Monthly Archives: February 2014

Writing = Advertising

Everyone will eventually have to write a letter for whichever business practice they intend to pursue. However, there are several ways to tackle this issue. I was rereading some articles on how to write a letter to customers. Specifically, I am referring to the ones focusing on writing a negative message letter and using things like you attitude and positive emphasis. Despite the fact that each of these articles center around their own unique topic, all of those guides were centered on making the reader feel comfortable and convincing them that what you say is true. They are a way to convey ideas without sounding unprofessional, selfish, or mean spirited in any way.

It was at that point I realized that this kind of writing is very similar to how most advertisements are presented in magazines and other forms of media. The point of advertisements is to convince the consumer to buy whatever good or service they are selling is worth the cost. In other words, the one making the advertisement is telling the consumer what they need to do even if it isn’t essential. This is just like how we should write for our profession, except this time we tell the reader to believe in our thoughts and ideas even if the reader didn’t have an opinion or an idea of their own. Both advertisements and how we write for our profession are essentially meant to persuade others. The only real difference is advertisements use both images and writing to convey their message while writing for your profession is strictly written and far more professional. It’s almost as if advertisements are more childish while writing for your profession is more adult.

I’m not saying writing for your profession and advertising are one in the same. After all, each one is studied in a different academic field. What really matters is how each method is structured, and what kind of people are performing each task. Sometimes a person has to target their mission in a different way to deliver a unique outcome that will appeal to others.

Complex Competitions

Last week I attended the STEMM job and internship fair on campus where I had the chance to meet with various companies in order to get a full time job or internship for the summer. Now of course there would be a lot of students their trying to apply for the same positions thus we are given crowded rooms and lines to wait on. However, that wasn’t the main issue I had with the event. The real problems came during the short time I had to meet with each company’s representative to try and apply for the position.

I understand that each company had very little time to talk with every student. After all there were a lot of people ready with many questions. But while I waited on line at each table I noticed that several students were asking the same questions time and time again. They would ask questions like where is the company stationed, do they have multiple positions to apply for, what does this company actually do (which is something they should have already researched), and several other questions. Even the representatives were asking the same questions over and over again like when can you get started, what is your GPA, do you have any questions, and so much more. It was at that point I realized that the students and representatives were just following the same pattern/formula over and over again. The problem with this is that it makes all the students seem common place or standard. If everyone sounds the same, then the companies won’t give much thought to some people and thus everything seems monotonous. The only cure, from what I can tell, is to ask the questions they teach you to ask in seminars while adding in some unexpected questions that companies won’t see coming. I believe this method could make you stand out above the rest while also showing how trained and professional you have become.

Another problem I noticed with this kind of job fair is the availability of some positions. For example, I am trying to become an actuary as my career goal, which is a very difficult job to get into given the amount of math and statistics someone needs to study. Throughout the whole job fair, there was only one company that actually listed actuary as an employment opportunity. The rest were looking for accounting and finance, which are similar but not quite the same. This meant that there would be a lot of competition for that one position, and that I may have to reconsider what to apply for. Now the obvious solution would be to attend a conference that specifically focuses on that particular job, which I have done in the city during winter break. The problem then is that there would be a massive crowd of people from all over the country trying to apply for those positions. Some of which aren’t even students, but rather older people who already have their masters and Ph-Ds in this field. This kind of competition will require more than just uniqueness since this is on a much more professional level than the job fairs on campus. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a better solution than to just improve your studies as of this moment.

Overall, I’m not saying competition is bad or something to be feared. I just feel that competition is more complicated than other people have us believe, and thus requires a unique twist on how it is tackled. What are your thoughts?