Mock Interviews - Nov. 13

The November 13th event at the Hudson Business Lounge was such a learning experience! We were subjected to an interview-like situation, and then we were able to pick the brains of other PR professionals. I sat down with Cassandra Sura from Rush University Medical Center, Kristin Khail from MillerCoors, and Matthew Wisla, Senior Communications Executive. Each professional I sat down with had amazing words of wisdom for me, which served to be very valuable for the present and future. Informational Interviews were new to me, but I would definitely be interested in participating in them again. I was able to ask questions I would not normally be able to ask, such as the downfalls of their job. These interviews made the job seem much more 'real' and not as much as a fantasy for me anymore. It really got me thinking about what my path in the PR world will look like. 

At the beginning of the program, the president of Big Shoes Network came and spoke to us students about tips for interviewing, as well as what to look for when we are job searching. One thing that was really stressed was to make sure we like our job. Some of the examples of past clients of his he gave us were quite interesting, proving that money does not buy happiness. 

I have always been pretty confident in interviews, so these were no different. They asked the typical status-quo interview questions. However, I was asked by Matthew Wisla, "Why do you want to go into this profession?" As simple as this question may sound, I was stuck. Why do I want to be a PR professional? I love the major so far, and I love how hands on it is. However, I had never really thought what it is about this major that keeps me pursuing it. I am going to stick with my major and my dreams for my PR career, but I need to think about exactly why it is I chose this path.

The mock interviews certainly got me thinking about all aspects of my college and professional career. I hope to someday be sitting on the opposite side of the table interviewing students like myself, but for now I need to be worried about graduation and internships before I start dreaming big!

Cision

Cision is a company that aids the media in distribution, research, and monitoring of information. This tool is used by PR practitioners and journalists, this makes the jobs of these professionals easier and is great for expanding. The most fascinating part of Cision for me was how many updates they perform. In one day, they made 17,000 updates and 4 million updates over the past year. Practitioners are able to search for people and companies involved in the media by using the ‘smart search’ tool. This accesses the occupation of the person, information and statistics about the company, and takes the user to the profile page. Cision allows the user to create a blurb about themselves and what they would like the viewers of their page to know. This is great for networking, it creates connections with people who are similar to you and intrigue them when they visit your page. When viewing a page, you are also able to create notes about them. This is a great refresher for when you refer back to them later.  One thing that surprised me about Cision was the fact they had actions that you could favorite and follow. This is much like Twitter, which comes in handy and is easy to adjust to for new users. Cision is very valuable because it allows you to search for organizations within the area all in one place, and also allows you to search for many types of media sources such as newspapers, TV, magazines, and internet sources. For more information please visit http://us.cision.com/.

The PR Student (2)

Well, it’s me again! I have recently begun a new PR class, PR Tactics II. This class will expand on the things I learned in my summer class, PR Tactics. I am extremely excited about this class because it will be expanding on the information I previously learned. School has started since I last posted and I am now a sophomore in college! I am currently living in my sorority house with 22 other women. This is nice because a good majority of my sisters are PR majors as well, so I have them to go to if I need assistance or guidance. I have also recently received an internship with the Janesville Jets Hockey Team doing PR work. I am this so far! I am actually getting some real life, hands on experiences in a professional setting. I am surrounded by a team of professionals who assist me in any way they can to help me learn the ins and outs of the PR field. One thing I have learned from both my sorority and my internship is that networking is everything. It really is all in who you know. Creating a linked in and a website was they best networking I could have done for myself.

Life After College - The Scary Reality

The future can be a scary thought. Bills, career, on being 100% on your own is intimidating for a lot of college students. However, I look forward to it. Not knowing what is ahead is thrilling for me, and and creates a sense of wonder for me. What kind of person will I become? What will my professional career look like? Well, the videos we had to watch for my PR Tactics class was very reassuring, and also gave me some food for thought.

The first video to catch my attention was an interview with UWW alumni Jennie Krajeck. Her admiration of UWW is a lot like my own. The diversity on campus is amazing, and everyone seems to be open-hearted for the most part. I often take classes and think to myself, 'When am I ever going to use this in the real world?" Well, for Krajeck she states that she utilizes the skills she learned in her UWW classes to her professional life. For any college student this is hard to imagine, but after hearing it from a person who was once in our position, it is truly reassuring. This just gives me more assurance that I chose the right place to pursue my dreams.

The next video that I admired was the interview with Kristin Gritt. She brought a lot of reality to the table in her interview. She shares how she changed her major many times before she finally found one that fit just right with her. After she found what was right for her, she charged at it full force. She stresses internships and school organizations, because all of them are great for networking. She is a great inspiration to never settle for less than exactly what you want, and once you have it continue with it 100%. I plan to get involved in more organizations on campus because of the importance of them that was stressed by Gritt.

Finally, my favorite video, by far, was the interview with Rick Daniels, Greek leadership adviser at UW-Whitewater. I am a Greek on campus as well, so it was very enjoyable to watch since I could relate to a lot he was saying. I have seen Daniels speak at many Greek events and conferences and also had individual conversations with him. He is truly one to look up to. he is a great example of how Greek life on a college campus can benefit you during college, after college, and for the rest of your life.

McDonalds- Alot of PR Work Ahead of Them

Facebook is one of the main resources used by companies today to market their brand. This allows for advertising and news releases. However, something I have noticed recently is that Press releases come hand in hand with Facebook, especially when it comes to negative publicity. No company wants the negative news on the page that is viewed most by consumers (Facebook.) So, in turn, they stick to press releases to announce these issues. This became evident to me when researching the latest McDonald's controversy. Their Facebook page was all positive from the company end, however the controversy showed through in comments from the public.

McDonalds fast food chain has been around for years. However, in recent months rumors have been surfacing that U.S. McDonalds puts a filler in their meat, this filler is pink slime. Pink slime contains Ammonium Hydroxide, not suitable for human consumption. Naturally, this has caused some uproar within communities. This filler had been used in burger patties, chicken patties, and chicken nuggets. While the food chain has now banned the use of pink slime in their food, the company sabotaging by its customers has not died down. Information on this isse can be found at http://dailym.ai/15D38nS. On McDonalds Facebook page, (http://on.fb.me/1b3lFf8), the company displays seemingly delectable food pictures. On almost every picture someone has commented something about pink slime, or the food being toxic. This is alarming from a PR standpoint. McDonalds reacted well by immediately changing the recipe of their meat and submitting a press release, (http://bit.ly/18ZrTQa). However, in the press release McDonalds seems to be contradicting themselves in what they say is in their meat. This issue calls for immediate and constant PR work. Although this incident is claimed to have happened a year ago, there is obvious remaining controversy. How long do you think it will take for this issue to die down? Will it ever? Has McDonalds permanently tarnished their image? Only Time will tell. In the mean time, continue educating yourselves on the issue and draw your own conclusions. McDonalds has been around too long to go down in shambles for this reason, but it is up to the PR professionals to make sure that doesn’t happen. 

AP Style Writing

While watching Professor Knabe’s lecture online, I felt as if I was taken back to my middle school English classes. I was getting all of the questions wrong and wondering how in the world I could not get these (seemingly) simple questions right! It seems that I was not the only one in the dark.

I asked my mother what she knew about AP style writing. Her response was, “All I know is it is the accurate way for journalists to write. The style can get very picky.” Well, there is a reason for being picky. In Debbie Hilts article, “AP Never goes out of Style,” she shares why exactly AP writing is so crucial. Punctuation, grammar, and accuracy all contributes to the credibility of an article. Believe it or not small things such as these can determine whether an article gets published or not. This idea is also conveyed in Nancy E. Hanson’s article “AP Style Tips for PR Writers.” The more accurate the original copy, the less work has to be done on the publishing end of things. This makes the article more appealing to publishers. If given an AP quiz during an interview, however, it would be highly nerve-racking for me. I do not believe that I am informed enough about the subject to fully ace an interview quiz. At the end of this class I intend to be able to do fantastic if presented with that sort of situation!

While these small, tedious details may come off intimidating at first, practice makes perfect. the more knowledge you gain in the beginning of your journalism career, the more prone you are to make AP style a habit rather than an editing tool. This is my goal by the end of the class. I plan to veer my writing toward AP style and away from casual writing techniques.

Mixing Passion with Occupation

First year of college done, first year away from home taken care of, and now my very first blog post has begun! Many new experiences in the past year have occurred, and now I am no longer a stranger to blogging! However I am, after all, newbie to blogging so bare with me as I become more familiar with it. As you have gathered, I am a soon to be college sophomore. I attend UW-Whitewater and am loving every minute of it! I am in the Delta Zeta sorority and it is by far the best decision I have made so far in my college career. I am also currently in a summer class called 'Public Relations Tactics II' online. In our class we are going to focus mainly on the writing aspect of PR, my favorite part! I love writing and expressing my thoughts and ideas. PR is my major and I am really liking it so far. I am still a little unsure what specifically I want to do with it in the future, but hopefully this class will give me a better idea of what I am interested in within this major! Ultimately I would like to hold a PR position for Delta Zeta National. I have so much love for my sorority that I would like to carry my passion through to my career. Interacting and connecting other Delta Zeta’s is what sisterhood is all about. I am so excited to show you all what creative thoughts I have toward Public relations, school, my sorority, and life in general!