PSGCNJ Need Blog Writers for Multi Author Blog (MAB)

By Barbara Perone
If you would like to try your hand at being a Scribe you have a perfect opportunity to practice — by writing blog articles for our PSGCNJ newsletter, actually a Multi-Author Blog (MAB).
At the moment, we are starting a new series about the top questions Interviewers ask during job interviews and how best to answer them. We are starting with ten questions and hope to expand to as many as we think necessary. Over the next few weeks, I hope to get ten Writers interested in signing up for the project.
Once I have all the Writers, I will assign one question and one job coach to each Writer. When you contact the coach, via email, explain what the series is about. Ask the coach to explain what answer the Interviewer is trying to elicit by asking the question and what traps a job candidate should avoid. Then, ask him or her to provide the best possible answer to the question.
Tell the job coaches you would like their answers to be brief. We really want to keep each blog article to just three-to-four paragraphs. Ask them to send their responses as soon as possible. When you get the response, edit it down to three or four paragraphs, then email the article to me at: bperone55@gmail.com.
Depending on what you send me, I may have to do a little editing myself to make sure your copy complies with the Associated Press (AP) writing style guide we’ve adapted as a standard for our MAB. When my editing is done, we will post your blog article in the Newsletter section of our website. The deadline for sending copy is always 9 a.m. Thursdays. If your copy arrives at 9:01 a.m., it will be held over for the next week’s publication.
The reason we have this deadline is two-fold. First, on Friday mornings, during our Marketing & Events Committee meetings, I have to be able to give the PSGCNJ Layout Editor, Stephanie Jones, a list of all blog articles coming down the pipeline. Second, I have to be able to determine which blog articles are time-sensitive and, as a result, have to be published first. Then, I have to edit them and send them all to Stephanie by Sunday morning so she can begin publishing them on Monday.
If you are not interested in participating in the top interview question series you can still write a blog about anything that has to do with being: unemployed, underemployed, in transition, etc. The list of topics is wide open. You could write about: how you feel about being unemployed, tips for saving money, how to find the least expensive health insurance, a great app you found that helping you in your job search, ways to refinance your mortgage while unemployed, etc.
Remember, other job seekers may be going through exactly what you are going through, so, if you want to share something new you’ve learned, that may help others in the same situation, writing a blog article is a good way to do it. It also gives you exposure, which makes you look good when you go on your job interviews.
If you want to remain anonymous we’ll call you “a PSGCNJ Contributor.” If you want to write about a personal experience during an interview, but are afraid of mentioning the name of the company; don’t worry, we won’t publish the firm’s name. We’ll just call it “the XYZ Company.” All we want is to share your story with other PSGCNJ members. We aren’t interested in causing any problems for you.
By the way, the articles you submit don’t have to be lengthy. A half a page to a page will do. So, join us. Help our organization so we can provide our members with timely, useful information that will help them stay in their homes, cut their daily living costs, and find the jobs they desire.