On March 25, the JMU PRSSA had the opportunity to travel to Richmond and visit The Hodges Partnership and the Padilla agencies. Both were exceptionally wonderful hosts, and for their hospitality, we are sincerely grateful! While we visited our State’s Capitol, we explored, toured, and learned a lot. Although it’d be impossible to summarize the full experience in a single blog entry, here is some of what we learned. The Hodges Partnership: At the Hodges partnership, we discussed the evolving PR profession. The PR world has gone from emphasizing traditional news outlets to more content creation and social media platforms. We were reminded however, that although new platforms are being integrated into the profession (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), familiarity with Instagram WONT replace the strong writing and researching skills we’re learning to use here at school. We were also given a few helpful “tips of the trade” to keep in mind for when we’ve left school and are entering the professional world ourselves: 1. Perfect your pitching skills (a good elevator pitch can’t be overemphasized). 2. Keep up to date on world events – read the news and know what’s going on. 3. If you want your emails read, come up with creative subject lines. 4. When you’re looking to land your first job, show curiosity and initiative about the PR profession. 5. Network, network, network. Padilla: Padilla was all about “connecting with a purpose.” It was a really cool agency in that everyone who worked for the company was also a shareholder in the company (employee owned). It was also interesting that they actually considered themselves an “integrated marketing company” since they do marketing as well as PR work for their clients. Much like the Hodges Partnership, Padilla stressed the importance of making connections and stressed the importance of helping other people when you can; after all there’s no shortage of companies that need good communication done, and if you can be the organization that those companies turn to, its all the better for you. Our Richmond agency visit was such a blast and we walked away from it not only with a lot of new valuable information but a lot of fond memories. If you couldn’t make this last agency visit, make sure you’re part of the next one! By John Long
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It’s never too early to start prepping for an interview. On March 22, there was a workshop in Harrison Hall about negotiating your salary when getting a new job. I was on the fence about attending because, after all, I am only a sophomore and still have a few years until I start my career. I couldn’t be happier that I did though. The workshop opened up with the speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Pass, going over the fundamentals of an interview for any situation. Although most of the points she went over were pretty basic they were a good refresher. She also had some tidbits of information that were completely new to me, such as the fact that the employer will have had their mind made up about hiring you within the first 45 seconds of you walking through the door. This amazed me but made sense since they’ve already looked at your resume. Then she got to the stuff that I had never really given any thought before: salary and benefit negotiation. I’m still trying to figure out things to do to build my resume up, never mind think about what salary I should be earning after I graduate. But Dr. Pass had some helpful pointers for when the time comes to negotiate it. First of all, you have to know what you are worth. You need to know what all of your skills and experience are worth and what you need to be making for the cost of your living. This together should be your base salary, the one which you should not settle for any lower than. If they do not meet you on this then you should be willing to walk on the offer. The second most important thing is that you don’t look at this as a game to win. It needs to be recognized that the end of the negotiation may be the beginning of a new relationship, and you don’t want to start it on bad terms. It’s never too early to start thinking about future employment because the more prepared you are the better! By Kaysee Hill
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November 2017
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