Digitally Learning About Digital Marketing!
09/26/2020
ISM has been a good amount of work this year so far, maybe more so than my other classes. I have realized this week, that I enjoy reading and writing about what I am doing in ISM, which could possibly mean I love my career! This week, I was researching on the locations of growth in my career, and found out that India is one of the many boomtowns for digital marketing. This is perfect, as I plan to move there when I am older. I still had many questions about what field I would work for, as I am not much of a tech expert. I have been wondering all along, whether this could be a good career for someone who is great with digital trends and media but not as much with the software and coding of it. With the amount of writing assignments we had this week, I was a little worried about time management. I think next week I will have to work harder on not to procrastinate and get things done in my free time instead of spending that time on my phone. I was successful this week in learning information that is very useful to my future and I am proud of myself for the research I have done. There is so much more to discover like where can I get started or who I can ask for help, but we always have next week!
Getting ready for the world...
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10/04/2020
This week in my ISM experience, I have learned that it is important to complete certain tasks in the class which may not seem as important to you. For example, we were told to practice speaking for interviews which I did not deem too important as I had other work to do. The next class period, I had realized my classmates had already provided scripts and practiced taking interviews. This motivated me that day to take my questions and practice getting interviewed as I had realized the importance of the business symposium. Towards the end of the week, I had gotten experience in speaking on the spot to different people in my class. This was an extremely important skill I had thought I had, but actually needed to work on. Later, we had dress rehearsals to dress for business symposium, which had went really well as I had practiced and knew what I needed to do. I still have many questions about how symposium will work, but I believe time and confidence will be key for this step in ISM. I hope to see how my interview goes and hopefully make it a great learning experience for me through my ISM journey.
Getting our symposium on!
10/12
This week in ISM was our first business symposium in which we were trained to talk to professionals as if they were interviewing us. I had two professionals interview me and they were extremely helpful with advice and tips for the future. I had learned that being prepared for the interview will help you tremendously and make sure you are confident for any questions you can potentially get. The symposium was a great experience as I had the chance to operate in a professional area. Next time, I hope to talk a little more and be more conversational with the interviewer than trying to read off of a script. I have yet to make changes to my resume and also have to start applying to mentor interviews. My task for the next week is to start emailing and contacting as many people as I can, and even though I will get rejected, keeping my head up will be the biggest test!
Getting our symposium on!
10/12
This week in ISM was our first business symposium in which we were trained to talk to professionals as if they were interviewing us. I had two professionals interview me and they were extremely helpful with advice and tips for the future. I had learned that being prepared for the interview will help you tremendously and make sure you are confident for any questions you can potentially get. The symposium was a great experience as I had the chance to operate in a professional area. Next time, I hope to talk a little more and be more conversational with the interviewer than trying to read off of a script. I have yet to make changes to my resume and also have to start applying to mentor interviews. My task for the next week is to start emailing and contacting as many people as I can, and even though I will get rejected, keeping my head up will be the biggest test!
Phone calls, Emails, and More...
10/19/2020
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This week in ISM was one of the biggest preparation weeks this year. Being prepared and maintaining a professional demeanor when calling professionals is extremely important in order to get a mentor to talk to you. During class, we had the chance to go out into breakout rooms and practice with peers to talk on the phone. I had trouble reading off of scripts too, which worried me slightly. I was extremely nervous for the first few practice sessions, but as we kept doing them I learned how to relax and be patient with myself. I had learned this week that getting your work done on time is one of the most relaxing things to do especially with tennis and other school classes. Next week, I wish to contact everyone on the spreadsheet list and hopefully land a few interviews!
Failing;)
10/26
This week was the first week of making phone calls to professionals. I had felt extremely prepared almost to the point of feeling I would mess up. I started by calling my contact list professionals, and was disheartened as no one would take me seriously to return my voicemails or emails. I was getting extremely frustrated at this point so I had decided to start contacting people off of my contact list. I had learned from this that being prepared BEFORE the phone call with the person's info is a great idea and makes you seem more interested. Mr. Pirtle had asked the class who already had interviews scheduled and I was a little disheartened, when most people raised their hand. My goal for this week is to continue the journey of contacting, but people from everywhere this time. My goal is to schedule at least 2 interviews this week and potentially choose one of them for the future.
Success at last...!
11/2
This week in ISM, I landed my first interview with a digital marketer. After many contacts on LinkedIn, I was able to reach out to a gentleman named Levi Lacscok. He was extremely helpful throughout the process of scheduling the interview while also working around my busy schedule. I was able to figure out a strategy to contact more people and get more responses. I tried out new techniques for people to reach back and it really seemed to work! LinkedIN is now my best friend. Moving on, we talked about a Quiktrip presentation on Thursday, while we have to present about a "quick trip" that we have taken to the class. Many new things are coming up in ISM, but my biggest goal right now is to secure a mentor with my coming interviews.
Coming Back from Break
1/11
The week was a tough one because coming back from half a month break is not the easiest to do. On Tuesday, we discussed what we did over break and tried to get back into school mode. I tried to work on my original project and progress a little more than I did over winter break. Scheduling mentor meetings was a hassle, as the professor did not come back to college. Hopefully this week will be a little better to schedule meetings. On Thursday, we discussed important things going on in ISM. There were different breakouts we had to attend of alumni members of ISM who are in college right now doing amazing things. My meeting is scheduled on Wednesday and I am excited to learn whats new about college and get tips on how to get into my dream college which Maleeha Khan goes to as well. I learned about the importance of SMART Goals in ISM. I was never really a goal setting person and would just do whatever I was motivated to do at the moment. But, this could change that and I could be a goal setting person from now on. I decided to get to work on that and write goals for myself. I hope to see where these goals take me in the following weeks this semester.
Mentor Melodies
1/25
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It is hard to stay focused with so much going on junior year, I will admit that. But, as helpful as my mentor is, he keeps me going and helps me stay focused on what I need to accomplish in ISM. Not necessarily by telling me what to do and when to do it, but by just being there for me and open to talk. I had my first mentor meeting last week, and it was for sure a good one. I was stressed at first and thought to myself about what in the world I would ask or say. I started speaking really fast and thats when he told me that I needed to calm down and realize that I did not need anybody's help. He told me that he would be there along the process and guide me when I needed it, but it was already in my hands. My first plan of action towards my original project(which is now modified) was to call Mom and Popcorn and ask them about their marketing strategies. I want to get to know them really well before starting any of my projects with them. My plan is to speak with them every week or every two weeks and update my plan accordingly. It will be a tough job with everything going on right now, but it is what I must do right now!
Launch to my OW
2/1
This week has been an interesting one. It was neither an extremely productive nor was it a boring and lazy week. It was a week where I had many other things to focus on as well so time management and drinking water was a must through the entire week. It was mostly a work week, and as I had spoken with my mentor before, he was a little occupied to speak the last week. That was ok as I needed to launch my original work that week too. I had first contacted the company Mom & Pop through their website. It will take some time for them to respond is what I have realized in the last weeks. I have realized that I am not doing a good job in being on top of everything in ISM, and that it is important to manage time for everything else as well. This week I hope to schedule a mentor meeting and show him my progress in doing the work for my OW. It is also important for me to contact my mentor regularly even though he has a busy schedule. It is vital for me to have these calls so I can also note progress on my OW. This week I hope to accomplish the first steps of my OW and get going on my research.
Fun week
2/8
The week was a rather fun one. The majority of the week was spent researching for my OW. It was a little tough in the beginning as I did not know what to research. My mentor meeting on Thursday cleared a few things up for me as I continued to work on my OW. I had read many articles last week about the process of making a marketing mix for a company. This was what my evidence of learning was about as well. The article taught me about the 7 ps of marketing. These marketing tips help companies build their mix. It includes the product, pricing, place, promotion, people, and other aspects of the marketing segment. This is extremely important to consider as many people can go wrong with their pricing or people and have a large impact on the company as a whole. My mentor meeting on Thursday was extremely helpful as we discussed the different ways of researching and what exactly to get down on the research doc I had created. My goal for this week is to continue my research at the same pace if not faster, and hopefully get to the presentation part of my project very soon.
Asynchronous Motivation?
3/1
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I am not usually one to get motivated with no purpose. I hate getting work done when I usually do not need to. Last week was entirely asynchronous. My job was to finish any work that I had left over from the week of the snowstorm. I would say that I am a little disappointed to say that I am back to square 1 on my original work. Well, maybe not exactly. I have most of the basic marketing research done which is great for starting off. But now I have realized that it is important for me to change the business I will be marketing for. This is great in a way as I can get a fresh start to my plan as things had not been going my way for a really long time. With this fresh start, I can finally focus on ISM a little more and maybe have more motivation to complete what I need to get done. I will be researching new small companies to market for and maybe present to them at the end in order to improve their business. The next few weeks will be extra long achievements as I will need to be working much more and much faster.