Public Relations Student Society of America at Texas State University

Written by: Marissa Cross

At PRSSA’s first meeting of the semester, there was an expert panel that spoke about the do’s and don’ts of internships and resumes. The panelists involved were Senior Lecturer and Internship Development Coordinator Chuck Kaufman, Career Services' liaison to the College of Fine Arts, Allison Birk and Lauren Tuttle, social media specialist and internship coordinator at I&O Communications.

Professor Kaufman began the meeting speaking about one way to earn real-life experience and it is only open to PRSSA Members: Bateman Case Study Competition. The Bateman Case Study Competition takes place each year in the spring semester, but the team is assembled and begins work in November. This year’s Bateman theme is child obesity. Each team has five members, and if selected, will have the opportunity to present their case study in New York at the PRSSA headquarters.

Professor Kaufman also shared about the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s website that lists all of the available internships in the area. Kaufman oversees and coordinates the website for all of the SJMC students and it is an excellent resource for finding internships across the state. For more information, contact Chuck Kaufman at ck17@txstate.edu or visit www.masscomm.txstate.edu/resources/internship.html

Career adviser Allison Birk talked about benefits of having Career Services available to the Texas State University community. Career Services has an elite staff that reviews, critiques and build resumes; prepares you for and performs mock interviews; provides career counseling and hosts job fairs on campus. An additional place to locate internships is on the Jobs4Cats website – which is another database for Texas State students to utilize and find a company to intern for. Visit www.careerservices.txstate.edu for any further information on the websites. Allison can be reached at ab69@txstate.edu.

Lauren Tuttle offered insight on what she looks for when hiring an intern, what interns should and should not do and how to stand out. Tuttle shared her pet peeves about the biggest mistakes an intern could make, such as not being prepared. When going into an interview, even if you have already sent your resume, always be prepared and bring an additional copy. She also suggests always having a notepad and being prepared to write down instructions at all times.

She spoke about the qualities companies look for in students applying for internships. A few of those qualities are involvement, being likeable, social and willing to learn. Tuttle expressed that you are an intern and are not expected to know everything, but having a positive attitude and allowing your bosses to teach you will go a long way.

Tuttle also spoke about the different assignments interns may get on the job. She explained that a lot of her interns' assignments depend on what her current assignments are and also on who the client is at the time. One of the assignments Tuttle’s current intern is working on is online monitoring of the client. Online monitoring is when you track coverage and discussion about a client on different media.

In addition to having assignments given to you, she conveyed how important it is to be vocal about what projects you wish to work on.

“Speak up if you want to work on a specific project,” Tuttle said. “We want our interns to get something out of the internship.”  

Lauren can be reached at lauren@iando.com.

Kaufman, Birk and Tuttle concluded by discussing how to make your resume stand out from the others applying for the same position. The suggested that you list your skills on the top of your resume, so the employer can tell if you are a proper fit right away. Also, they said to it is unique to write how you have improved from previous experience with other employers. Tuttle emphasized to give detailed information if you add social media on your resume, because it is such a large space now. Do you have a Facebook but only 10 friends? Can you professionally run a client’s Twitter or are you still struggling with what hashtags are for?

Employers get hundreds of resumes per position, so they advised to limit your resume to one page and to not exceed. They don’t have enough time to read a five-page resume. Also, when emailing your resume to an employer, make sure to attach the file under an easy-to-find name. They suggested saving the file as LastNameResume.