REF: SENIOR WOMEN JOB SEARCH SITE IN EUROPE

My name is Poltronieri Flaminio; I am a Senior Pilot (47 years old) with Emirates Airline based in Dubai.

My Mother, 70 years old, has a desire to find work any were in Europe, of any kind. She presently works as a book keeper for her Brother in Foligno, nearby Perugia, in Italy.

I admit mine is an odd request. My Mother though feels that there must be some where in Europe the need for a dedicated, hard working, very senior Lady willing to earn a minimum salary to help somebody or any organization doing any thing of very basic nature. She is fairly fluent in English.

She was on the verge of leaving on her own to look for this type of job without any connection; I managed to stop her in order to help her in a more orderly way.

I am going through the internet trying to explore all venues. If you find this e-mail too odd to answer feel free not to.

My Mother has an independent dream. Our Family could help her but she wants out of it. I am trying to see if hers is just a dream or there are opportunities out there.

I thank you kindly for you patient attention,

Flaminio Poltronieri

This being my first post on the subject, I would like to share a bit about how my job searching is going.

I recently applied for an internship at IBM on Wall Street for the upcoming summer semester. I have received positive feedback on several occasions and will be traveling to the business at the end of the year to discuss a possible internship.

The one thing they said to me when looking over my resume is that they loved that I had several years work experience with non-profit organizations. This includes volunteer work as well as paid experience.

Although I haven’t “locked up” the position, I do believe the reason I have made it this far with the company is only because of my extensive resume.

As to the planning horizon, it’s good to have an idea where you want to be in 5 years so you can make choices in context. But be prepared for things to change. It’s never what you thought

Finally, another way to gain event experience is to volunteer to help organize a fundraising event for charity. This is particularly effective in a smaller community which has a smaller pool of talent from which to draw than a major metro.

Yes, it’s good to have some security when people ask if what you are doing and you tell them you have a job. But what good is that if the company is not right for you? Like so many people have said, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.� It took some soul searching and advice from others to really know what kind of job I want when I graduate. I’m not sure if there is a category in between Big Agency and boutique but that area is where I want to find myself working for an event planning firm.

Do you suggest starting for a small company with flexibility so as to get more experience. Or wade in the pool of the larger fish in Big PR agency for a couple of years? I would like to move up to a larger company with more clients one day. I’ve interviewed with an event planning firm and really like the environment it will put me in. I ask you, how far in life do you plan when making a mental timeline for the future? I sometimes find myself looking 6 months down the road when I should be thinking 6 years.

Also, Any advice on how to set yourself up to reach where you want to be in the future. Thanks Susan for your time. It is your insight that sets us from the rest of the influx of job applicants.

But, I am curious why you would say to stray away from advertising agencies. I am not interested in advertising agencies at all, but I am just curious.

I see commercials on TV and think, “wow that would be fun to do.” But it seems to me that it would be very hard as well. I think it could be a rewarding job, but a very stressful one as well.

Like I said, I have no interest, but I am just curious.

Volunteer work: personally I would leave it on my resume, but perhaps not stress it if you didn’t do PR/marcom work as part of the volunteeering. If volunteer work is personally important to YOU, you probably want to work for an organization that values it.

However, if your volunteer work has a PR/marcom component, IMO you definitely want it on your resume. Shows giving back to the community *and* your abilities.

As a young professional one of the most interesting items on my resume was volunteer work I did for the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 80s. I was lucky enough to be the coordinator of a fundraising speech by Alan Alda at my university — everything from booking the speech to selling the tickets, to yes, writing the news release.

As a hiring manager for years, I liked to see volunteer work and other community service on people’s resumes.

I enjoyed your post about jobs in public relations and each specific level. I liked that you broke it down into different areas for us because some of us, like myself, are unsure of where I want to work after I graduate. I have explored the idea of agency vs. corporate vs. anything else and I am unclear as to what the advantages and disadvantages are of each.

You mentioned that in most of these jobs, the women are at the entry level positions or in the middle. The men are at the top level management positions, which is so strange to me. In the majority of my classes, there are at the most 3 guys. Another good point that you pointed out was planning. I think it is essential to plan ahead for anything and almost everything you do in life, especially a job. By researching the company, you can find one that best fits you and your work style.

Thanks again Susan for joining Marcom and your helpful post!