November 17th 2009 #PRStudChat Announcement

We’re nearing our 4^th #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)

We selected Angela as our student moderator because she gave us the initial idea for #PRStudChat during the summer 2009, with her five part blog series, Is PR Right for Me.  I interviewed with Angela for her series and thought it was really interesting how she was asking PR professionals questions about the industry, allowing us to share our own personal experiences in order to help other students and professionals.  Thus, #PRStudChat was born and has been capturing the attention of PR students, professors and pros ever since!

Valerie and I will be helping Angela on the November 17^th at 12:00 p.m. as co-hosts and assisting her to guide the session.  Career Day is designed to inform participants about the many different types of public relations, in different sectors, as well as the differences among organizations from government and healthcare to agency and non-profit.  We’ve invited several experts to join to answer questions about their particular organization and type of work.  Several of our PR experts include:

• Stephanie Smirnov, @ssmirnov, President, Devries PR
• Heather Huhman, @heatherhuhman, media relations manager at a national health care professional association and entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com.
• Alec J Rosen, @alecjr, CEO, AJR Partners
• Mike Rupert, @rupertmike, Government Communicator DC Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs
• Dan Hutson, @dhutson, Director of Communications and Public Relations at Southern California Presbyterian Homes    

During our session, our PR experts will be answering the following types of questions:

• Prior to hiring, do companies search candidates on Google and Facebook?  Where else do they look?
• Should college graduates take unpaid internships?
• How do you leave an internship or job without burning any bridges?
• When starting a community blog, what guidelines would you recommend having in place?
• What predictions do you have for 2010?
• If you had a PR wish list for future social media trends, what would be on your list?

We hope that you will join us for our #PRStudChat Career Day on November 17^th.  This session is designed especially for PR professionals, who can offer a unique experience, and students who are looking to learn more about what to expect in the business world of PR.