At one point in time, I’m sure each of us has been victim — yes, victim — to a really, really baaaad handshake. Did you know … employers are more likely to overlook body piercings than a bad handshake? Seriously.

Personally, I’m not very forgiving of poor handshakes. There’s a broad range: too strong, too tight, too flimsy, too long, and everything in between. Mediocre handshakes are just … mediocre. But they’re somewhat more forgivable that the extremes of too aggressive or too weak.

I guess I have little patience for poor handshakes because it’s SUCH an easy thing to address! And the benefits of nailing a good handshake can be huge. Don’t you want someone to shake your hand and literally think to themselves, “Hmm, good handshake. I like this person so far.”? (Yes, I’ve literally had that cross my mind when meeting someone new before.) So what makes a good handshake? I would describe it as … firm, but not too strong, a brief pause without lingering, one or two small and solid shakes (from the elbow, not the wrist), with confident and friendly eye contact. It’s also good to step toward the person and lean slightly forward as you extend your hand. (By the way, I learned this from a workshop session with a career and etiquette coach. I’m not just pulling this out of my arse!)

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Money…they say it’s what makes the world go ’round. I am not sure about that, but it can determine your fate in getting a position you want. Most people do not like dealing with salary requirements and negotiation. It seems to have become a game between job candidates and companies. I have received questions as of late in terms of a salary negotiation strategy and thought I should share my opinions to help you in your negotiation efforts.

Companies typically handle the initial discussion of salary in one of two ways: the company will provide you with the position salary range or the company will ask what you desire in terms of salary. It is always a gamble when pitching a desired salary to a company. Some companies are very in-tune to market salaries and skill-worth while other companies think it perfectly acceptable to pay a very low salary for a very valuable job. A good company should engage in negotiation, but some companies simply remove a candidate from the applicant pool if the salary request is too far out of range.

The key to successful salary negotiations is to first, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Research salaries for the specific type of position for which you are applying. When matching positions on those sites, try to match the position and your skill set as close as possible. The second key is to KNOW YOUR WORTH. You know your education level, experience, and so forth. Know what your skill set is worth and be prepared to defend that worth in a salary negotiation. The final key to salary negotiation is to KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. If you have your heart set on a specific geographic location with minimal opportunities, the company may be in a position to offer lower wages. If this geographic location is really where you want to be, you might have to accept a salary that is not exactly what you want. If you are focused on a particular career path, it may require you to start low. You need to be educated and realistic in approaching your salary negotiation. Do your homework…know your worth…and know what you really want.

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Forward Podcast 30 tackles the topic of interviewing with special guest Nettie Hartsock. Nettie wears many hats. She is a book publicist, a freelance journalist, a PR professional and a blogger. She authors the Professional PR and Must Read Business Books for Allbusiness.com as well as her own blog. To fully appreciate what you hear in Forward 30, read about her extensive and incredibly impressive career.

Nettie and Luke talk about both sides of interviewing: being the interviewee (think: job interview) as well as the interviewer (think: what does my client actually do and how do I tell other people). Nettie shares her experiences and advice on everything. As PR professionals, I think it’s important to remember there are more chances you’ll be interviewing someone else rather than being interviewed. It’s more than setting yourself apart in that first job interview, but also dragging information out of that CEO or engineer who hired you to communicate what they do to people who don’t understand what they do. Whether it’s a white paper, brochure, press release, media advisory, speech or doctor’s excuse (alright, I made that one up) you need to know how to get that information.

As always, leave your comments or questions here for Nettie, Paull or Luke. As an added bonus, Paull will now be making rash, inflammatory statements at the beginning of each Forward Podcast. Tune in twice a month to hear the irrational ramblings of an Aussie in NYC (and the dulcet tones of a guy in rural Ohio).

Listen Now:

 Forward Podcast 30 :: Interviewing with Nettie Hartsock: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1955)

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An interesting discussion took place on Julie Rusciolelli’s PR Maven blog a couple of months ago regarding PR students and information interviews.

Being a public relations student, I’ve heard the term “information interview” float freely through the lobbies and lecture halls of my college since I started school back in January. From what I understand, academia has been having a love affair with the information interview for a long time. It’s a great way for students to tap into the knowledge of an experienced practitioner and make valuable connections in the PR community.

But is the information interview becoming outdated?

As pointed out in the post on PR Maven, the internet has become an excellent source of information for students looking to get into public relations. The increasing popularity of social media is making it easier for students to tap into the thoughts of industry leaders without actually having to meet with them.

Has technology transformed the information interview into nothing more than a job interview in disguise? Are students really going in for information, or are they just looking for the quickest way to get a foot in the door?

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Warren Johnson of the Unsolicited Marketing Advice blog has written a great post that I wanted to pass along to our Forward readers. If you already graduated and could use some help settling into (or kicking off) your PR career, his tips are key. Even if you don’t graduate for another couple months (or years) — now is definitely the time to take the initiative to prepare yourself. I suggest using this as a checklist to help make sure you’re properly prepared.

Warren was gracious enough to allow me to include the post here in its entirety for your perusal. (The post can be found in its original location here.)

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Here are a few tips for finding your first job in public relations.

1. Know how to get your foot in the door
John January and Tug McTighe had a fairly long riff on job seeking tips for creative types (including copywriters, of course) in their August 7, 2006 edition of the American Copywriter podcast. Some key points:

• Have a disposable book of your work that you can send out or otherwise provide to art directors.

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Recently I attended several workshops concerning recruiting and the job search process. One of the things the speaker stressed was the importance of having your “elevator speech” ready. It is coined an elevator speech because of the fact that we meet many poeple who could be instrumental to our career in an elevator and your speech needs to be short enough to deliver in the duration of an elevator ride while still being effective. This elevator speech is also called a positioning statement. It is basically the response you should have to the ever-popular request of “Tell me about yourself.” Your positioning statement or elevator speech should consist of the five or so things that you want that person to know about you and can also be used on the resume.

As I sat in that workshop, I figured this concept was basically common sense and I would just “wing it” if asked to tell about myself. However, the facilitator had us write out our elevator speeches and read them in front of our collegues. In composing mine, I realize that it can be a bit more difficult that one thinks. To “wing it” often results in your most important points not getting across. After I took the time to pick out those points I deemed most important and composed my elevator speech, I realized that this small time investment resulted in a better quality speech.

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Shortly after I graduated and my internship had ended, I was without a job. This, as I am sure all who have been without a job will know, is particularly stressful. It is also something that most recent graduates will have to face—because really, will you have your dream job lined up after graduation?

One piece of advice that one of the senior level people at my internship gave me proved to be an excellent way of bringing structure into your job search and relieving some of the stress. This is what he told me:

People love to talk about themselves, so make a list of ten to fifteen people in the area in which you are interested that you want to see for a chat. Tell them you would love to hear from them how they managed their career; tell them you are new and would love to discuss the different career paths you are thinking about. This is much more effective than telling them you are looking for a job and you would like to discuss the possibilities in his or her organization, but basically, you are asking the same thing.

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To refresh your memory from my last post, behavioral interview questions will be much more specific than traditional interview questions. Interviewers have chosen specific competencies that are key for success in that position. He or she then asks the interviewee very specific questions that address those skills. As promised, I am providing additional sample interview questions for this type of interviewing. This is a terrific opportunity to use these sample questions that you are very likely to hear in behavioral interviews to practice and perfect your answer. Remember to use the STAR method (Situation-Task-Action-Result) as I mentioned in the last post. Tell the interviewer the specific situation you were facing, the task(s) needing to be accomplished, the specific actions that YOU took, and the result of those actions. Answer these sample questions using the STAR method and you should be well-prepared should you face a behavioral-based interview. If you are unsure of certain answers or have any questions, feel free to ask me. You will find that some of the sample questions are very similar. Remember that you will have similar questions if they are addressing the same competency.

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Interviewing can be a very stressful process. There are several different interviewing styles, but I would like to share with you all an interviewing method in which I have the most experience and I feel is the most intimidating for interviewees. I am addressing the behaviorally-based interview.

Each company conducts their interview process differently. A company that I worked for used a very popular published method that is come across many companies. It involved interviewing with thress to five separate people within the company and a scoring system of sorts based upon the applicant’s responses to behaviorally-based questions.

First let me explain behaviorally-based questioning. In these types on interviews, the interviewers will ask for the interviewee to provide specific examples pertaining to the area in the line of questioning. An example of a behavior-based question is ” Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult client. How did you handle it and what was the outcome?”

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David Ross-Tomlin is one in a hundred. He has successfully navigated a graduate recruitment scheme that offered six places this year and received some 600 applicants – a success rate of just 1 per cent.

Now at Hotwire PR in London before even receiving his PR degree certificate, he’s in a good position to speak about career choices, competition and ambition. So what helped set him apart?

“I’d completed a year’s internship in an in-house role, so I already knew that PR was for me. I then spent my final year considering my options and talking to tutors, career advisors and checking the CIPR website.” [The Chartered Institute of Public Relations is the professional body representing some 8,000 PR student and practitioner members in the UK.]

Ross-Tomlin is now working as an associate program executive within Hotwire’s telecommunications practice, with clients in the telecoms and digital media sectors. He recognizes that he is being given a ‘fantastic’ opportunity to succeed within a fast-growing and award-winning consultancy and attributes this in part to luck (”it was the first proper job I’d applied for, he said”). But what advice does he have for job seekers?

“Be selective. Make sure you’re applying for something you’re interested in. That way your enthusiasm will come across. You have to be humble, but shouldn’t be afraid to offer opinions and suggestions. I’d say, be bold.”

The other five on the graduate recruitment scheme have yet to join, so Ross-Tomlin isn’t sure of their backgrounds. But he suspects they come from a range of courses (the graduate scheme was advertised widely on a graduate careers website.) “My PR degree was helpful, but the attitude here is ‘we will train you up.’”

Training, it seems, is crucial. Interviews are two-way processes and graduates want to know what training they can expect to receive, not just what salary’s on offer from an employer. And it appears that Hotwire takes this role very seriously: a member of the team even has the grand title of ‘graduate tzar.’

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