Year: Senior Hometown: Fairfax, VA How has PRSSA Impacted you? PRSSA impacted my entire future. I joined the organization as a marketing major. Thanks to the information and experiences provided to my by PRSSA, I switched my major to Communications with a concentration in Public Relations. What was your favorite PRSSA event? My favorite PRSSA event was the D.C. visit. It was a great way to learn the reality of working in an agency form alum and other public relations professionals. What is your dream job? My dream job is to work for a PR agency that deals with large commercial brands. What is a fun fact about you? I did Irish dancing for 7 years. Congratulations, Dara!
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It’s important to have a professional profile that allows you to network among others in your field, as well as provide employers with a good reflection of yourself alongside your resume. LinkedIn is a great site that you can use to create and manage this professional profile and it has slowly become a crucial part of the networking world. However, it can be tricky knowing the ins and outs of this site, and how to make your profile stand out among the many others already using it. Fortunately, at the October 16th PRSSA meeting, PRSSA President Brittany Leuth, conducted a presentation which discussed some helpful ways to build your profile and tips to keep in mind when using it. There are four main categories to include when building your profile. These include, your photo, headline, summary, and experience. Your photo should be clean, clear, and professional. A proper headshot is preferred and you should steer clear of selfies or casual photos of you with friends, as it’s hard for employers to assume which one is you. Next, your headline should include important introductory information about yourself such as, your major, where you are from, and what you are studying. For your summary, you should essentially include your elevator pitch. This would be what you feel that employers should know about you, such as what motivates you and what exactly you are looking for. In your summary section, you want to be clear, detailed, and specific. It’s also important to keep in mind that keywords matter. Lastly, as far as experience goes, you want to make sure you highlight what you have accomplished. This is a good place to include the organizations you are a part of, your education level (GPA is voluntary-but if it’s good it can help to include that), volunteer experiences, honors and awards you have received, skills and expertise, and coursework (if you haven’t had a lot of internships, coursework can show you still have relevant experience). It’s also a good idea to include recommendations on your profile so you should consider asking former bosses or managers to write you a recommendation for your LinkedIn profile to make it stronger. When it comes to connecting with others and growing your network, make sure to make meaningful connections. You may want to start with current contacts as your foundational network and then you can write personalized connection requests when connecting with someone you don’t really know, such as an HR person for a company you are looking to work at. Some final tips that Brittany’s presentation was able to provide include, making sure you completely fill out your profile, update it regularly, diversify your contacts, and always proofread. This presentation really provided me with some helpful tips for building a stronger profile, so hopefully this can help you and other members as well! - Noelle Rutolo, PRSSA member On Tuesday, October, 10, seven members of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) got together in front of fellow members to talk about their personal experiences with previous or ongoing internships. These internships were located all over the country, from Frederick, Maryland, to Washington D.C., and even all the way out in Los Angeles, California. One student even had the rare opportunity to intern for Edelman, the largest public relations firm in the world, and others worked for smaller start-up companies, such as DPR Group, and even the Daily Duke here at James Madison University (JMU).
Each PRSSA member discussed what their job consisted of, and while no two jobs were alike, everybody mentioned how heavily their job was centered around writing and social media. Throughout the panel, each speaker repeatedly mentioned the importance of writing as students for anyone thinking of applying for internships. One word of advice was to write for “The Odyssey” or “The Breeze”, through JMU. In short, be ready for intense writing at your internship. As the panel went on, people from the audience asked about the pros and cons of each speaker’s internships. Some warned us about intense bosses and long hours, and even how quickly the public relations (PR) departments and firms moved along to overcome challenges. Stories were told about how employees and interns alike would have to come together to solve crises within as little as ten minutes. However, each student speaker mentioned that they wouldn’t have traded their experiences as interns for the world. Depending on what company you apply to, the process of becoming an intern can be incredibly painstaking, or it could be something as simple as calling a company and asking for an internship. However, each speaker advised everyone to start looking and applying sooner rather than later. Open-mindedness was greatly encouraged, as well; don’t be afraid to work for smaller start-up companies. Starting small gives you the experience needed that can later be used to work for larger companies and corporations. Overall, all members were in agreement that their internships were wonderful experiences that they will always remember. Despite the few hardships that you may face, working as an intern will give you the skills necessary for a post-grad job in the real world and memories that you will look upon fondly for the rest of your life. - Caroline Rice, PRSSA member |
ContributorsAll content on this blog is created by current JMU PRSSA members. Archives
November 2017
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