes? Use an app like TweetDeck to manage both of them on the web, or Twitter’s app to do so on your smart phone, and it really isn’t that hard to manage. I’ve been in charge of four or more Twitter accounts at a time for clients and employers, and once you get a system in place it’s pretty simple to update and check them every day.

Protected accounts are useless for promoting your blog or other work

Finally, if you’re looking to develop a career in social media, you have to learn that Twitter is one of the best branding and promotional tools out there. Within a couple months of work, you can build a following and drive traffic to your own blog or website, but you can’t do that with your account set to private. Protected tweets can’t be retweeted, and any mentions of your name will be hidden from users outside your approved followers. This seriously impedes any attempt you could make at using Twitter for professional development or job hunting.

Do you keep your Twitter account private? If so I’d like to hear why in the comments below.

The post Why New Graduates Should Set Their Twitter Accounts to “Public” appeared first on Job Brander.

As marketing majors get started writing their first resume, or just updating the one they already have, here are some things to consider:

Format and length

One of the most common concerns I hear from marketing majors putting together a resume is about the format and length of their document. I am of the mindset that there are no hard and fast rules to writing a good resume (with the exception of always avoiding grammatical and spelling errors), but some HR people have more rigid standards.

First, don’t go wild with the format unless you’re extremely confident in your design abilities. While some graphically oriented companies might like an unusually creative resume, most hiring managers probably won’t get it. Stick with a simple, clean, 1-page layout. It’s not worth killing your chances at getting your first job with a distracting format.

Experience and order

The first thing that every resume should have is a clear header, but once you’ve listed your name and contact information, what’s next?

There are a couple theories on what order your experience should appear on your resume, but if you’re a student or recent graduate in marketing, it’s probably best to stick with a traditional reverse chronological resume. This system is pretty simple, especially if you don’t have a ton of experience, but basically, you put your most recent experience on top, and work your way backward in time down the page.

For most marketing majors this means your college, major, and GPA should appear first followed by any internship experience you’ve had. If you don’t have much (or any) internship experience, you should definitely include something. A personal blog, unrelated work experience, club memberships, or volunteer experience are all fair game, but try to make them seem relevant in some way if possible.

I’ve spoken with many freshmen and sophomores in college who think that they don’t have enough experience to even have a whole page for their resume. This is almost never true. In my freshman year of college, I had no relevant work experience, but I included a volunteer trip that I made to Costa Rica in high school. Every employer I interviewed with asked me about it, and I got 4 internship offers that semester. Use your prior experience as a way to show key skills like responsibility, managerial ability, and communicat even if the experience wasn’t directly in the marketing industry.

Skills and keywords

While most employers will care more about the skills that they see you’ve used during your work experience, many people include a special section at the bottom of their resume to highlight their strengths or skills. One big reason to do this nowadays is to improve your resume’s likelihood of being found online.

Yes, many large employers are using automated keyword search tools to find only candidates who have expressly listed skills that they are looking for. I personally think this practice is lazy and ineffective, but with so many people spamming their resume onto job boards, I can see why they have to do it. As you read over a job description, you should update your skills to include keywords that you think the company might be looking for, but for goodness’ sake, don’t lie about them. If you do, it’ll just come out in the interview when they ask you, so there’s no sense wasting yours and their time.

Objective statements

There has been some debate over the use of objective statements on resumes lately. In some cases they seem pretty unnecessary, and other times, they might be very useful.

An objective statement is designed to quickly show a future employer what you’re looking for and why you would be right for a job. If an employer picked your resume out of an online database and you hadn’t specifically applied for their job, it might be helpful for the employer. On the other hand, if you’re expressly applying for a job, then your experience and cover letter should speak for themselves. Personally, I believe it is better to put your objective statement in an email if you can find contact information for the hiring manager. This way, you give him some reason to open up your resume and find out more.

Tailoring to specific jobs

Every resume you send out should be unique. No two companies are the same, no two jobs are the same, and no two hiring managers are the same. Get to know as much about the company’s culture and the job’s specific requirements as you can, and make sure you tailor your resume to the required skills. If the company you want to work for is relatively small, you might even be able to figure out who exactly will be reviewing your resume, and in that case, figure out what they might be looking for or how you can connect with him or her more personally. Spamming your resume to as many employers as possible is a much less effective strategy than taking the time to do some research.

What tips do you have for marketing job resumes? Would you recommend anything different? Let me hear about it in the comments below.

The post Writing a Resume for Marketing Majors appeared first on Job Brander.

Finding a job in green marketing requires a few key skills, but if you’re interested in the field, you might be able to find something that you’re truly passionate about. Here are some tips for finding jobs in green marketing:

1. Know the terminology and numbers

Saving energy, reducing waste, and running a more efficient business all play a role in green marketing. Get familiar with the basic terminology to define these initiatives; for example: kilowatts of electricity, tons of recyclable waste vs. trash, and gallons of water usage and waste. You don’t have to be an expert in every aspect of green business, but you should be familiar with the statistics presented by companies and the government in the industry you want to get hired into.

2. Research companies with green initiatives

Some companies are more progressive than others when it comes to green initiatives, and you can bet that the ones who are doing a good job are broadcasting it openly. Finding a job in green marketing at one of these companies is probably your best bet. Once you’ve narrowed down your search to a few key companies, start using the web to connect with people in their office and see if you can find any leads on job openings there. Just as with most other jobs, most green marketing jobs are found through networking.

3. Volunteer for environmentally-friendly charities

One of the best ways to network yourself into an eco-friendly industry is to start volunteering. Pick charities that some of the green companies you researched in the previous step are supporting, and you might even meet someone in the company on your first day. Even if you don’t make any direct connections volunteering, it’s a really good way to make your resume stand out when you do apply for a job in green marketing.

4. Take classes that boost your resume

You may not have to get any special green certifications to land a job in green marketing, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least take some classes related to the industry in which you hope to work. Many colleges (especially those on the West Coast) are now offering green marketing classes, and you may even be able to find some online. The more you have to boost your awareness of green marketing challenges on your resume, the more likely you are to be considered a standout candidate.

5. Get familiar with green political policies

Let’s be honest, one of the biggest reasons that many companies seek green initiatives is that the government clamps down on them to do so. If you’re interested in making an impact on a company’s marketing department, you’ll need to know what role government regulations and incentives have played in the industry. You will really impress a job interviewer if you have done your homework on green political policies that effect their company.

Finding a job in green marketing isn’t unlike finding a job in any other area of marketing, but it does require a more specific focus. Industries like fossil fuels, energy, and manufacturing have the biggest need to do green marketing well, but now that everyone is thinking a little more about eco-friendly business, your search doesn’t have to be limited.

The post Ecomarketing: Finding Jobs in Green Marketing appeared first on Job Brander.

Problem 1: App Overload

Smart phone users have a lot of options when it comes to apps. Both of the major app stores out there (provided by Apple and Google) have over 700,000 apps each, and that doesn’t even include the second-tier stores provided by Microsoft and Blackberry. There’s no way that an average consumer would even skim the surface of what’s available, and this means that a company trying to break into the mobile app world is going to have to work really hard to make a splash.

Solution: Does your company really need an app? Can you make a mobile or responsive website instead? Could you partner with another mobile app that already has traction instead? Are there even any clear-cut advantages to investing in your own unique app? Figure out the answer to those questions before you go any further.

Problem 2: Linking Web to Mobile Userbases

Companies that do pursue their own app may find themselves with two problems when it comes to their users: linking their user databases, and monitoring mobile traffic and conversions. As in any form of marketing, you have to have metrics to monitor your success, and if you don’t have a clear path to translate your mobile marketing into dollars, you’re making a bad move. Just as bad is having duplicate users where there should really only be one. Even if a user has to log in to use your mobile app, are they using the same email or social network to do so?

Solution: Always know your customer. Always track key metrics. Always gather the best data possible. You don’t want your boss to ask you how your mobile marketing efforts are going one day and not have a clear-cut answer. Make sure that your mobile user-flow coincides with your online or in-store user-flow as much as possible, and measure your bottlenecks just like you would in online marketing.

Problem 3: Poor Working Knowledge of Mobile Users

The average age of a marketing director is 42. Now, that’s not old by any means, but people 45 years of age or older, are significantly less likely to own and regularly use their own smart phone. What does that mean for companies developing a mobile marketing strategy? They’re probably looking to the young guns for help. While it’s great that this might open up opportunities for professionals in their 20′s and 30′s, it also means that less experiences marketers are taking on the task of mobile marketing.

Solution: If you’re young, learn as much as you can about the fundamentals of marketing, and notice how good apps get you tied into their user experience. If you’re in the older generation, get a smart phone. There’s no way you can tell me they aren’t the way of the present any more.

Problem 4: Device Fragmentation

Mobile strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all game anymore. With smart phones ranging in screen sizes from 3″ to 5.3″, and tablets as big as a laptop, marketing messages have to be considerate of their users. The problem of device size and functionality is known in the tech world as “fragmentation,” and it can be a huge headache for mobile marketers.

Solution: Know what your customers use, and tailor your message to their devices. You don’t have to have a website that looks flawless on every screen, but it should always work, and if you know your customers are especially partial to iPhones, it should definitely look good on that device. You can use analytics tools to see what devices your web and in-app traffic is coming from.

Problem 5: Unclear or Poorly Defined Goals

Because the mobile marketing craze has come on us so quickly, a lot of companies – especially larger ones – have rushed to create an app in order to have their name out there in the marketplace. While I’m all for early adoption of technology, adopting to technology without a clear goal and strategy in place is simply a waste of resources.

Solution: As with all marketing strategies, your mobile strategy must have clearly defined goals in order to succeed. Is your mobile strategy aimed at getting new customers or better serving those you already have? Does upper management expect it to be a sales platform, or are they just interested in getting it out for a press release? Know why your mobile marketing strategy exists before you ever start making one.

Have you encountered any other issues in your mobile marketing efforts? Is your company still struggling to figure out the world of smart phones and apps? Let me hear about it in the comments below.

The post Problems and Solutions in Mobile Marketing appeared first on Job Brander.