So...co-op interviews are currently under-way. We've had a couple of groups come in so far for A-Round for all of our open positions.

Now that you're on the other side of interviewing, what is one thing you heard when you came in for an interview, that holds true today? A message that you want to pass on to the group of students interviewing now.

Last week

My over-arching project for last week was testing, launching, and setting up the cover sheet for our new faxing process, as well as giving any users that needed it a quick run through of how it all works. Almost everyone's good to go now, only a few people left to do the cover sheets.

Tuesday, I upgraded Kristen and Claudia to Windows 7, taking up almost the entire day, and leaving little room for cover sheet set-ups

Wednesday sucked. Pure and simple. Attempted to upgrade Joe to 7, but complications to the process ended up adding significant time to the process, meaning I was going to have to stay late. That is, however, until the process failed five minutes before I usually leave, reverting me to the point the computer was at at noon. We called off the upgrade and will be attempting it again some other time, but I was more than a little frazzled at day's end.

Thursday, I did more Cover sheet set-ups, and sat in on co-op interviews to give the applicants an idea what the co-op was like. It was my first time being on that side of an interview table, so I didn't really have much to ask. Some promising applicants though, I thought.

Friday I mostly spent going back and forth between reviewing my duties for this week with Mari, and attempting to copy the most stubborn video clip in recorded history from a website for a power point Kristen was working on. Seriously, why can't people just put a "click here to download video" button on their pages?

Last week I had a lot on my plate plus I had a huge ton of meetings which made it a little difficult to complete everything. QI is doing a lot of staff development both in our department and with everyone else in the office. We are each assigned topics to research and create a presentation to teach within our department. That being said I had to do a lot of research on hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance. The second half of staff development, reaching out to other departments, also involved a lot of research, but on quality and why our department does what it does. We have a teaching session today at lunch, tomorrow and the day after that. This involved a lot of preparation. Aside from that, I've been reaching out to resource room content experts so that I can get more information to add to the resource rooms and keep them up to date. I've also been keeping track of every implementation guide download so we can reach out to the people interested in our initiatives. I researched lead prospects that provide locum tenens, billing, consultants, and recruiters for hospitalists. Hmm...I've also been helping Wendy reach out to the HQPS executive committee and with her own personal project. There's a little more, but that's all I'm typing for now. Gotta get back to work!

What I completed....

So for the last two weeks I have been doing morning membership every morning with source coding, renewal applications, web updates, and google alerts. Besides membership, I also update the tracker to see what MA has done what each day for morning membership.

I also worked on reviewing the new Membership Thank You card and reference card so that they can be sent to Celisse and Kat. I worked with Vernita and Christine to write two letters to those who have been recommended by a fellow peer, and to those who have been elected new chapter leaders for Greater Baltimore. Going along with chapters, I have been printing and sending out over 100 thank you letters for all of the recent chapter events that we have had. Last week I also got to attend the Philadelphia Tri-State chapter event.

Other than that, I do my normal customer service emails, calls, and billing questions. This week Christine is away until Wednesday so I have a huge To-Do list to complete.

Oh hai. My bizzle on this being late-izzle. So whilst you were away from your desk in your lovely vacation world, we got to start every morning off as usual with membership. Worked on a lot of things for facebook/twitter. Also worked on the Marketing Menu with Tom, which is slowly heading towards completion; just compiling comments now. Uhmmmmmm and that's about all I can remember. Pardon me, my head isn't 100% lately. Whomp.

Soooooo....

Last week of course we had our traditional Membership to complete every morning, but my afternoon was split up between calling various companies to promote our Hospital Medicine Directory and preparing everything I needed to for the AANP conference out in Phoenix. Cassidy and I were also working on the Marketing Menu, that is currently very close to being completed.

While you were gone last week, Ashley was too, so I had a long list of stuff to do. I worked on the Checklists we send out every month, I worked on organizing the interviews for the new ma, da, and hr position. I conducted a web analysis of our website so we have an easier time going through and updating/taking out information. And I went to this really cool seminar with John where I learned a lot about fund raising. Other than that, my week was pretty normal

This weeks' question:

Tell me about what you did at work last week while I was gone.

Happy 1st day of summer!!

Technically this could be considered unsuccessful due to the outcome, but building up to it, the experience was a complete gold medal. Through my cousin, I had met a few PR representatives in Zurich, Switzerland and we were discussing me co-oping over there for this current co-op. It ended poorly due to the financial standings of the company since they were going through a complete internal renovation of staff. The point of this networking experience was that I reached out to my cousin and used her as a source to help me circulate my resume around a few different companies in Switzerland. The final company, which we had been talking to for a few months before the fall-out, has promised to keep my resume as well as keep in contact in case something comes up in the future. So in the end, it wasn't a total bomb of a networking opportunity.

I remember last summer, I was at a function that my summer job was holding. When I took a break from working, I noticed a woman who was sitting alone, so I went over to talk to her. We talked for a little while. She asked me a lot about myself and what school I went to- things like that. When I had to go back to work, she gave me her buisness card. It turned out that she was a doctor and she offered me a position at a local medical center if I wanted a part time job that related to my major. I ended up working for her part time for the rest of the summer, made a lot of local hospital contacts, had a great medical learning experience and got all of my required nursing vaccinations for free. I'd say that was pretty successful :)

So the last time I was fortunate enough to have a successful networking experience was actually very recent.
I was at a benefit about a month ago with a bunch of family and friends in my neighborhood. I began speaking to a old basketball coach of mine from the 5th and 6th grade and telling him about school and my current job here at SHM. I also went into telling him how I started up my own landscaping business on the side just trying to earn a few extra bucks.
Since that conversation I have two additional properties. The one being his lawn, and the other is his neighbor a couple houses down.
I look back on that conversation and if I didn't put the time in to actually say hello, and see whats new in my coach's life, then I wouldn't have those two additional lawns.

Networking

The last time I had a very successful networking opportunity I would say was a very fortunate night when I attended the PHC mock tail event. For those of you who do not know, PHC is the council that meets and conducts business across all 5 Drexel sororities-basically they help keep everything fair and balanced across the board. In an effort to "make peace" and network with other members of other sororities PHC sponsored a networking/hang out mock tail night hosted at Delta Zeta sorority house.

Every time I go somewhere I try to be rather outgoing and friendly. Luckily for me I sat beside a girl by the name of Jill and we got to talking about the sororities, Drexel overall, and co-op. While talking about co-op opportunities and interviews I had been on and had yet to go to I mentioned SHM. I thought that she was going to get sick she was so ecstatic about me interviewing at SHM. After a few minutes of her explaining what a great company SHM was to work for she introduced me to Meredith.

Meredith was just as nice and as ecstatic about SHM and what great opportunities you could receive from working here. Both of the girls made me more confidence about coming to my last interview of B round, SHM. Furthermore, it was nice learning more about SHM and what it is like to work there before even going to the interview.

What came out of this networking opportunity? Well I am one of the new MAs :) What I learned was to still be nice to everyone and be yourself. By meeting new people and being friendly I got to not only learn more about them but also about the companies they had worked for. Luckily for me they had both worked at SHM.

So I know I didn't post a question last week. My fault. We had Monday off and then I got busy with recruitment etc. etc. ...

Last night I was at a friends' house watching the Flyers game. I met a couple of girls there who are graduating this week. They kept talking about conducting job searches and I asked one of them what kind of job she was looking for, and she said Marketing/Communications. I told her about the position open here at SHM and gave her my e-mail so she could send me her resume. BAM! Welcome to Meredith's first networking experience.

So I ask all of you: Write about the last time you had a successful networking opportunity. What came out of it? Did you learn anything?