The lyrics in a simple country song typically delve into the realms of heartache, lost love, and lost dogs. As is the case with most of the music industry, country music has remained steady despite the economic troubles Americans have face the past few years. Without a doubt, country music has always been haven for country music fans looking for some solace in a world full of uncertainty. Artists like Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, and Taylor Swift are testaments of the changing face of country music and it’s without the faces behind the names that their influence on the music industry would not be possible.
Having grown up in a household where country music was strongly embraced, I learned early on the importance of music in the lives of its listeners. I could see the direct affect music had over me as I reveled in country classics such as “Fancy”, “9 to 5”, and “Chains”, just to name a few. The lyrics to these songs became embedded within my mind and motivation and passion integral to every intern application that has flown from my printer the past month and a half.
Intern applications, much like typical job applications, strive to form a complex representation of an individual with quite a limited work experience background and seemingly limited means. This presents the biggest concern for employers. Interns, typically, are current college students or even graduate students looking for experience within an area of interest whether related to their academic studies or not. It’s the employer’s responsibility to weed through hundreds upon hundreds of applications, resumes, and cover letters.
As I mentioned before, my printer has seen quite a few resumes and cover letters dry up its ink. The intern application process for country music is quite painless, in fact. Interns are given more leniency regarding their experience and skills with the understanding that their goals, ambitions, and potential abilities a line with the long term and short term goals of the company or organization. However, an internship should be treated as a regular job; presenting your brand in a professional manner is just as crucial, or even more so.
Hiring an intern is a gamble. By presenting your skills and abilities in a certain light causes the company hire your abilities and potential abilities. It is these potential abilities that can prove an internship beneficial or disastrous for both parties involved. Many intern applications require letters of recommendation from school officials, former employers, or even volunteer organization leaders, and may or may not require the applicant to receive academic credit for the term of the internship. As the intern is an investment for the employer, dedicating this time and energy with an unpaid internship is the applicants understood investment. With companies taking on dozens of interns each year, it’s within reason that the internship is unpaid.
So now you’ve submitted your application, resumes, and cover letters to a dozen or so potential employers in hopes you land an internship. Now you have to play the waiting game. Typically, on the company’s website a request for no phone calls (regarding internships) is highly requested. You wait perhaps a week to two weeks hoping your personal brand materials made it to the corporate office safely until one afternoon you receive a highly anticipate phone call. This first phone call is your preliminary interview. Just as with regular job applicants, the company is taking precautions to weed out the unqualified individuals who applied for the internship. The process only gets more strenuous as it goes on. After this interview, another few weeks and emails pass between you and the employer until you either get a second interview or not.
Upon reviewing your resume and cover letter with a new set of eyes, the department head then sets up your second interview. As with the first interview, the questions and inquiries are direct and personal; your career goals, involvement within the community, and technical skills with a computer come into question. Here is where things can go either way. Suppose two very qualified individuals are vying for the same internship in the PR department of the ABC company. On the surface, both applicants are the same; both majored in the same area, and both have a 3.9 GPA. How does an employer decide between the two?
By taking some simple searches online, an employer can find everything they want to know about their applicants. An online presence is the make it or break it point for most employers these days. As digital and social media become more and more the norm for everyone, companies are taking a closer look at these tools to decide who to hire and who to fire. Based upon a strong, professional presence, the second applicant would get the job, despite such close similarities between the two individuals. With social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Blogger, etc, individuals can establish and promote their personal brand to every company they are seeking a position or internship with.
Through the uses of these social and digital tools, an individual can start by posting and sharing content that is industry appropriate to their interests. For example, an individual that loves country music and utilizes Twitter on a daily basis should tweet articles/content/material that is relevant to the country music scene in Nashville, such as up and coming performers, Billboard articles focusing on country music trends, or even material relevant to their favorite country music artist. By beginning to perceive Twitter and similar media tools as a content sharer rather than “what I had for breakfast” conversation, your professional brand can start to form.
When you begin sharing professional content, you can then begin to have a professional conversation with your industry. Start by following magazines, music organizations, writers, bloggers, etc, on Twitter, for example. This way, you’re using the media tool to the highest potential; when these individuals tweet, you stay in the loop about what industry specific things are happening. For example, in country music you might follow individuals/companies like BMI, CMT, ACM, CMA, and InNashvilleMag. These companies utilize these media tools to create and share content relevant to its followers. As a music industry professional, it’s now relevant to you.
Now that you are beginning to become active with the media tools such as Twitter, utilizing the features on these tools is crucial to a professional conversation. Many times companies involve their followers by posting polls, questions, surveys, etc; reply to these tweets with your own input. By expressing your interest in the content they share, a company just might find you worth their time and investment. You never know exactly who is checking out your twitter page, and with the content you share, they just might reply or direct message you.
With these simple but powerful steps in using social and digital media tools such as Twitter, you can begin establishing an online presence and a personal brand of your own.
-Jason Scott, Full Sail University graduate student
Recommend Readings and Articles
6 Ways to score a job through twitter: http://mashable.com/2010/11/27/twitter-job-tips/
How to hire summer intern: http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/employeemanagementcolumnistdavidjavitch/article179332.html
Intern application process: http://internships.about.com/od/coverlettertipssamples/p/AppProcess.htm
Internship explore the big business of country music: http://assets.wnec.edu/16/Insight_BusNewsletter_12.09.pdf
Country music’s top earning stars: http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/19/top-earning-country-music-stars-business-entertainment-country-stars_2.html
