Spring Cleaning Your Career

Spring Cleaning Your Career

Something about blooming flowers, warmer weather and spring showers makes people want to clean up other aspects of their lives in preparation for the rest of the year. While spring cleaning is generally done at home and occasionally in the workplace, it’s also an important thing to do for more abstract areas of your life, such as your career. Taking time to reflect on your achievements and to consider what else you hope to accomplish in your career is an important part of job and life satisfaction, which is why spring is a great time to clean up your career.

Renew Your Resume

Resumes need cleaning up. Even if you aren’t looking for a new job, it’s a good idea to look at your resume each year and see if it needs updating. You may have received a promotion or received a reward since you last looked at your resume, which means there are new additions to include for your resume to be up to date. Keeping an updated resume will keep you from having to make massive changes if you find yourself looking for a job on short notice, and is also good to have if you receive a new unforeseen opportunity.

Analyze Your Career Goals

It’s easy to get so caught up in our immediate job that we forget what our long-term career goals are. Think about your current job: was it meant to be permanent or a stepping stone into a new career path? Are your daily tasks and responsibilities fulfilling what you are looking to accomplish in your career? If the answer to these questions doesn’t align with your goals, think about what you would rather be doing and how you could get there. Look for positions online and talk to friends you know who are working in those positions — they may have valuable advice.

Organize Your Work Process

There’s nothing like a clean, organized office to make you feel like the powerful business woman you truly are. Organizing your office, as well as your work processes, will lead you to reap the benefits of organizational change. Whether you run your business from home or simply work remotely, make sure you are running at full efficiency by incorporating any new technology that could streamline your work processes. If you have any business goals that are not being met, organizational change could finesse your workflow and create the adjustments needed to make sure your work is at its best.

Reorganize Your Space

While you’re getting rid of the clutter, take time to do some small but dramatic redecorating to maximize your remote working space. Clear windows to allow as much natural light into your office as possible; sunlight creates a bright and energetic atmosphere and awakens any room. Make sure your desk is positioned in a way that centers you in the room and works well with the direction of the light so that it’s comfortable for you. Organize your most precious office belongings in a way that highlights them, allows them to inspire you and serve as a reflection of you, your creativity,  and the work you produce.

Spring is a great time to deep clean the physical aspects of your life that are difficult to keep super tidy throughout the year, but it’s also an excellent time to reassess the direction of your life and what lies ahead of you. We all need to touch base with our lives and career goals, and give thoughtful consideration to what we’re still hoping to accomplish and what we need to do to get there. Dedicate some time this spring to prioritizing what you want out of your career and to take the necessary steps to get there.

WIB: Salaries in Traditional Vs Nontraditional Industries for Women

Here at WIB-I, we like to focus on specific industries that we see women thriving in, despite historical lashbacks. One such industry you might find is surprisingly progressing faster than others is that of public relations. Public relations is still a male-dominated industry though, so the question of salary amounts for women versus men, treatment in the workplace, and representation is still important.

Let’s look at the history of PR Marketing and other traditional/nontraditional industries to really understand how well it fares and how far we need to go. Understand that this is an ongoing problem with solutions we’re still figuring out. But maybe if PR is making headway faster than other fields of work, we on the outside can learn a thing or two from the industry.

The History of Women in PR

Women have actually been involved in PR for quite a while, breaking into the male-dominated industry early on in the field’s history. An infographic put together by The George Washington University listed some important female players in public relations early in American PR history:

• Doris Fleischman (b. 1891, d. 1980) - Wife and business partner of Edward Bernays (“The Father of Public Relations”).
• Betsy Plank (b. 1924, d. 2010) - The very first female President of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She is sometimes referred to as “the First Lady of PR.”
• Muriel Fox (b. 1928) - PR person and co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
• Inez Kaiser (b. 1918, d. 2016) - First black woman to own a national-scale PR firm.

(Dates supplied by Wikipedia)

However, women are still underrepresented in the PR world across the globe. Only 30 percent of global PR agencies are run by women! This has to affect the wage gap in public relations, right?

Other Industries In Comparison

It’s no secret that women have to compete to be taken as seriously as men in a variety of professional industries. Take a quick look at different industries, and you’ll see why PR is being recognized as more progressive, although it still has a fair amount of catching up to do itself.

For instance, on the nontraditional front, women interested in hunting and fishing have to deal with the stereotype of fish and game being a ”man’s sport.” Some women use blogging, tournaments, and the like to set themselves apart in the field of professional hunting, because it helps them fight this unfortunate reputation. This may cause some men and tournaments to judge and treat women unfairly or give them less credibility. On the PR side, the “man’s profession” seems to be less of a well-known stigma.

In a more traditional field, women are becoming a growing presence in the world of engineering. However, as UC Riverside argues, women are still highly underrepresented in such fields. While professional organizations are working to incorporate more women in their fields, there are still gender barriers that keep women out of leadership positions and keep them underrepresented. This is similar to the PR field, where some organizations and professionals are fighting for more representation. However, as engineers deal less with media than PR and entertainment professionals, there may be less public attention to gender equality in that field, unfortunately.

So, Salary.

The wage gap is no secret anymore. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has put together a report on the pay gap and has also suggested that the pay gap will not close until the year 2119. Women in business are no strangers to dealing with salary negotiations. Women CEOs often take advantage of legal resources to keep themselves paid fairly because they aren’t always treated as authoritatively as male CEOs.

You may be surprised however to find that PR, media and entertainment industries are fairer to women salary-wise than most other industries, though the wage gap still exists within them. According to PR Couture, women in PR earn 85.8 percent the median annual income of men, which is better than most other industries. Geographically there is a difference, however. Certain cities have bad cases of the wage gap in the PR field: Detroit, New Orleans, and Cleveland to name a few. But cities like Miami, Pittsburgh, and New York have come much closer to pay equality in general terms when it comes to PR.

Of course, we definitely have a way to go, and women are still commonly underrepresented, but PR more than many other fields is working hard creating an equal playing field for the genders. What has your experience been with this been? Let us know in the comments below.

Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Comment or tweet her @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions.

5 Tips to Clean Up Your Resume and Land an Interview

Looking for a new job is no fun, especially in a world where the best practices for applying and following up are changing faster than you can follow.

Before you start stressing about whether or not to send a thank-you note after the interview or if it’s still encouraged to wear power colors when meeting recruiters, you have to score the invitation.

Getting offered a meeting or interview starts with your resume (or an online application, but let’s face it, they still ask you to attach a resume). Job hunting means it’s time to spice up your resume — for each and every job you’re applying for. This is not a one-size-fits-all world anymore.

Follow our advice to get your resume in tip-top shape, no matter what you’re applying for.

●     Keep It Brief

Your resume should provide the necessary information, and only the necessary information. It is better to have a clean, concise resume with less information than one cluttered with irrelevant facts. Take some time and trim the fat.

●     Use Specific, Quantifiable Examples

The first bullet point under a previous job can showcase duties and requirements, but the subsequent ones need to detail your achievements in the position. Use numbers to make accomplishments concrete and action-focused language to illustrate cause and effect.

●     Customize Everything

Yes, it’s a pain, and yes, it’s necessary. Updating the details of your resume not only makes you a more relevant candidate, but it shows attention to detail. Make sure you proofread each section as it’s updated.

●     Don’t Neglect Your Education

Even if you’re out of school and have been for years, your education is relevant. Additionally, consider any recent seminars or continuing education sessions you’ve attended, even if they weren’t labeled that way. Think outside the box.

●     Ditch the Objective Statement

When you applied for the job, you told the recruiter what your objective was; there’s no reason to take up precious resume space with something you’ll address in the cover letter. While an objective may serve you well if you’re making a vast career change, you might be better off using an alternative tactic.

Paring down all your achievements to one page can be a daunting task. If you’re having trouble deciding what to cut and what to keep, try the following: Put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes. If you were looking to fill the position, what traits would you be looking for? Review the job posting for clues. Use the answers you come up with to guide what you include on your resume.

Even then, it may be hard to decide. If there’s something you absolutely feel the need to include, but it doesn’t have a home on your resume, utilize your cover letter. With a concise and tailored resume, you’ll have plenty of time to elaborate on your accomplishments during the interview. 

Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Comment or tweet her @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions.