Thursday, November 14, 2013

Powerhouse Networking


On Wednesday November 13, 2013 Ann Knabe a professor at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater gave students an amazing opportunity to meet Public Relation professionals.

To kick off the event we had a keynote speaker Jeff Carrigan from Big Shoes Network. In his keynote, Carrigan wanted us answer two of the most common questions that he gets, which are,  “oh no, I’m graduating now what?” and “how do I stand out in an interview?”

This event was held at the Hudson Business Lounge in the Old 3rd Ward in Milwaukee, here the students where given a chance to do two “formal interviews” and one informational interview. After each mock interview we had to for some feedback about our interviewing skills, as well as recommendations for us post graduation.

For my ‘mock’ interviews I first met with Steve Staedler who gave me some great advise on how to improve my writing. My second interview was with Melissa Bohl form GE Healthcare. Bohl gave me great feed back on my interviewing skills and gave me a tip on where to apply for an internship (which I greatly appreciated). Lastly I had my information interview with Brittany Dorfner who is the Account Executive at Trefoil Group. Dorfnor was full on energy and opened my eyes to a job possibility of Brand Building, which would utilize my minor.   

Looking back at that night I really feel as though I connected on a personal and professional level with each of the three people that I had talked to. All of them were so caring and I really feel as though they were there because they really wanted to help us, not just because Professor Knabe had asking them to.  After finishing the interviews I felt very confident with my interviewing skills and look forward to interviewing for a ‘real’ job or internship.

I really appreciate Ann’s hard work putting and I would love to be able to do this again.  


** To see Jeff Carrign's answers check out my website

5 comments:

  1. I really like that you were able to connect with each of the professionals. I was very nervous about feeling like a dummy while interviewing, but I agree that the professionals made us feel like they care and really want to help us. I like that it helped all of us improve our interview skills to make us successful in the future.

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  2. I agree with feeling a strong connection, personally and professionally, with my three professionals. Each of my professionals were extremely nice, willing to give me solid advice, and eager to help me achieve future goals! I also cannot wait to do something like this again! It was great.

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  3. I hope everyone else had the personal connection that we all seemed to experience! The professionals were warm, but very knowledgeable about what they do. It's great to see that confidence and willingness to help students looking for jobs. Here's to being in their shoes one day!

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  4. I also like that you mention the personal connection you had with the professionals. I believe it's because, like you said, they do truly want to help us out. I hope I have the same opportunity to help college students when I'm an alum!

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  5. I loved how detailed you were when going through the whole night at the event. Your links were great and I enjoyed reading about your experience. I also had a great time and felt I met a lot of great connections as well! Awesome job!

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