Each semester the PRSSA Vice President is in charge of scheduling at least one visit to a Public Relations firm or agency. These trips to the office are extremely valuable in that they provide students with an inside look and feel to a PR organization.
The visits typically last an hour and consist of a brief tour of the office, a small presentation about the company, what work is completed during a PR Rep's average day, and usually conclude with a chance for a little Q & A. Last spring I participated in a trip to Fleishman-Hillard and this past November members of PRSSA had the opportunity to go to Ketchum, two very beneficial experiences.
This Friday, March 27th members of PRSSA will visit Edelman Public Relations, one of the top PR Firms in the world.
Not only are these firm visits great bonding experiences for the Executive Board and the general PRSSA members (ahem happy hour after Ketchum's visit) but they also serve as professional experiences and present opportunities to network. So, thank you Virginia for setting up this exciting "college field trip" for everyone. I know I'm looking forward to visiting Edelman.
For those of you going on Friday remember to dress business casual, bring a couple resumes, and think of a few questions to ask the employees at Edelman.
I'll give you an update about what we learned after Friday's visit.
-Stevie
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Where do you Want to be?
Agency, Corporate, or Non-Profit? What is the angle you would like to take when looking at your Public Relations career? Over the past two weeks NIU PRSSA has had two very helpful speakers come in and give us definitions of each. The first being Scott Winterroth and the other being Corrine Gudovic. Scott offered a very straight forward view of what working for the City of Chicago entails and in most cases it was B.S., but in the long run Scott represents two major Chicago outlets in Navy Pier and the McCormick Place. Both of which host huge events and are in many ways what Chicago is known for.
When you get down to it you really have to decide what would be right for you in the long run. Look at Corrine; she started working for a corporate PR firm and eventually decided that an agency was the way to go. She mentioned that in Corporate PR you defend the profession of PR, as opposed to actually representing your client and their brand. This could be good or bad depending on what you’re trying to accomplish in your career. On the other hand you have Agency in which you would more so represent your client's brand, and of course that "brand" could be anything, from a service to a product, whether you support it or not.
So whether it is event planning, crisis planning, or writing the standard press release you will be doing more of one of these depending on which route you choose. In working with Opportunity House I get the chance to be hands on with the people whom I represent, and I get to do a wide variety of PR. I write press releases, work on a monthly newsletter, interview clients and staff and have my own desk! :) All this and OH is a state funded organization that has to do yearly fund raisers to keep a good revenue stream. Opportunity House would fall under the non-profit type of agency.
Obviously the most important thing for each of us to do at this point in time is to get a good and stable job, but put some serious thought into what type of agency you would want to be putting your hours in for. Agency, Corporate, Non-Profit? You choose.....
-Brett Bates
When you get down to it you really have to decide what would be right for you in the long run. Look at Corrine; she started working for a corporate PR firm and eventually decided that an agency was the way to go. She mentioned that in Corporate PR you defend the profession of PR, as opposed to actually representing your client and their brand. This could be good or bad depending on what you’re trying to accomplish in your career. On the other hand you have Agency in which you would more so represent your client's brand, and of course that "brand" could be anything, from a service to a product, whether you support it or not.
So whether it is event planning, crisis planning, or writing the standard press release you will be doing more of one of these depending on which route you choose. In working with Opportunity House I get the chance to be hands on with the people whom I represent, and I get to do a wide variety of PR. I write press releases, work on a monthly newsletter, interview clients and staff and have my own desk! :) All this and OH is a state funded organization that has to do yearly fund raisers to keep a good revenue stream. Opportunity House would fall under the non-profit type of agency.
Obviously the most important thing for each of us to do at this point in time is to get a good and stable job, but put some serious thought into what type of agency you would want to be putting your hours in for. Agency, Corporate, Non-Profit? You choose.....
-Brett Bates
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