What do you want to do?

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I’m finding as I advance through senior year, especially given the surge of family time on Thanksgiving, more and more people keep asking “What do you want to do when you graduate?” It’s a simple enough question, but people always seem surprised by my answer.

So. What do I want to do when I graduate? I want to take a position that will enable me to gain a lot of great experience and PR skills right off the bat, so that hopefully I can be a chief communications officer in the future. It isn’t that I necessarily want to stay focused in PR; I’ve had a plethora of excellent experiences throughout various aspects of corporate communication, and I want to someday be able to oversee them all. I LOVE internal communication, and I hope to eventually have an influence in that sphere. However, I believe the route to becoming senior enough to make a real impact is through building a strong PR background. I feel that if you have the compassion, the instinct and the ability to identify the needs of employees, you can come back to internal at any time, but the external facing PR skills need to be honed while you are early in your career and can translate to a betterment of internal skills. Mostly, I believe that to be successful, I have to keep my eye on the prize and get as much experience as possible to help me when I finally get there… and I don’t think going back to school for a part time MBA would hurt either.

To be clear, I do not believe it is fair to look at a job as a stepping stone or a means to go elsewhere. I’ve mentioned before that I have never disliked a job. I know that wherever I end up, I will be passionate about my job. I know that I will do it to the best of my ability, and I know that I will work tirelessly to make sure the organization I am working for can complete its goals. That is simply who I am as a person. By approaching each career move as a new and exciting chance to learn something new and become a better communicator, I know that every position I hold along the way will be valuable to me, and I know that view will help me to be a valuable employee to a particular organization.

It scares me a bit to talk to peers who have no idea where they want to be in 15 years. Hell, some don’t even know where they want to be in 6 months. The response to “What do you want to do when you graduate?” ranges from “work in advertising” to “get a job” to “make money” to “be a housewife”. It’s strange to think that most people haven’t thought bigger picture about where they want to be positioned within an organization. Most don’t mention management ambitions, but if you push, nobody is striving to be low man on the totem pole either. I think it will be quite interesting to come to Alumni weekend at BU in 10 years and see where everyone stands with their ambitions (or lack there of). I’m sure that most of us will be successful in some way, shape or form. And success is really just measured by your personal satisfaction anyway. I guess I’m most excited to see at what level most people are satisfied with their careers and to hear about the experiences that got them there.

Welcome!

So. It’s half way through September of senior year. I’m moved in, I’m settled into the swing of things, and I’m freaking out about the future. This is it. My final chance to enjoy college and live a relatively worry-free life. In about a year, loan bills will start rolling in, and with each payment I make I am determined that I will feel the experiences of the last four years were worth the price tag.

As a PR major, I love to plan. As a PR major, it is also difficult to plan because many jobs won’t consider you until you are a month or two away from graduation. So now, I wait. I plan. I enjoy life. And I hope that all the jobs, internships, and extracurricular activities will be worth it.

Who am I am why am I writing this? Well… at the very basic level, I am a college student who tends to procrastinate from school work... Not because I don’t think it is important, but mostly because I have so many other things going on in my life. I always manage to get it all done on deadline with good marks, so it isn’t a huge concern. I also love to write. I am hoping I can use this blog to help me have productive procrastination… And I know I have a blog assignment coming up later in the semester… so really I’m not even procrastinating!

Well… I could spend several hundred words describing who I am, my life experiences, and what I hope to do in the future. OR I could just show you the single document that is going to define me to every HR person I’ll interact with. I’ll begin my introducing myself the way that I will be introduced going forward. I want to start my blog the way I will begin my career, with my resume. As time goes on, I’ll share my experiences, a bit about my personal life, and my thoughts on the PR world, but as in the work place, I want to feel things out to decide what the right balance is. So, for now, you can view my resume here. And visit my page on LinkedIn.