Another New Chapter

Once again, I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere for a bit. I feel like I go through these phases where I update daily and have all sorts of things to write about and then there are weeks where I just can't managed to post a single thing. This time I'm not lacking material, I've just been way too busy to post. Between planning a best friend's birthday, saying goodbye to other friends leaving the city after the summer, and making the transition to a new job (!!) I've been swamped.

Yep, you read right: I'm starting work at a new company this week. Tomorrow will be the last day of my wonderful Peppercom internship and I start at Parasol on Wednesday. I'm sad to say bye to everyone at Peppercom but excited for a new challenge and the next chapter of my career. I'll keep you all posted once I get going with this new job!

Twitter Does it Again

I've been contemplating all week if I should write something about the whole Twitter/CNN situation but haven't yet because I (a) just haven't had the time and (b) don't feel the need to "re-invent the blog post" so to speak, since there are so many great articles out there already (check out The Power of Twitter, written by a PepperDigital co-worker, or scan through the latest New York Times articles - there are new ones every day!).

The bottom line is that Twitter has once again made a huge impact on current affairs, and continues to beat out traditional news as a means of communication. We saw this a few months ago with the first pictures of the U.S. Airways crash being posted to Twitter before they made it to a broadcast news station. Today, Twitter once again "beat out" traditional news with the quickest updates on a story that hit close to home for me. Or should I say, close to my old home.

Having gone to the University of Georgia, I fell in love with the sweet little town of Athens over the last four years. Athens, affectionately known as "the Classic City," has an amazing downtown scene with tons of old buildings and hundreds of years of history. There are so many landmarks around the town that are well-known and loved by students and locals alike, but today there is one less.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was check my e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook like I do every morning (okay, after I hit the snooze about 4 times - Fridays are rough). One of the first tweets I saw was about the Georgia Theater catching fire. WHAT?? I was immediately wide awake and began frantically searching the news for more information. (For those of you who don't know, the Georgia Theater is an old movie theater in downtown Athens that was converted into the most popular music venue in Athens, with headliners like R.E.M., Widespread Panic and other Athens legends over the years.)

I first did a Google News search to see what was going on... which gave me frustratingly few details (the theater caught fire this morning, more information to come..).  So, I posted a question to Twitter...

... and within minutes had responses from complete strangers filling me in on what had happened.  All morning, people have been posting live updates, pictures and videos.  Even now, there are few details to be found on traditional news outlets but Athenians continue to post the latest snippets of news on their Twitter feeds.  

When the U.S. Airways crash happened, people started saying that "it would only be a matter of time" before citizen journalism truly overtakes traditional media.  Where do we officially draw that line? Did it start to happen with the Twitter picture of the U.S. Airways plane down in the Hudson River? Can I say today, since I have relied solely on Twitter and have stopped bothering checking the local news sites, that Twitter has actually taken over? Or what about the situation in Iran, where citizens there can only rely on this one means of communication and all others are blocked? When will people stop saying it is "going to happen" and realize it is actually happening before our eyes?

Home Sweet Home

Here I am again, borrowing Internet from Gregory's Coffee... just 5 more days until my cable and Internet get hooked up!  Aside from my lack of cable though, my apartment is really coming together.  I'm making a trip out to Ikea (my first time, I'm very excited about it) on Wednesday to get some more furniture but I'm finally done unpacking and decorating!  My parents have been asking for pictures, so I figured this would be the best place to post them.  They're a little blurry since they're from my iPhone, but they're better than nothing...

The "bedroom" ... okay, so it's a studio but I still like to pretend there are separate rooms.

The "dining room" / table that made me cry because it had to be taken apart to fit through my front door.

The "living room" ... I'm planning to put a dresser between the windows, put my TV on top of it, and have a couch across from it. 

Kitchen.

Little pieces of Athens in the kitchen (go dawgs!).

More UGA stuff...

So that's pretty much it! It probably looks bigger than it is because of all the different wall shots, but I'm okay with it being tiny and I love it.  Having pictures of all my friends and family definitely makes it feel like home, so I'm happy! 

Tomorrow is my first day of my internship at Peppercom, I'm so excited to get started and meet everyone! Everyone I've talked to and met so far that works there has been so friendly and nice, and I know I'm going to love it.  I'll report back after my first week/whenever I have a reliable Internet connection next!

More "Great" and Less "Unknown"

A few days ago, I wrote about embracing my uncertain future.  After much anxiety about what direction my life would go after college, I finally decided to just go with the flow and stop freaking out about everything.

Well, you know how when you're waiting on food at a restaurant, it always seems to come faster if you leave the table to go to the restroom or something?  Well, this apparently applies to waiting on internships as well.  Four days after I adopted my new carefree outlook on life, I got the phone call I've been dreaming of for months!  

Finally, when people ask me what I'm doing after graduation I don't have to stare blankly at them or mumble something about the economy and the tight job market.  I will be able to tell them that I will be moving to New York in the end of May and interning with Peppercom for the summer!  I couldn't be more excited, and now I have so much to figure out and plan in the next month and a half.   

Advice on Preparing for Graduation & The Job Search

Last week, I posted about differentiating yourself in the tight job market.  After writing that post, I contributed to a podcast produced by Peppercom to give advice to my fellow seniors and job seekers.  The podcast is an open discussion moderated by Ted Birkhahn, Steve Cody, and Alicia Wells.  A few current Peppercom interns (Tom Showalter, Elle Kross and Amelia Denson) participated, as well as seniors Meredith Hutchins (College of Charleston) and Katie Green (Syracuse University).  

I really enjoyed participating in the podcast.  It was great hearing advice from students in the same position as I am, and hopefully I was able to provide some insight as well.  Click here for a link to the podcast.

How are YOU differentiating yourself in the job market?

Tomorrow, I will be participating in a podcast discussing the difficulties upcoming graduates are facing in the job market, and how to differentiate yourself.  The conversation will be hosted by Peppercom's Co Founder Steve Cody and COO Ted Birkhahn, and I will be among one of a group of senior PR students answering questions.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with Peppercom, it's a PR agency which offers global communications services with offices in New York, London, Chicago and San Francisco. It was also ranked by the Holmes Report as one of the nation's best places to work for three consecutive years, which is why I'm hoping to intern there this summer!)

I've been thinking a lot over the last few days about what advice I can give my fellow upcoming graduates.  With the media constantly in our faces about how bad the economy is and how impossible it's going to be to find a job when we graduate, it's hard to stay positive about our future! We've all worked hard through college, we have internship experience, and we're almost done earning our degrees... so now what?

No matter how bad things get, the fact of the matter is - there are still jobs out there.  You just need to be able to differentiate yourself and prove to potential employers why you are the best one for the position.  Competition is fiercer than ever, but rather than getting discouraged and resigning yourself to move home with mom and dad in a few weeks - do something about it! 

Here is some of my humble advice, based on personal experience and recommendations I've gotten from professors and fellow students:

• Use your network! HR departments get hundreds of resumes and cover letters a day, why should they read yours?  Talk to professors, other students, family friends - see if anyone has any connections that might be useful to you.  This may sound like you're just using people, but based on my experience people are more than happy to help if they can.
  
• Do your research.  If there is a company you're interested in working for, know them inside and out.  Read their blog, follow them on Twitter, find out everything you can about them.  Being knowledgeable about a company will set you apart from other candidates when applying for a job.
• Be proactive. After living and interning in NYC last summer, I knew it was where I wanted to be after graduation.  So, in December, I flew up for a few days for informational interviews with a few companies I researched and was interested in.  Just showing your face and talking with someone shows your interest and can teach you a lot about a company, more than you could ever learn from their website.
• Be open-minded.  Don't just look at big agencies, research smaller companies and internal communications positions.  There are a lot of opportunities in public relations, so look outside your comfort zone to find other jobs than you had imagined you would be looking for.  
• Intern! By now, we all should have internship experience, but you can never have too much.  There's nothing wrong with interning after graduation, and you never know where your connections with a company may lead you.  
• Immerse yourself in the industry and keep up with the trends. There is so much to learn about public relations outside the classroom, it's almost intimidating.  Spend time every day reading relevant news articles, follow the latest social media trends.  I learn so much every day just by clicking through links on my Twitter feed.  There are so many knowledgeable professionals out there with great information, so follow them!

Hopefully some of this has been helpful.  I'm really looking forward to hearing what other seniors have to say, and am so honored to be participating in this! I'll post links once the podcast is finished.

I'd also love any feedback on what you are doing to differentiate yourself, or just any thoughts in general on this topic!