Work Day

Today has been all about jobs, and the pursuit thereof. I spent a good chunk of time revamping my resume and now have what I feel is nearly a fresh, polished working version. Or five. I have so many slight variations on my resume it almost becomes confusing to remember which is the most recent. It ends up changing slightly for nearly every job I apply for anyway, so close to finished is about as good as it ever gets.

I then proceeded to search for jobs to apply for. One thing is for sure - there are less jobs than there were in June. There are less than there were a month ago. Another trend I'm noticing is hiring freezes... career site listings for large companies with zero open positions. I'm coming into this search expecting it to be anything but easy, but I have decided on a strategy. I'm not going to settle. Not yet at least. Instead, I'm focusing on a slightly longer-term goal of a top school MBA and will look for positions that can get me closer to that goal. This job has allowed me to save enough to stay afloat for a while, so at least for now, I'm aiming high.

I also spent a while on the Businessweek website, which prompted me to put into words a thought I've had for a while but haven't really thought out regarding Obama. Part of what impressed me so greatly about him and his campaign was the marketing that went into it. Obama has become a brand, and a great one at that. To supporters and even some people that opposed him, he has a very symbolic element that embodies hope and change - an element reinforced vigourously by his campaign's ads and his speeches. Of course, Obama also ran the best internet campaign of a presidential candidate in history (though I suppose there haven't been that many since the internet's coming of age). His campaign seamlessly merged social marketing and voter-pull strategies to fully engage younger voters, and younger voters responded by, believe it or not, voting! As a whole, Obama's brand stayed extremely clear for the entire duration of the campaign. He never went off-brand, and a big part of what helped that was his refusal to go negative.

Here's a link to the Businessweek article.

Now for some time away from the computer screen.