Tag: guest speaker

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PRofessional: Kelli Matthews

Kelli Matthews is a public relations instructor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC). She has been the faculty advisor for Allen Hall Public Relations (AHPR) for eight years, and when she was a student at the SOJC, she was on the first AHPR team. With years of experience, Matthews knows a thing or two about success in the public relations industry.

Q: What is the most important advice you have for budding public relations professionals?

A: I think that my biggest piece of advice is to be curious. Be curious about everything. Like how the world works, how news gets made. Just being active in organizations like AHPR, PRSSA or Oregon News associations really stem for being curious and making that attempt to fill your knowledge gaps. Even as you get in your profession, that curiosity will carry you a long way.

If you continue to be curious, you will pay attention to how to advance in your industry and your job. Curiosity will keep you up to date and, because everything changes so frequently in public relations, you really need to keep searching for those answers.

Q: You briefly touched on opportunities like PRSSA and AHPR, do you have any specific advice about how to get involved and build up a résumé?

A: I think that you should keep your eyes and ears open all the time. Opportunities may not always come in the form of a formal interview. There are lots of ways to gain exposure and to learn about the (PR) industry to be exposed to the environment, jobs and structure outside of formal settings. The point is really to keep your eyes open for opportunities that may not be directly related to a job experience. It’s not just about getting three internships on your resume because that’s what supposedly gets you a job.

Get involved with what interests you even if it’s not directly related to public relations. Life isn’t just a big checklist. There are many opportunities that add to the richness of your life and to the richness of you as a person, and all of these aspects tie into becoming a better public relations professional. Students tend to look for certain job experience on their resume without looking at the bigger picture. Stay curious and interested, you’ll be surprised at what opportunities lay in front of you.

Q: Could you give me an example of these life experiences that have helped you in public relations?
A: Part of my core values is to be connected and involved in the community. My personal commitment is to the community not to public relations. I am very involved with Rotary International, and I am on the board of directors of United Way of Lane County. I make conscious commitment to spend time with organizations that relate to my core values. As an adult, I knew what I was giving up in order to do that and as a young professional these choices are harder.

But as a young professional, you need to keep yourself aware of your core values, it could be a number of things, like family commitment. For me, it was about figuring our how my time is best spent and this had to do with my core values. It’s about finding a fit with your personal values and where you spend your time.

Post by Kaitlyn Chock, PRSSA member and project manager for the 2012-2013 school year. You can contact Kaitlyn through our blog editor: cgisler@uoregon.edu!

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Why PR Students Should Ask for LinkedIn Recommendations

On Wednesday, Jan. 16, the University of Oregon (UO) PRSSA hosted Taraneh Fultz as a guest speaker at our winter term kick-off meeting. As we have had a large number of UO PRSSA students express interest in learning about event planning, Taraneh conducted an Events 101 workshop.

Taraneh had a great deal of interesting information to share about events; however, my largest personal takeaways were regarding how to request recommendations from employers. All public relations students have heard professors say that we should request recommendations on LinkedIn, but never do we hear good reasoning behind the action. Well, Taraneh suggested many reasons why students should do so. Here are the three points she made about recommendations – specifically LinkedIn recommendations – that I found incredibly helpful:

 

The recommendation will stay with you forever
Taraneh suggested requesting recommendations on LinkedIn because they will follow you throughout your career. Yes, that’s a good thing! Those recommendations will be on your profile forever, which means that even if you are interviewing for a position several years down the road your recommendations from entry-level positions will still be visible and relevant.

You can get the recommendation while your boss is working in the same capacity
People now change jobs much more frequently than in the past. If you wait several months to ask for a recommendation, you run the risk that your boss or supervisor will have moved on to work at a different organization; this makes it much harder to request a recommendation or use them as a reference. Ask your employer to write you a LinkedIn recommendation as soon as you complete an internship.

You can request a long-form recommendation letter easier
Asking your employer to write a LinkedIn recommendation now will make requesting a long-form recommendation letter in the future much simpler. When reaching out to your former employer, you can draw attention to the fact that they already wrote you a LinkedIn recommendation, and ask them to elaborate on the points that they already made.

I’m sure there are many more reasons to request LinkedIn recommendations. Why do you think LinkedIn recommendations are beneficial?

11-300x217Post by Ellie Boggs, chapter president for the 2012-2013 school year. She is a senior at the UO studying public relations. You can reach Ellie at eboggs@uoregon.edu.

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PRofessional: Ali AAsum

Ali AAsum started her career in public relations at a full-service marketing agency in Portland where she helped lead public relations campaigns, event execution, celebrity seeding, and social media strategies for companies both large and small. She worked on accounts like Cirque du Soleil; Feld Entertainment, Inc.; Taco del Mar; BridgePort Brewing Company; Oregon Association of Nurseries; The Portland Clinic; Mountain House; Simple Shoes; Deep Silver and others. In 2009, Ali’s team was deemed a 2010 PR Week Finalist for its Free Tacos on Tax Day campaign for Taco del Mar in two nominated categories.

Possessing strong relationships with local and national media, Ali has worked with and garnered coverage in outlets like Men’s Journal, People, OK!, Surfing, ReadyMade, YRB Magazine, Outside Magazine, Perez.com, Wired.com, CNN, CNN Money.com, Portland Monthly, The Oregonian, 1859 Magazine, MIX Magazine, and NW Palate among others.

Ali earned her bachelor’s degree in 2009 from the University of Oregon, School of Journalism and Communication, with an emphasis in public relations. Prior to graduation, she held numerous internships including The Ulum Group, City of Eugene Adaptive Recreation Services, and MR Magazine, as an editorial intern in New York.

Ali now works as an account executive at bell+funk in Eugene, Ore., where she started in May 2012.

Biography provided by Ali AAsum and Bell+Funk PR Agency of Eugene, OR. Ali visited the UO PRSSA chapter as a guest speaker on November 7, 2012. A big thank you to Ali and Bell+Funk for their ongoing support!