On Wednesday,
November, 13, 2013, I had the privilege of networking and doing speed interviews
with three out of the 45 PR professionals that were in attendance. This event
was held at the Hudson Business
lounge, the atmosphere was very calmed and relaxed. This made the whole
situation less intimidating, and made the PR professionals seem more approachable.
It was very generous of them to donate some of their time to the students.
The night
started off by a 15 minute presentation by Jeff Carrigan of Big Shoes Network. One of the main
things I took away for the presentation was the importance of internships to employers.
Another really important thing that he discussed was the five C’s that make a
person standout in an interview. The five c’s that he discussed was Competence,
Connections, Character, Chemistry, and C-suite. What he stressed in his
presentation was to really know the company before an interview. The more you
know about a company the better questions you can ask.
After the
presentation was over, we broke up into one-on-one interviews with a PR
professional. My first interview was with Amy Listle who is the Administrative
Assistant of the Jefferson
County Fair Park. After that I went on to interview with Rachel Bennett who
is with the Greater Milwaukee
foundation. They were really approachable, and gave me positive feedback as
well as some advice on how to improve my interview skills.
The night
ended with our mock informational interviews with one of the PR professionals. My
mock informational interview was with, Sharon Roy from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. At the end
of the interview she looked at my resume, and she gave me some great advice on
how to improve it. I felt very comfortable asking her questions about the
field, because she was knowledgeable on the subject.
I really did
enjoy this event, and it gave me a lot of insight into the PR world. This gave
me a better picture of what to expect after graduation.
