Interview Question Don'ts

March means the start of interviewing for those much-wanted summer internships, and for some of us, the start of a real career search. By now, you’ve been informed of some of the types of questions you should ask after an interview, but what about the ones you need to  stay away from? PRDaily writer Denise Zimmerman breaks these questions into three main categories:

The Obvious – These questions are the ones that you could have easily researched and found on your own, but you didn’t take the time to.  You never want to ask questions such as “who are your clients?” or “when were you founded?” when that information is readily available on the company website. These types of questions show the interviewer that you did not take the time to look into his or her company, and therefore, aren’t serious about the position. 

The all-about-me – Things such as summer vacations, salary, hours etc. are all types of questions that fall into this category.  When interviewing, you need to remember that this is a mutually beneficial deal. Great interview questions are focused more on what the job role entails or what is expected of someone in that role instead of individualized needs and wants. Employers want people who are interested in the success of the company, not someone who is just focused on his or herself.

No questions at all – Although this is not quite a question, recruiters and Human Resources managers agree that this may be even worse than asking some of the questions listed above. Asking well-thought out questions reinforces the interest and commitment into the position and the importance of it being a right fit for you. Yes, you may be there looking for an opportunity of any kind, but you want to make sure that you are aware of what to expect from the role you will play in the organization. 

By being well informed of the types of questions you shouldn’t ask, you can better prepare yourself with the ones you should to land that dream internship or job you are looking for. Great questions help show the interviewer you want to make sure to make the best decision for you and the employer. Interviews are much more successful when there is two-way communication, not just a standard one-sided question and answer format.  So go out there and show those employers how prepared you are and land that dream internship you have been waiting for!

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Jessica Ross.

Employers and Personal Social Media Use Reexamined

With social media accepted as such a normal practice in the lives of not only us PR people, but also throughout the general population,  many employers have now implemented legal contracts that forbid you from posting certain thoughts on social media. Many of the guidelines center on ideas of not portraying the company in a negative light or posting about work-related issues.  Seems fair right? Not anymore. 

According to a National Relations Labor Board ruling last week, current guidelines in place are just too broad. These recent rulings have declared workers have the right to free speech on the internet without any fear of retribution for their opinions. This news changes how many of us have viewed what is the proper etiquette when you work for a company, and while this etiquette still stands as best practice, those who choose to use social media to vent now can do so freely. This ruling shows how many of our older rights will translate into this ever-evolving world. 

Even with this ruling, it is probably not the best practice to start venting about your boss through social media, which may cause an undesirable work atmosphere, but it is important to know what is legal expected of you within your duties as an employee. It may be best to look over your current employer’s guidelines (if they have them) to make sure you aren’t being taken advantage of or wrongly informed in regards to your personal social media use. 

What do you think about the relationship between personal social media use and your work life? Do you agree your employer cannot dictate what you post about them?

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Jessica Ross.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T : Why Public Relations Doesn’t Always Receive It

As a Senior Strategic Communications student, I am used to having relatives I haven’t seen in a while ask, “What exactly is it that you are studying?” When I tell them that I eventually want to get into public relations, they look at me like they have no idea what I am talking about They then go on to ask if it’s like Advertising or like Marketing, and they still don’t understand the importance (or relevance) of what I want to do. 

When talking to friends who hope to break into public relations, this seems to be a wide spread issue, and recently while looking through other blogs, I have noticed others seeing this as well.  Patrick Coffee, from PRNewser goes into the five things that make public relations such a hard job to understand, and in turn, respect:

• Problems measuring success. Public Relations campaigns are not a hard science. You can’t use x+y=z in the PR realm. Certain things will work for certain people and not others. Also, it is hard to calculate the exact value in media coverage since there is no specific dollar amount to relate it to.
• Problems with scalability. Business people sometimes think that if one idea worked, just do more of it! This is almost never the case with public relations work, and it is hard for some to understand why this is. 
• Bad relations with journalists. The mass email is NOT your friend–it’s that simple. Some PR professionals don’t understand that they need to tailor their pitches to emphasize how it benefits and fulfills each specific journalist’s wants and needs. 
• PR cannot fix everything. Arthur W. Page, the first PR man to serve on the board of directors of a major company is known for the principle “Public perception of an organization is determined 90 percent by what it does and 10 percent by what it says.” When a brand hits rock bottom, such as BP, the public generally won’t buy what its PR team is selling. There is no use in putting lipstick on a pig.

How do you explain to people what you do? Do you think the emergence of newer PR tools, such as social media, are helping others see how important public relations is to an organization?

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Jessica Ross.

Shifting Your Social Media Strategy When No One Seems to be Noticing You

Social media strategy should not be something new to savvy PR professionals. But what do you do when you have been tweeting, posting and pinning and there seems to be no result?  

Here are a few steps to shift your strategy to make sure you are getting the most out of the enormous world of social media.

1. Make sure your information is correctly targeted: Many may think posting event, information or links is enough to get yourself noticed, but you have to make sure that you still know who your audience is.  There is a lot of content out there, and it is easy to get lost in the sea of information. Know who you were originally looking to engage with and make sure your language and approach is properly aimed towards those groups. 
2. Learn to continue the conversation: Not only does your information need to stay targeted, but also you need to follow-up and continue to engage and communicate just like you would in more traditional media types.  Don’t expect consumers or journalist to automatically come to you for more information. Stay on top of details and send out updates when needed to make sure you gain as much exposure as possible. 
3. Don’t ignore negativity: There will always be people opposed to whatever you are posting. Learn how to react to these situations without diverging from the problem. Ignoring negative feedback will never help, and deleting the conversation makes it seem like their arguments may hold some form of weight against your client or brand. 
4. Take baby steps: You cannot wake up one day and decide “I want to switch how I engage in social media!” You need to start with your basics and figure out what works for you and your client. Social media is not a math equation where if you do x and y, you will always produce z. First learn to crawl, then walk, then run. It is the only way to guarantee your improvements and shifts will be noticed. 

Have you ever had to shift your social media strategy? How did it work for you? Let us know.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations Staff member Jessica Ross.

Questions That Will Help you Ace the End of the Interview

So you’ve made it over the first hurdle, you secured yourself an interview, did all of your research and aced all of the questions your interviewer had. Now, it’s your turn. At the end of the interview, there is always the dreaded “do you have any questions?” question that many applicants walk in unprepared for. This moment is just as important as the questions the interviewer asks because it is your chance to make sure they are a great fit for you, not just you for them. Here is a list of questions that give the interviewer the chance to really breakdown the organization to you: 

1.Can you give me some examples of what a typical day would look like in this position? 

Asking this question can get you truly prepared for what is to come. The worst feelings is arriving at a new job and realizing you are in over your head, or that you are walking into a position you won’t utilize all yours skills.

2.Where do you think the company is headed in the next 5 years?

This question not only shows that you are interested in the well-being of the company long-term, but also that you can compare your goals to where this job may progress to. 

3.What do you like best about working for this company?

This helps decipher the kind of atmosphere you are about to get into. For instance, if the interviewer were to respond that they love the laidback vibe all the managers give and you are someone who needs an authoritarian figure, this may not be the place for you.

4.What are the opportunities for growth and career advancement?

This question serves two purposes. One- It helps you to understand where the job may 

lead and the skills you might acquire. Two-it also signals that you are ambitious and thinking ahead.

5.Why did you come to work here? What keeps you here?
When you ask questions directly about the interviewer, they remember that you care about them as a person, not just the potential paycheck that could come from meeting them.

The saying goes that if you do something you love, you will never work a day in your life. These questions can give you insight into more than just a job description. They benefit both parties involved. You can see if this is somewhere you would want to work, as well as show the interviewer you are a strong candidate for the position they are trying to fill. 

How I was Able to Take on My Own Client as an Intern

This semester I am interning at Diccicco Battista Communications. This having been my first internship ever, I wasn’t expecting to be able to get heavily involved from the get-go. I was very wrong. It seemed as though this internship was unlike the usual file papers, coffee runner types you hear of. About two weeks into my time at DBC, we lost an account manager. Everyone was forced to pick up the extra client responsibilities, as they were divvying them up, an opportunity came up for me to take on a client. Never had I thought I would be able to have my own client as an intern.


So this brings me to my point, if you put yourself out there, you may be surprised at how far you can go. 


Do everything you can. Companies hire you for help. They also cycle through interns on a regular basis so they have gotten underachievers, overachievers, and everything in-between. Toget the full experience of an internship you not only have to overachieve on the assignments they give you, but also surprise them with things they never thought you would, or could, do. This includes little things such as finding a better way to organize all the media clips or creating media lists that can be universal to many clients.

Not only know everybody, but know what everybody is working on. If you know what someone is working on even before they ask, you might know something to point them in the right direction. Volunteer yourself as a resource, if you have an area of expertise that can benefit one of your coworkers, lend a hand. This helps everyone see you are welcome to help everyone, even outside your immediate department. When news of the Facebook timeline came out, I made sure I emailed the head of the media department to forward him an article I found. Although he already knew, it showed that I didn’t just care about my work, or even my department, but the company as a whole.

Take every opportunity you can. My agency does a lot of events, and although I was never required to attend, I went to every one. Seeing my face there showed that I didn’t treat this as an internship, it was a job. When you do things you don’t necessarily have to do, you show even more initiative to gain responsibility. I also attended all the events that the agency had for “bonding” to show I wanted to be a part of the organization.

I have now begun to execute a full media plan for the Art Director’s Club of Philadelphia with my name on it. For once, I can walk out of an internship truly showing that I created something, that I wasn’t just a shadow behind another account manager. That has got to be one of the best feelings I have ever had, and now know how to really flourish in this industry. Your internship does not expect you to be perfect, but when you do everything in your power to be, plus some, you never know what the reward could be. The purpose of your internship is to help you, but you never know how much you can help them, even beyond normal intern work.


This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Jessica Ross.

Pitching Basics

As a public relations professional, one of the most basic things you write is a pitch to the media. A media pitch is helpful to accompany a press release, to convince a journalist why your story should be covered or in a time crunch, a pitch can even replace a press release. But how do you ensure a successful pitch?

It’s all about relationships: No matter how many times you’re told this, you always need to hear it one more time. Reporters have jobs too. They aren’t going to listen to every PR person that calls or emails them. Finding key people to help your clients and maintaining good relationships with them, such as getting them information on time, remembering personal information and only pitching stories to them that you know they would have interest in covering, can really help show that you aren’t just trying to use them for their coverage, but do in fact value their time.

Timing is everything: Reporters are just as busy as you are: They don’t want to hear about stories that aren’t newsworthy. Try to keep in mind the relevance of your topic to each reporter and keep your pitches to around 15-30 seconds. Also, try to avoid calling the office at the busiest times of the day. For TV, the busiest times are around the morning, noon, and evening newscast. Newspapers have deadlines in the evening, so call them well before, when they aren’t working against the clock. Lastly, keep magazine calls between 11 a.m.- 3 p.m., which gives them time to settle in for the day before becoming bombarded with pitches.

Follow-ups and persistence are musts: Many times, stories are never covered because they get lost or forgotten about. There is a fine line between persistence and annoyance, but if you truly know your story is beneficial to that report, there is no shame in making sure they received enough information on it. Even if they don’t end up using your story, follow-ups, including a thank you, can help maintain that relationship that is so important in this industry.

Learning key concepts in pitching the media is an invaluable resource in the PR field. Pitches are one of the simplest forms of reaching out to the media, and once you begin to become more comfortable with media pitches, all these concepts will become second nature to you.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Jessica Ross.