Experience, experience and more experience

I went to a a group meeting a month or so ago and we discussed if we thought we were prepared to graduate and what could be changed to better prepare us. The common theme throughout was that people gained the most knowledge from the experience they got at their internship. In light of this, I really believe that we should be required to have at least two internships to graduate.
I think that we have great classes and teachers in our college, but nothing can really prepare us for the real world like the real world experience that we get from internships. With that in mind, it seems only logical that we should be required to do more than just one. For some of those go-getters, they have gone out on their own and done more than what was required, but for others, they won't do it unless they are forced. Those people may just need the extra push to get some more experience.
By changing the required hours to 5-6 or requiring a minimum of two internships, I think it would prepare the students a tremendous amount more. I think it should be something that the college thinks about and encourages students to do.

Business Minor

I think that every person in Mass Communications (and really every college student in general) should be required to take several business classes. This would make it pretty easy for most students to just add that business minor. I think classes like that would be SO beneficial, not only in the PR field, but in life altogether. That is one thing that I really wish I would have added early on in my college career. Classes like Finance would be great to have even if you have no plans of pursuing a future in that field. In the grand scheme of things, it would be nice just for your own personal knowledge to know that information.
The heads of colleges should meet and come up with new criteria for graduating, and I think everyone should be required to take multiple business classes. They may not be loads of fun, but I think that people will appreciate them later on.

If I had a do-over

I've been thinking a lot about what I would do if I could "do-over" college. There are a couple of things that I would change.
First, I would study abroad. I did get a chance to intern in NYC and that was awesome, but I think every student should study in another country. Think about it, when is the next time you are going to have the opportunity to live in another country for a couple of months? Probably never. This is the time to do it. Once you get out of school you think, hey I should go to Europe (or at least I think about this...), but once I get into my first job, that isn't going to be so easy. I would want to spend at least 2 weeks going to different countries and exploring different historical sites, and let's be real - what new employer is going to say "Sure, take those two weeks off and enjoy!" Not likely. So the moral of this story is STUDY ABROAD!
Also, if I had a do-over I would get a BA instead of a BS. Not only would knowing a second language be HUGELY beneficial in this day and age, but this would have allowed me to major in English as opposed to just minoring in it. When I looked into this, I was already well on my way to getting a BS and BA would have required several extra semesters, something I just didn't think I could do. So don't be afraid of those foreign languages- Go for it!! This will make you very marketable later :)
I hope this doesn't sound like I haven't had a great college experience, because I have. I love majoring in PR and my sorority has been a great networking tool. Overall, I am very satisfied with my time at Kansas State thus far, there are just a few things I would change if I had the opportunity.

To blog or not to blog

After our discussion in class on Monday, I found myself just randomly thinking about the pros and cons of blogging. After weighing the two, I found myself in favor of blogs. That is to an extent though.
I think it would be really easy to be misleading on a blog and I definitely think you should be careful with what you are writing. After all, anyone can read it and there have been law suits in the past stemming from blogging. But blogs are a great way to read others' opinions.
One of the cons that kept coming up in class was that blogs are not based on actual fact, but rather on what some random person is writing. I think this is a valid point, but at the same time, I think that the ordinary, reasonable person reading the blog is already aware of this.

Paying Interns

After spending an entire summer in New York City, working 45+ hours per week and getting paid $10 per day, I feel pretty strongly about the need to pay interns. I realize that interns are a great way to get incredibly cheap labor at the cost of less experienced work, but it is incredibly difficult to motivate yourself when you know that you are working for approximately $1.11 per hour.
Once this summer, I was even in charge of recruiting a student from a film school to shoot a video for us. It was stressed to me that I was to make sure that the students being interviewed were well aware that they were not going to be paid. I loved that job -- grrr...
I can understand the fact that there are a lot of people out there looking for experience and I know that if I refuse to take an internship because it isn't paid, they won't care because it is likely that they can find someone else that will work for nothing, but I just feel that it is an unfair way to get cheap labor. At my internship this summer I felt like I was frequently doing jobs that the regular employees do, yet getting paid next to nothing while they brought in a salary.
I'm not asking for millions... I would be happy with minimum wage!

my amazing discovery

Going on with my recent obsession with job hunting, I started wondering what I can be expecting to make when I find my first job. I have these amazing visions about what it will be like to have a steady paycheck that gives me more than what I'm getting at my $6 an hour internship (oh what we'll do for experience). But my problem was that I wasn't sure what I should even ask for as my salary. I noticed that several of the employers of the jobs that I was looking at want you to give them what you want for a salary. In this there is quite the predicament - you ballpark a figure that is too low, you sell yourself short and settle for less than you could be getting OR you overestimate and the potential employer throws out your resume. Pretty intense stuff. So anyway, I was curious so I checked out the usual salary.com and it wasn't much of a help. I wanted to see something specifically entry level, but it was giving you a general idea. So, I googled "salary for entry level PR" and guess what I found... an entire site devoted to soon-to-be college grads looking for advice and jobs. The site is www.entrylevel-pr.com. I originally found the blog first, and it had really great topics and advice, but this is the main site. I still need to keep looking around, but it seems to be a pretty helpful place for someone like me. I know the blog was written by a woman who was working in PR (maybe in HR) and was in charge of hiring people. So she knows what she is talking about when saying what they look for on resumes and things like that.
So, this is my latest discovery and I hope that someone else can benefit from it as well :) Happy job hunting!

On the job hunt...

So once again, I'm posting about the job hunt. I can't help it - even though I don't graduate for another 8 months or so, I feel the need to search site after site looking for a potential job. I change my mind once every two weeks or so though, so maybe within the next two posts I'll have a different life goal!
But for right now here is what I'm thinking: Big city (okay, no difference there) working at a PR agency. I'm thinking agency right now mostly because I really don't know what I want to do. My thoughts are that if I work for a PR agency I can get a broad idea of PR. Plus I think that there are positives about working at a large, established firm. One of the other obstacles I have run into is the simple fact that a lot of places aren't looking for an immediate post-grad. Almost everything that I run into is for 3-5 years experience and let's be real - that isn't me. And to be honest, I'm a little scared of the real world and the idea of being thrown into a job that I have no idea what I'm doing is daunting. Working at a large firm, I would probably start out with a paid internship and after three months or so, hopefully be promoted to a Jr. Account Exec. I'm confident that I can work my way up so right now this is looking pretty good.
I already spoke to someone at Edelman about applying for an internship for after graduation in Portland, OR, so I'm feeling pretty good. I just hope everything works out. Real world here I come... well that may have been slightly premature... real world here I come in eight months. Okay, much better.