I’m moving to Boston in June for an internship at SHIFT Communications. (Thank you!) I’m really happy. The end beginning.
Entries categorized as ‘Internships’
On my way…
March 19, 2009 · 3 Comments
Categories: Entry Level Jobs · Internships · Public Relations
Tagged: internship, Public Relations
Millenials and Recessions
March 7, 2009 · 3 Comments
My new buddy Alexa Scordato inspired me to write this post. In response to some articles that question if Gen Y can take the heat of the recession, I, along with other Millenial cheerleaders, are happy to testify that we can do it.
Four years ago around this time, I was filing all the official college paperwork to enter my freshman year at Kent State as a newspaper journalism major. A few years later, the potential for job opportunities in public relations (and, I just like it better) steered me away from journalism (and to the alleged “dark side.”) Turns out, the joke is on me as the recession is this season’s latest trend. Newspaper journalism is in a free fall, but there aren’t so many PR jobs either.
Class of 2009: Are we going to throw off our graduation caps, put on some McDonald’s headsets and just wish and dream our way to jobs in our fields?
Not me. I’m taking that McCafe to go and hopefully heading to another internship. Personally, I’m surfing the tumultuous waters of the recession on a wave of arguably delusional optimism. If I get a paid internship I’m taking it. I’ll do whatever: I’ll water plants, make coffee, bartend on the weekends. I don’t care – just give me the chance to show you my talent so that when a need for an account coordinator comes up I’m the first one that comes to mind.
The nice thing about recessions and graduating is that it really puts things in perspective.
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
I would work in PR in Boston. I’m going very much out of my way to achieve that goal. (And I will.) Infamously analytical, legendary for second-guessing, the recession has helped clarify what I now know for certain. Without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, I know this is what I want. I’m fighting for it.
I could bide my time in grad school. I could go back to college and get a degree in one of those recession-proof industries.
Remember when you were a little kid and you were sick and your mom tried to spoon-feed you some really nasty-tasting purple cough medicine and you just sorta scrunched up your face all ugly and such and screamed, “I DON’T WANNA!!”
Well…I don’t wanna.
So to all those who wonder if millenials are up to the challenge, I believe this post echos a (hypothetical) resounding “Hell yea” shouted from intern desks, dorm rooms, libraries, frat parties, dive bars, coffee houses, and filthy, low-rent, off-campus studio apartments nationwide. Sue us for wearing flip flops and having parents (and step-parents) who always told us how special we are. I swear on every participation award I ever got that Gen Y is full of tenacity. Yea. Some of us are incompetent, lazy bums. But I’ll bet you know a couple of incompetent, lazy Baby Boomers and a couple of incompetent, lazy Gen X-ers. Inaction and unreliability aren’t generational things.
You shouldn’t feel resentful or accusatory toward younger generations who have always had technology and scientific advancement to help them. With all of the advancement of the future, the children of Gen Y will have it even easier than us. Who knows? Maybe they’ll have a cure for cancer, or a flying car—or something daringly outrageous, like a stable economy.
Our kids, like every generation before them, will also face challenges. But I know my generation will set an example that inspires them to face adversity with faith and pro-activity. To Gen X and the Baby Boomers I say to trust that you have coached, taught, mentored, and raised us well. (You have!) And if by chance we reach a situation you didn’t prepare us for? Well, you told us we were special, that we could do anything. You gave us the freedom to think for ourselves. We can fill in the blanks.
We look up to you, but don’t look down on us. Believe in us.
Until next time,
Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips blog. If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands blog. Just dance blog.
JNA
Categories: Entry Level Jobs · Internships · Millenials · Public Relations · Uncategorized
Tagged: Entry Level Jobs, Millenials, Public Relations, recession
My Very First Webinar! (And other cool stuff you might not learn in college)
February 7, 2009 · 3 Comments
This last week at my fabulous internship, I got to listen in on my very first webinar. The webinar was mostly about PR software (coughCISIONcough) and the different services it provides. In the spirit of objectivity, I must admit that haven’t tried any of its competitors (yet) so I don’t have anything to compare this software to. Nevertheless, it seems pretty cool. The media list management capabilities kick my Excel sheet’s sorry butt, ROI junkies can get their quantitative metric fix with the Chart Wizard, and the media monitoring tracks your client’s coverage with most likely with more accuracy and organization than your little intern (although this will cost drastically more than him, her, or me.)
As a student, I have this expectation: If I can take away one or two great new pieces of knowledge (something that provokes further thought) from each class, I did my job paying attention (and let’s face it: I got my money’s worth.)
So the two great things I took away:
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Build relationships with journalists.
According to the host, this one journalist spoke of a “3 Strikes” rule when it came to media pitches and press releases. Say a PR person shows that he or she hasn’t done any research (by pitching an irrelevant story, sending a press release about something that has already been covered.) The person gets three strikes, three chances to do that, and then the rest of their emails, pitches, releases, and advisories would be ignored.
This got me thinking about the importance of building relationships with reporters. It’s an investment of time, and it’s hard to do when you have a million different clients and projects to tend to. But I hope I never lose enthusiasm for the idea that less pitching is more, that building tight relationships with a network of journalists is better than sending out some mass-email to every single reporter in North America.
At my news internship, I worked primarily with the health reporter. I rode around in the news Jeep (this one time, I sat in the front!) and observed while she did stories. I couldn’t help but notice the relationships she had with the PR professionals of the local medical centers where she did most of her reporting. She could always count on them to give her timely, unique, relevant story ideas – and they could count on her to consider, and usually pursue, them. It was a professional bond, but there was an element of trust that I admired on both ends.
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We should teach students more about SEO when teaching them to write press releases.
The host included some comments about the importance of using keywords in press releases in order to increase SEO. She described how press releases are no longer a one day event because they can be formatted as web pages and posted up on the internet – left there for anyone who Googles your client to discover.
I wish I knew more about SEO sooner in my PR education.
Overall, my press releases have gotten some much-appreciated positive feedback. People have told me before that “you’re a great writer,” or “that’s a catchy headline.” Or, I’ve gotten B’s and C’s from teachers who didn’t like my “awkward phrasing.” I’m starting to get the feeling that it’s not about captivating a reporter’s attention with a clever lead – but about using great keywords to summon the almighty search engine forces and provoking them to catapult your press release to the top results of a Google inquiry.
Maybe there’s a connection in the two great things I learned from my first webinar. Perhaps journalists aren’t going to take our stories because we had an amazingly clever headline in the press release. They are going to do our stories because there is a relationship behind the pitch, and they know we aren’t wasting their time. Search engines won’t pick up the press release because the headline is particularly entertaining, either. They’re machines. They don’t have opinions about that type of stuff. They will, however, spit out the intended results with the use of great keywords.
From now on, it’s my goal to concentrate more on relationships and keywords when writing and sending press releases. The relationships are for the people, the keywords are for the search engines. The separate focuses intersect at the crossroads between the traditional and the future – the newspapers and the internet. The road forks and in both directions there is results for my client.
Until next time,
(stealing some great phrases from my friends)
Be as you are. Just breathe. Make hope.
JNA
Categories: Internships · Public Relations
Tagged: College, internship, press release, pubic relations
