Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

It's been a while since I've done any teaching.

I miss it.

I miss helping the more able, willing students.

And I miss striking the fear of God into the minds of some of the lazier ones.

Guess which category you fall into?

Were you one of my second year marketing students ... and were I to stumble upon you asking this kind of question ... in a forum of one of the Internet's TOP TEN MARKETING SITES ... you and I ... we'd find ourselves having a nice cosy chat about your future as one of my students ... and you'd be the one doing all the listening.

Just so you know.

You see, your tutors actually DO read this forum. And were I one of them ... well, let's just say that the results, for you, would not be pleasant.

Harsh? Yes.

Fair? I try to be.

Honest? You betcha.

You may not like what you've just read, or what you're about to read, but I'm trying, really, I am trying, to do you a favor.

You need to learn to think for yourself.

You need to ask questions.

And you need to answer questions with solid, informed, and focused OPINION.

Here's the thing: if you and I were to meet in an interview situation and I were to ask you the SEO question. Even if you were completely full of crap with your answer ... I'd know from the tone of your voice and from the speed with which you answer that it was YOUR crap, and not someone else's. That would at LEAST would tell me that you have the stones to actually OFFER an opinion ... stinking though it might be. I'd rather hear a wrong ORIGINAL answer than a right answer that wasn't based on an ORIGINAL thought.

Why? Because it shows an ability to THINK and REASON. Even though the thinking and the reasoning were ill informed.

There's a magic word in the interview question you were asked. That word is "you": what do YOU think?

In any interview situation, if you trot out someone else's canned opinion, an interviewer who knows their stuff will smell it on you like last week's leftover egg foo yung. And that smell will be the aroma of your career with that firm going bye-bye.

If you're lucky enough to land yourself an interview, get off your rear and LOOK AT THE SITE of the company you're meeting with.

If you sit down, one on one, in a meeting like this with a mean, crusty old snake like me and I ask you this kind of question and you, as a second year marketing student, do not know the answer I'd respect you more if you were to simply tell me "I don't know." There's really no shame in that. Never, EVER try to BS your way out of a question that is evidently bigger than you are. If you have an original thought or opinion, share it. If you don't know, 'fess up. You see, if you have an opinion that's not your own, it will show. And you ... you ... will ... be ... toast.

The things that will get you hired will be your work ethic, your ability to add value, and your ability to think originally, strategically, and successfully ... to solve the client's problem.