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A Day In The Life of a New Professional
What can you expect from post-grad life? A friend of mine asked me this just a few days ago. He’ll be graduating in just a few weeks, and I can’t blame him for being curious.
I asked myself this question one year ago, right before I completed my own undergrad. Since then, my life has changed dramatically, and I am anxious to give some words of encouragement to anyone who is about to embark on the post-grad adventure.
That said, I had a hard time answering my friend’s question, so I decided to use my favorite writing tool of all time: storytelling.
This article is a chronicle of a typical day for me, Jon Negroni, and hopefully it will shed some light on the type of lifestyle you can expect from career life. There is a lot in the post about work, of course, but I also shared some of the more personal, albeit trivial, details of what exactly a day looks like for me.
[I wrote this last night] Today was Monday. The 22nd of April in 2013.
I woke up at 7am, completely cold thanks to this year’s oddly frigid April. Like any other day, I immediately went to my desk and made my daily to-do list and prayed to God that I would complete everything I had to do.
Because I don’t have to go to work until 10am, I had three hours to prepare for the day, so I read two chapters of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and went on my morning run. As always, I opted to do my morning run in silence in order to gather my thoughts for the day and get my mind going.
I walked my dog and grabbed The Wall Street Journal from my doorstep. I then made my breakfast and morning coffee while reading the paper. This part of the day is essential so that I can grasp the current events I can use and share later in the day.
Once I skimmed through the news, I checked my Facebook, Twitter, and some stats for jonnegroni.com
This is easily my favorite part of the day, as it usually consists of me browsing my social media channels stretched out on the couch with my dog comfortably beside me.
While getting ready for work, I turned the radio to NPR and caught some news on the Boston Bomber story. It got pretty depressing, so I eventually turned on Spotify and listened to folk music for the rest of the morning.
Though I don’t have to come in until 10am, I mostly aim to arrive about a half an hour early so that I can start the morning at a steady pace. The drive to work is only a few minutes, so I listened to “Time With You” by Marc Robillard, which is what I listen to on my way to work every single day. I like routines as you’ve probably gathered by now.
I am the social media and Google AdWords manager for a faith-based nonprofit, so I divide my day into two major sections of work. I give my mornings and early afternoon to social media and the rest to AdWords.
I began the day by writing all of our new stats on my dry erase board, which shows off our likes, reach, and followers for each of our social media channels, which includes two Facebook pages and two Twitter feeds.
After I checked over all of our notifications, mentions, retweets and favorites, I began posting our first round of stories.
The first few posts were based on content delivered to me at 8am, so it didn’t take long for me to get to the next stage of my typical day: gluttony. I scoured the internet for content to share and publish for our brand, using Google Alerts and Talkwalker. At any given time I’ll have up to about 1,000 articles and news stories to read through and disseminate.
I also sifted through my email while doing this. I went the whole weekend without marking my emails, so I ended up having 181 unread emails to deal with. I didn’t find anything particularly important except for a few articles I read and shared online.
By 11am, I had almost all of the day’s posts for Facebook and Twitter completed and scheduled, so I moved on to social media engagement.
Our website prompts you to create a profile, so I greet our new members every day and invite them to connect with us on social media. Since we had a weekend full of new members, it took me longer than normal to get through the list.
Next, I went over our notifications again and measured impressions for all of our posts over the weekend. I’ve been experimenting a lot with new types of stories we share, so I’ve been spending plenty of time watching our posts closely to see what works and what doesn’t.
Before I went to lunch at 12:30, I brought up the blog post I wrote Sunday night and did one last proofread. Once it was published and shared, I finally went home for lunch, though I checked my WordPress app for likes and shares almost the entire time.
Before I ate lunch, I went on another run, but this time using a Sony Walkman I received for free as a Klout.com perk. The music player is ideal for running since there are no wires, and they’re great for doing a run when I’m in a hurry. I ran for 10 minutes (so I wouldn’t sweat) and then came back inside to eat leftovers from the night before.
I headed back to work to finish the social media half of my day. Using Talkwalker again, I scoured the internet for keywords based on our brand to see who was talking about us and why. I found some articles people shared via Twitter and then made a startling discovery: Some of our content had been plagiarized.
You see, we write landing pages that are designed to help people with various problems such as suicide, depression, and mental health (that’s where my Google AdWords work comes in). One of our most popular pages is a large list full of simple tips on improving mental health.
Thanks to Talkwalker (which I’m doing a review on later this week), I discovered that the content of this page had been copied and posted on another brand’s Facebook page (I won’t divulge their name) without attributing our organization to the author.
I let my boss know about this and then communicated with the admin of the page in order to get the post properly credited. All in a day’s work for your local social media manager.
By 2:30, I was ready to spend the last four hours of my workday on Google AdWords.
Unlike social media, a lot of this work is a little more tedious and involves numbers and data, although today I wrote copy for ads we are preparing in regards to a child sponsorship project. I also did keyword research for our search ads.
We use Google AdWords to drive people to our landing pages, which are about tough topics like marital issues, mental illnesses, and more. I create ads for these pages, add tons of keywords, and then measure our clicks, impressions, and conversions for each of these pages in order to properly allocate our AdWords budget as effectively as possible.
There’s not much more to it than that. I like this part of my day because it allows my mind to sort of empty. I’ll listen to podcasts, classical music, and NPR to keep myself entertained. Today I listened to a few Freakonomics podcasts.
I finished the day’s work about an hour early, so I began to cool down and read blogs and articles that I could use for the next day before I eventually went home.
I changed into casual clothes and went to get groceries for the week. I went home and cooked to 90s music, ignoring my dog’s pleas for attention. Once I finished dinner and cleaned the kitchen, it was already sunset, so I set out to walk to a coffee shop just a few blocks away from where I live.
On my walk, I listened to “Rhapsody in Blue” by Gershwin, which was pretty much the most beautiful part of my day, as I observed the shifting sky to beautiful music.
I ran into a couple of friends at the coffee shop, including an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while and managed to catch up with. I got my beverage and read a few more chapters of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest before walking back home to “Meditation” by Thais, which was fantastic.
As soon as I got home, I changed into workout clothes and went to play tennis with one of my close friends for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, she completely bested me, but I still managed to have a great time.
I went home, cleaned up, and then worked on my book that I plan to have completed sometime this decade (sarcasm).
And then I wrote this article. Once I’ve finished, I plan on reading a few another chapter or two and getting some much-needed rest.
So there you have it. A typical day in the life of a new professional. I like to think that every single person has days exactly like this, but that is unfortunately ridiculous.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.
Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me)
5 Reasons Why You Need Twitter
Twitter is my favorite social network at the moment, so expect this analysis to be pretty biased. Of course, that bias comes from the personal realization that Twitter can be one of your greatest assets for your career.
Unlocking the potential to Twitter is something I was challenged to do two years ago at the behest of one my PR mentors. She relayed that the medium is not just growing in size but also in engagement, and I would surely be left behind if I didn’t get the ball rolling by the time I moved into the professional world.
The question here is, “Why Twitter?” Well, there are many reasons, and I suspect that a good number of people who read this will have a personal Twitter profile stashed away somewhere with maybe a dozen Tweets or so that they have put out.
I am writing primarily to those people, who will hopefully take their profile out of the dustbin and begin unlocking their Twitter. Now is definitely the best time!
5. It’s where everyone is.
It should be obvious to many that Twitter is hugely popular, especially among professionals and celebrities. It’s not just because it is now the third largest social network in terms of size. Twitter is rivaled by none with how open and ongoing it is.
What other social network has millions of people hinging on the brief words of a celebrity or opinion leader?
For you, this means that you have the opportunity to expand your connections to people that are relevant to you. I personally go out of my way to follow people who are just like me: new professionals in the public relations and social media world.
What that does is allow me to expand my base of connections and have a large following of people that actually want to read what I have to say. Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, you are actually encouraged to connect with people you’ve never met, giving you the chance to build an audience on your own terms.
4. It’s where the conversation is.
Twitter is one of the most effective tools for staying up-to-date on news, whether they be general or pinpointed to your interests and career. Measuring opinion on trending topics is also extremely valuable for many professionals, especially in press release writing.
Another way to put it: Twitter is fantastic for listening and observing. Just make sure you are strategic in who or what you decide to follow.
3. It makes you a better writer.
Habitually using 140 characters to share something valuable helps you develop a skill for saying a lot more in fewer words. This is an invaluable skill for almost anyone, even non-writers. This is because Twitter forces you to think before speaking.
2. It’s always challenging.
A great thing about Twitter is that there is always someone who is ahead of you in terms of follower-size and engagement (unless you’re Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber).
The fun of constantly striving for more and better results keeps you challenged and engaged. It’s probably what makes the medium so addicting, but that is absolutely a good thing.
Why?
Because you should never be done learning. You should never stop challenging yourself to do better. Twitter is a great platform for reminding yourself of that.
1. The potential is limitless.
Mastering Twitter takes hard work. No one I know personally has done it, but plenty people I know have unlocked at least some of its potential.
What that looks like: a Tweet from you, gone viral, can create a lasting impact on a huge audience. Something that you’ve said is being digested and respected by countless people.
Once you’ve unlocked Twitter, you have proven to yourself and the relevant people around you that you are, in fact, capable of cultivating a living, breathing community. You’ve gotten your name out there. Having that in your repertoire can help you accelerate your career in so many ways that it is tiresome just to think about it.
I Tweeted yesterday that, “There are no keys to success. Just doors.” Well, Twitter can create a lot of doors to success for you, and it’s yours for the taking.
So now the question is not, “Why Twitter?” It’s now “How do I unlock Twitter?” I’ll help you answer that question next time.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.
Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me)
New Professionals: Know Your Greatest Asset
Being thrust into the “real world” of entry-level careers and highly competitive internships requires more than just a good CV and connections. It requires something more tangible than a work ethic, more effective than a bachelor’s degree, and more lasting than a good recommendation.
Yes, those things are essential, but they aren’t nearly as crucial as your greatest asset: your peers. Going it alone is basically career suicide for the new professional. I’ve seen it firsthand.
Since I graduated, I’ve been fortunate enough to have other new professionals as friends (the above picture is me with a few of them), constantly giving me a rubric to measure myself against. It’s cold, but life really is a competition. Evaluating the success of your peers and pushing yourself to achieve your own goals is how you really progress after college.
Take my word for it. The millennial generation has to be the laziest one yet. It’s not just that we don’t work as hard, we know that we’re not working as hard as we can. I hope we see that change soon, and I’ve personally found that nothing humbles you into pushing your life forward more than watching your friends succeed.
I was a wreck during my first job. I had no idea what I was doing and frequently had to receive counsel from my friends. I remember late-night phone calls about my fear of talking to high-level journalists at magazines like Forbes and HBR. My peers got me through that.
Later, when I had to cement what type of industry I would commit it, it was the success of my friends that motivated me to strive for more. While I have my own ambitions, it was still useful to see just how capable my friends and I are. If they can do it, I can do it.
Don’t go it alone. Don’t measure yourself against your shadow. Creating lasting relationships with your peers and constantly watch what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. That’s how the new professional can find real success.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.
Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me)
New Professionals: Don’t Get Too Comfortable
There comes a point in the life of a new professional when you’ve achieved “comfort.” You’re happy. You’re used to your surroundings. You have the next year completely planned out to the dollar. For many, this is a godsend. A reward for harsh work needed from postgrad woes.
I understand this experience quite plainly and how much of a trap it can be.
Living comfortably is fantastic, but leads to complacency. We’re young. We have so much to accomplish before we settle down, take spouses and have children. Our careers shouldn’t be set in stone, they should constantly be adapting to our experiences as new professionals.
Try different things. Take on a totally new project. Hang out with people you’ve never met. Try something new. Don’t let yourself get too comfortable. You have plenty of time for that later.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.
Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me)