David Gaspin Presentation
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The document provides career advice for those interested in working in digital publishing. It discusses managing your career, updating your skills, finding training opportunities, evangelizing about digital skills to traditional media employers, gaining experience by applying your skills to real work, and spreading the word about your skills and experience through social media. The overall message is to take initiative to build your professional brand, gain relevant skills and experience, and promote yourself to potential employers in a changing media landscape.
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David Gaspin Presentation
- 1. DAVID GASPIN DIRECTOR, TALENT ACQUISITION CONDÉ NAST So You Want to Work in Digital Publishing…
Editor's Notes
- I am a recruiter, a coach, an occasional job seeker, and a networker. My current job is Talent Acquisition Director for Condé Nast. I currently oversee all staffing efforts for the company and work across all brands and all divisions – editorial, advertising, and corporate. In past lives I’ve been an HR Director and generalist in various media related companies. I’ve had the pleasure of hiring hundreds of people and the pain of letting many people go from their jobs. I’ve also coached and counseled many in their efforts to find a new job or advance their careers. Hopefully I’ve helped a few, and I’m here to try to offer up some of my thoughts. Now bear with me because me experience is much more heavily geared toward magazine publishing than books, but the research I’ve done and the people I’ve talked to have led me to believe that the trends, and the strategies for success, are the same. The publishing landscape is changing by the minute. First it was the web. Then Kindle, Nook, and the e-reader invasion came along and rocked our world. Now we’re in a place where we can read whatever magazine or book we want in print, online, on our e-reader, on our phone, wherever we happen to be. This new world means that employers are looking for new skills and that new demands are being placed on the publishing workforce. As employees and job seekers, we need to be prepared to offer the solutions that publishers are looking for.
- What do you do? Not as easy a question to answer as it may sound When looking for a job, what you are currently do or recently have done may not be what you want to do or need to do in the future, or what prospective employers want you to do. So you may be saying, “David, how do I make sure that I’m doing the right things?” It’s not about doing the “right” things. It’s about knowing what you do, figuring out the career you want, and making sure that you have the knowledge, skills and abilities that you need to have that career. Right now there are a lot of people in the media field who, through downsizing, digitalization, or just plain boredom, are finding themselves in career transition mode. Poll: How many here looking for first full-time job? How many with less than 3 years in the job market? How many thinking of making a career move within the next 2 years? See? A lot! Is anyone here currently in their dream job?
- What I hear over and over are stories from some very talented people who are finding real challenges in translating their backgrounds in traditional media into the digital media landscape. There’s the fantastic copy editor whose job, according to her employer, has become redundant. The accomplished features writer who only sees job listings for bloggers. The successful Marketing Director who wants to move out of print and into the digital realm. They all have one thing in common – they don’t know how to update their “dos”. I’m going to focus this section specifically on transitioning from traditional to digital media since those are most of the questions that come to me, though the same thought process can be applied to any career transition process. In this period in media, when the entire industry is transitioning, we have a unique situation that the prepared job seeker can position themselves to take advantage of. And for you copy editors, I know that was a dangling preposition. Shhh.
- The key to transferring your skills and your talents into the 21 st century lies in taking control of your own trajectory. Don’t wait for your current job to “go digital”. It might not, and if it does, they’ll probably hire someone with digital experience instead of spending the time and money training you. There are some companies out there that will invest in you, but for most I’m sorry to say that you’re on your own. This means that you need to find ways to get yourself trained. There are plenty of organizations that offer training in new media skills. In fact I’ve heard some rumors that our host, Mediabistro, offers some courses (and no, I don’t get a cut). Whether it’s blogging, social media, mobile application development, or something else that I can’t do, find the class and enroll yourself. It will pay dividends.
- This may or may not seem like a no-brainer. Of course you should get the skills that you need. Taking a class or learning a new skill is in fact the easy part. The more challenging part is what you do with that knowledge. When looking at new media jobs, there are two kinds of companies that are hiring. One is the startup – this is the company that didn’t exist in any traditional media format and has launched within recent years. This kind of company is more likely to hire talent who grew up in the digital world – they’re looking for hunger and passion over experience. The other kind is the traditional media company that is expanding into the digital realm. These companies are more likely to value traditional media experience as long as it’s coupled with the skills they’re looking for to move into the future. In this second type of company, the people making hiring decisions are likely to be from traditional media, and are likely to have found themselves overseeing digital although it may not be where their expertise lies. Here lies the best opportunity for those making a transition. First of all, these decision makers are going to look at a resume full of writing or editing or marketing or whatever experience in the print world and fully understand the value of that experience – so you’re mo re likely to get called in for an interview. Secondly, these decision makers usually want to surround themselves with people who speak two languages: their native language of traditional media, and the language of digital. They are looking for people who can educate them and translate between the two “worlds”.
- Which brings us to what I think is the single most important skill in managing your own career transition from traditional to digital media: evangelism. Right now, media companies are jumping into new spaces – whether that’s online, mobile, iPad, or whatever is next – for the simple sake of being there. Nobody wants to be last to the market, even if that means that many of the people responsible for leading the charge aren’t entirely sure why they’re doing it. This uncertainty is the single best phenomenon for career transitioners. Whether it’s in an interview or on the job, we all need to be evangelists for what we do. You need to be able to explain in simple terms why we need to be on the iPad, what we can do there, and how you can help to get there. We naturally shy away from what we don’t understand, so make sure that the people who hold your career fate in their hands understand exactly what you can do for them. This isn’t a new concept – as a general rule, we should all make sure to communicate to our bosses how we’re adding value. The current media landscape, however, provides a great opportunity to make your case. If you can make your employer or potential employer understand in no uncertain terms how you’re going to help them, your chances for success are looking good.
- So you’ve taken a class or two and now are confident that you know how to blog. You’ve prepared your “elevator speech” about why you’re valuable. And it’s only Wednesday! Now while you’re waiting for your ship to come in, what can you do to help yourself? Live what you’ve learned. This means that if you’re calling yourself a blogger, start a blog. If you fancy yourself a digital marketer, start taking on projects You may have to start pro-bono If you’re now a web editor, get involved with one of the countless sites that will use your talents for free. Basically, don’t just say you do it. Do it. Yes, this may mean a lot of hours of work that you’re not getting paid for – which can be especially tough if you’re still holding down a full-time job. But aren’t you worth the effort? Being a blogger, like being an actor, is one of those titles that you can give yourself without ever having actually done anything. It’s the equivalent of saying “I like teeth. I’m a dentist!” - is that the guy you want doing your root canal?
- Once you’ve found an outlet for your new skills, you need to let people know about it. How? With digital media, of course. There is a new social networking tool popping up every day. The ones that follow are some of the largest networks, and the ones I personally know the most about. LinkedIn I’m a huge proponent of LinkedIn. For those of you who aren’t using it, start. It’s a great way to keep your information current, including what you’re working on and what you’ve done. It’s equally valuable for keeping up with what other people are doing. In my opinion, it’s the single best resource for career management that exists. And it’s free! As a recruiter, I use LinkedIn daily to search for prospective candidates to fill positions. People who have a complete profile are much more likely to get a call from me than those who don’t. Twitter It’s just like your own blog, 140 characters at a time. If you’re blogging, editing, whatever you’re doing, here’s an easy place to tell the world about it. You can link back to other sites, give updates about what you’re doing, and engage in dialogues to further connect you to the people you want to reach. Facebook For many, including myself, facebook has a more social connotation than a professional one. However, depending on where your network lies, it could be a very effective way of building your own personal brand and spreading the word about yourself. For any of these, there is specific etiquette that should be followed, and specific established strategies for gaining traction in each online community. I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of these since I’d be making most of it up, but the information is easy to find online. If you’re starting from scratch in any of these communities it will take time to build up the presence you want. But it’s well worth the time, and the larger your network the faster it will continue to grow.
- So now that you all know everything there is to know about career management, let’s recap. Figure out what you want to do. Learn how to do it. Become your own evangelist. Tell the world. Easy, right? Obviously there are nuances and specific techniques for finding and applying to jobs, and I think those topics will be delved into in the next couple of segments. But what I’ve gone over is the groundwork – this is how to create the most marketable you. Once you’ve done that, the rest gets a lot easier, and you’ll be in a position to be a contender for that dream job. If you can figure out what it is.