Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Guest Speaker - Getting yourself out there!

At yesterday's PRSSA meeting, Marlene Brito of The Kimmel Center came to speak to us. She is the Kimmel Center's Community Outreach Manager and had a lot of valuable information to talk about. Being from New York City and attending NYU, Marlene had a lot of great opportunities growing up. She worked / interned with financial firms, Donna Karan, NASA, Puma and many other places!

While giving her insights on jobs and internships, Marlene talked about the issue of paid versus unpaid internships. She said that we should look for the paid internship, especially during the semester. If there is a great internship out there, but unpaid, take it during the summer. That way you can intern during the day and have a part-time job at night. This way you can have the time to have two jobs instead of trying to juggle classes on top of everything else.

At your internship, take on big projects. Interning in the fashion industry (Donna Karan) was unpaid for Marlene, but she knew she had to bite the bullet and work hard. She was given the opportunity to work on a big project over the summer. She excelled and showed her boss that she could do great work. At the end of the summer, she was offered a job because of how well she did on that project.

The main way to find an internship? Be proactive. Marlene called up Donna Karan and said that she was interested in the fashion industry and asked if there were any internship opportunities. There weren't at that moment, but a few months later she got a call about an opening, because she put herself out there. Send in your resumes right away. Many times companies don't like having to go out and find interns, so they will go back to their resume file and find an intern from there. Send your resume in early. There isn't any harm in that.

Good luck on finding that dream internship, and be proactive!!!

GO PHILLIES!

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