By: Nicole Marino
I recently attended a conference held by BU’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) called PR Advanced: It Starts Now. Starting at 9:00 AM and lasting through 5:00 PM in the Photonics building, I got to hear from amazing speakers in my field including, Jen Friedman, Senior Director of Corporate Reputation of GE, DJ Capobianco, a leader in research for Twitter’s advertising clients, Brandi Boatner, who works in IBM’s corporate communications, Monique Kelley Gigliotti, Senior Vice President of Client Experience and Healthcare at Weber Shandwick, Sara Sedgwick Brown, a Global Product Lead at YouTube/Google, and more. These leaders in the communications industry spoke to students from various schools in the region about the conference’s theme: it starts now. Key ideas included how to be less intimidated by networking and how to land a job/internship. Planned by BU’s chapter of PRSSA, there was also a welcome reception the night before at Sunset Cantina, as well as a post-conference networking event at Bar Louie in Fenway. Finally, there was a resume critique and a small career fair in which you could exchange contact information with companies around Boston, as well as Boston’s PRSSA chapter, the post-graduate organization.
Morning Keynote Speaker Jen Friedman, GE
The day started with a speech from Jen Friedman from GE, sharing her experiences from when she left college, to working as a Press Deputy in the White House under Obama, to her current position at GE. She shared the challenges of telling GE’s story despite their declining stock. Afterwards, We attended two one-hour-long breakout sessions. There were four options to choose from for each session. The first four were with Monique Kelley, speaking about getting over your fear of networking, Eric Tumbiolo from Anheuser- Busch, Ruyu Wang, from a startup called XtalPi, and Rachel Leist from Hubspot presenting “How to Take Your Career Inbound”. The next four were held by Michael DiSalvo from Ogilvy, about how the right way to get a job doesn’t exist, Sara Sedgwick Brown from Google, about the importance of following your passions, Danielle Dupre from Reebok on career advice and Reebok’s branding, and Greg McCarthy from Dell, who spoke about getting involved in the social conversation. Next, we had lunch and listened to a speech from Brandi Boatner, who works for IBM. She shared an incredibly inspiring story about how we are our own worst enemies, and how we shouldn’t be afraid to fail. She spoke about how in most cases, no one has ever told us we can’t do something, only we ourselves have decided that we can’t do things. Following that was a Q&A session with three recent BU graduates, Maurice Rahmey, Maya Vaidya, and Alex Shuck, working at Facebook, Eataly Boston, and LevelUp, respectively. Having not been in our shoes too long ago, it was great to hear their advice about networking. Following that was the resume critique and career fair. Finally, we heard from DJ Capobianco from Twitter, who explained Twitter’s role not only in the advertising/communications world but also in the world.
My personal takeaways from PR Advanced were tremendous. As an advertising major, not PR, I wasn’t sure if it would apply to me that much, but it did! The main thing I learned is that you should not apply for a job or internship without connecting to someone at the company. Maurice Rahmey also said something during the Q&A session that stuck with me. He said, “Ask for a job, get advice. Ask for advice, get a job.” So when I got home, I found people on LinkedIn who went to BU and work at the companies I want to intern at this summer and messaged them asking for their help. This morning I already woke up to two responses with their email addresses, saying they’re happy to help. I also connected with all the speakers at the conference, making sure I stay in touch with them. Monique Kelley reminded us that they attended the conference because they want to help us in our career paths. Keeping that in mind made the industry seem less intimidating. My final takeaway was all the people I got in touch with at the career fair. I exchanged business cards/resumes with some great people in the industry, as well as had great conversation. Overall, attending PR Advanced got me excited about networking and finding my career path. Plus, I won selfie stick! What more could I ask for?
I highly recommend attending a conference or networking event in your field if you can, no matter what year you are. It’s never too early to start establishing connections with professionals who want to help you. It shows initiative and drive, something important in any field. Remember to be confident in yourself, accept failure, because it’s bound to happen, and reach out to people on LinkedIn! We are all connected in some way, whether it be through college, hometown, or interests. The worst that can happen is they say no putting you back in your original position, so why not go for it?
Cover Photo from: BU PRSSA on Facebook
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