1. Don’t send a photo of yourself – unless you are applying for a job as a model or a real-estate agent.

2. Don’t offer to provide services that are not required of the job – for example, ‘child care’ is not a job-related skill in PR. (However, since I have two little ones at home, I may call you for weekend work, but not to work at our agency.)

3. Do not attach documents that are unrelated to your job search – especially confidential PR plans from your agency or corporations (wait, on second thought, those can be kind of useful – thanks!).

4. Don’t announce that you are ‘in it for the money’ – there is nothing more desirable than a job candidate that tells you that he chose this line of work because it will make him more money than his last job. (We all know the salaries in PR. If your aim is to get rich, you may want to rethink your career choice.)

5. Don’t let your mom or your girlfriend apply for the job for you – they can cook your meals, do your laundry, and clean your home but, you have to do the work stuff yourself. (However, if your mom is a good writer, has strong communication skills and is a master of organization, please have her send in her own application.)

 All of the examples are true, pathetic but true. If you can follow these simple rules, and are looking to work at a great agency, feel free to apply to hr@affectstrategies.com.

Columbia University Fall Career Fair
September 28, 2007 from 11:00am EDT to 4:00pm EDT
Roone Arledge Auditorium, Alfred Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway (at 115th Street)
Additional Information on Facebook

Affect Strategies would love to meet Columbia students and alumni with experience in marketing and public relations.

Katie Safrey, Marcom Manager, will be there for the entire day. Impress her, and your battle is half-won. Courtney Chauvin, Director of Public Relations, plans to drop by after 1PM. Impress her, and we may make you an offer on the spot. I’m only half-kidding. When we meet someone we like, we move quickly!

If you are planning to attend the career fair and would like to set up a time to meet with Katie or Courtney, or just want to introduce yourself, leave a comment on this post or email hr [at] affectstrategies dot com.

Otherwise — see you tomorrow!

• More than 75 percent of applications contained mistakes, such as grammatical and formatting errors as well as cover letters addressed to competitive firms
• Less than a third of applicants included a cover letter
• Approximately 50 percent of the applicants submitted multiple applications (the biggest offender submitted his/her resume 9 times for the same position)

The most bizarre applications included soft porn photos and underwear (yuck).

The release ends with a Top Ten list of application faux-pas which, not surprisingly, include supplying photos (of any kind!), using fluff language and publicizing off-beat interests and pastimes.

I could rant for days about the bizarre applications I have received and even more bizarre humans I have interviewed over the years (note: to the woman who changed her clothes in front of me before the start of our interview, I am talking about you!), but I will take a deep breath and refrain.

What interested me most about the news supplied by Lighthouse was how the company used its hiring experience – painful as it was – and internal data for their own PR purposes. (A number of marketing and recruitment mags have written about Lighthouse’s findings). Oftentimes, we as PR practitioners, as well as our clients, look to the outside world for key data to affirm our positioning and to help us generate media coverage; as evidenced by Lighthouse, though, tapping into the resources we already have on hand and leveraging the personal experiences of our everyday lives can generate the most interesting stats and anecdotes – and, of course, a little PR.