What I learned from planning, then attending a Career Fair

As my graduate school assistantship, I worked with a phenomenal team at Mizzou to plan and execute a department-wide Career Fair with 42 companies present.

Our PR team that planned the event on Feb. 14, 2013- me, Marissa, Barbara, Susan and Sam

It was incredibly fulfilling for a multitude of reasons, learning that:

• Our team gained a lot of industry knowledge by planning the event, knowing a variety of advertising agencies, their size and each company's knowledge and specialties 
• Email etiquette is a life skill - craft these messages carefully!
• Learning the role of HR and how a company recruits new employees is incredibly important, so you know the best way "in" when you are interested
• It's important to build a relationship with every person you meet, because you'll cross paths again
• Lastly, event planning isn't as glorious as you think - and logistics are not a skill everyone has. 

As part of my company's campus recruiting team for Mizzou, I then had the opportunity to attend the Career Fair I once planned.

Taylor and I representing Starcom at the Strategic Communication Career Fair this past February 2014

Me with this year's PRAEs that we interviewed and hired to run the event and serve on Mojo Ad

Being on the other side of things, I learned a whole different set of lessons job-seekers should consider:

• Do something to stand out from the crowd
• Research companies, open positions and industry press around them before you speak to any recruiters
• Juniors in college are not always confident in what they want to do after graduation 
• Don't put something on your resume if you weren't there for very long and can't confidently speak to how you and your work enhanced their organization 
• Recruiters enjoy talking to students, so make it enjoyable for them! 

With campus recruiting season kicking off again this year, all these lessons came top-of-mind and I realized how lucky I was to have both of these opportunities. I'm looking forward to more successful recruiting efforts this year and helping prospective employees find a company they like! 

Best photos from writing a thesis

When writing a thesis, unlike other life adventures, there are not many things you can take photos of. There's no visual way to document the hours you spend reading, annotating, coding, writing and preparing for the defense.

While flipping through 2013 photos, I found the following pictures captured on my phone as I moved between Chicago and Milwaukee work spaces to avoid distraction and have the proper space wanted. Here's a snip of laughter!

Working from a "home office" in the dining room

Using the church's Wifi and working in the church library

Spreading out papers in the church 

Dividing notes up by interview and carrying the printer to Milwaukee when setting up our Milwaukee apartment as another home office

Lit review-ing at the Milwaukee "home office"

Reading through final notes for the defense at the pool - might as well get some sun doing all this work!

Midwest road trip: highlights

Last week, I drove down to Mizzou to defend my master’s thesis and officially complete graduate school by doing so. I drove nearly 1,200 miles in less than seven days and stopped in five cities on the drive.

The spedometer hit 100,000 miles on the CRV right as I was leaving for Mizzou!

The journey began in St. Louis where I stopped on my way to Columbia to meet up with some friends for lunch. I got to catch up with Shelley, my pledge mom and great friend from my sorority, at the Chesterfield shopping center—as well as my friend Yianni who studied in Greece this past year. We met in downtown Kirkwood, an adorable strip of restaurants and shopping. Having not spent much time in college caring about St. Louis, it made me smile to know I have some friends there and really check the city out.

Shelley and I getting frozen yogurt in St. Louis

After a few hours there, I went to Columbia to finish my degree requirements and spend quality time with my roommate Shaina, who is the only one of our roommates living in the apartment this summer. The rest of us sublet our rooms to three freshmen girls, so I was rather surprised to see about six to seven people living in our apartment throughout the time I stayed there. They had people on the couch, people who would come over at 11 p.m. — when I realized college is really the only time a living situation can be that insane. Needless to say, it was definitely a laugh-worthy experience and made for some funny stories. I got to see a few friends, sorority sisters and many of my teachers while at Mizzou too, which was a good way to say goodbye for the time being.

Holding the official document proving the passing of my thesis defense

Kansas City is one of my favorite Midwest cities because of the rich amount of entertainment opportunities it offers, the beautiful Plaza area to walk around and some fun places to go out. Not only did I get to see my friends’ Helen and Steve’s new apartment and hang out at their fratty pool, but I also got to see the Davison family and assorted friends, who have always kindly welcomed me to their home throughout college. We didn’t even need to go to museums or plan activities for the weekend, because there was enough to do just seeing each other and making plans without over-programming ourselves.

Steve, Helen, me, Laura, Adrian, Ryan and Talia at dinner at Gram & Dum on the Plaza in Kansas City 

Instead of driving back through Missouri, it was more ideal to drive through Iowa on 35 North to 80 East to get back home—estimated as an 8.5 hour drive. After the first four hours on the phone, I needed a break and looked at a map to see what was around. Iowa City, where University of Iowa is located, was right off the highway I was driving on so I decided to make a pit stop. Why not check out another college campus? I was mildly impressed—seeing Iowa City as a combination between Illinois’s campus in Champaign and Miami of Ohio’s campus in Oxford.

The back side of University of Iowa's "quad"

After dinner with Yiayia and Papou at my last stop in DeKalb, I made it home safely by 10 p.m. after nine hours on the road. Definitely a fun, bittersweet way to end the summer after graduation!

Onto the ZOU side

Now that I am on track to receive my Master's in August, I will officially be a Mizzou alum. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to walk with my graduating class ('13) in the May graduation ceremony and had an amazing graduation weekend celebrating with the Twainers and my other journalism classmates. I'm lucky enough to have seven fabulous friends who I've gotten to live with and know better and better each day since freshman year.

It will definitely be difficult and sad to leave Mizzou, but I'm thankful for each of my four years there and look forward to returning for many reunions, Homecoming celebrations and games. Here are some photos from graduation weekend - thanks to brenPhotography for taking the group shots!

My amazing roommates and friends: Kathryn, Laura and Shaina

Kate, Shaina, Sherman, Kathryn, Laura, Andrew, Amy and I

All eight of us lived on the 5th floor of Mark Twain our freshmen year, which was on 5th Street. We stayed friends, roommates and journalism nerds all of college! 

And some photos after the Commencement ceremonies:

The family 

Four of my grad school classmates - thanks to these women for coaching me
through my thesis and other graduate classes!

Last but not least, me, Sherman and Andrew recreating
our awkward photo tradition that began our freshmen year. 

Whirlwind of a semester

When I started the journalism graduate program in August, I had no idea what type of time commitment I was expecting. A full-time graduate course load was only nine hours (compared to 12 hours for undergrads), I'd have minimal extracurricular activities and few evening meetings, so I held the expectation that I wouldn't be working as much. As the undergraduate student who took 15-18 hours of classes each semester and balanced that with leadership roles, I fully anticipated grad school with some leisure time and television. Sounds like that would be the case, right?

Wrong. Completely wrong. Something about graduating, working a 9 to 5 job last summer and adjusting to a solid routine that never existed in college contributed to my body's collapse. I couldn't work until 2:30 a.m. each night, write emails in my sleep or wake up 20 minutes before class started and get there on time. I was no longer able to focus at a 10 p.m. meeting for a group project, and even if my schedule wasn't as packed as it has been in previous semesters, I had the mentally busiest semester of my life. The first semester of grad school in the fall was definitely more academically stimulating, but the spring combined the academic, logistical and independence challenges that graduate school brings.

I'm happy walking away with the amount that I learned, especially in the productivity sense: from how to work independently, continuing to improve while working with others and having the discipline to sit down and get things done. Here are some pictures and words about the groups of people who helped me conquer the journey of this past semester. 

The Missourian's Spring 2013 Community Outreach Team with our teacher, Joy Mayer. Joy's participatory journalism class had students work six hours of shifts each week at the newspaper to learn how to build a relationship with a publication's audience. 

Our Changing Media Business Models class started off the semester with a free trip to Seattle, and grew together as everyone fought senioritis and learned about innovation.

For my teaching assistantship with Mojo Ad, I worked on a Public Relations team with these three amazing women to plan a department-wide Career Fair, industry workshops, two receptions and work on overall PR for the agency. They will be some of the most successful people I know and even thought of the above picture as a tactic for our event. By buying some fun items at the dollar store and throwing a sheet up on the wall, they entertained 70+ people with this photobooth for hours!

This spring, I TA'd a second class in addition to my official assistantship: the account management class. I had taken this class in fall of 2011, but the advertising industry changes quickly. These students kept me busy with questions, requests and text messages - but taught me a lot about what it's like to be a professor and mentor to others. I learned to give good, actionable feedback, say no sometimes, and ultimately, more than half the class will move onto Mojo.

Matthew, me, Fr. Michael and John smile at dinner after Pascha. Having a nice group of Orthodox Christian people in Columbia was a great addition to my college experience and staying for Easter made us extra close this past semester.

Obviously, spending some time out at the bars with these guys is really what kept me getting through everything. Some of the best friends smile at Piano Bar. Thanks for everything!