How to Get the Job You Want

The other day I was asked by a fellow member of the Professional Editors' Network (PEN), a college junior, what I did to get the job I now hold. As a new graduate (and employee), I wouldn't have thought that I have a lot to offer yet in the way of advice, but she said me being a new graduate was what caught her attention. She wanted to know what classes I took beyond Beginning Editing to create a focus on editing that the school didn't naturally have.

I'm not sure that I had a lot to offer this person because, as much as I love editing, that wasn't my focus -- mine was the magazine industry. If there had been a class on how to be the personal assistant to someone in the magazine industry, I probably would have taken it, JUST IN CASE. That's how bad I wanted to be in the industry.

But the more I thought about it, I realized that I do have an interesting story to tell and some advice that just might work for somebody out there. Last spring -- probably March or April -- I decided that I wanted to work for Experience Life magazine and six months later I was offered a full-time position with them. I figure I must have done something right.

So, I've broken it down into three main things to keep in mind when you're trying to get the job that you want:

• Find a way to stand out. This can obviously take many different forms, depending on your industry, the nature of the job and the potential employer that you're working with. I took a pretty direct approach myself:

I attended a health and wellness conference specifically to meet Pilar, the editor in chief. I was armed with my resume and writing samples. At lunch I introduced myself to her and told her that I wanted to work for her someday, and by the end of the day I had left my resume packet with her. Two days later, I went to the EL offices and repeated my words and actions with Craig, the managing editor.

Despite a busy summer with classes, work and an internship somewhere else, I tried to occasionally stay in touch by e-mail just so that Pilar and Craig wouldn't forget about me. Honestly, I kind of dropped the ball on the last part (it was a busy summer!), but in July they offered me the chance to interview for an internship.

• Take advantage of opportunity, regardless of timing. My summer consisted of extra hours and duties at work to cover for a manager on maternity leave, an internship that was first real-life experience into the magazine world,  a class that was the probably the most stressful four credits I ever earned (ironically, for a stress-management class!) and multiple staff changes at the school newspaper where I was the editor. At night I would dream about the first week of August, when my manager would come back to work, my internship would end and I could finally have some time to think again. The last thing I needed was another internship.
  On top of that, the internship that I was interviewing for was for a Web/social media intern. As much as social media and the Internet interest me, I didn't necessarily think that creating a family reunion website on iWeb and playing around on Twitter for six months really made me qualified for the position. But I figured, what the hell, and when I interviewed I was honest about my experience as well as my internse fascination for social media and a natural ability to learn quickly.
   
• If you get the chance, show them all the ways that you can be of use. I kept my internship responsibilities my main focus, but I also listened to conversations going on around me to see where else I could help. When one editor was getting swamped with fact-checking, I offered to stay late whenever I could to help out with that. When my team leader was close to heading out on her maternity leave, I offered to up my hours to help take some of the pressure off the editor that would be assuming her responsibilities.

And, of course, when that editor got a great opportunity at another publication, I jumped at the chance to take over many of her responsibilities immediately, even while I was finishing up the last six weeks of school before graduation.

The second half of 2010 was a long, sleep-deprived blur for me in many ways. And given a choice I might have executed some things differently (then again, maybe not). But in the end, I have a lot of valuable knowledge and experience, a great new job that I love and, I think, a pretty cool story to tell.