Trunk Monkey

Trunk Monkey Hairdresser?

Surely one of the great benefits of Web2.0 is how quickly we can all share a smile. The Trunk Monkey comes care of those wonderful marketing people at Suburban cars of Sandy, Oregon. I want one!

As the commercials were made in 2003, lets hope the company is surviving the recession! The agency which made them, R/West, get most of their revenue from licensing the Trunk Monkey commercials.

My favourite commercial has to be the EDS cat herder now available on YouTube. Rather sniffily, EDS on ther website declined to make the commercial available – so its great to be able to experience it again!  Dare I say I also used to sing along to the Meowmix commercials? Humour in advertising is great!

6 tips to find an interim job

Tip 1: go through your CV to demonstrate that you have had interim experience in the past. It may have been some freelance work that you have had. Like many areas of work, agencies and clients want someone who has ‘been there before’!

Tip 2: approach previous clients, employers to ask whether they are looking for someone with your expertise for a short/medium term assignment. They know you and know your work. You know them!

Tip 3: approach interim agencies which specialise in your work area. For example Veredus specialises in public sector work. BIE and Impact do more private sector assignments. Right now, I’d say that the public sector was recruiting more – but that could change.

Tip 4: dont sell yourself short!! Working as an interim you have to pay your own pension, personal indemnity insurance, health insurance, emplyers and employees NI etc etc. No sick pay, no paid holidays. I try to work out how much I need to earn a year and divide by 222 working days. I lower my rate for long assignments, and raise it for short ones. This is because I have more security for the longer assignments without having to calculate ‘down-time’ between roles.

Tip 5: agencies do not like to take you on if they think that you are looking for a permanent role. This is obvious when you think about it. They dont want you to let their valued client down by jumping ship part way through an assignment! 

Tip 6: I have e-mailed organisations to see whether they are considering an interim when I read in a professional mag like PR Week that a senior person has got a job. It has got me a couple of interviews.

Good luck!

Good Manners ?

Do manners matter as much as they used to? What are good manners?

I ask after seeing red spots in front of my eyes after having a drink after work with a colleague to help him with looking for a new job. He kept checking his Blackberry while I was talking and even sent a text! Even if I’m not the most exciting conversationalist, it would have been nice not to feel almost invisible!!!

So recent research by Scott W Campbell at the University of Michigan struck a chord: “There is a certain degree of ‘absent presence’ associated with the use of mobile phones and other personal media in the presence of others. People disengage, or pay more attention to the person on the phone than to the people who are physically present”. I was surprised to learn that Rutgers University has a Center for Mobile Communications Studies but maybe we should be paying more attention to the social and cultural impact of new media.

Still ‘fizzing’ after the experience, I was almost knocked over on the pavement by a woman talking animatedly on her mobile phone who glared at me as if I should have thrown myself out of her way when clearly she was on the phone!!!!

Yet more research, this time from the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory, has shown among young people, that it is more dangerous to send text messages while driving than to be drunk or taking drugs! So perhaps I was lucky that she was walking and talking rather than driving and texting!

Excuse me!

Calling all PR Pundits!

So what are your predictions for PR for 2009?

Crystal Ball

My look ahead gives:

January: biggest event must be the Obama inauguration on 20 January

Or will it be Jonathan Ross’s return to BBC?

Or the new Big Brother?

February: could have some mergers of PR agencies as the economy tightens

Will Kate Winslet win an Oscar or will Angelina pick it up?

TED 25th anniversary conference at Palm Beach

March: could be the announcement of a Royal engagement to cheer up the tabloids

April: possible sale or collapse of PR agencies

May: time for another UK government scandal!

June: will Windows 7 OS be released?

July: Leeds MSc Corporate Communications graduation….for some! Toes crossed!

5 July – Nadal and Murray in the Mens’ Final at Wimbledon?

Nadal

August: David Cameron and Gordon Brown will out-do each other on budget holidays in the UK. Cameron will take the prize by picking an environmentally friendly cheap holiday!

September: last major UK Party political conferences before General Election

October: PR Week Awards!

November: one year on since Obama won the election. Is the honeymoon over?

More doom and gloom for the Pre-Budget report?

Even more public spending announced in the Queen’s Speech leading up to an election?

December: 31 December, partial eclipse of the moon!

Lunar eclipse