This past Saturday, I was given the opportunity to spend a day at the 2015 Student Communications Conference hosted by New York Women in Communications. I’ll be honest; I was completely ecstatic to go. I had only answered the email saying I wanted to attend two days prior at about 2:00 in the morning, and I was so ready. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed, and it is absolutely an experience I would recommend to anyone who will listen.
Let me walk you through the day.
Checking-in and Breakfast
I arrived at 8:15 in the morning, feeling very professional. There I was in a pencil skirt and blazer, ready to take on the world in my painful black pumps. I proudly grabbed my press badge and walked into a room of other very professional-looking girls sitting at round tables. I plopped myself down at one and proceeded to help myself to far too many breakfast potatoes. My new companions watched me drop one on the floor and struggle to pick it up while looking composed.
As more people filed in and the more I talked, I realized just how big of an event this was. These young women were coming from all over the country – there were people from New York, from New Jersey, Virginia, and there was one girl with the heaviest Southern twang I had ever heard. I took the time to bask in the fact that I even got to be there.
My attention was grabbed by Amy Odell, the editor of Cosmopolitan.com, and for a brief moment I thought I died after viewing her beauty and power. She was tall and well dressed, and I cherished the moments of eye contact we made. She spoke as I shoveled in breakfast potatoes, trying to look elegant and frantically scribbling notes, and she had a lot of wonderful things to say.
Amy Odell worked her way up from having no experience, no clips, and no job to being the editor of Cosmopolitan.com. I believe that each and every girl in the room felt extremely lucky to be able to listen to her speak. Amy gave some wonderful advice about making it in an industry that’s changing so quickly, which I will recount and give commentary on:
1. Beg for work. Do not give up, even though journalism is a highly competitive field. Even Amy thought that “[she] would never succeed,” because she couldn’t even get an internship! When she finally did land a job, she asked to go out whenever possible. A huge take-home message: “a lot of reporting is being really ballsy.” Do not, do not, do not be afraid to let your voice be heard. You’re in this for a reason, and you know you’ve got something good to say.
2. Take the job you don’t want. Amy emphasized the importance of this one. “Don’t turn your nose up at an opportunity that isn’t your dream job.” Intern at places you don’t want to work at, simply because you can learn something. Ladies, we are not above running to get coffee to the Big Players out there just yet. As interns and lower level employees, we do coffee. We do paperwork. Want us to install a doorbell? Sure thing, let’s Google it.
3. Do not be afraid to stand up for yourself! A hierarchy is no longer used as intimidation. Amy was fired from a job at Jewcy (a website that is no longer what it was at all) for standing up to her boss. This isn’t The Devil Wears Prada! Again, you have something to say, so don’t let yourself be treated unfairly.
Amy then left quickly and glamorously to catch a flight, and I tweeted her, looking for attention. She has yet to get back to me.
Session One: Television, Radio, and Online Broadcasting
After the breakfast, we scattered across the building to our first conferences. I put myself at a table front and center, ready to go. I was joined by three other girls who immediately bonded over being international students. They decided not to talk to me because I could not contribute to the conversation, so I instead turned my attention to the girl who was trying to move my notebook from my seat because she wanted to sit there. Upon being noticed, she chose to sit next to me instead.
Powering through, I was absolutely ready to listen. The women brought in were Jayde Donovan from W-PLJ radio, Stephanie Makowski from the Dr. Oz show, Katie Corrado from Fox, and Carol Wilkenson from News 12. Though I can’t say I want to enter TV or radio broadcasting, it was interesting to hear these women speak. They worked their way up to the top and it was absolutely clear why.
I’ll give you a brief rundown of what was said. The women all agreed that networking could be awkward and weird, but it’s a necessary thing. You need to get past that, because if you make friends with a person who just so happens to be able to help you, do it. When you’re looking for a job in the industry, it’s who you know before it’s what you know. Who you know gets you in, what you know keeps you there.
They were once again in agreement with the idea that interns cannot have a sense of entitlement to everything. Yes! You can do coffee! You can figure out how to do what is asked of you. You can travel and do what you don’t want to do, because you don’t turn anything down when you’re at the bottom. Jayde ran coffee when she was starting out, and she starts her day at 4:30 in the morning. When your boss asks for coffee – and when you’re an intern, everyone is your boss – get it done.
Finally, the best professional advice each woman had was from their mothers. For Jayde, she said, “Anywhere you find yourself, learn anything you can. You have to know more than both the guy and the girl next to you.” Don’t be afraid to ask for help or if you can watch someone do something, because chances are, you’re going to ask someone who wants to share their knowledge. Stephanie simply said, “Don’t let anyone else tell you what you want to do.” And it’s true! Follow your heart, girl, because no one but your mom can care about you more than you care about you. Carol left us with this piece of advice: “Be kind to the people you meet on your way up. Those may be the same people you meet later on…or at the least, don’t be mean to them.”
Session Two: Fashion and Beauty
In between these two sessions, I had nowhere to go. I chose to stay at my current table, where one of the girls who ignored me before decided I was important because I was covering the story for Her Campus Stony Brook. Enjoying the attention, I allowed her to think that I was indeed important. As soon as she asked for my LinkedIn, I became deaf and decided to use the bathroom. Luckily, by the time I returned the extraordinarily glamorous-looking speakers were there and ready to go.
Now, the question and answer portion here was a lot about the speakers’ lives and how they got to this point. They mostly worked in PR and came from backgrounds largely unrelated to it! This is something to say in an unrelated article, but what you study in college can have nothing to do with your career. Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way, so don’t be disheartened! And for anyone out there studying journalism like myself, I learned that it’s closely tied with these kinds of jobs.
I think the most important thing to mention here is how to stand out. According to Geneva Thomas, who works at InStyle and is the founder and editor of Jawbreaker.nyc, you want to network. You want to have an online presence. You want to be memorable.
Lauren Larkin, who is the beauty director at Alison Brod Public Relations, pointed out that you have to make use of the opportunities you were already given. You may not have experience in the specific role you want, but you probably have skills that translate to that role. Vanessa Santos, who is the head of partnerships at Observer Media, said that it’s not where you start, it’s your journey. She put a huge emphasis on LinkedIn – if you’re not on, get on! – and even mentioned that her assistant contacted her through there and asked her to get coffee. Finally, Shannon Duffy, who is a product development coordinator at Kohl’s had one thing to say: get an internship.
Lunch
After getting a few words in to Geneva Thomas, it was time for lunch. I found my companions from earlier in the morning and hurried over to eat. It was surprisingly very good! There were sandwiches, chips, apples, and Nature Valley bars. Now, I am someone who eats Nature Valley bars as an entire meal, so I was momentarily distracted by how I’m supposed to eat these very crumbly bars in front of other elegant ladies. Before I could stress too much, Paula Rizzo went up to speak.
Paula Rizzo built an incredibly successful, Emmy award winning career for herself. She largely talked about her own career, which ended up being very inspirational to hear about! I could summarize, but the take home message is to keep working at it. Paula had a long-term love affair with TV news, but that didn’t stop her from ever feeling lost, from feeling confused, from feeling like a failure. She never did shy away from that word. Sometimes she felt like a failure, and that was okay. She succeeded spectacularly despite it all. Her biggest words of advice? Be action oriented and use lists for everything.
We had about half an hour before the next leg of the day came around, and I took the time to inspect myself in the bathroom. I decided that I needed to buy a better-fitting blazer, because a girl who says she is a professional model walked in wearing a beautifully tailored blazer and I felt the need to leave immediately.
Session Three and Wrapping Up
I have got some wonderful new tips and tricks for being successful in the industry. Employers are known to search for you on social media, so you should obviously clean up your profile a bit, but they’re looking for personality! If you clean everything up and suddenly your Facebook and Instagram are only full of pictures of you in a beautiful pantsuit ready to do paperwork, they’re going to know that it’s all for show. In a previous session, Geneva Thomas said that it’s fine if you want to have a few pictures up of yourself at Coachella, because it’s fun! It’s fun to do that, and employers want to see what you are like outside of your resume. Vanessa Santos tacked on that although it’s alright to have pictures of you having fun, you need to make sure you’re presenting yourself in the right light. Dancing at Coachella? Fine. Being naked and chugging five beers in a row? Maybe not. The thing is, they’re wondering if that’s the way you’ll present yourself for the world to see, how much would you care about the way the brand you’re representing is seen?
Along with that, there are ways to show a little personality through paper. Make your resume pretty! Take care of the template and font you are using. It has to be professional and concise, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show a little “you” in it. Once again, LinkedIn was stressed as extremely important. Finally, have an elevator pitch ready for yourself! It might sound silly, but figure out a way to present yourself in a great light with your accomplishments and qualifications in a short amount of time. It might not seem like a lot, but hey, Alison Brod got their first client in an elevator.
We returned to a closing panel with a spotlight on the NYWICI scholarship winners. I have to say, the entire experience was inspirational, empowering, and an enjoyable experience! If you’re pretty new to the business like me (who has been a college student for less than three months now), it might not be a time to network, but it really is a time to take a look at what you might be in for. Seeing so many successful women ready to pass down knowledge to you in such a competitive business was uplifting and really just a great feeling. All in all, it’s something I think everyone should experience at least once. And remember: get a good blazer! If you do anything at all, get a good blazer.