October 2011
GolinHarris Agency Tour
On Friday, October 7th I, along with the rest of PRSSA, had the incredible opportunity to tour the public relations agency, Golin Harris. We were greeted by our two guides, Kristen Kelley and Javier Macias, who were both dressed very casually. like their casual work attire, the way their company works is very unique compared to other high profile PR agencies. They have won numerous awards for being one of the “best places to work,” and it is obvious to see why. Along with a media room filled with televisions and computers that constantly stream social media, they have offices that face Lake Michigan. There is also a softball tournament first place trophy proudly standing in the middle of the lobby that they won! During the tour PRSSA alum, Kristin, did a great job of incorporating information of how to build our resumes and tips for future job interviews. The entire trip was not only informative and educational, but also a great way for myself and the other members to bond with each other. The building was beautiful, the workers were incredibly friendly and the long ride down from ISU to Chicago was definitely worth it.
Rockin' Resume Tips
Greetings from the PRSSA National Conference here in Orlando, Florida! We’ve been having a great time networking with professionals, learning skills to apply to the work force and bonding with our Chapter as well as chapters from across the nation. This year, National Conference offered an array of sessions ranging from professional workshops to keynote speeches by Disney’s top innovators. One of my favorite workshops was a resume critique session offered to a limited group of conference attendees. Kaitie Ries and I were lucky enough to go and represent our Chapter. Let me say, it was an extremely valuable workshop! At the venue, there were 12 different tables with an established public relations (PR) professional per table. Students brought their resumes to the workshop and were able to rotate to the various professionals and gain one-on-one feedback.
Below are the top five resume-writing tips that I learned:
1.) Always start your resume with work experience at the top, NOT your education. They want to see your PR experience. It is obvious to them that you are going to school.
2.) Use strong verbs. When you describe your work experience don’t say, “I worked with InDesign and Adobe,” but rather, “Produced creative flyers using InDesign and Adobe.” The word “produced” shows you did it yourself.
3.) Do not have a skills section. Try to incorporate the skills you have in the description of your work experience. An example of this would be tip #2.
4.) Always include volunteer work on your resume. Even if you volunteered a few years ago, put that on there because it shows you did something good for the community. This shows you’re well-rounded and can juggle multiple activities.
5.) Finally the big question, color or no color? One PR professional’s answer really stood out. If you are a person that likes color or fonts then use it. Color and font is a reflection of your personality… so own it! Don’t try and base your resume appearance on what you think they will like. If you are a creative person then feel free to show it. J
I received some great advice concerning internships during this session as well. Personally, my life schedule does not allow me to have an internship this year. This bothers me because I know how essential an internship is to finding a job later on. One professional told me to take what I know and create my own opportunities. It’s important to talk to your peers, friends, family members and/or previous employers to see if they need any PR work at their office or corporation. You can incorporate PR skills into real life work. This allows you to gain experience because you’re doing PR on your own and still making an effort to further yourself in your profession.
Your Director of Development,
Allyson Corona
Below are the top five resume-writing tips that I learned:
1.) Always start your resume with work experience at the top, NOT your education. They want to see your PR experience. It is obvious to them that you are going to school.
2.) Use strong verbs. When you describe your work experience don’t say, “I worked with InDesign and Adobe,” but rather, “Produced creative flyers using InDesign and Adobe.” The word “produced” shows you did it yourself.
3.) Do not have a skills section. Try to incorporate the skills you have in the description of your work experience. An example of this would be tip #2.
4.) Always include volunteer work on your resume. Even if you volunteered a few years ago, put that on there because it shows you did something good for the community. This shows you’re well-rounded and can juggle multiple activities.
5.) Finally the big question, color or no color? One PR professional’s answer really stood out. If you are a person that likes color or fonts then use it. Color and font is a reflection of your personality… so own it! Don’t try and base your resume appearance on what you think they will like. If you are a creative person then feel free to show it. J
I received some great advice concerning internships during this session as well. Personally, my life schedule does not allow me to have an internship this year. This bothers me because I know how essential an internship is to finding a job later on. One professional told me to take what I know and create my own opportunities. It’s important to talk to your peers, friends, family members and/or previous employers to see if they need any PR work at their office or corporation. You can incorporate PR skills into real life work. This allows you to gain experience because you’re doing PR on your own and still making an effort to further yourself in your profession.
Your Director of Development,
Allyson Corona
National Conference 2011 Recap
On October 15 of PRSSA National Conference in Orlando, Fla., we had an introduction session with every Chapter in attendance at the conference. This session consisted of a keynote speech, an introduction lead by the 2011-2012 PRSSA National Committee as well as Chapter roll call. Roll call is when each school stands up and performs a chant for their chapter. This technique is used as an icebreaker to introduce all of the different Chapters from across the nation. We had a lot of fun with our roll call because it went along brilliantly with our PRSSA t-shirts for the year.
“This Conference is our recital.
We think it’s very vital.
To meet some peeps, and follow their tweets.
Cuz networking is the title,
Here we go!
It’s tricky to rock a job, to rock a job without PRSSA, it’s tricky!
Tricky, tricky, tricky!”
“This Conference is our recital.
We think it’s very vital.
To meet some peeps, and follow their tweets.
Cuz networking is the title,
Here we go!
It’s tricky to rock a job, to rock a job without PRSSA, it’s tricky!
Tricky, tricky, tricky!”
Craig Dezern
During the information session, we had the pleasure of listening to an awesome keynote speech by Craig Dezern, the Vice President of Global Relations at Disney. A great piece of information from his presentation was his emphasis on how to deliver a message globally.
As a society, public relations professionals and communicators in general must realize that every country is different and the messages we send need to apply to the specific audience that we are trying to reach. When targeting an intended audience you must ask yourself, “Where do they live?” and “How do they consume media?” Each audience has its own unique barriers and each offers unique opportunities.
Dezern gave a great example of different strategic marketing strategies by comparing the United States Disney park versus the park in Paris. In the United States, the “Twilight Zone” is a well-known black and white television series. This is partially why the Disney Tower of Terror attraction is such a success. On the other hand, in Paris, the series is unknown which makes branding the attraction more of a challenge. Paris is much more enthusiastic about food, fashion, arts and literature. Because of this, Paris is a much better venue for attractions and events based on these topics.
Key Takeaways:
During the information session, we had the pleasure of listening to an awesome keynote speech by Craig Dezern, the Vice President of Global Relations at Disney. A great piece of information from his presentation was his emphasis on how to deliver a message globally.
As a society, public relations professionals and communicators in general must realize that every country is different and the messages we send need to apply to the specific audience that we are trying to reach. When targeting an intended audience you must ask yourself, “Where do they live?” and “How do they consume media?” Each audience has its own unique barriers and each offers unique opportunities.
Dezern gave a great example of different strategic marketing strategies by comparing the United States Disney park versus the park in Paris. In the United States, the “Twilight Zone” is a well-known black and white television series. This is partially why the Disney Tower of Terror attraction is such a success. On the other hand, in Paris, the series is unknown which makes branding the attraction more of a challenge. Paris is much more enthusiastic about food, fashion, arts and literature. Because of this, Paris is a much better venue for attractions and events based on these topics.
Key Takeaways:
- Tap local expertise- Become familiar with your community and create relationships with professionals that have a career that interests you. As PR students, it is our job to learn as much as possible before we graduate and go out into the real world.
- Observe- Once you create these vital relationships, observe how the business works. Seeing and doing is learning.
- Question- “Why do you do what you do?” “Why is that specific task done that way?” It is so important to not only watch how things are done in the workforce, but to understand why they are done that way. No question is a stupid question!
- Look for connections- Network, network, network! Get onto the social media platforms, start a blog, start talking about your passions! The more you network, the more people you will meet that may be great connections for you in the present and in the future!
Is nonprofit work right for you?
Nonprofit work is something that I’ve always been interested in, so I was thrilled to hear that there was a nonprofit session at PRSSA National Conference. The speakers, Joe Hice of Moffit Cancer Centers and Les Landes of Landes and Associates were so informative and inspiring. It definitely reassured me that this is an area I want to look into for my career.
Hice stressed that it is important to find “disciples for your brand,” especially for nonprofit companies. You want to guarantee there are people who will support you no matter what you do or what mistakes you make. He talked about how you have to build trust with your supporters, which can only be done over time, but is so worthwhile. Building trust with your customers helps create a preference and differentiates your brand in the minds of consumers, which Hice refers to as the “real connection to success.” He backed up his point with a great example, a story from his time at Harley-Davison. He and his crew were looking for people with the best Harley tattoos at a motorcycle convention to put in the yearly report. They ended up finding a man with the Harley-Davison crest tattooed on the top of his bald head. There are very few companies that can say they have fans dedicated enough to tattoo the name or symbol on their bodies permanently.
Les Landes talked a lot about how your customers need to be able to trust the brand before they can become true followers of it. He told the audience to be a “champion of trust” and make sure that your organization can walk the talk. Although he made the same major point as Joe Hice, he went about it in a completely different way. Instead of saying that you should work to create customers who are advocates for your brand, he stressed the importance of starting with your employees. “Don’t choose your people over your customers, choose your people first because of your customers,” Landes said. This quote really stuck with me. Landes shared the statistic that only 29 % of U.S. workers are considered “engaged.” It’s hard to get other people interested in your company and its mission if your own employees are not engaged in what is going on.
To anyone else considering nonprofit work, I would recommend going to a seminar or webinar about it to get a better feel for what it would be like. You may decide it’s not for you, but then again, you might find your dream job.
Brought to you by: Hailey Lanier
Hice stressed that it is important to find “disciples for your brand,” especially for nonprofit companies. You want to guarantee there are people who will support you no matter what you do or what mistakes you make. He talked about how you have to build trust with your supporters, which can only be done over time, but is so worthwhile. Building trust with your customers helps create a preference and differentiates your brand in the minds of consumers, which Hice refers to as the “real connection to success.” He backed up his point with a great example, a story from his time at Harley-Davison. He and his crew were looking for people with the best Harley tattoos at a motorcycle convention to put in the yearly report. They ended up finding a man with the Harley-Davison crest tattooed on the top of his bald head. There are very few companies that can say they have fans dedicated enough to tattoo the name or symbol on their bodies permanently.
Les Landes talked a lot about how your customers need to be able to trust the brand before they can become true followers of it. He told the audience to be a “champion of trust” and make sure that your organization can walk the talk. Although he made the same major point as Joe Hice, he went about it in a completely different way. Instead of saying that you should work to create customers who are advocates for your brand, he stressed the importance of starting with your employees. “Don’t choose your people over your customers, choose your people first because of your customers,” Landes said. This quote really stuck with me. Landes shared the statistic that only 29 % of U.S. workers are considered “engaged.” It’s hard to get other people interested in your company and its mission if your own employees are not engaged in what is going on.
To anyone else considering nonprofit work, I would recommend going to a seminar or webinar about it to get a better feel for what it would be like. You may decide it’s not for you, but then again, you might find your dream job.
Brought to you by: Hailey Lanier
