New York City, New York

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

It got me thinking about the huge marketing advantage that Macy's have. The city was absolutely packed.  Basically, if you can sell the idea of Christmas, you can make some money.

What are the balloons filled with? Helium! After my internship this past summer, I was able to know the politics with Helium.  Basically, the US has the largest reserves of Helium in the world, and the world is running out....quickly.  You're soon gunna see all of the Helium skyrocket in price! 

So what's going to happen with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Three things can happen:

• Macy's will pay for the expensive helium
• Macy's will get rid of the balloons (this would greatly damage their image and marketing power)
• Macy's will fill the balloons with Hydrogen...which we all know....is flammable (this may also destroy some of the supporters of the parade).

According to Wikipedia (I know...what a source.), 2006 saw a helium price increase.  So the organizers decided to reduce the amount of balloons.  Still...I don't know what they are going to do...

Marketing Yourself: Part II

It doesn't how smart you are.  If you cannot market yourself, you are nothing! 


I was sitting around the NASA intern lunch table, and one of the interns was talking about his application for grad school application for Bio-physics.  However, he didn't know how to write his statement because it asked for all of his internship and research experience and how it's related to biology.  He told us about his research regarding space dust, and then ended up saying, "I'm not gunna get into grad school."

What should one do in this situation? 


Well first of all, he totally procrastinated on the application.  It's due in 3 days. Don't procrastinate on applying for a program that's going to take at least 2 years of your life.  It just doesn't make sense.


Talk about your experience.  Everyone has stories, regardless if it's related to whatever!  You'll have experience relevant to what you are going to be doing in your job/graduate lab.  Sure, it wasn't bio related.  But are you going to be collect samples? Yes. Are you going to work in a team? Yes.  Are you going to organize your data into a report? Yes!  If this isn't relevant to graduate school, I don't know what is.


Talk about your journey to today. You didn't just decide to go to grad school yesterday (well I hope you didn't). Why are you going to grad school? There has to be a reason! 


What difference do you want to make in the world?  People who read applications like doing so because they see themselves. It helps to remind themselves of the hope that the younger generation sees.  Be like Obama: promote the CHANGE for this world.

It's really hard to brag while writing.  I recently read essays for a high school scholarship.  There was one applicant who said, "I did ___. And I did ___.  Oh, I also did ___."  Sure, the essay was poorly executed.  But I didn't know anything about those activities unless they told me.  If you say, "I'm awesome," that's bragging.  But mostly likely you are just stating the facts.  Make the reader say, "Wow, that applicant has potential" by showing off a little.


*Update: I found this website that gives you advice on admission essays, regardless of which admission. The link is found HERE

Marketing Yourself (and your company)

So Simon Sinek came to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center a few weeks ago.  At first, I was very skeptical.  However, I do enjoy learning about the science of manipulation by reading things such as Malcolm Gladwell or taking a basic psychology course.  You learn a lot about yourself and others and how you could/should function in this world.

I will have to say that is argument is valid.  Here's why:

1) He's pretty cute.  But sorry ladies; from what I know, he has a girlfriend.  


2) We rely heavily on our feelings...especially us women.  For instance, it takes me a very long time to get over an initial bad feeling about someone.  I admit, it's hard to trust this person personally.  Sometimes my intuition is correct, sometimes its not.  Usually if I'm right, I'll find out fairly quickly and say, "I knew it!" 


I don't want to ruin his book/ TEDx presentation. Feel free to investigate for yourself. :-D