Category: Blog

PRSA’s Counselors Academy Member Spotlight: Q&A with Abbie Fink

Margot HorganBlog, Counselors Academy, Professional Development, Public Relations, , , , , , , , , 5 Comments on PRSA’s Counselors Academy Member Spotlight: Q&A with Abbie Fink

Our very own Dana Hughens is the PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference Chair for the 2013 conference June 9-11 in Austin, Texas. As conference chair, she has the privilege to work with other members of the conference planning committee, which consists of senior-level PR counselors and agency owners from across the United States and Canada. We caught up with these PR pros to find out their secret to success and what they love most about Counselors Academy.

Meet the first guest of this blog series – Abbie Fink, Vice President of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Ariz. Abbie was recently selected by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the Top 25 Most Dynamic Women in Business and held the position of co-chair for the 2011 Counselors Academy Spring Conference.

Getting to know you…

Abbie-FinkName:  Abbie S. Fink

Agency: HMA Public Relations – Phoenix, Ariz.

Position:  Vice President/General Manager

First job in PR: I interned for The Pointe Resorts in Phoenix, Ariz.

Your insights…

Most loved thing about being in PR: No day is exactly the same, getting the chance to work with great people and great projects.

Best source for breaking PR news: Dana!  Seriously, word-of-mouth, industry publications and of course, social media resources.

Number one recommendation to new PR professionals:  Be smart about the world around you – know what’s happening in your community and the industries that you are working in. Continue reading “PRSA’s Counselors Academy Member Spotlight: Q&A with Abbie Fink”

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Clairemont Interns: Introducing Natalie Baker

Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont Team, , , 2 Comments on Clairemont Interns: Introducing Natalie Baker

Last but not least, meet Natalie Baker, Clairemont’s third member of the spring intern team!


Screen Shot 2013-03-05 at 9.14.34 AMA North Carolina native, Natalie was born and raised in the small town of Valdese – located in between Charlotte and Asheville. She loves sports, dogs, music and all things chocolate! After traveling Europe and studying abroad in Florence, Italy, this past summer, she considers traveling one of her favorite hobbies.

Natalie is a senior at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is a public relations major in the journalism school. Her previous experience with a local PR firm made her fall in love with the industry and the agency environment. She hopes to use her agency background to build and diversify her writing skills while here at Clairemont.

Other interesting facts about Natalie?

  • She loves coffee!
  • Her favorite TV show is Revenge on ABC.
  • Her iPod contains a plethora of classic rock music.
  • The last book she read was My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman.
  • Even though she bleeds Carolina blue, her 12-year-old Weimaraner is named Durham.
  • She loves the mountains.
  • Her weird quirk? Her friends tell her she has a lot of facial expressions.

After completing undergrad in the spring, Natalie hopes to land a job with a public relations or marketing firm in North Carolina – preferably in the Triangle area.

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Clairemont Interns: Introducing Sydney McKinney

Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont Team, , , 1 Comment on Clairemont Interns: Introducing Sydney McKinney

Say hello to the next member of our Clairemont intern team – Sydney McKinney. Erin recently sat down with Sydney to learn a little more about her. Here are the highlights…

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 12.09.39 PMThis January, Sydney McKinney brought her talents and skills to Clairemont’s spring internship team. Sydney, a Greensboro native who considers herself a “chocoholic” and loves pastel colors, is currently a senior advertising major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill.

However, she wasn’t always on the Ad path. Sydney tested the waters with several different majors before finding her passion for creativity and landing an internship with Seventeen Magazine last summer. As a marketing intern for Seventeen, she spent two months in New York City learning the inside track of the magazine industry. While her favorite part about Clairemont so far is the people, Sydney is excited about the transition and challenge this internship will bring to her current skill set.

Get to know Sydney by checking out these fun facts:

  • Sydney’s favorite snack to sneak into the movies is Raisinets and Diet Coke, however, the best meal she has ever had was lobster at Mama’s Fish House in Maui. According to her, it was not only the best but was also the biggest, juiciest lobster she has ever eaten.
  • Her ideal pet? Definitely a dog. She is currently thinking about a Goldendoodle, not to be confused with the “not-as-cute Labradoodle.”
  • Her weird quirk? She likes to speak in a variety of voices. Just today she demonstrated how by talking in the back of her throat she can sound like the animated movie character Stitch.
  • If you checked Sydney’s browser for most visited websites you would be sure to find FABSUGAR and Pinterest at the top of the list. But, these are not just hobbies. She hopes to use her Pinterest collection to fully decorate a house one day.
  • While she is afraid of bugs, she has no problem with heights. In fact a dream of hers is to go skydiving one day.

After graduation this spring, Sydney hopes to land a position in a public relations or advertising agency. Her advice for other college students looking for internships or jobs? Network, network, network! She credits networking as the most valuable channel for landing an internship. Thanks for the advice Sydney, and good luck with your future endeavors!

 

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Clairemont Interns: Introducing Erin Owenby

Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont Team, , , 2 Comments on Clairemont Interns: Introducing Erin Owenby

This semester, we have three wonderful interns working with us at Clairemont and we can’t wait to introduce them to you. In a bit of a team building exercise, we asked our interns – Erin Owenby, Sydney McKinney and Natalie Baker – to interview each other and share some background information (and some fun facts!) with you, our blog readers. Sydney recently sat down with Erin and learned some pretty interesting facts…

erinBorn and raised in Asheville, this North Carolina native bleeds Tar Heel blue.  She loves going to sports games and is into country music, sweet tea and all things Josh Lucas (remember the hunk from Sweet Home Alabama?). But, those are just the quirks—this PR junkie also has a diverse background in the industry.

A public relations major at UNC Chapel Hill, Erin has done it all! She’s organized events for several nonprofits, coordinated logistics for a wedding planning agency and has somehow managed to work two part time jobs in the meantime.

Want to know more about Erin? Here are some of the details:

  • She loves cheese. Parmesan’s her favorite food—she eats it daily.
  • She is currently reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for her third time. Why? Because she’s a die-hard classics fanatic.
  • In her spare time, she likes to paint furniture. Most recently, she painted a shelf for her room in coral and cream.
  • This girl loves to exercise! She goes to spin class every week at 6:30 in the morning, has run a marathon and is training for another half marathon in February.
  • She claims to be a tomboy. BUT she wears purple dresses and bows in her hair to Clairemont.
  • More fun facts? She’s a dog person; loves Mexican food; dreams of going to Europe; drives a stick shift; would choose the mountains over the beach any day; enjoys salty food more than sweet; and has a slight obsession with Snapchat.

So where does Erin see herself in the next year? Working in an agency setting and living in a large city—preferably New York or Washington D.C. But that’s not all. Erin’s wants to remain involved with Building Tomorrow, a nonprofit that raises money to help build primary schools for underprivileged children in Uganda. In fact, she’s going there this summer to visit schools that she helped raise support for over the past three years.

As for her time at Clairemont, Erin is interested in learning more about the client-agency relationship, applications of public relations in real world scenarios and the ins and outs of what it takes to be a successful agency. So, cheers to Erin and our adventure here at Clairemont! I can’t wait to see what this semester has in store for both of us!

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Tips for a Successful Job Search

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Free Advice, , , , , , , 4 Comments on Tips for a Successful Job Search

Come May, all three of our Clairemont interns will be turning their tassels and leaving the beautiful UNC campus behind to officially enter the job market. With North Carolina currently at a 9.2 percent unemployment rate, we challenged our intern, Erin, to find out exactly what recent college grads and other young professionals need to do to make sure they get hired in an oversaturated job market.

1Twenty years ago looking for a job meant checking the newspaper, asking around town and simply submitting an application or resume. Today, the search itself has become a full-time occupation. With endless access to job postings through search engines and social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, companies that at one time may have received 50 resumes for an open position now receive thousands.

So, just how do you beat out all those other applicants to land your dream job?

According to Richard Spector, Public Relations Society of America Jobcenter manager, you have to be just as strategic and persistent in your search as you would be if you were hired. In his recent webinar, “Your Guide to Career Success,” he outlined the top facts and “dos and don’ts” of a successful job search.

Interviewing

  • Do your research. Know the company inside and out from social media sites to media coverage.
  • Come prepared. Have a mock presentation with a strategic answer to that company’s needs.

Resume

  • On average, resumes are judged within six seconds, so keep it simple.
  • Your resume is your calling card. Use measurable examples to show things you accomplished.
  • Use technology such as a QR code to show you can be both digital and creative.

Cover Letter

  • Employers want to know what you have done, so start off with how you solved a problem.
  • Take note from the cover letter that went viral and stay away from personal attributes.
  • Be authentic! Keep to keywords and refrain from flowery language.

Online Profiles and Portfolio

  • Make sure your Linkedin profile is 100 percent complete. Recruiters can see the holes in your profile.
  • Google yourself. Are your online profiles easily accessible – and just as importantly, are they appropriate?
  • Utilize your social profiles to position yourself as an industry thought leader. Follow different agencies and industry professionals on Twitter and re-tweet and share interesting news with your followers.
  • In your portfolio, always remember quality over quantity. Only show the best examples of your work to potential employers.

Networking

  • Use social media, informational interviews, job shadowing, volunteering and freelancing to meet other industry professionals.
  • Build relationships by connecting over commonalities or giving recommendations.

BUT, what’s the most important thing to remember in every aspect of the job hunt? Be authentic and never give up! Twenty percent of job rejections will actually end in a job offer. As the old saying goes, when one door closes another door opens. Good luck and share your job search tips in the comments section below!

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