Week 15- Artificial Intelligence Impact on Business Jobs

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most talked about subjects in the job field today. Automation will happen in many fields, but the impact that it will have on jobs is still being determined. In the business field, automation is critical as the more money a company can save, the better for the company’s bottom line.

In his article titled Artificial Intelligence Impact on Business Jobs, Professor of Information Technology and Services Todd Kelsey discusses the future outlook of jobs in the business field when it comes to artificial intelligence and automation. In Kelsey’s opinion, the automation is not an “if” question, but rather a “when” it will happen. His suggestion to all readers and business job seekers alike is to get more informed about AI and its effect on your job field.

The four main career areas that Kelsey observes are: Accounting/Finance, Business Analytics/Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Human Resources/Management. Of these careers, Kelsey believes that the one with the best outlook is Business Analytics/Marketing and the worst outlook is Accounting/Financing. Kelsey also preaches the continued push of entrepreneurship to the younger career seekers so more jobs can be created in the future.

AI and automation are on their way and they are going to have a lasting effect on the job market. This is shown in the business field, where the future job market is largely affected by these new technologies. For more information on the effect of these new technologies, read Kelsey’s article or check out the BBC Job Automation Calculator (suggested multiple times in the Kelsey article). Study up and get prepared for the future of the job market.

Week 15- Surfing the Tsunami Introduction

AI is playing an increasingly bigger role in our society today. With many things becoming more automated, it is no surprise that businesses are looking to become more automated too. This dedication to automation is pushing companies to act fast and with that it will cause many to lose their jobs. You don’t want that to happen to you.

In the introduction of his book entitled Surfing the Tsunami, Professor of Information Technology and Services Todd Kelsey looks into the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it may affect future job markets. His view is to not give up hope about your job, but to adapt to what the future of jobs will be like.

To do this, he chooses three different strategies a person may use. The first is to adapt to AI. This means to do research about the subject and figure out what is happening in your career concerning AI. Where are things going? How does your job play into AI?

The second strategy that he suggests to employ is the adopt strategy. This is learning how to manage AI and how to use it to your benefit. This is sort of like the “get with the times” strategy to catch up before it catches you.

The final and best strategy according to Kelsey is the adept strategy. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like, becoming adept with AI. This means learning the basics of AI such as learning coding or how to work with related data. This strategy is to immerse yourself in the change that is coming so you can be best prepared before the change occurs.

Based on his introduction, it appears that Kelsey believes the change is inevitable. It is in your best interest not only to understand AI in the workforce, but how it WILL affect you in your work. It is highly recommended that you read the introduction and the book that will follow because it is better to be prepared and be wrong than to not prepare and be left behind.  

Week 14- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 12

Sometimes when the job search seems like it is an impossible task and you will never find a job, an idea creeps into your head. Why should I work for someone else? I know what I am doing and I should be able to be my own boss. This thought turns into the idea of starting your own business. Although this idea may seem risky to some, it could be an advantageous one to others.

In the book What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles, the author discusses the idea of starting your own business. During the chapter, Bolles details three different people who successfully grew their own business. For these stories, there are four common themes that the author points out:

1. These people didn’t need a whole lot of money to launch their own business
2. They did have to do research, sometimes plenty of it, to make it work.
3. All three of them used the Internet to make their product, service, or expertise, known.
4. None of them went down the traditional paths that people used to go down. (Bolles 259)

These reasons help to show how small business owners can be successful in modern world of business. Things such as the internet become more prevalent in the modern world than they have ten years ago or even five years ago. If you want a successful business in the modern world, make sure that you know what you are doing, do plenty of research and use the internet to make your business better known.

Week 14- Professor Jones’ IMC Campaign and Social Media

For my promotional strategy class taught by Benedictine University Business Professor Dr. Nona Jones, we were assigned to create an integrated marketing communications campaign also known as an IMC campaign. This campaign combined the multitude of different communications needed to successfully launch a business or a product. This semester long project took many different parts of business and smashed it into one large concept, including social media.

For my IMC, I created the company Cyclone Watches. The concept of Cyclone Watches was a watch manufacturer that produced watches that ran on solar power and were created with 100% recycled materials. For the social media campaigns, I created a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page.

The purposes of these pages were to connect to my target markets of millennials and young professionals by attracting them to my company. This went with my IMC campaign’s goal of creating more brand awareness among the two groups.

I also married consumer promotions with my social media pages by creating an Instagram contest. The contest, which was designed to promote environmentalism, had the customers post a picture using a hashtag for the opportunity to win a free watch.

For these reasons, social media played a key role in the design and goals for the Cyclone Watches’ IMC campaign.  

Week 13- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 11

Deciding what career you want can be an intimidating task, especially when it comes to selecting your first career or making your first career change. However, with these decisions come some pitfalls and mistakes, the goal is to be best prepared to avoid these problems. In the book What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles, he gives the reader eight warnings for future career decisions.

The eight decisions are listed below followed by a quick summary of what the author described:

1. Talk to people already working in the field that you find interesting- The more research you do, the better understanding you will have of what the job entails and how it works for somebody in the industry.
2. If you are changing careers, don’t change everything- Even though your work life may change, it is important to keep other parts consistent to avoid stress and keep you on the right path
3. Focus on yourself instead of the job market itself- This will give you more passion and excitement when you go to work
4. The best career for you is the one that makes you happiest and most fulfilled- This uses your favorite skills, favorite subjects, preferred working conditions and working for the preferred salary to achieve your goals.
5. Put time into your choice- The more time and thought you give the better the decision will be for you
6. It is ok to make a mistake if you are young- Most people will have at least three careers and at least eight jobs.
7. Choosing and finding a career in a new field should be a fun task- Don’t let reality get in the way, go out and have fun finding the career you want to have .
8. If you are graduating high school, don’t choose a college degree just because you think it will get you will get a job- It won’t. No degree will guarantee job placement.

This advice will hopefully be able to to help you not have any fear in your first career choice or your first career change,

Week 13- Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Digital Marketing

The holiday season started as it always does, with families celebrating Thanksgiving with each other, giving thanks for all that they are given and will receive. Then comes the business side of the season. Black Friday has come synonymous with the consumerism, in many ways embodying the idea with people rushing to stores to get a holiday deal. If that was not enough, it appears that Cyber Monday may start becoming the best holiday way to shop.

With all the attention being drawn to the holiday shopping season, businesses understand that being ahead of the curve is critical for them to get the most consumers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This has increased the digital ads that have surrounded the companies as more are trying not only to get their customers in the doors on Friday, but for them to use their website on Monday.

Using things such as click advertisements, social media promotions and banner ads, businesses are using the internet to grab more consumer's attention. Social media is filled with updates on the door-busting holiday deals and when the Black Friday season officially starts. The more the consumer knows about the season, the more likely they will come to the business on one of these "holidays". Social media truly plays a significant role in the holiday shopping season.

The deals have begun to flow and the advertisements have become more digitized, giving more information than drawing in the eye. With coupons and deals, the marketing does not have to be the most creative as the ad’s deals will draw in the customer over the advertisements design. In a world where it seems simpler is better, the same goes for digital advertisements during the holiday sales season.  

Week 12- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 10

Job hunting can be a scary situation and a difficult one to stay positive about after numerous attempts. Many times when people get denied a job, they believe that it is something about them that is holding them back or a handicap. These handicaps can be anything from a physical disability, age, race or even personality. They believe that it is because of these issues that they are not going to get a job.

In chapter 10 of the book What Color is Your Parachute, author Richard Bolles discusses the idea of job hunting handicaps and how a job hunter can handle them. The first key that Bolles wants the reader to understand is that everybody can get hired, it just depends on the employer. Some employer somewhere will hire you, it is just on you to find those employers that will.

Another thing that Bolles wants the reader to understand is that everybody has a handicap. This does not mean a physical handicap, but something that a person does not have the ability to do.

As Bolles puts it, “Let’s say there are 4,341 transferable skills in the world...Let’s guess the average person has 1,341 skills...that leaves 3,000 things that the average person can’t do” (Bolles 222). Everyone is handicapped, but it is up to you to figure out what you can and cannot do. By doing this, you will have the best opportunity to find an employer that will hire you regardless of your handicaps because the skills you do have fit so well with the company.

Week 12- Hootsuite Certification

Understanding how to organize and maintain your social media presence is critical to the digital success of your company. Without an organized social media plan, the company would likely think they are wasting money on social media that is not working. Luckily, Hootsuite is designed to help keep businesses organized.

Hootsuite is the online social media service that can connect a multitude of social media pages onto one easy to navigate dashboard. This allows the user to make posts onto multiple social media sites simultaneously, monitor activity on multiple sites at the same time and respond to fans or customers quickly and easily.

Another service that Hootsuite provides is online certification exams. These exams cover different types of social media including Hootsuite Platform Certification, Social Marketing Certification and Advanced Social Advertising among others. Hootsuite also takes you through online courses aimed at helping you to learn the most about the certification you want and how to best work your company’s online operations.

Once the courses are completed, you can take the test and earn your certification. This not only makes you more efficient using the internet for your company, but also makes you feel as if you achieved something. Hootsuite Certifications should definitely be used if you are trying to build the online presence of your company.

Week 11- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 9

Looking back at the last couple of weeks, I have shared with you a strategy known as the self-inventory strategy or the “flower”. This strategy has been proven to be the most successful for those who have been job-hunting. So, now that you have your flower created what’s next?

The next step is choosing where you are going to work and what you are going to do. According to the author of What Color is Your Parachute Richard Bolles, there are five steps that job hunters and career changers have found the most helpful (these are also in order):

1. Find Out What Careers or Work Your Flower Points To
2. Try On Some of Those Jobs Before You Decide Which Ones to Pursue
3. Find Out What Kinds of Organizations Have Such Jobs
4. Find Names of Particular Places that Interest You
5. Research That Place Thoroughly Before Formally Approaching Them

If you follow these steps in this order, you will find a job that not only fits the desires you have, but also fits the career that you want. The most important part of these steps is not the actions themselves, but rather the research that you are doing.

The more you know about where you want to work, the better you will feel about the fit and the more prepared you will be for working. Be sure to do thorough and strong research because this will make it easier to determine which job and workplace is best for you. Good luck and happy researching!

Week 11- Facebook Ads and CTR

Facebook ads have changed the game for social media marketing, with many companies using them as their first connection to many online consumers. Last week, I discussed how to implement and utilize Facebook ads and ad campaigns. Now it is time to discuss the importance of Facebook ads and their Click-through rate or CTR. CTR is the amount of times an ad has been clicked by users over how many times the ad has been shown. For companies to be successful on their ad campaigns, they want to have the highest rate.

The idea of companies is to optimize their ads so that they are clicked the most often so that the ad will be seen by more consumers. It may sound easy, but with many companies competing in the same way the competition is always fierce. According to an article by Digitalmarkinginstitute.com, there are five different ways to get better results from your Facebook ads:

1. Stick to the News Feed on Desktop

2. Speak to your Target Audience

3. Make your image stand out among the rest

4. Split your large audience into smaller, more focused audiences

5. Test different images for the same campaign then after a while, choose the best

These five strategies will help you optimize your company ads CTR and I would highly recommend reading the article for more information. 

Week 10- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 8

Last week, I discussed the self-inventory strategy that has been proven to be very successful for job hunters attempting to land that first job. Although the process is time-consuming, it has been proven as one of the most effective (yet most underused) way for people to land a job. In the book, What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles, he describes one of the many strategies of the self-inventory strategy.  

One of the strategies for the self-inventory strategy is known as the flower exercise. The “flower” is you and how you work in the work environment. The flower has seven “petals” or seven sides of how you fit into the workplace that are significant for you to answer.

The seven petals are people, workplace, skills, purpose, knowledge, salary and geography. The petals and their goals are listed below:

People- To avoid past bad experiences at with people at work by finding a better picture of the people you want around you in the workplace.

Workplace- To state the working conditions and surroundings that would make you the happiest through a description of physical surroundings

Skills- To discover what your favorite functional skills are that can be translated to any field of interest, not just those you can do best but the ones you love to do most.

Purpose- To know the moral compass or spiritual values by which you can guide your life through some definition or purpose of your life.

Knowledge- To summarize all that you stored in your brain to find some guidance for which field you would most enjoy working in.

Salary- To gain a realistic picture of how much money you will need to earn, or want to earn at whatever job you find by looking for a range of salary.

Geography- To define in what part of the country or world you’d most like to work and live in by defining a clearer picture about what you hope for in life.

The author is very helpful in letting the reader reaching all of these goals by giving them facts, worksheets and inside information about many industries. It would be very beneficial to all to heed his advice and follow the worksheets, especially for new job hunters. Just remember, it is a lot of work, but it is for you to have a better job that you will hopefully keep for a very long time.

Week 10- Facebook Ads

Many businesses understand the importance of digital marketing and social media for their company’s success. Perhaps the most significant of the social media platforms, Facebook, does a good job attracting the average social media user to a company’s page with their Facebook ads. These ads can be set up by any person who has a Facebook page and a budget, all it takes is a little direction.

The first step in the creation of a Facebook ad is to access the Facebook Business page and clicking the create an Ad button. Once selected it will take you to a page called the “Ad Manager” that will look like this:

Once here, you may select the type of ad campaign you are looking for. For this blog I am going to do engagement since I am hoping to drive up my Facebook page’s following and awareness. When you choose your consideration it will take you to the bottom of the screen where you will name the ad campaign like so:

After naming your campaign it will take you to a page where you will be able to select your audience and budget for your campaign. Since my Facebook page is for college credit and most of the followers attend my school, I will put my audience for the town my school exists in and the demographic for people in college. This is shown below:

When this section is completed, you are able to set a budget. This has a very large range that you may use, but I will show an example of what a college kid may be able to afford. You will also be able to either use a preselected time period or create one for yourself, I am going to create my own time frame.

When you select continue, it will take you to a page where you can either select the page as a whole as an advertisement or make a selected post your ad. Since I want more readership to my blog, I am going to make a post one of my selected ads:

Facebook does a nice job letting you see how your ad will look on all different types of mediums from mobile to desktop. Now all you have to do is confirm your ad and the process is complete! Enjoy your ads and the attention they garner!

Week 9- What Color is Your Parachute Chapter 7

Everybody wants to know the best way to get a job. Though many strategies have been discussed in this blog, none has had better results than the Self-Inventory strategy.

The Self-Inventory strategy is described in the book What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles. In the book, Bolles states that if the Self-Inventory strategy is followed, “[it] works 86% of the time” (111). That is a very high turn out when comparing it to other strategies discussed in earlier chapters.

The knock for this strategy and one of the biggest reasons most job-hunters don’t follow it, is because it has many steps and could be considered “busy” work. However, anybody who wants to succeed in landing a job should follow the strategy to a T because it has shown so much success in the past.

The Self-Inventory strategy is completed in six steps:

1. Mental Preparation- The process of breaking down who you are, at the bare minimum, as a job-hunter. What skills/experiences/assets do you provide a company?
2. One Sheet of Paper- Write every single significant thing you know about yourself on a single sheet of paper. This creates the beginning of your Flower Diagram which I will discuss in my blog next week.
3. A Number of Worksheets- These are your Flower’s “Petals”. These are the sheets you may use to organize your ideas to get to the final single sheet of paper. Make sure they are disposable.
4. Some Kind of Graphic or Picture- Pictures and Diagrams are significant to the learning process of humans. Be sure to have a drawing, picture or diagram on your single sheet of paper to help retain the most information as possible.
5. A Prioritizing Instrument or Grid- Creating a Grid or some way to identify what parts of the job take highest priority. This can be any part of a job from the people you want to work with to the tasks you do not want to have to do. Prioritize to find what you’d be willing to sacrifice for a specific job.
6. Prioritizing the Petals- Simply which part of the job should take priority? What order should they go in? Then from there, find the job that fits most closely to your desires.

Some of the steps are more complex and take longer than others, but all must be completed in the correct order to ensure the 86% success rate.

The Self-Inventory strategy may be a time consuming and redundant effort, but it will pay dividends in the end, so start making that flower and prioritize what you want.