Dec

17

Career Tips: Learn from the best

Filed Under Career, Tips 

Culpwrit is a blog that has quickly become a great resource for those of us hoping to break into the public relations industry. Blog post topics range from career advice from professionals in the field to a day in the life of features to helpful Q&A bits with the blogger. A recent post gave seven career tips courtesy of Ken Jacobs, the principal of Jacobs Communications Consulting, LLC. While I’m not going to address all of his tips, two of them in particular caught my eye and they both involved learning from the best and the leaders in the field.

Observe your company’s best leaders: Tom Coyne, CEO of Coyne PR, says that “success leaves clues. Find these leaders, and ask what they feel makes them so good at it.”

While one of my current internships provides me with more responsibility and hands-on experience than my other internship, it’s the second one that allows me to observe the best in the professional sport industry. I have learned so much by simplying listening to how my bosses and others deal with a variety of situations and observing how they act in different settings. They have the jobs that I one day would love to have so it’s certainly a great idea to observe and thus uncover the skills and character traits that make them successful at their jobs so that I can start implementing them in my own work.

Maintain an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and “never be a passive learner, but actively seek out information” says Curran. “Ask questions and propose your own ideas to get reactions from your organization’s leaders.” Coyne recommends “devouring leadership books. There’s a lot of great thinking on leadership that’s out there, for the price of a library card.”

I have certainly used my library cards this year to cut costs while still reading the same number of books I have in past years. My city’s library has access to all the other library’s books in my region so I usually can find a book I want to read for free. If I can’t find it that way, my university’s library tends to have the more academic and scholarly reads that I may want. While school is certainly a great avenue to learn, I believe there is so much more we can learn in addition to our classes simply by reading books from leaders in the field. I have a stack of books that I hope to read this Christmas break ranging from sports marketing and business books to those written by sport icons about leadership and sport. I plan on passing along any interesting quotes, stories, or ideas that I come across on this blog over the next few weeks so keep an eye out for that.

Comments

2 Responses to “Career Tips: Learn from the best”

  1. Ken Jacobs on December 17th, 2008 4:51 pm

    I’m honored you felt my guest blog on culpwrit was worth sharing. The post’s goal was to help those who are starting their careers get in touch with their “Leadership DNA.” For those interested, here’s the link to my original article, “From Manager to Leader,” which was featured in the Public Relations Society’s The PR Strategist and PR Strategist and Tactics Online.

    http://www.prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=842347691

    I hope you find it of interest.

    Ken Jacobs
    Jacobs Communications Consulting
    ken@jacobscomm.com
    http://www.jacobscomm.com
    http://www.twitter.com/kenwork57

  2. kyrie89 on January 14th, 2009 10:25 pm

    know what, I think there’s someplace quite the same with that blog. Though, it’s actually a website. It’s nuresume.com, a student resume network where students get to have their free online resume and post jobs wanted ads. I have browsed some ‘a day in the life’ posts there as well. Others might want to check this one out.

Leave a Reply