Goal setting: founding and following my PR path

Looking back on four years of college, I now understand the power of setting goals. Yes, goal setting is empowering. When I was young, I kept things pretty simple in the goal-setting category. After being accepted to the University Honors program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, I immediately set my sights up graduating with a GPA of 3.5 or above. This number is the cutoff criteria for graduation from the program, so it seemed like a great baseline.

I wrote this goal down and began my mission. Each and every academic step I took and decision I made reflected this goal. Some classes I knew my highest potential was a B, others I knew I was slacking if I didn’t get an A; but each end-of-semester grade report exposed my measuring stick and told me how I was doing.

My next big goal became clearer as I progressed on the path of becoming a young PR professional and demanded more out of myself. After being cemented at three different PR internships, I set my sights on the best. My goal was to land a PR internship at a world-leading, prestigious and global public relations agency. Heck, look back at one of my first posts at on the PR path.

Landing an internship at Burson-Marsteller, a top ten PR agency worldwide, was my ultimate goal. I got to the final stages of the long interview process in 2009, only to be rejected due budget shortfalls. I could have pouted or been mad, but I used the rejection as a motivator to continue working toward my goal.

Landing an internship with Burson became my mission, my goal and my passion. I set up Google alerts to follow the company every day, and constantly brainstormed ideas for how my application might stand out from the 800 other young PR professionals who applied.

A year later in 2010, I applied and was accepted into the program. I start June 7 in Chicago’s public affairs practice. What an amazing feeling to follow a goal, dedicate yourself to making it happen and realizing that goal. Fulfilling goals is a feeling unlike any other and just when you think a goal might be out of your reach, it may just be closer than ever. Set goals, work hard and never doubt your determination. By the way, I did graduate with above a 3.5 GPA, checking off another goal on my professional pursuits.

What goal-setting success stories have you had on your path to becoming a young PR professional? Please share!

Fearless interview preparation

After applying for the summer internship program at Burson-Marsteller, the world's sixth largest public relations agency, I never expected to make it an interview from nearly 800 applications nationwide.

Sure enough, this was the position I found myself in. Looking at my dream internship straight in the face, I spent hours researching the ins and outs of Burson. I read every single employee testimonial on the 'Burson Person' page on their Web site and I feel like I read every single page on the Burson Web site.

I accessed my internal memory for questions that I was asked during previous interviews. I prepared responses for every one of them. I practiced them out loud to MYSELF. Yes, this felt weird at the time, but it helps to practice articulating each answer. It also helped to make mental notes of when I said something especially dumb or especially engaging. I had the responses typed out neatly with talking points for each area.

My preparation paid off and after the first interview I advanced to the final round of interviews. From the 120 applications submitted to the Chicago office, 10 were selected for final interviews. After the first interview the field was narrowed even further which I was still a part of.

Unfortunately, a phone call informed me that there was no funding for the public affairs practice for which I was applying. No dream internship, not now at least. There was nothing I did wrong, just the economy and bad luck.

While I didn't get the internship, my intense preparation will make the next job/internship interview that much easier. I also got practice interviewing for a worldwide PR agency and learning how to act on a phone interview.

My advice would be to fearlessly prepare for every interview like it's the only one you get; because even if you don't get the job, you'll be that much more prepared the next time around.