Assistant Communications Editor

ASSISTANT COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR: ROLE PLAYING SCRIPT FOR EMPLOYER,
Ms. Breckenridge, Hollins University, SPRING 2008

It is Spring 2008. You are the Managing Editor for Web Design at Fine Cooking Magazine, a 13 year old food publication. Fine Cooking’s offices are located in New York City to be close to the outstanding restaurants and international food industry there. Fine Cooking has an outstanding reputation, and is a leader in food publications.

In 2007, the company decided to make archived issues available to subscribers on the web, and because you have been with the magazine since its inception and also know technology well, the company chose you to head up this new endeavor. You have just introduced online membership for subscribers to enjoy total access to every single one of the thousands of trusted recipes on your Web site. The response to the on line membership has been so incredible that you are in the process of hiring an Assistant Communications Editor for Web Design who will start on June 1st.

Every year, Fine Cooking hires many graduating seniors to meet the needs of the ever-growing business. Because of the excellent reputation of the publication, these positions are highly sought after. The competition is fierce. The applicants are many.

You have already interviewed three dozen highly qualified applicants who will be graduating in the spring of 2008. You’ve been hiring for other editing positions for five years now and know the type person who would fit well in the culture and share the values of the magazine. Every once in awhile an applicant comes along who shows you something special. You know immediately that this person would be of great value to the organization for many, many years, and you soften on driving a hard financial bargain because of the person’s exceptional potential. You’re never quite sure what that “something special” is, but you know it when you see it, and you see it in Ms. Schindler.

You interviewed Ms. Schindler yesterday. You were impressed with her poise and her work ethic as revealed when she discussed her work experience with both the publication and food industries. Ms. Schindler has exactly the qualities you seek in this newly created position, and the experience which should make it easy for her to begin immediately with only “on the job training”. At the end of the interview yesterday you offered her the job as the Assistant Communications Editor for Fine Cooking in the New York office, and asked her to return today to set her salary and start date.

As the consummate professional and department head, you offer competitive salaries. Www.wageproject.org tells you that for the job title “Communications Editor 1” a title closest to your position, the salary range is $51,000- $66,500 with .

ASSISTANT COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR APPLICANT (2),

A median salary of $59,000 for the New York City office. The benefits for this position add another $25,000 to the compensation package.

Because Fine Cooking is such a desirable employer and so many fresh-minted graduates want to work for their many publications, they typically pay new hires at the low end of the salary range. Last year’s starting salary for this position was $51,000. You don’t see any reason to start with an offer any higher than that. In fact, three people have already accepted offers at that salary in comparable jobs in the New York office. The benefits package you are offering for this position is approximately $15,000.

Ms. Schindler’s job offer is the last piece of your work for the day. You have to leave in 15 minutes to get to a company wide meeting in which you are the featured speaker on the new Web initiative.

When you and Ms. Schindler sit down to talk, your opening lines to her are:

“We’re so pleased that you want to work for Fine Cooking. You’ll be a wonderful addition to our team.

We have just a couple details to settle, then you can sign our contract, and we’ll see you after graduation.

I am authorized to offer you a starting salary of $51,000. You will be entitled to the standard benefits package all new employees get, and we’d like you to start work in the New York City office on June 1, 2008.

If that’s okay with you, please read over this contract, sign it and you’ll be one of the Fine Cooking family!”

See how she reacts. Listen to her. Write down what points might persuade you to raise this offer. Write down what language she might use that would make you hold the line and not raise her starting salary and why. Write down what objections you would have if she wants more money. Discuss all this thoughtfully with her, because you want her to accept your job offer.

See what is the lowest starting salary that you can get her to accept and get her to accept a specific salary in the 15 minutes before you have to leave.

Remember, you made her a job offer because you were very impressed with her. Now it’s time to get her to work at Fine Cooking.

Good luck.

COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR: ROLE-PLAYING SCRIPT FOR JOB APPLICANT,
Ms. Schindler, Hollins University, SPRING 2008

It is Spring, 2008. You will soon graduate with a BS in Communication Studies from Hollins University with a 3.5 GPA reflecting your outstanding commitment to your studies.

Your father owns a publishing company in Asheville, NC and you worked for his company during summer vacations and school breaks all through high school and college. You also got interested in the food industry as your mother is a food editor for the Asheville, NC Citizen Times, and you often interviewed cookbook writers and tested recipes together. You have become keenly interested in working with both publishing and food as a career.

When you worked for your father, you started in the mail room, and ended up helping with editing, layout and artwork preparation. You got a great overview of what it takes to put out publications. Your mother also recognized your writing abilities and began to let you ghost write some paragraphs, especially those dealing with food preparation.

You applied to Hollins University because of its wonderful writing programs and its close proximity to the famous Tinker Institute for Culinary Studies where you also took courses. You majored in Communication Studies, because you felt that it would give you a good overview of the communication process in a wide variety of contexts. Your advisor at Hollins suggested you take related offerings in film and photography. You took classes in Media Law and Policy to learn online legal research techniques, and were chosen to take a trip to Washington, D.C., for an exclusive F.C.C. briefing on current communication regulatory issues. You also took Writing for Print Media I and II, hands-on journalism courses and Writing for Electronic Media.

For your January Short Term, you did an Internship in Print Media with Cooking Light Magazine in New York. That whetted your appetite for food writing and you availed yourself of Hollins’ and Ticker’s collaborative class exchange. You also want to return to NYC!

Every year, Fine Cooking hires graduating seniors into various positions to meet the needs of the ever-growing demands of their publications. These positions are highly sought after, and competition is fierce. This year they are in the process of hiring an Assistant Communications Editor for Web Design, a new position for the company in their New York City office. In 2007 the company decided to make archived issues available to subscribers on the web, and because Ms. Breckenridge, who has interviewed you, has been chosen to head up this new endeavor. She has just introduced online membership for subscribers to enjoy total access to all of the trusted recipes on their Web site. Public response has been so incredible, she is .

ASSISTANT COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR APPLICANT (2)

Seeking an assistant. This is exactly what you want to be doing, and it is in New York where you want to be!

You’ve done your homework. Www.wageproject.org tells you that the entry level Assistant Communications Editor, close to the position that you’ve been offered, has a salary range of $51,000- $66,500 with a median salary of $59,000 for New York City. The benefits package for this position is worth another $25,000.

You’ve determined that your target salary is $59,000 which you firmly believe, given your unusual work experience, your education, your summer jobs and your internships have given you valuable skills.

You know that living in the New York will be expensive. You have hefty student loans to pay off. Travel back home to Asheville will be expensive, and you want to be able to go skiing on winter weekends and enjoy the night life the city offers. The minimum salary you can possibly accept is $54,000 and that would mean living VERY modestly.

You were thrilled yesterday when Ms. Breckenridge, Managing Editor for Web Design at Fine Cooking Magazine, offered you a job. She asked you to come back today just to settle a couple details like salary and starting date and then sign a contract.

You have the last appointment of the day. Ms. Breckenridge must leave in 15 minutes to get to a company wide meeting in which she is the featured speaker.

Can you and Ms. Breckenridge come to an agreement about a starting salary which you accept? Can you get her to agree to your target salary figure? Make notes on what you consider your persuasive points. Decide the sequence in which you will present these points. Make notes about the language you will use. Make notes about her likely objections and what you will say.

Use every minute of that time to get her to your target salary. It’s your last chance to start out with the best salary you can get. Remember, $59,000 is what you believe you’re worth in that job.

Go for it!