There’s an old saying that it’s not what you know, but whom you know.  In the business of meteorology, I think it is really about both.  You have to know the weather, but knowing the right people helps in a big way when job hunting.  So how do you get to know the right people?  By networking, of course!

There are a few things to consider when thinking about the art of networking.  First, no matter what a person’s position in life is right now, it will likely change in the future.  In other words, the person you meet today might be a second-year meteorology student struggling to comprehend atmospheric thermodynamics, but a few years from now, that person could be a hiring manager for a major company.  Introduce yourself to the students and professionals alike in this field.  No one knows what the future holds.

If possible, never miss an opportunity to network in person.  Those opportunities come in the form of conferences both big and small.  I have made some great connections at the National American Meteorological Society’s conferences.  With thousands in attendance, it would be difficult not to.  I have made almost as many good connections at the Minnesota Skywarn Workshop.  Wherever you happen to be, in order to really meet people, you have to put yourself out there.  Introduce yourself.  At conferences and workshops especially, you know you have something in common with the other participants.  It should be easy to start a conversation.  Seriously.  Even non-meteorologists start conversations by talking about the weather, right?

If you can’t afford to hit the many conferences and workshops around the country, focus on a more local type of gathering.  A good example is the local chapter of the AMS.  Not only do you meet people with similar interests, but you get to share ideas and information in a more intimate setting.  The knowledge I have gained from those meetings has helped me along my path in this business.

Beyond face-to-face meetings, there is a plethora of ways to network on the Internet.  Of course, you have our blogs and forums (under the Network tab) here on Whatever-Weather.com.  In addition to us, there is LinkedIn, twitter, and facebook among others.  LinkedIn lets you post your own professional profile, connect with others in the same business, and join groups of like-minded people.

Twitter is a bit more simple and complicated at the same time.  It may take longer to weed through the huge number of users to find those with similar interests, but they are out there.  When you find them, you will suddenly find many more like them by using “features” like #FollowFriday.  The use of twitter could be an entire blog in itself, really.  By the way, you can find us on twitter, too!

How you use Facebook depends entirely on your own preference.  For example, I use it to keep up with people that I truly know and have chatted with face-to-face with a few rare exceptions.  For me Facebook is more personal and I can really be myself on my own page without worrying too much about what my friends think.  After all they are my friends.  For others, Facebook is another way to really expand their professional networks.  Whatever-Weather has a group page and a “fan” page on Facebook.  Please join us there.  You might just meet new people that way, too.

The goal of networking goes beyond just making new acquaintances.  In the process, you have the opportunity to learn new things, too.  For example, you may be a life-long broadcast meteorologist and you meet a NASA space weather scientist.  Think of all of the possible subjects you can discuss and information you can share!  You could tell her about life in front of a green screen and being recognized in the grocery store.  She could tell you how sunspots effect the earth’s global temperatures.  Then you both walk away better on yet another level for having spoken with each other.

In summary, there are multiple ways to network, and I have only covered a few here.  However you choose to do it, networking always starts with one thing: an introduction. “Hi, my name is Nicolle. I co-own Whatever-Weather.com.  What do you do?”

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So, you have your meteorology degree in hand and you are looking for that first “real” job.  You are excited and nervous.  Your friends and family are excited for you.  The people you meet on a daily basis learn that you are a meteorologist and immediately ask “Are you gonna be on TV?”  Maybe you will, but TV is hard to break into without the right look and polished presentation.  Most new meteorologists start their careers in a less glamorous way: operational meteorology.  (And, trust me.  I know from experience better than to think that broadcasting is really all that glamorous.)  For those of us who choose to start without the bright lights and cameras, glamour is the last thing on our minds.  The bigger concerns are where to start, when to sleep, and getting as much experience in forecasting as possible.

As an entry-level operational meteorologist, expect to have to move away from home, unless of course, you are lucky enough to live in one of the few cities with a jumping meteorology market.  If you happen to be in Norman, Chicago, Atlanta, the Twin Cities, or Houston, you may be lucky enough to be able to sit tight.  The rest of us are nearly guaranteed a move.  I’ve known a few meteorologist who celebrated earning their degrees and then decided that staying home close to friends and family was more important than pursuing a meteorology career.  There is nothing wrong with that as long as they are happy with their decisions.

Now that you have landed that first job, packed the Penske truck, and crossed the country as a first step on your career path, it’s time to settle into a whole new lifestyle.  The majority of first year mets have some dues to pay.  Expect to work odd hours.  Operational meteorology is typically a 24/7/365 business.  The lower on the totem pole you are, the worse your hours tend to be.  Think overnight shifts or very early mornings.  Along with the odd work hours come odd sleep hours.  In my own personal experience, I woke up between 2am and 4am, and that meant going to sleep when most 9-5’ers were leaving work and going to dinner.

The odd hours lead to the next expectation on the list: your coworkers become your closest friends, especially if you are single.  When people share common backgrounds such as coursework, close proximity such as workspace, and similar work schedules, friendships naturally develop.  Who else are you going to share a drink with at 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the rest of the world is still in the office?  I have to say that the relationships I forged at Weather Eye will always be treasured.  When you work and play together, you can develop some serious bonds.

Depending on the size of the company, you may also expect to work long hours.  Pay for a first year meteorologist in a small company is usually notoriously low.  In a smaller company the benefits are typically pretty limited as well.  Don’t let these drawbacks keep you from joining the ranks of the operational mets.  In the long run, it is all worth it.  What you get in return for the long hours, relatively low wages, and lack of long term care insurance is immeasurable.  Think of it this way: the longer your hours, the more experience you are getting.  That experience will go a long way in furthering your career.  The more you work, the more opportunities you get to forecast.  The more forecasting you do, the more your skills will improve.  All the while, you have the chance to do what you love.

Meteorologists are a special breed of people.  They get to do work that they love, occasionally get it wrong, and still get paid.  There is a tenacity needed to keep going.  The burnout rate for operational meteorologists is high, but the reward after those entry-level dues are paid is just as high.  Don’t be afraid to jump in, and do stick with it!

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After interviewing for a job, it becomes hard to just play the waiting game.  The first step you should take after completing your interview is to properly thank who you interviewed with.  With unemployment levels hovering around 10%, the company you are seeking employment with has more than likely gone through hundreds of applications.

Shortly after returning home from your interview you should write each person you interviewed with a personal thank you note.  This should not be in e-mail form as that can be seen as a lazy way of thanking someone.  I and many others believe that a personal note sent via the post office is the best way to properly thank the company and their employees that you interviewed with.  If you are authoring multiple thank yous, it is important to not rewrite the same message over and over.  Each thank you write should be unique and directed towards the person it is addressed to.

If you grow impatient and have not heard back from the company after sending thank yous and waiting several weeks a quick phone call or e-mail to their person in charge of HR is alright, but you should not repeatedly try contacting them.  If they want to talk with you they will get in touch with you.  It can be hard, but as they say “Good Things come to People who Wait!”

Jacob Hamblin
hamblinj@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/hamblinj

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When you think of Meteorology programs in college, science and math skills are the first to come to mind, not communication skills.  Obviously television and radio meteorologists are expected to have refined communication skills.  In other areas, like research and operational meteorology you do not use communication skills as often but that does not make them any less important.

No matter what area our professional meteorological careers have taken, we can all benefit by always working on our communication skills, even the accomplished speakers among us.

One way to do it is to search out a chapter of Toastmasters International and work on your communication skills on a weekly basis.  Toastmasters clubs are groups of 15-30 people who meet weekly to help each other improve in communication skills.  On any given meeting, some members give speeches, some give evaluations of the speeches, someone leads the meeting (Toastmaster of the Day), someone leads Table Topics (1-2min impromptu speeches), someone brings an Word of The Day (which members use to improve their vocabulary), someone counts the Ahs, Ums, and grammar gaffes we all make, and someone evaluates the entire meeting (General Evaluator).  Most clubs allow guests to show up at any meeting and learn about the process (the exceptions are closed business clubs which are employees only).

Toastmasters clubs also have speech contests twice a year you can speak in front of others if you choose to do so.  You can progress to regional Area contests or statewide Districts contests and compete against more established competition which challenge your skills even more and you improve by going against other experienced speakers.

There is also a leadership track in Toastmasters you can start on just doing the day to day duties in each meeting.  As you continue to progress you then can join the club leadership team and do anything from being the Club President, schedule people for duties, recruit new members, balance the club’s budget, and keep the club’s records.  You can also go beyond the club level to higher levels and run regional Areas or statewide Districts if you so choose, improving your leadership skills even more.

Every club is unique in their own way, though everyone follows general guidelines and rules in each meeting.  You learn new things when you visit more than one club, in District 6, the greater Minnesota District; there is a traveling trophy called the Elusive Gilded Gavel (EGG) which encourages clubs to visit each other to learn and network with each other.

I have been a member of Toastmasters International since July of 2007 and I plan to be in it for many years as each club has its mix of weaker and stronger speakers so you can help weaker speakers and learn from the stronger speakers.  Even the strongest speakers still enjoy the routine of giving speeches so they can keep improving their skills.  I am currently a dual member of two different clubs, one is the Hutchinson Toastmasters II club in Hutchinson, Minnesota (http://www.h2tm.org) and the other is Techmasters-Twin Cities which meets in Edina, Minnesota (http://www.techmasters-tc.com).  I am also the Vice President-Education for the Hutchinson II club, which means I set the weekly duty schedule a couple months out encourage other members to keep moving forward on their official awards and approve and sign off on awards that members get.

I encourage anyone who is interested in strengthening their communication and leadership skills to go to http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/ and search for the nearest Toastmasters club near you and use it as a professional and personal development opportunity.

©2010 Charles Schoeneberger

About Chuck

Chuck has a background in Atmospheric Sciences and a degree from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. He has a background in operational forecasting producing products for transportation needs with the 511 system and Departments of Transportation in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana with Meridian Environmental Technology Inc. of Grand Forks, ND.  He is looking for new job opportunities in the operational forecasting realm, and he blogs for the Minneapolis StarTribune newspaper about statewide weather.  In addition, Chuck has a background in Geographic Information Systems and is also looking for ways to apply these skills towards weather outreach and communications.    He is a native of Minnesota, just outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and enjoys all four seasons and the constantly changing conditions.

Minneapolis StarTribune Weather Watchers Blog:

http://www.startribune.com/weatherwatchers/chuckschoeneberger.html

University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, Atmospheric Sciences Department:

http://www.atmos.und.edu/Default.aspx

National Weather Service Warning Decision Training Branch:

http://wdtb.noaa.gov/

COMET at UCAR:

http://www.comet.ucar.edu/

Twin Cities Chapter of the American Meteorological Society:

http://twincitiesams.org/

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Getting Good Ratings on Your Resume

First of all – there is no winning secret to a successful resume tape (of course, I call it a ‘tape’ but it hasn’t actually been a ‘tape’ in years), BUT there are tons of smart, well-thought-out choices you can make that will give your tape a shot at staying at the top of the stack.

I’ve sat in many a news director’s office and watched – with a mixture of horror and amusement – them rip through a pile of candidates tapes.  I’d say most don’t get 20 seconds of air time before…Eject!   The good news is…it’s not because so many people are that bad…it’s because each News Director (or hiring entity) generally has a preconceived idea about what they’re looking for.

So tip number one: Know your audience. (this skill will serve you greatly when you start working in TV as well)

Tip number two: Know Yourself, and put the best of yourself in the first 20 seconds of the tape.

Knowing Your Audience (The Station/NewsDirector/Weather Team you’re applying to)

If you’re really interested in working at a certain station or market do your research…Find out what the stations “style” is, who the other players are, how they run their ship.

If you’re a gimmicky funny guy, applying at a traditional, straight-laced station, don’t put your best jokes up front on your resume tape.

If you’ve got beautiful barbie doll looks, and are applying to join a hard-core team of veteran meteorologists don’t put your “I interviewed Johnny Depp” live shot at the front of your tape.

Catch my drift?  of course, this doesn’t make it easy to blanket the country with resumes…But then again, you don’t want a job just anywhere do you?  You want your new station to be the best fit for you- and vice versa.

Know Yourself

Are you great under pressure? Have a very warm personality? Talented at explaining tricky weather events?  In the clips you’ve been saving of yourself, look for a moment of great anchor ‘cross talk’, or when you explained the ‘seabreeze front’ in a simple way..or better yet, when you cleared up what’s really causing cold temperatures across the whole U.S.  Capitalize on your moments of greatness by highlighting them in brief clips on your resume.

First- Lots of little clips: a great face shot, a serious forecasting tidbit, a funny comment,…Zam, Zap, Zow….don’t give them a chance to hit eject.

Then, back up what you started with a STRONG weathercast….And I am inclined (as a woman in meteorology) to say a “serious” weathercast.  Show them that you know your stuff, then you can move comfortably on to showing your personality (which without, you should not be applying for a job in TV)

You don’t have any of these things, you say?  Then plan ahead!  When you’re ‘producing’ your 3 minute weathercast you should always be looking for opportunities to engage your audience!!

About Janice

Janice Jones spent 11 years as a Broadcast Meteorologist in Savannah, Georgia, Orlando, Florida and Raleigh, North Carolina.   As one of the few female “Chief Meteorologists” on air in the 90’s Janice has a wealth of experiences to share.  Janice also writes another blog.  Read it at www.JanAboutTown.com.

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1.  How much does the job pay?

While your curiosity might be up about what kind of a paycheck you will receive, asking about money up front could make you look like all you want is a paycheck and not a career with the company.  Wait until the interviewer brings up the pay range or until you are being offered the job to discuss money.  If you are desperate to find out what the pay range is, you can check out sites like salary.com and do a little research.  To be honest, a job hunter should do this anyway in order to know if he/she is being offered a fair amount if hired.

2.  How soon can I take a vacation?

This says to an employer, “I might want the job, but my time off is more important than my service in your company.”  There is one occasion when this question might be OK to ask and that is if you have a trip scheduled and there is no way out of taking it.  However, I would not ask this question unless I was being offered the job.  It is fair to the employer to give him/her a heads up that you have a trip scheduled if they are making an offer.  It does not make a good impression in a first interview to be overly concerned about time off before you even have the job.

3.  I have no questions at this time.

I have actually been guilty of saying something along these lines.  I am the type of person who has to process the information that I’ve just received before arriving at solid questions.  Unfortunately, during a job interview this can come across as not being very engaged or interested in the job or the interview itself.  One suggestion is to request more information about a specific item in the job description.  For example, saying, “tell me more about ___” makes you appear interested, engaged, and curious.  The key is doing this without making the interviewer repeat him/herself.  Who knows?  You may learn more about the position than you expected using this tactic.

4.  I left my last job because my boss was a real jerk.

Not  good!  Not good!  While the statement might be the absolute truth, trashing your former boss sends up red flags.  First, it shows that you do not tend to take the high road.  Second, it makes the interviewer wonder what you will say about him/her in the future.  It also opens you up to possibly being a gossip, which is something else that does not fly well in interviews since it harms the office environment.

5.  What kind of severance package do you offer?

Hello!  You are basically saying, “I might want the job, but I expect to be fired or laid off.”  Believe it or not, I have heard from an employer first hand that he was asked this very question in a job interview.  Don’t do it.  What the employer is likely to hear is “I have no confidence in my ability to do this job well,” or “I have no confidence in your ability to keep your company afloat.”  Either one is not a message that you want to send.

While this is not a “Top 5” list, it is a list of things to avoid saying during an interview.  I’m sure I could come up with more.  I’m sure some of you, especially those of you who have been on the hiring side, could add a few more.  Feel free to add them in the “comments” section of this page.

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The criteria levels that are needed to issue a Wind Chill Advisory or Wind Chill Warning vary across the country.  As you travel, the differences in what locals in each area consider to be “cold” vary from region to region.  Each National Weather Service (NWS) local office have their own criteria based on how adapted the local population is to cold wind chills.

The first half of the criteria the NWS uses to issue a Wind Chill Advisory or Warning is a minimum of 5-10mph of wind.  The other half of the criteria is our body’s tolerance to cold.

Let’s look at two regions of the country with the Advisories first, starting with the East Region of the NWS.  In the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, people in Maine are the hardiest, with the Advisory criteria not being reached until wind chills go below -20F, Boston and New York go to -15F, Cleveland’s is at -10F, Washington DC at -5F, and the Carolinas get their Advisories at an relatively balmy zero degrees.  The exact criteria locations by county are shown on the left side of Figure 1, courtesy of the Wakefield, VA NWS office.

Figure 1: NWS East Region Wind Chill Advisory Criteria

Now let’s look at the Wind Chill Warning criteria for the NWS East Region.  Northern Maine waits until the wind chill is -35F, southern Maine and upstate New York hold out to -30F, Ohio through Boston and New York are at -25F, Washington DC is at -20F and finally the Carolinas wait until the wind chill is -15F.  The county by county criteria locations are location on the right side of Figure 2.

Figure 2: NWS East Region Wind Chill Warning Criteria

Now, let’s go to the upper Mississippi Valley, the northern part of the NWS Central Region for comparison.  Here the criteria vary by Weather Forecast Office (WFO) County Warning Areas (CWA).  The Wind Chill Advisory is not triggered across southern Minnesota (in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota and LaCrosse Wisconsin WFOs) until it reaches -20F but -25F for central and northern parts of the state You can really see the local tolerances to Wind Chills in the Warning Criteria.  Southern Minnesota waits until it is -35F, yet in northern Minnesota (the Duluth, Minnesota and Grand Forks, North Dakota offices) Warning Criteria is -40F.  This is shown in Figures 3 and 4, courtesy of the NWS Twin Cities/Chanhassen Minnesota.

Figure 3: MN Wind Chill Advisory Criteria

Figure 4: MN Wind Chill Warning Criteria

The Wind Chill Advisory and Warning Criteria show how local climates vary and how “cold” vary across the country.  Regardless of the differences in the level of cold needed to trigger the Advisories and Warnings, care should be taken to stay warm to prevent frostbite in cold winter conditions, even if wind chills are above the official levels.  Listen for local warnings and advisories from your local NWS office and take them seriously to stay warm in cold, windy weather.

Sources:

NWS East Region Criteria (From WFO, Wakefield, VA):

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/akq/wntr.php

NWS Minnesota Region Criteria (From WFO, Twin Cities/Chanhassen, MN)

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/?n=wwadef

©2009 Charles Schoeneberger

About Chuck

Chuck has a background in Atmospheric Sciences and a degree from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. He has a background in operational forecasting producing products for transportation needs with the 511 system and Departments of Transportation in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana with Meridian Environmental Technology Inc. of Grand Forks, ND.  He is looking for new job opportunities in the operational forecasting realm, and he blogs for the Minneapolis StarTribune newspaper about statewide weather.  In addition, Chuck has a background in Geographic Information Systems and is also looking for ways to apply these skills towards weather outreach and communications.    He is a native of Minnesota, just outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and enjoys all four seasons and the constantly changing conditions.

Minneapolis StarTribune Weather Watchers Blog:

http://www.startribune.com/weatherwatchers/chuckschoeneberger.html

University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, Atmospheric Sciences Department:

http://www.atmos.und.edu/Default.aspx

National Weather Service Warning Decision Training Branch:

http://wdtb.noaa.gov/

COMET at UCAR:

http://www.comet.ucar.edu/

Twin Cities Chapter of the American Meteorological Society:

http://twincitiesams.org/

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