Our thanks to Mike Lake, chairman of Burson-Marsteller's Southwest division, for bringing the benefit of his more than 25 years of public and private sector PR experience to the students in our Advanced Communication Skills class last Friday. Mike managed to cover a wide range of information, from an excellent overview of local and global PR operations today, to concrete tips for graduating seniors looking for jobs and/or internships in the field. He even brought handouts of Burson's writing test given to job applicants. All much appreciated.
Students are asked to respond to Mike's lecture with comments and questions posted here. I've asked Mike to read your blog comments, so heed his advice and polish your basic writing skills. (Good advice, Mike!)
Note to students: Ordinarily I would have advised you to refer him as Mr. Lake, but in class he asked students to call him Mike, so feel free to address him as Mike when you're blogging.
4 comments:
Mike,
I appreciated the diagram on the difference between working for an agency and a corporation. Although it has been discussed in several of my CCPA classes, your visual aid made it click. I also found your many tips on important skills to be very informative, especially the part on recognition of duties. It's something I've had experience with from new co-workers who felt they deserved the same responsibilities as veteran workers, yet I never thought of it as an important skill until your presentation. Thanks for visiting our class. I have a small favor to ask of you. If you have time, please visit my blog at kimhollanddance.blogspot.com and make comments. I would greatly appreciate the input.
Thanks again,
Kim Holland
This was my second opportunity to hear Mike Lake speak to one of my classes. The SMU CCPA program has been so helpful in introducing us to people who are out in the field; people we can learn from, admire and ask for advice from. It was awesome to hear his input on our class and what we have been doing with blogs. I think by inviting PR practitioners to visit our blogs and read our material we are being forced to post something we're proud of. Mike really outlined his company for us and helped us get a feel for the kinds of things we will be doing if we join an agency. He encouraged us to get internships and put ourselves out there in order to really figure out where we belong. I think he gave an awesome presentation and was so gracious to offer his availability both for questions and/or informational interviews.
I think this blog is great! Keep up the good work ...
Future PR professionals: I appreciate your kind words following my presentation to your class. I'm glad you found it interesting and insightful. For those of you beginning your efforts to find a job, think of the quote by Abraham Lincoln, "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing."
If you are interested in an internship at Burson-Marsteller this summer, remember our deadline for submitting you application/materials is March 15th. We will be hiring two paid interns for the summer. Matt Averitt is our intern coordinator. His email address is matt_averitt@dal.bm.com. Good luck, Mike
Post a Comment