Marina Keegan: The opposite of loneliness

The piece below was written by Marina Keegan '12 for a special edition of the News distributed at the class of 2012's commencement exercises last week. Keegan died in a car accident on Saturday. She was 22. 

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.

It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.

Yale is full of tiny circles we pull around ourselves. A cappella groups, sports teams, houses, societies, clubs. These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partner-less, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group-texts.

This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse – I’m scared of losing this web we’re in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling I feel right now.

But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re part of us and they are set for repetition as we grow up and move to New York and away from New York and wish we did or didn’t live in New York. I plan on having parties when I’m 30. I plan on having fun when I’m old. Any notion of THE BEST years comes from clichéd “should haves...” “if I’d...” “wish I’d...”

Of course, there are things we wished we did: our readings, that boy across the hall. We’re our own hardest critics and it’s easy to let ourselves down. Sleeping too late. Procrastinating. Cutting corners. More than once I’ve looked back on my High School self and thought: how did I do that? How did I work so hard? Our private insecurities follow us and will always follow us.

But the thing is, we’re all like that. Nobody wakes up when they want to. Nobody did all of their reading (except maybe the crazy people who win the prizes…) We have these impossibly high standards and we’ll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves. But I feel like that’s okay.

We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.

When we came to Yale, there was this sense of possibility. This immense and indefinable potential energy – and it’s easy to feel like that’s slipped away. We never had to choose and suddenly we’ve had to. Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it; already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck.

For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it. If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

In the heart of a winter Friday night my freshman year, I was dazed and confused when I got a call from my friends to meet them at EST EST EST. Dazedly and confusedly, I began trudging to SSS, probably the point on campus farthest away. Remarkably, it wasn’t until I arrived at the door that I questioned how and why exactly my friends were partying in Yale’s administrative building. Of course, they weren’t. But it was cold and my ID somehow worked so I went inside SSS to pull out my phone. It was quiet, the old wood creaking and the snow barely visible outside the stained glass. And I sat down. And I looked up. At this giant room I was in. At this place where thousands of people had sat before me. And alone, at night, in the middle of a New Haven storm, I felt so remarkably, unbelievably safe.

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I’d say that’s how I feel at Yale. How I feel right now. Here. With all of you. In love, impressed, humbled, scared. And we don’t have to lose that.

We’re in this together, 2012. Let’s make something happen to this world.

Marina Keegan's words are so powerful. That's exactly what I felt on the eve of graduating from college and how I sometimes feel now: I have the confused certitude that everything is possible but at the same time, I think my dreams are beyond my reach. I know this piece will inspire someone somewhere and give one young girl/boy the courage to go for her/his dreams. I wish I knew her, she was so smart. 

May she rest in peace

How to make the best out of your internship

By Jade Sheldon

• Treat it like a job interview. If people are spending time training you, they see potential and its easier to hire you after your internship than to take on someone new and hire them. There is definitely a possibility of attaining a permanent position at their company.

• Dress for success: I have been to many advertising and public relations firms where the dress code is casual. You should always have a nice pair of dress pants and a professional top regardless. The reason being: you avoid slipping out of the working mindset and also, you don’t know who you will meet. Life is a networking party and you always have to be prepared.

• Always come to work five minutes early. It’s so much better to be early than on time.  You can take those five minutes to settle in instead of rushing. This will set a relaxing tone for the day and tasks will be easier to handle if you are calm.

• Get your work done early so that you can delve into other projects. Most of the time, interns do the mundane tasks that the staff don’t have time for.  If you get those tasks done early and efficiently, chances are they will get you involved in more exciting tasks that the employees normally handle.

•  Be irreplaceable - Don’t just do what you are told. Add value to their company. Think of ways they can improve and generate greater profits. Be innovative and creative find solutions to problems they never knew existed in the first place.

•  Don’t be afraid of making mistakes - you’re an intern, you aren’t expected to know how to do everything perfectly, its ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

• Positivity produces productivity -Have fun! Treat your boss like a mentor and pick his or her brain. The knowledge you can learn from these professionals, is incredibly valuable so use your time wisely! 

  

Jade Sheldon currently studies journalism with an emphasis in PR and English writing at University of Nevada Reno. She is the president of the Journalism Student Advisory council. She owns the blog "PR in the Biggest Little City" and tweets at @JadeGaby

Comment tirer le meilleur d'un stage

Par Elodie Boileau

Si on veut faire quelque chose de très formateur avec plein de travail qui nous attend en tant que stagiaire, 

• Ne pas négliger les petites structures.
• Ne jamais hésiter à communiquer avec les gens.
• Apprendre des choses et partager ce que l'on sait déjà.
• Et un truc très bête... SOU-RI-RE ! Les gens qui bossent en faisant la tête, c'est tout sauf productif.

Elodie Boileau est stagiaire / assistante sur le festival de photograhie Images Singulières à Sète, dans le Sud de la France. Elle y travaille autant sur la communication interne et la communication externe que sur les relations presse. Retrouvez-la sur Twitter à @ShapeNote

The Pinterest effect

Via Les Archivistes (@lesarchivistes)

How to make the best out of your internship

By Jeannyfar L. Gelpcke

• Listen & observe: you can learn soooooo much from how organisations/ people/ companies/ industries work by just looking what they are doing, hear what they say to each other and then adapt that into your working repertoire.

• Make the best out of it: not all internships are going to be fun or challenging or interesting or long enough or even relevant BUT there is ALWAYS something you can take out of it ... It's to you to find out.

• Be honest: make sure you know your strengths and weaknesses and if you don't know something, admit it! Do not try to front and then deliver bad results. Most people are understanding and if they know what your weaknesses are they can even help you to target those points and improve your skills.

• And last but most importantly, make contacts!!! It's so important to build relationships with people in the industry, not just because they will be able to recommend you to other employers but also because they are your direct link to the industry, keep you up to date about what is important and you never know when you need a favour from a fellow colleague ...

 Jeannyfar L. Gelpcke has a BA Media & Communication with a focal point on PR. She Got extensive PR internships experience in UK, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. She is now completing her MSc degree in Marketing Communication. Follow her at @Jeannyfar

How to get a job in a PR firm

It’s that time again, when an army of newly minted graduates hits the streets (or, more literally, their laptops) to land the all-important first job. It may be the tightest employment market in years, but the challenge of finding work is probably excellent preparation for what’s to come! If you’re determined to break into PR, here’s my best advice. 

Use every connection you have. Neighbor’s son-in-law’s girlfriend work at a PR agency? Ask for an introduction. Share a hometown, hobby, or favorite sports with an employer? Let her know. Be polite, but be persistent, and don’t be shy. This is not a career for the faint of heart.

Ask for advice, not a job. Of course your goal is to be hired, but you may get further if you ask a senior executive for ten minutes of her time to solicit her best advice about breaking in. It’s a bit harder to turn that down, and your strategy should be to get on the radar.

Perfect your writing. In a competitive job market, a grammar error, tortured phrase, or typo will eliminate you, plain and simple. Learn to write for brevity, rather than for term-paper word counts. Be punchy. Be bold. But be brief.

Don’t spam. It’s amazing how many emails I get with another agency’s name in the body, or with telltale font changes or other signs of an e-blast. A mass email tells an employer that you’re not serious. And never, ever, start a note with “To Whom It May Concern.” Prospecting for a job is a lot like pitching media; the personal approach is time-consuming, but it’s very effective.

Be social. As in following prospects on Twitter, engaging them on Facebook, and participating in industry or company LinkedIn groups. Consider Facebook ads, an introductory video of yourself, a career-themed Pinterest board. Show that you understand the medium and how to use it.

Get real. Experience, that is. Most agencies require at least one internship. Interviewing PR pros about their daily routines, studying the media and developing knowledge in a niche area or vertical category is also helpful. When I co-taught a graduate-level PR course, I was impressed by what the students knew that I didn’t. Cool stuff, like persuasion theory. But, very few had enough practical knowledge to write a solid client recommendation memo. The more practical experience you have, the better.

Have opinions. The best way to persuade an employer that you can help a client stand out is to do it for yourself. In an interview or short cover letter, offer some independent thinking. It’s more impressive if, instead of saying how much you’d die to work on their newest client, you have thoughts or ideas about the client’s business, the category, or a competitor. If an employer asks what you think of her agency’s website, blog, philosophy, or culture, be prepared with a thoughtful answer, not empty flattery. If she doesn’t ask, volunteer it. PR people are recommenders. Be one.

Package yourself. Make your strengths relevant. Be a storyteller, but prepare your narrative in advance. One of my worst interviews occurred when a recruiter asked me to tell her about myself. I babbled a life chronology rather than controlling the interview and focusing on relevant strengths. The open-ended questions can be the hardest, so have your “key messages” ready.

Show, don’t tell. In telling your story, illustrate your strengths with anecdotes and examples. Don’t just brag about your best qualities.

Be a media junkie. Nothing warms a PR executive’s heart like a true student of the media. Drop names, visualize stories, show that you’ve not only done your homework, but that you consume a broad diet of traditional and social media on your personal time and take an active interest in many PR industry and business topics and developments. You are what you read.

Be curious. Always ask questions. Even if you’re speaking with six executives in a row and have heard the corporate spiel from each of them, ask them something. Even if you’ve heard it before. Your job is to show engagement.

Have other suggestions that have worked? Please share!

This post was originally published on  Crenshaw Communication's website

Dump your Ad Agency !

Breaking up doesn't always have to be painful, right? If you're looking for a creative yet effective way to sack your ad agency, Break Up With Your Ad Agency is for you.

The website aims to help jaded brand managers, marketing directors, and business owners to end their existing relationships with underperforming advertising agencies. For further informations on the reasons behind this initiative read the write-up Prnewswire wrote about it.

How to make the best out of your internship

 By Richard Bailey (@behindthespin)

Learning from your employer is good; teaching them something is better still.

Richard Bailey is the editor of  the website "Behind The Spin" a magazine for public relations students and young practitioners.

How to make the best out of your internship (Intro)

Today, I start a serie of posts dedicated to advices for interns. When you commit for an internship, you want to do your best, impress your bosses and co-workers and get a valuable experience that will be useful when you enter the workforce.

You may know how to reach your goals, however it's always good to learn from other people's experience, that's why these tips will be given by professionals and (former) interns: they know what they talk about.

I hope you find enough in those posts to turn your internship into an unforgettable journey. 

Let us know if they help you!

P.S: Posts are going to be in french and english (hey, I'm bilingual!)