Deirdre Breakenridge

Before the holidays, a young PR/Marketing professional contacted me about helping him with his resume. I reviewed both his cover letter and resume carefully and gave him some initial feedback. He was thrilled with the comments and immediately incorporated my suggestions. One conversation led to another and the next thing I knew he asked me a very interesting question: Would you be my mentor to help me in my job search.

I feel that I can speak from experience (and from the heart) on the topic of building a strong and supportive community.  Building #PRStudChat with @valeriesimon is one of the most rewarding initiatives in my professional career. Interacting in the community gives me the feeling of strength, knowledge, certainty, support, guidance, and friendship, in an [...]

On June 11, I had the best post college experience that I could ask for and attended PRSA’s T3PR Conference in New York City. Having been a PRSSA member that attended a conference this past February, I was completely blown away from what I experienced. Between my moving back home, I unfortunately missed the pre-chat [...]

We’re nearing our 4th #PRStudChat and with each and every Twitter discussion our community grows. Valerie Simon (@valeriesimon) and I have been trying to keep the sessions dynamic, creative and exciting with interesting guests and challenges for participants. This session will not be any different. We announced the discussion as “Career Day” for the #PRStudChat participants. Our other special announcement is the introduction of Angela Hernandez (@angelahernandez), as our guest, student moderator that day. For those of you who do not know Angela, she is President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU)

Our #prstudchat is this week! The session will be a discussion between PR students and industry professionals on August 18, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. Valerie Simon (@valeriesimon) wrote an awesome article discussing the value of students and pros coming together to discuss the PR industry and how the chat session will allow students to determine if “PR is Right for Me.” We also set up a LinkedIn group to get the conversations started. I thought it would be fitting in this blog post to discuss some of the PR questions that so many students want to know, but may not have had the opportunity to ask.

I just finished an interview with Angela Hernandez, the President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). I was very happy to interview with Angela because the topic, “Is PR Right for me?” is important for the growth of the public relations industry. We need to attract future PR leaders who are the best and the brightest. Garnering the experience of industry professionals and having them share perspective is a great way to motivate PR’s next generation of experts.