Bailey Sergott (1037)
As a public relations major, the variety of different directions to go in seems infinite. One way to learn more about the many different jobs is to interview people who are already in the field. I had the pleasure of interviewing two amazing women in the public relations industry, Morgan Mitchell and Brittney Regalado. They both are recent graduates with a lot of experience and advice for me as I get ready to find a career in the field.
Morgan Mitchell
Morgan is originally from Massachusetts and graduated in 2017 from American University in Washington, D.C. She is currently a dog mom of a three year old rescue dog named Makana who is a mystery mix from Hawaii. How cool is that! Morgan graduated with her bachelors in public relations and strategic communication and minored in marketing. What led Morgan to public relations was her love for writing! As an avid writer myself, I was happy to hear that that’s what led Morgan to public relations because I enjoy hearing how important it is in the field.
Where she started
According to Morgan, American University has a strong culture of internships during your undergraduate, so Morgan obtained four different internships. She had internships at Fidelity Investments, Suited for Change which is a nonprofit in D.C., APCO Worldwide and Powell Tate which is part of Weber Shandwick. I asked Morgan which internship was her favorite one and she told me that she enjoyed her internship at APCO. She interned there for her entire senior year learning about public affairs with great mentors that she still occasionally keeps in touch with.
What she does now
Morgan currently works for the Household and Commercial Products Association, where she is the communication and member services coordinator. In her words, Morgan is her managers’ “go-to person.” She supports projects on both the communications and membership side, drafts press releases and social media copy, and helps with membership outreach and onboarding.
Never a dull moment
When I asked Morgan what the best part about her job is, she replied that she enjoys coming up with projects each week on top of her regular tasks. She also is able to learn about sales and membership while she is able to continue learning about the PR field. As for the biggest challenge she encounters it is learning new subject matters and skills. Household and Commercial Products Association is a cleaning product industry, which was new to Morgan so she is still learning the policy conversations and regulatory landscape while actively working on messaging, “there's never a dull moment!” Morgan says.
Exploring many options
My last question for Morgan was what advice would she give me as I prepare myself for a career in public relations. Morgan’s advice was to stay flexible and explore many options. “The first few years or jobs out of school are about learning what area of PR you want to pursue a career in. PR is so multifaceted, I've already worked with the cruise line industry, business aviation, mining and cleaning products and I'm still a pretty recent grad!” I was happy to hear Morgan say that she’s tried so many different jobs fresh out of college. As I come closer to my graduation year, I am still so unsure what field I want to pursue, it was nice hearing that you can still try new things once you’re out of college.
Brittney Regalado
Brittney Regalado was my second interview and she was so fun to talk to and very helpful. Brittney graduated in 2017 from Sonoma State University in California. She did one internship with Bread and Butter PR, an agency that is focused mostly on food or hospitality. She has been working in agencies for almost four years in Bay Area, California. Brittney has experience doing social media and traditional media across multiple industries. As a student who has been very interested in social media, I was happy to learn this and have the opportunity to interview her.
What she does
Brittney works for Actual Agency as a Senior Account Executive where she manages all media relations for their accounts such as news or proactive pitching. She is also in charge of drafting materials like press releases or contributed articles. I was happy to hear that Brittney does a lot of writing and things such as press releases because this semester I have learned a lot about press releases.
Past experience
Brittney has been working for Actual Agency for four months but before that she worked for 10Fold Communication as an account executive. Brittney worked for 10Fold Communications for a little over a year where a big part of her job was media relations. Media relations included securing coverage or interviews arounds news and creating proactive angles. Brittney also developed press releases, contributed articles and drafted commentary on her clients behalf. She also assisted with social media and analyst relations.
The good and the bad
When I asked Brittney her favorite part of her job, she said that it was that her company is incredibly flexible and doesn’t micromanage her. I thought this was interesting because one thing that we learn in school is how important good management is. I also asked Brittney what the biggest challenge was that she faced during her job and she said that it is managing clients expectations for realistic outcomes. This was a good answer in my opinion because I’ve never thought about this obstacle. I imagine that it is sometimes difficult to help your clients have realistic expectations and that’s something I had never realized before.
Final thoughts
Advice that both women gave me was to try all fields. Of all the things I learned in these interviews is that there are so many different options in public relations. Both women have had a lot of experience at many different jobs and they both graduated in 2017. It was also nice being able to talk with two women who have recently graduated because they were in my shoes not too long ago. All in all, it was great talking to two successful women who hopefully could be me in just a few years!
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