This article ran last semester as my parting shot as a senior on The Auburn Plainsman staff:
By the time this paper runs on Thursday, I will have completed my first real job interview. I don’t mean meeting with the manager at a local restaurant to get some summer work. I mean showing up in a suit, sitting in a waiting room running through the right answers to grown up and responsible questions in my head until the potential employer calls me in to her office.
How odd.
I am not sure that I’m ready for all of this. Buying the actual suit was bad enough. I had to walk through the Gap, looking at all of the other glittery tops and fall sweaters that I could be spending my money on before trudging to the adult clothing section. Obviously there’s a not sign in store ceilings marked “working stiff clothes†above the suits and sensible pumps, but you all know what section I am referring to. The section is usually named “career separates†or something equally peppy. Who are they fooling? These clothes are as far away from anything I would actually want to wear as possible. I felt like by walking past my usual clothing picks and to the working stiff section, I was walking from the college student to working adult section of my life.
And it was depressing. But then I realized that the suit I was buying was only for an internship. The situation is a grave one, but not as bad as it could be. Instead of interviewing for what should be the fruition of all of my academic labors for the past 16 years, I realized I was interviewing for one last stage in my academic career. I still have one more semester of college left.
After this realization, I devised a plan for the last few months of freedom I have left. I will smile to potential internship supervisors and speak intelligently about how my scholastic and work experiences have made me the ideal candidate for their stellar organization, and how I would be honored to work with them. Then, I will calmly back out of the door, thanking said employer for the chance to interview with such a stellar organization. When the door closes I will sprint to my car and breathe frantically into the paper bag I brought for such occasions. I will remind myself that I still have a few months left of freedom before I actually have to make good on the promises I am making to these people. I will drive to my apartment where I’ll change from business suit to pajama pants and fuzzy leopard print slippers. Yes, it’s 1:30 in the afternoon, but I’ve finished classes for the day and have no other responsibilities. So I’ll lounge on the couch watching Melrose Place reruns and snacking on Oreo cookies or some other equally as unhealthy food product.
As I vegetate on the sofa, I’ll decide which would be the most fun late night activity to do with my friends in a few hours. I will debate whether or not it would be worth driving to the beach this weekend to get in one last shot of warmth before fall truly kicks in. And of course, I will decide yes. After all, when else in my life will I have the opportunity to be as responsibility-free as I have been these past four years? Destin, here I come.
Six months ago this was the truth. Sadly, I really am attempting to become a part of the career world now. I really feel that this semester has prepared me for some of the tougher parts, though and look forward to new challenges. Best to remain optimistic, right?
Now that I have officially started working on the bulk of my final project in Robert’s Style & Design class, I’ve decided to color-coordinate not just my the pages of my digital résumé and portfolio, but also my blog, since it will be a featured link when this whole project starts to come together a few days from now.
All of this web design work does have me thinking about the design aspect of PR. Luckily for me (since I am graduating in May), I feel more and more confident about my choice in major by the day. I mean, really! One of my biggest fears both when I was first startinging college and now that I’m facing the career world was/is that I would be pigeonholed into one area of work and that I would never get to test my skills in other areas.
I love to write, I do it all the time both for work and for the newspaper here and of course for this lovely blog….. but I didn’t want to be branded as a writer. I don’t want to be stuck copy editing everyone’s work and eventually exhausting every creative writing cell in my being.
I love working and interacting with others, but I didn’t want work in a job where all I would ever do is talk myself breathless and not have much credibility when it came time to deliver on promises.
I love design (this is a new one). Working on web content is suprisingly aesthetically satisfying and fun for me, but after 14 hours of staring at a computer screen for various projects that all suddenly seem to require somewhat advanced levels of computer savvy I definitely know I wouldn’t have been happy as a web designer.
How lucky am I that I will get to combine lots of skills in my future career, switching tasks on a daily basis, constantly changing and evolving? Now, at the end of my university experience, I really do feel ready to get out there and work in the field that I’ve been studying. Now all I need is a job…
I spent last Thursday preparing for and then working my first-ever media lunch. The Ft. Benning Command Exhibition Parachute Team, the Silver Wings, (I wrote the article in that link, by the way!) were performing a test jump to ensure that the conditions were optimal for jumping into this specific field at Auburn CityFest 2006. So, my boss, the Public Relations Specialist for the City of Auburn Parks & Recreation Department decided that the test jump would be a perfect time to raise media interest in CityFest, the Silver Wings, the blues music that will be playing all day at CityFest and the great barbecue that will be served.
The event turned out really well, although at the beginning we wondered if any of the media would show up in time to actually see the test jump… the running joke of the day was how much different military time is than media time.
The Silver Wings jumped and wowed the crowd, the media was there in relatively large numbers snapping tons of pictures and eating barbecue and the next day we had a front page, full color picture and accompanying story of the Silver Wings’ jump and a nice mention about how the public can see the spectacle on April 29 at 10:30 a.m.
I love how much more confident I feel about the various aspects of a PR practitioner’s job after I slowly, one by one, get to execute (or help execute) them myself. This internship has been a beautiful thing; actually doing each of the things I’ve learned about in my classes.
Hooray for David Parmet! In a recent post on his blog, Parmet urges Auburn students (and others I’m sure, but it felt nice to be singled out…) to do exactly what I’ve been waiting for someone with any sort of expertise in the PR field to say: you don’t have to follow the same pattern as everyone.
I’ve been harping lately about how much pressure every professional at conferences and career fairs stress the importance of starting (and remaining) in an agency. Forever. Or you won’t have any kind of cool job. Ever.
Is there any sort of pattern? Is there a starting point from which you can vary as you gain a few years’ experience, or should a person be a rebel right out of school? I’ve pieced together the advice I’ve heard from professionals and friends new to the field over the past year or so and have decided (for now, it changes daily) to try to start in an agency, get some structured experience, then branch out with my experience as a bargaining chip into something different.
David, would you be at all interested in posting about how you got started and how you got to where you are today? It’s good to hear what successful people have done; the more stories I hear the easier it is for me to map out a very rough guideline for the next year or so. Thanks for your post!
I’m dying to see “Thank You for Smoking”, the film version of Christopher Buckley’s 1994 political satire.
I recently read Buckley’s “Florence of Arabia” and the man has an interesting view of PR professionals, lobbyists in particular. And he actually has some firsthand experience. According to Wikipedia, Buckley was George Bush, Sr.’s speechwriter while he was vice-president.
In “Thank You for Smoking“, a big tobacco lobbyist spends his days promoting the use of cigarettes while trying to build a relationship with his 12-year-old son and hanging out with fellow lobbyists for firearms and alcohol.
The ridiculousness of the movie is what will make it an appealing one, I think, but much in the same way that “Office Space” is funny for cube monkeys. That is, hilarious in one respect, but more disturbingly, uncannily reminiscent of how life for a lobbyist can actually be.
After watching “Office Space“, I was instilled with the fear of working at a job like the characters…and as a result majored in PR rather than anything that would tie me to a computer eight hours out of the day. “Thank You for Smoking” might be the same way for PR professionals: a parody of how the political world works, but also a cautionary tale of what happens when you get sucked into working for the wrong side.
I’m going to the bookstore now to buy the book, and if the movie ever comes to Auburn, I’ll post about my thoughts.
I chose to critique an audio news release from a non-profit source. Because of the controversy that surrounds ANRs at this point in time, I thought that looking at a source that, if they had ulterior motives, were at least pure ones was the best idea. I chose to critique a March of Dimes audio news release that highlighted the 50th anniversary of the Saulk vaccine field trials.
The release was attention getting thanks to the engaging voice of the announcer and also because of his initial words. The announcer began by sharing some fun facts about the 1950s: Joltin’ Joe married Monroe, the nation was caught up in the space race. He had my attention because of the nostalgic mood of his content. After this little introduction, he segues into the more serious content of the actual message: at this time, children everywhere were being ravaged by Polio, and the thing that saved the rest of this generation from the disease were the field trials that took place.
The Saulk vaccine field trials had the largest pool of volunteer participants and the March of Dimes wants the American public to know that this kind of volunteer support of medical research is necessary to continue to cure all diseases, specifically those that occur in infancy. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Granddaughter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, founder of the March of Dimes and champion of infant health, provides a sound bite in the release urging the support of medical research to continue.
Roosevelt also implores the radio audience to have their babies immunized at birth and keep getting the immunizations that doctors recommend. This action prevents babies from getting 12 different diseases that they would be vulnerable to without these vaccines. I thought the ANR was a great one, it established logos, ethos and pathos all in the span of a few seconds, which in my mind would all be important things in reaching target audiences with a release.
The release was effective also because it had the emotional appeal to gain the attention of a lot of target audiences: young pregnant couples who are trying to do everything right in the parenting sphere, anyone who has a daughter, friend or coworker who is pregnant. Obviously, most pregnant women know that their babies are supposed to be immunized ( I know that and I’m definitely not having a baby any time soon), but what about the potential radio audience like teen mothers or the impoverished who may not have grown up hearing this information again and again.
This ad might also affect people who have a sick child who would participate in a medical trial or those who are emotionally affected by the March of Dimes’ cause by donating time or money. The only problem I saw with the release was the questionability of the source. The “announcer†was not actually with the radio station, but this was not made clear to the audience, who could end up thinking that the station had produced this report when in fact they did not. That could be an ethics problem.
I have been in a vacationing mood for the past few weeks… what can I say? School has been more than a little stressful. So, for the annual report critique I chose to do a hotel and vacation property company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
The first thing anyone notices about an annual report, especially a busy investor who may not read through an entire booklet about shares and other intricacies of a business. For this reason, the color choices of calming blues and purples were a good plan for this kind of report: not only were the colors eye catching, but also reminiscent of the vacation lifestyle. The blues and purples reminded me of Mediterranean waters, spa treatments and Jacuzzis.
In contrast, the title and date of the annual report were prominently displayed. They were not large, but the contrast of a yellow font on the complimentary-colored blue and purple made it stand out. Everything about the front cover was right in line with what the book dictated that the front of an annual report should look like. My only suggestion would be to have an image of the beach or of some fabulous property in one of their locales like Venice or Paris or New York.
Once I got into the report itself, I noticed the tone of the cover letter was (as it is supposed to be) optimistic and energetic. CEO Steve Heyer sings the praises of the branding that is taking place within the organization, from the Heavenly Bed at Westin, the luxurious image of the St. Regis and the upgrading of the Sheraton chain. All developments show signs of company improvement and expansion in the coming year. Heyer even predicted that the brand would become an iconic name that needs no explanation like Apple, Nike and Starbucks.
While I liked what Heyer (or his PR writers) had to say, I did wonder if the outlook was a little too falsely sunny. Heyer replaced an old CEO, who had founded Starwood only months before the report was released, and I wondered why that happened and what the circumstances surrounding the event were. It would have made me feel better if there had been some mention of that in the letter.
The actual content of the report was good. It was clearly mapped out by an easy to read table of contents and all of the information was there. Even though the content of these reports is not known for being fascinating reading material, I did appreciate the way in which it was presented. The document had clear headings within the material to sub divide the information. The flow of information from financial facts to the hiring process of executives to how the board of executives is selected is detailed in the document. Everything the book says they need to have to be a valid report is present and accounted for. All in all, good report. I think that the PR writing at the beginning was a little too rosy. Even if news is good, you should at least discuss a few minor setbacks or challenges faced to show that you are a transparent company.
Dana Reeve, actress, singer, chairwoman of the Christoper Reeve Foundation, activist for spinal cord injury research and wife of Christopher Reeve has died. Reeve, 44, died of lung cancer even though she was a non-smoker. She leaves behind a 13-year-old son and two grown stepchildren.
The Christopher Reeve Foundation has responded in the best possible way on their website. President and CEO Kathy Lewis issued a statement, the following is a part of it:
On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and staff of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of Dana Reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us. The Foundation extends our deepest condolences and sympathy to the entire Reeve and Morosini families.
The statement goes on to describe the highlights of Reeve’s life:Â her accomplishments as an actress and singer, awards she received for her work for spinal cord research and her unflinching loyalty to her husband as he struggled with his injuries.
What I liked best about the website, though, was the opportunity it offered mourners to donate to the CRF in memory of Dana Reeve and also to express their condolences online.Â
In my campaigns class we’ve been learning that even sad events can have a positive outcome for organizations. The death of Dana Reeve is tragic, but since she was such a visionary and supporter of spinal cord injury, her death will not go unnoticed. I also feel that a new cause will grow from Reeve’s death: women’s lung cancer.
Both CNN and MSNBC commented in their coverage of Reeve’s death that 1 in 5 women that die of lung cancer are non-smokers.
Dying young is never a happy thing, but I feel that a woman like Reeve, who was such a supporter of causes larger than herself, would be happy to know that her death will have inspired awareness not just for her cause, spinal cord injury, but also for lung cancer in women.Â
After Christopher’s death, Dana was determined to preserve the important work and the legacy of hope that became his life’s mission. Even in our grief, the Foundation must pick up and continue to Go Forward with this mission. At the same time, we commit ourselves to ensuring that the light of grace, courage and hopefulness that Dana embodied continues to shine bright – bringing comfort and hope to people living with paralysis and their families and caregivers.
While perusing Josh Hallet’s blog this afternoon, I came across the term blego for the first time. I’m sure that I am eons behind the power curve with this one, but I honestly had no idea what the term meant. I think I should be allowed a learning curve, though. We students are busy doing things like not failing out of school. And planning our Spring Breaks. And fantasizing about what it would be like to have a stunt double to go to class for us.
I’ve decided that now is the perfect time to analyze this foreign term and see if I can find some interesting scenarios involving the blego. (Do you use “the” in front? Like the Id? Or is it just “blego”?).
Here’s what I found:
-Wikipedia (gasp!) does not have an entry for the term! (Someone should correct that!) So, I turned to the trusty Google search to determine that:
-The Blog Herald defines blego as “a combination of the words Blog and Ego, used to describe the actions of bloggers who write as to their own self worth”
-All of the entries in the “blego” archive on hyku blog are to do with things like self-promotion, the “you’ve been tagged” post that’s been circulating with all you important bloggers, changes on his site that he was excited about… Basically anything that had to do with Josh, but not necessarily a client or a pertinent issue in current PR.
-Active Voice cautions bloggers against turning into blegomaniacs. The post takes high and mighty bloggers down a few pegs by comparing journalists to working actors and bloggers to waiters working in L.A. under the title of “actor”. Ouch.
I’ve taken these bits of information about (the?) blego and made some conclusions of my own:
1. Maybe if you are writing an independent PR blog that is not related to your client, a little blego can be a good thing. Last semester we wrote a list of essentials for engaging blog posts and one of the things I thought was most important was that your blog has personality. If readers can’t identify with you at all, you’re not going to gain any kind of following.
2. It’s easy to go blegomaniacal and put readers off by being too personal. The difference, in my opinion, between a PR blog and a LiveJournal or MySpace account is that the blog is mostly about professional musings, not personal ones. Readers don’t want to know about the EasyMac you ate for dinner last night, unless you had that because of the cute commercial you saw just as you were getting hungry for dinner? If you want to talk about stupid stuff, get a MySpace account, and don’t expect to be taken seriously.
3. Robert has a point! (Not that I’m so surprised by this…) Especially as student a blogger, you have to build credibility. You’re not going to have 4,000+ daily readers by discussing your navel piercing. You gain readers by having intellectual, up to the minute posts about topics that people will search, trackback to, and want to know about.
I think that blego is an issue of balancing work and play. All work is boring, but all play is ridiculous and often mind-numbing. Spicing up an otherwise hard-hitting blog with the occasional rant or joke is the way to hit that balance.
A plea for input for any of our Marcom professionals (or anyone who has some input out there)
This Real World PR experience has me a little shaken up. The message that was hammered into my brain over the course of the day was that in order to become a PR professional of any worth (eventually, one day…) you have to start out in an agency to get the varied experience that any other employer looks for.
Any other employer?
I can see how wanting to climb the ranks in an auspicious agency would logically begin with an internship and entry-level job at the bottom…nobody keeps jobs for the entire span of their career anymore, but it still helps to get your foot in the right door at the beginning.
I can even understand needing agency experience in the corporate PR world. These people are out to make a profit: the bottom line goal of any for profit organization. They need a professional who can systemematically account for billable hours and Get Results.
But what about those who want to have a happy career (or something PR-ish…that combines the discipline with other interest areas like journalism or the arts) but doesn’t see herself following that path?
I know by experience that there is no one way to reach any goal. Every working professional I have come across has started off their career with full intentions one way and 10 years later have changed paths about 55 times.
What I want to know is, can I take a job with a newspaper and eventually make my way back to PR, or even combine the two? Can I take a job in a management program of a hotel and slide my way into tourism PR?
I know there is more than one way to break into any business, but I worry about (a) getting caught in a field I didn’t want to be in permanently, that I thought of as more of a means-to-an-end job or (b) going agency and being displeased with my work for the next 5 years in the name of getting experience.
I like the idea of fluidity in life…of having a little wiggle room. Is this a bad attitude? I can do the whole agency thing if it’s necessary, I would grit my teeth and get my time in- hey, it might even be pretty fascinating. But do I have to?
I ask you, Marcombloggers (and anyone else), because you all seem like fluid people. You have owned businesses, sold businesses, worked in firms, left firms… how did you get your start? And do you have any input on my thoughts about the whole starting out thing? Hope to get some feedback…
