21. Maria Scileppi

Maria Scileppi is currently the director of the Chicago Portfolio School which is amazing, but the best part about this gal is that she didn't come to try and recruit us.  She just came to give us some amazing tips on how to get noticed, how to get our foot in the door.  And let me tell you, I needed this talk.  My resume sucked before I went to this class and had the chance to hear Maria speak. 

My resume probably looked like your moms resume.

Anyway, here are a few great things she had to say.

1.      Be creative, do your own individual projects just because you can and because you want to.  Again, holy shit Deb’s right! Maria has succeeded in turning one of her projects,

Peoplescape into something incredible.  You have to check this out; it’s such a great idea.

2.      Have a glass of wine before you write a contact email (must be 21 or older).  This was a great tip, and if you don’t drink wine or booze or beer, her point here was really to relax.  So take a dip in the hot tub or go for a run if you aren’t a win-o like me, do what you need to do to be relaxed and have your ideas and thoughts flow naturally.  This will help get the real you across.

3.      Be accessible.  You have to make it easy for people to get in touch with you.  There are so many other people gunning for the job that you want that if you don’t make it easy for them to reach you, they will move on to the next guy.  And you better hope that you aren’t competing in this area with the guy named Alex who made his phone number 541-YES-ALEX.  Smart kid.

Maria was one of my favorite speakers because she had so many useful things to say.  Despite the fact that she directs a school for creatives, and I’m a planner, I still felt like I learned so much.  I took a lot of notes and thanks to her my resume now looks nothing like your moms.