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Recently PRSA GA put on Shadow Day for PRSSA students in Georgia. When I was preparing for Shadow Day, I went to my boss, Vince Miller, for some advice. Overlooking the jokes he threw in about me, it was actually really helpful.
- You know that person in class that you want to throw stuff at? Don’t be that person.
- Don’t talk to much.
- Don’t answer every question.
- When they ask you a question always answer (with something intelligent — I made this inference from his don’t say something stupid Brianna stare. That is the look he gives me when his boss comes around.).
- When someone else answers a question (and you like their answer), tell them good job (for example: good point).
- Leave a good impression with every person you speak to. (For me this is the most frustrating piece of advice because I have no clue how to do that.)
When I walked into Shadow Day at MSL in Atlanta. The one thing that continued to play through my mind was my boss’ advice. Even though I may have talked the most in the group (everyone else was painfully quiet way too often), I think it went really well. I learned so much about PR, agency life, MSL and even tips on how to get a job after graduation. What do you think? Do you disagree or agree with any of his advice? Do you have some advice to add?
Keep a look out for my follow up piece on Shadow Day and the networking event.
So this is my first post in a while. Normally all I want to do in my spare time is sit down and blog. However lately I have noticed that I hardly have any spare time. So now I have to wonder: Did I over-book myself this year?
After thinking it over, I think my problem is not everything I have to do, but how I am doing it. I am a senior at Georgia Southern. I am about to apply for my final classes, buy my cap and gown, and walk across the stage at Allan E. Paulson Stadium. I have a to-do list a mile long with everything I need to do before I apply for jobs. But all I really need to do is stop for just a minute.
When you are moving forward to quickly (like I tend to do), you forget about what is going on around you. If you don’t believe me, try to remember what your friend wore at coffee yesterday or what you ate for breakfast last Thursday. Kind of embarrassing when your mind draws a blank right?
Well I have decided that it has to stop. I can no longer live in the future. I need to live in the present and just prepare for the future. To do this, I am going to try to put more focus on what I am doing rather than what I have to be doing.
With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I want to know. What are you doing or proud of today?
Have you ever had a job that took you in a different direction then you thought you would ever go? I hope to work for a PR agency after graduation. However my path in college has lead me to some jobs down other roads. I started out being a hostess at a steakhouse. Then this past summer I went on to be a store intern at Target.
While I enjoyed both of these experiences, neither of them takes me any closer to my dream job. Or do they?
Here are the 5 things I learned from my customer service jobs:
- Understand the customer’s perspective. Marketers, PR professionals and advertisers alike need to understand what the customer or audience thinks and believes. In Target, I saw first hand the difference it makes looking at the store from the customer’s perspective. I was able to walk the store and give the other managers a customers perspective. As a student I have been a customer much longer than an employee. The key is to not lose that perspective.
- Best practices are best practices for a reason. As a student I can’t help but want to innovate. I see a problem and immediately want to be creative and make changes. The problem is that in a big corporation most of the problems have already been solved through best practices. Coming into a new company it is important to understand when to innovate and when to research past situations, best practices and case studies.
- Everyone needs to help ensure brand loyalty. I noticed that some people may have loved the steakhouse I worked for. They may have even refused to eat anywhere else. But one bad experience from a stressed out waiter quickly changed their opinion. Target challenges each employee to live up to their brand image because a PR professional can help the world understand a company’s brand, but the employees are the ones who can keep those customers coming back.
- Everyone needs a strong writing background.
As I looked over my boss’s shoulder while she typed a proposal for a new payroll plan for the logistics team, I couldn’t help but chime in with some editing advice. Even a retail job requires someone to write. In order to express your opinion, it is important to understand how to express yourself through your writing.
- It is important to lead. Everyone has come across a boss or manager who is an expert micro-manager. So don’t become one yourself. Learn how to ask questions. Don’t tell people what to do. Help lead them to the right problem solving decision.
The most important thing is that you can get something out of any job experience. So let me know. What have you learned from you summer job?
It has been more than a month since my last post, more than a month since I have regularly checked any social media site, and more than month since I started my summer internship.
I am in the middle of a management internship at Target. Don’t get me wrong I love the internship. I love the energy, and I love the responsibility. But working 40 hours a week for the first time in my life has been a huge adjustment.
After my first week my mom asked if I felt grown up. The truth is I feel like a college student trapped in a adult’s work life.I work for eight hours a day five days a week, and I work every other weekend. I am also living back in my parents house. I no longer have my own room or my own bathroom. So at home I feel like I am in high school again, but at work I feel like I have been graduated from college for years.
I know at this internship I am getting experience that has already put me ahead of the game. But interning is like being in limbo. I am not a truly a part of the company, but I am not just a student anymore. So my questions are how are your internships going? How are you adjusting to 40 hours a week? How are you trying to balance everything?
Check out these videos of internships gone very wrong.
At work the other day my boss told me to come up with some interesting ways to put information on the Southern Legacy giving education page. I immediately thought of an infographic, and I was shocked when he told me to give it a try.
First Vision
I first thought of Sweet Heart Circle, a historic area at Georgia Southern. I wanted to washout the background and use the bushes and trees to represent different statistics. When I told this to my co-worker (the only one out of the two of us who knows how to use photoshop and indesign), she warned me that it might not work. Let’s just say she was right. My boss took one look at our results and asked me to start from scratch.
Second Vision
After finding a countless number of infographics as Monopoly boards, I decided to try a Life board. I wanted students to be driving in the Life car picking which direction to go based on where other students have given. This time my boss wanted to teach me how to use photoshop along the way. We spent over two hours tweeking my vision. During those two hours my boss continued saying, “No you can’t do that with photoshop.” Finally I was able to finish up the infographic with photoshop the next day by myself. Here is our result:
After all was said and done I learned these six things about making infographics:
- Start out with something simple.
- You most likely cannot use photoshop to do everything your creative genius comes up with.
- The bigger the original picture the better the infographic result.
- Start with one statistic.
- Don’t give up, but try other possibilities.
- A little practice and patience goes a long way.
My advice to anyone who wants to create their own infographic with absolutely no training in anything graphic design: Get an amazing graphic designer to help you, and keep low expectations at first.
For those of you who don’t know, I have a twin sister who goes to UGA. She and I have shared a car since we were 16. While most of my friends could not even imagine sharing a car, I did not think it was that bad in high school. I would get the car every other day — not a terrible situation.
When we went off to college our parents decided that we did not need cars as freshmen. But come sophomore year, she and I were determined to work something out. The solution: I got the car fall semester, she got it spring and we shared over the summer. The problem with our solution was that one semester with a car made the semester without a car so much worse! She is also graduating a year early, and we will most likely not be living in the same city this summer.
I know I had to do something, so I started to save my money to buy my first car. After four months of looking online and hearing many people promise they found me my dream car (my dream car to my dad was a minivan and my dream car to my grandfather was a convertible that I could not afford to pay insurance on). I finally found my car, a 2003 Mazda 6 that my twin sister named Jolene.
I had help looking; don’t get me wrong. But I did most of the process on my own, and I found it to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. So here are my 10 Tips for Car Shopping in College:
- Be Practical: Most likely this car has to last you at least five years, so you need something dependable. You also need a car that does not make your insurance impossible to afford.
- Know Where to Look: AutoTrader.com is a great tool. You can specify exactly what you want and put it in your price range. Remember you have to actually drive to where the car is to look at it in person.
- Live Near a Big City: I am in Statesboro, and there are no cars down here. Try to look around big cities: more people = more cars.
- Bring a Friend who Knows Cars: You know those people who can listen to an engine, look under a hood and tell you everything you need to know about cars. Make one of those people your friends, and take them car shopping. However, what you really need is a fortune teller to let you know how long the car will last you.
- Get it Checked Out: Have in mind a mechanic that you trust and remember this will cost you extra. If you are at a dealership get an insurance wavier to take the car to your own trusted mechanic.
- Be Prepared with Insurance: First make sure you can get a free quote. Next look at the VIN number on the bottom right side of the windshield. Call your insurance company give them the make, model, year and VIN. They will give you a quote that you can compare with each car you look at.
- Know Someone Who Can Get You a Deal: Cars are expensive. So unless you are the best bargainer in the world, you need someone with you who has connections to get the best price.
- Ask a Million Questions: Car dealers like to slither around answers. Don’t let that fool you! Ask what am I signing, why does it look that way, why do I have to pay this, will you clean that out? Don’t assume: ask.
- Be Smart: Walk around the car look for anything unusual. Check the radio and air conditioning. Listen to the engine run – weird noises are not normal. If you aren’t convinced it is a good car, then it probably isn’t.
- Be Prepared to Pay: If you can pay cash, then do it. Financing is just one more bill. Understand that a car means money for insurance, gas and repairs. A car is a big investment, but it is worth it.
Meet Jolene:
If you are sitting at work like I am watching the clock, then I hope this post can give you some relief from the “I wish 5 o’clock would hurry up” boredom.
This first picture had me dying laughing this morning. I can’t believe this poor girl actually thought she knew how to spell.
Next is something that I can’t believe I found. I am constantly looking for ways to spice up my resume, create an online portfolio and in general make myself look more desirable to future employees. But this girl decided to tell companies why they should hire her to the sound of Miley Cyrus. This may not be for everyone, but in this economy I can’t blame the girl for trying.
Before I leave for the day I want to send out this picture in hopes that an annoying tune will replay over and over again in your mind. Happy Weekend everyone!
This year I can’t help but feel like I have been riding a wild horse with roller blades strapped to its feet through a whirl wind of clubs, societies, seminars, meetings, webinars, conferences, interviews, classes, work and so on. I have a never ending to-do list with ways to increase my professional resume. I refuse to graduate without feeling fulfilled in all things college life. I could hire a full time assistant just to manage my social media sites. And I just wish I could clone myself to be social at the pool and be at work all at the same time.
After debating constantly with my friends over who is busier, I have decided that our plates are all just about over flowing. The worst part is there is a lingering thought constantly haunting us. If we stop working, slow down for just one minute or make the wrong decision, we might be finding ourselves stuck in our parents’ basements working dead-end jobs where all our hard work never paid off.
There is one thing that keeps me calm through all the madness. I go back to the familiar. I go back to the routine that I have been doing since my first day at kindergarten. I remember that first and for most I am a student. And while I near the end of my junior year at college, I feel like being a student is one thing that I can be confident in.
If you feel like you could use more confidence in your classes, here are some tips that have never failed me:
- Never skip class.
- Never miss a homework assignment.
- Never skip a quiz.
- Find at least one friend in every class.
- Keep an updated agenda, calendar and to-do list.
- Make sure every professor knows you by name.
- Always study more than one day in advance.
- Check and re-check all assignments for errors.
- Keep a back up file on hand.
- Keep the style book of your professor’s choosing with you at all times.
I want to know: How are you or how did you survive college?
(The perfect depiction of my fears from Techie Nation.)
This week at Georgia Southern University, the school is putting on their annual A Day for Southern campaign. The Campaign was first created to educate people on the importance of giving back to the University. The problem is that the majority of Georgia Southern alum do not give money back to the University. A large number of that majority actually give to other Universities. Georgia Southern is a public school . We do get funding from the state. However, that funding is not enough. Georgia Southern has many goals that can only be met if alumni and the community alike pitch in.
The newest part of the Day for Southern campaign has been added on this year to show the community and alumni that they should care because the students care. The student campaign is done in hopes to get full student participation. The school wants to show the students that they can make a difference by working together, and show the community and alumni that students are also making an effort to improve their educational experience.
Students are walking around campus all week to collect $1 from every student. Students can also donate online at georgiasouthern.edu/studentsfirst. The idea is if every student gives $1 then we’ll have over $20,000 to give to what we as students care about at our University. Just like the alumni and community members get to choose where their money is going, students get to choose too.
Below is an informational video made by students who are part of SGA.
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