Last Friday, I attended the Real World PRSA Conference in Atlanta. It started at 8 am and I was beyond nervous/anxious for this day. I'm not sure why I was feeling this way but I couldn't shake this feeling until I finally started meeting professionals at the career fair. The introduction of the day was about your personal "brand" and your story.. it was very helpful but I couldn't help but feel intimidated and unsure of what my story and brand should be. I attended two breakout sessions- one with representatives from Ketchum PR, IHG and American Cancer Society. This session was about the difference between agency, corporate and non-profit life. I was so thrilled to hear from Sarah-Ann from IHG because that right there is my
dream job. The next session was from Coca-Cola about their campaign for the London olympics. As always, learning from Coca-Cola employees is interesting and very insightful. Next came lunch where we heard from Mickey from Ogilvy in Atlanta. I met him on the study tour over the summer and he is just a hoot. Very funny guy but so respectable. I barely ate because I was too excited for what was to come. We had our resumes critiqued in groups of 5 by successful PR professionals. I didn't receive any specific feedback for my resume and all of the advice and tips he gave to improve our resumes didn't really apply to me. So I am hoping that is a good thing? He did give us really great advice on things other than our resumes and spoke the truest words I ever heard.
Experience is more important than education. If you know me, this is something I very strongly believe in, so it was great to hear it from someone who makes hiring decisions. After this session, we attended a mini career fair where we were able to personally meet representatives from agencies and learn more about their internship programs and even apply to a few. I gave away five resumes to places that I was interested in and made some great contacts. This is what ultimately led me to my decision to apply to global PR agencies! I loved the larger agencies best when I went on the PR study tour over the summer but the application process was always so daunting to me. Nevertheless, I will submit my applications for agencies in both Atlanta and Chicago by tomorrow.
I will be in Chicago next week for my spring break and I am hoping to meet with a few professionals from places that I am interested in working for, so I will let you all know how it goes! I'm super excited to be in the windy city in less than 2 days!!
