Powerhouse Networking and Informational Interviews

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to speak with and be mock interviewed by two PR professionals and was also able to be involved in one informational interview. I'm going to admit, I was pretty nervous all day because I didn't know how it was going to go and how I was going to do. I ended up interviewing with three fantastic professionals that I got along with really well and they gave me great feedback. It was a really great experience.

My first interview was with Britta Svoboda. She is an admissions representative at UW-Whitewater. Britta was great to talk to she really gave me great advice on interview questions, body language and facial expressions. One of the valuable pieces of information she gave me was after she asked me an interview question that stumped me. Her question was, "Why should we hire you?" Sounds simple right? Well I froze. She told me that it's okay to not know an answer right away. It's important to think of a good answer than to say "I dont know." She told me to express my passion in PR. She told me she could see my passion and it was really great talking with her.

My second interview was with Steve Staedler, which whom I've already met when he spoke to our class, but it was nice talking one-on-one with him. He gave me great advice as well. In our interview we talked about my passion for writing and he told me that in the PR industry it is very important to have a love for that.

My informational interview was with Angela, senior account executive at LePoidevin. We talked a lot about the difference between working for an agency and a corporation. She said she thought she could see me in an agency over a corporation because I love working with clients.

My confidence has definitely boosted in terms of interviewing. I was extremely nervous before hand but after the interviews I felt so much better and it really makes me excited to have a real interview with a company.

Steve Staedler Guest Speaker

In my Public Relations Tactics 2 class we had the pleasure of listening to PR professional, Steve Staedler. Steve is an accounting executive at Lepoidevin Marketing in Brookfield, Wis. He talked to us about B-to-B (business to business) public relations and about a software named Cision Point. 

Steve graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a degree in mass communications. His duties at LePoidevin Marketing include making print ads, press releases, fact sheets, using Facebook as an effective social media tool and much more. Some clients that Steve writes for include an industrial industry named Snap On Tools. He explained that about 90 percent of his day is compiled of him writing. He also mentioned how every day is different which makes his job so exciting. 

Steve also introduced us to Cision Point. Cision Point is a software tool that allows quick searches and manages the impact of coverage across tradition, digital and social media. Steve compared this tool with an "online newsroom" that allows clients to post press releases, photos etc. It was really interesting learning about this PR software because chances are that I will be using it someday or be asked about it in an interview and learning a little bit about it already is a significant source. 

Steve also mentioned that he uses platform alerts to monitor social media. He uses google alert, which is a profile that you set up with key words that will alert you when something specific is online. Steve also showed us a whitepaper which is a feature writing that is to the point and states the case about a product. In his, it was over a couple pages long and included pictures. 

At the end of Steve's presentation, he gave us a case study and put us in groups to see if we could formulate ideas of the situation at hand like PR professionals. It was really interesting to be hands on with this idea. Steve gave the class a lot of useful information that I'm honored to have gotten. 

Guest Speaker: Amy Paul

Last week Wednesday we had a guest speaker in our PR 2 Tactics class, Amy Paul. She is a recent graduate of UW-Whitewater and shared a very informative and helpful presentation! She gave a PowerPoint about where she went after graduation and how she got to where she is today.

Paul graduated in 2011 and majored in Public Relations. What was interesting is that she mentioned she was originally a dance major and then changed when she realized how much she loved writing. She started took a position at the Milwaukee County Executive Office as a public relations assistant. She had a lot of tasks to accomplish such as planning and carrying out major county events and administering all social media efforts.

After the Milwaukee County Executive Office, Paul got a job at Bottom Line Marketing & Public Relations as a PR assistant. She explained that her job requires a lot of writing. She spends most of her time throughout the day writing, planning, making press releases etc.
After Bottom Line Marketing & PR, Paul got a job at Ascedia where she currently is working as an Interactive Account Coordinator.

Paul went on to talk about what helped her receive these jobs. I found it extremely interesting she got an internship with the Milwaukee Admirals. She stressed that this unpaid internship helped her greatly and she is still closely connected with her boss to this day. She also stressed how important it is to ask and reach out for more responsibilities from your internship bosses. Paul said before she left for the day she would ask her boss if there was anything else that needed done before she left and he was more than happy to give her a task, but it also showed that she is willing and hard-working.

In college, Paul joined clubs such as PRSSA and was very involved. She also had an internship at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

I was very inspired by her presentation and learned a lot from Amy Paul. I plan to take her tips and reflect them on myself to grow as a PR professional some day.

My continuing journey...

My name is Sara Neumann and I am a second semester junior at UW-Whitewater. I transferred from UW-Milwaukee studying psychology and realized it wasn't for me. I decided to major in PR and have been very happy with my decision ever since. 

I just enrolled in PR Tactics 2 and I am so excited to get started! I fell in love with Tactics 1, so I know this class will be great too. This class will be a great next-step in my journey. I'm excited to go to networking events and get my name out there to important executives of companies. It's also helpful that we will be working on our resumes and practicing media releases. All in all, this class will be a great learning experience for me. 

As a PR student, my expectations in myself are to do well in my communications classes and learn all I can. I plan to get an internship later in the spring of next year. My career goals include graduating and continuing my journey. I would love to work in the PR industry anywhere after college, but ultimately I plan to work for a sports franchise and use my PR and journalism experience in that. 

I've constructed a few writing pieces that can be found in my LinkedIn profile and my Weebly. They were pieces I wrote for my PR Tactics 1 class and I think they were great practice for writing news, press, media and electronic releases. 

Follow me on Twitter: @Sara_Neumann

Check out my LinkedIn profile: Sara Neumann

Check out my Weebly profile: Sara Neumann