Research, Research, Research

This week really focused on research. I primarily conducted research on the Google Fiber since the town was in the running to be part of the pilot program. The Google Fiber was a plan to build experimental, ultra high-speed broadband networks. Hundreds of communities and hundreds of thousands of individuals across the country have expressed their interest in the project, including the town. So i did research for the town to make a case for why we should be chosen as one of the communities. The town, as you have all seen from my posts is really into using social media. I also spent the week researching more ways the town could be promoted through social media vehicles for the economic development department. I also managed the events section of our Facebook page.

Career advising: A wonderful experience

Yesterday I stopped by the downtown career center to seek career advising. I currently work for a job that utilizes my undergraduate degrees, but was curious as to how to make that transition to a job that would utlize my master's work. They advisor I met with had some great advice and tips. She mentioned possibly completing an internship or volunteer work, to shadow someone in the field i am interested in getting in to. With my work schedule, i mentioned that this would be difficult. The advisor had great advice on how to deal with that as well. She said that it would be really important to sell my education and highlight my course work and projects in lieu of work experience. This made me feel so much better. She also said i should start looking at job postings now to get a sense of what employers in my field are looking for, as well as start preparing my resumes so that they are ready when i need them. I thought she gave some really great tips and would highly recommend to anyone to visit the career center.

Evaluating Job Offers & Salary Negotiation workshop

I had signed up to take this workshop and was really excited to attend it. I have always been curious about how to go about evaluating a job package when it is presented to you. Unfortunately the workshop was cancelled. The facilitator did, however, leave a lot of materials with career services for me to pick up and use as resources. It included the power point presentation and a couple resource sheets and guidelines. I have to say the information is very useful. I am approaching the one-year mark at my current job and have been thinking its time for a salary increase. My responsibilities have increased significantly and i feel i perform well. The materials from this workshop provided tips on how to negotiate salaries and what you are worth as an individual to a company . This is useful when presenting your case for a salary increase or negotiationg an initial salary. Eventhough the workshop was cancelled, i think i still gained some valuable information.

When your boss is sick.....again

It was really sad to learn that my boss was sick again. This time she was out for two weeks! I wasn't sure what to do with myself exactly. Two weeks is a really long time and I was worried about her health. However it was business as usual. I worked on the town's social media pages, completed research on various topics, and completed two town-government press releases for the website. Even though I had been through this before, it was hard not having the direction I was used to. But I guess that is all part of growing as a professional.

Social media and research

This week I set up gmail account for all of the town's social media exchanges and continued research on content management systems, in particular co-tweet. We use co-tweet at my job and it is really effective. I convinced my boss that we should look in to it. I also continued researching for items on making a calendar portion of social media pages and website as well as advertising possibilities for fan box and extras on social media pages. I also created a photo library so that our department could start archiving photos of events etc. It was a busy week!

Fall Festival photo from library

Thus far in the fall semester....

I have to say, with everything going on I am beyond burnt out from working full time and the fall semester. What is really weighing me down is PAF 573: Advanced Regression. I was not prepared for the intensity of this class. Between learning a new statistical software, completing regression problem sets, and reading assigned research journals, I barely have enough time to read the text books! That doesn't even count the research project I am doing for this class on top of everything else that is required and my other classes. My research project is quite interesting to me, which has become the small flame in an otherwise burnt out candle. All I have to say is I am grateful that December has almost arrived!

Week 8

This week was fairly laid back. I worked on three town-government press releases and the town social media primarily. I also started researching opportunities for the town's economic development team. There had been alot of budget cuts and the town was facing some hard decisions. The economic development team is responsible for finding opporunities for economic growth and development in the town. Since my boss was still sick and catching up from when she was out, I was asked to help the economic development team. It was really interesting researching possible ways to bring growth and stability to the town.