Thoughts and ramblings of an aspiring Gent

So, after 3 weeks of job hunting, it seems that the role of chocolate taster, Beer experimentee and Head supervisor at a female car wash do not exist.

So I’ve had to accept that its time to get a real job, with a real salary and real career prospects. Scarily adult for me. But now is the time!

Seriously though, I’ve thought long and hard about the possibilities and the two areas that seem to have ‘plenty’ of positions are Sales and Recruitment. (Plenty is in inverted commas there because you still have to battle dozens of hopefuls to get the role!)

They have plenty of similarities. Both require strong confidence, impeccable communication skills and a competitive edge bordering on ruthless.

The confidence side of things is necessary to deal with the nature of the roles. You will be meeting new people, striking up deals and have to have the understanding of the product or service that allows you to sell, sell, sell!

Communication skills are an obvious one. Building relationships, maintaining them, whilst being easily transferable between “full of banter” and informal chat to professional and serious formal conversations with CEO’s and MD’s. Key point? Match your client/customer.

The competitive side. This is the deal breaker for many. Let’s face it, we’re all money motivated, some more than others sure! But we all want to earn butt-loads of money! But you need to be prepared to admit it for this role. Money is the key motivator. Some companies have fantastic alternative incentives as well as On-Target earnings (OTE), such as holidays and gig/football/event tickets etc.

You think you’d be good at this role, then ‘fess up. You are money motivated, you are ambitious. You’re not ashamed of it, if you are then perhaps this isn’t for you. Being money motivated isn’t the same as being greedy, you can still be a ‘team-player’, you can still keep your ethics. What it means is simply this:
HARD WORK = BIG MONEY and THAT is why you work hard.

Anyway, the differences? Well the obvious one is “selling people” and one is “selling products” (not strictly true). But one crucial factor may be the method of communication, whether it is over the phone or face to face. Well this varies from role to role….not easy is it?

Lastly, check out the company. That gives you a rough idea of the REAL potential for the sort of money you could be generating for yourself. Lets take an example:

Watson Moore - http://www.watsonmoore.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&Itemid=11

Seem to recruit exclusively MD’s, CEO’s and high level positions, allowing their recruiters their share of a larger bonus. Hmmm……

You may have read this hoping for a guide as to what to choose between Sales roles and Recruitment roles…..Wop wop wop….sorry!
Just do the research, meet the people, ask the right questions and make an informed decision! You’ll be fine. Get ready to earn lots of money!

Anyone got a big interview coming up? Meeting the director for that dream job?

I’ve got quite a big one coming up tomorrow afternoon! Researching the company I’ll be interviewing for, I found that they provided these very cool, very appropriate interview tips:

http://the50interviewtips.com/

Be happy, prepare questions, be passionate….all fantastic advice. Read them through and figure out which ones might be missing from your interview technique, could get you the Job!

Loving my research on music piracy right now. Recently read an article about music piracy and it’s benefits for artists.

Some great topics came up. Typically, the best idea presented was that copyright has always kept up with technology from as early as the printing press. When vinyl became popular, the music industry as a whole took it up. When CDs took place, we saw albums and singles releases on CDs.
Here we see how the industry kept neck and neck with technology. So why were the music gods up above so late to the digital music party?!

Mp3 players really revolutionise the music industry. Not just for their compact size, storage space and relative affordability but the introduction and subsequent popularity of mp3 files. Piracy became commonplace because of how easy it was to disseminate the files. Sharing became the special order of the day and became a common practise.

Today, the industry claims piracy threatens the future of the music business. Yet for the past ten years - the industry has been thriving by my eyes. New artists have emerged, new channels for listening to music have appeared and a much wider range of music is available! I can’t remember a chart listing that included mainstream pop and drum and bass.

So here’s what I’m thinking. The current state of affairs now - (the whole “piracy is so bad, it’s killing the future of music” deal) - is caused by poor marketing.
From it’s initial conception piracy needed to have been demonised and quashed. As it is, it has become socially acceptable to pirate music (ironically flying in the face of what a ‘pirate’ represents).

And kudos to the original marketing techniques of ‘The Pirate Bay’, the ‘Electric Frontier Foundation’ and others like them. They instantly reacted to government acts such as ACTA and SOPA and demonise them so ferociously - they never had a chance to see the light of day.

Perhaps that’s how it should be; if something needs changing, some pioneer will lead the way for it to be changed - otherwise the majority will rise up and destroy any chance of change entirely and swiftly.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em?

Just been pondering about this new GoCompare ad. And the guy still pi**es me off. Just because he gets a rocket to the face…doesn’t mean I suddenly like your brand!

I’ve since chatted to a number who’ve actively stated they’ve boycotted Gocompare, because they’ve been far too irritated by the podgy tenor! Instead opting for cuddly meercats!

This got me thinking to the effectiveness of characters in any marketing campaign. Far too few companies have a truly memorable and loveable character and WAY too many have poorly thought through, hashed out mascots. I’m of the opinion that these do more damage to the company’s reputation than good.

To release a character into the world through your marketing campaign, you need to be sure its a hit! Not just a whimsical loser who obsessively shouts out your companies motto’s left right and centre!

The meercats are a great example of endearing characters that has developed into a winner, their new “get a free soft toy” campaign has no doubt proven to be a hit amongst its customers!