Mass Comm Week: How to Get Your Foot in the Door at a Tech Company After Graduation

Three professionals from the tech industry spoke at Mass Comm Week at Texas State University on Thursday, October 19th, concerning the importance of networking and staying up-to-date on current technology in order to insure a job after graduation. Adrew Waldrup, a culture evangelist from Gowalla, Jennifer Stattford from HomeAway and Whitney Francis, a community manager at Google, sat on a panel and engaged the audience in an informative and very relevant discussion about of success in the tech industry.

Networking was a key skill that the panelists stressed. Waldrup, a graduate of Texas State, explained that perseverance is key when it comes to landing a job. He told the story of how he "stalked" a person at Gowalla in order to get his job. He obviously wasn't saying to be a creeper and look through the window of your prospective employer, but rather to maintain contact with the people who would be hiring you.

The panelists also said, and to some degree, reassured the audience of young people, that they don't need to know how to program a computer in order to be successful in the tech industry - basic HTML will do. The technology that is a key necessity is knowing how to use a wide range of social media; from Facebook to Twitter, and all the other similar programs out there.

Overall, the presentation gave a great deal of information that may students, especially those who have little to no professional experience, will be able to use after graduation to land them their dream job (or at least a job that will pay the bills).

On a side note; a good resource for getting "linked in" to a professional network is to try out Linkin.com. If you're unaware of this site, it is like Facebook, but for professionals. Check it out and see if you can find people who are in the organizations that you are interested in working for and start a relationship with them - but don't forget to make a real-life relationship as well.

Duff Stewart, GSD&M's Idea City

"The second generation or the third generation is running the industry now. Idea City is about visionary ideas."

Duff Stewart, the President and COO of GSD&M's Idea City, spoke this morning for a crowd of students, faculty, and visitors of Mass Comm Week.

He began his talk with outlining several principles that Idea City strives to adhere to:

• Purpose
• Dynamic Collaboration
• Visionary ideas that make a difference

Stewart said that in the rotunda of the Idea City, several words are inscribed:

Freedom Responsibility, Community, Winning, Integrity, Curiosity and Restlessness.

Of those, Stewart said that Curiosity and Restlessness should be constantly in the mind of advertising professionals and students. Curiosity, he said, should be for the world around you; Restlessness keeps you going. "In advertising, you're only as good as your last ad, so you have to keep moving, keep changing."

Stewart said that advertising for advertising's sake is useless: An ad agency has to be representative of the population and also be a part of the population.

He also discussed a creative philosophy written by Tim McClure, a founder of GSD&M: advertising is an uninvited guest in anyone's lives. Have to entertain and persuade the consumer. If you can do that, then you are invited back into their lives, which is the first step to brand loyalty.

Stewart showed a few advertising spots they had produced for their clients, including:

-BMW
-Southwest Airlines
-AIDS Walk
-US Air Force
-PGA Tour
-AT&T
-YellowPages.com
-AARP
-Kohler
-American Red Cross
-BecomeAnEx.org




A couple of the commercials brought laughter from the audience, including the one seen above. Others, striking silence.

He offered three tips for young advertisers and communicators:

• Be Curious- Read anything, stay involved, and constantly push yourself to learn.
• Work Hard at Listening- Especially in this business. Listening to clients is key. Listen to the world around you, listen to the people. You'll have a much better understanding.
• Don't Be Afraid to Try- He mentioned "Got Game" by John Beck. In the book, Beck says that people who play games are more likely to get up and try again after failing. The new generation is very good at multitasking.
  

Bob Mann asked how Stewart finds the time to read and learn constantly. He responded by saying that it's easy to find time throughout the day to read things online, including newspapers and Digg. At night, he said, he tries to read books before going to bed.

During the Q&A portion, Stewart talked about focusing on the digital change in the world, and how different things are now that everything is online. He also said that Idea City is trying to become more aware of the population; more involved. They are currently working with Huston-Tillotson University to encourage minority students to attend college.

Overall, it was a good presentation by Stewart, but it seemed to be lacking, leaving audience members wanting more. It would have been nice if he spoke further about online advertising, and where that element of the industry is growing.

Additionally, showing television spots that Idea City created was entertaining, but not informative or educational. Perhaps he could have set up the scenario and then shown the ad. For example, maybe he could have talked about what each client was trying to achieve through the advertisement, what Idea City's procedure was in creating it, and then talk about why it was successful (or not).

Finally, I understand that Stewart is a busy guy, but did he really have to rush back to Austin? We're the future, and we're after his job. He should be aware of that.

CNN Internationl Anchor Ralista Vassileva

At 2 p.m. today, the second day of Mass Comm Week 2007 at Texas State University, CNN International Anchor Ralista Vassileva will speak to mass comm students in room 320 of Old Main.

Vassileva, born and educated in Bulgaria, has been with CNN International since 1992, based at the CNN International headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. She has had the distinct journalistic honor of interviewing some heavy political powers during her time at CNN including former US Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, as well as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. She's also interviewed famous entrepreneur Richard Branson as well as Austinite Lance Armstrong.

Vassileva was on air for CNN during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City as well as Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

An impressive record and an honor for Texas State's mass communication department, no doubt!

Be on the look out for live blogging of this Mass Comm Week event at 2 p.m. today.

Online Journalism: What's in Store for Us

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon from the Austitin American Statesman and Angela Grant from the San Antonio Express News gave a presentation today over online journalism and new media as part of Texas State’s Mass Comm. Week. The two did a fantastic job of providing a better understanding of what new media really is, how it works with traditional media in a newsroom, and clearing up any misunderstandings of what their jobs entail.

Jorge (BTW, I’m using first names because Sanhueza-Lyon is long and this is a blog so I can) began by explaining that he really didn’t have any newspaper experience when he started working at the Statesman and he felt that it was a good thing that he didn’t because he wasn’t weighed down by the straight-laced, unchanging ideals of traditional print journalism. I’m really glad that he made this point in the very beginning of this presentation. I think that a lot of us in the print journalism realm feel that we have to have some kind of paper experience even if we’re interested in new media. Personally, now that I’ve taken a few of Cindy’s classes I’m really only interested in online journalism. I don’t want to do any kind of print anymore, and I think it’s really unfortunate that we don’t have a multimedia sequence at Texas State yet.

Jorge showcased his ability to be very creative with online journalism by showing his video story “Air Guitar 101.” This interesting short video piece about the air guitar contest held every year in Austin showed that sometimes video suits an event better than a slide show. Jorge explained that there is much more opportunity to be creative with online journalism than with broadcast. With this medium you can let the story tell itself where as with broadcast an anchor might have a voice over telling the audience how things happened. “Editing is where my reporting comes in,” Jorge said. Angela expanded on this point later by explaining that the Internet might not be such a good medium for hard facts but that it’s good to portray the “human side” of an issue and to get an emotional reaction to a story.

Angela’s long-term piece, Horse Rescue, is about a nonprofit organization called Habitat for Horses that rescues abused and neglected horses. With her use of video she was able to create a story that received a very emotional reaction.

Some stories, however, aren’t as suited to video. Jorge and Angela stressed that there is much more to the internet than just being able to post video. “The beauty of the Internet is you’re allowed to pick the medium that’s best suited for the story. I love the Internet you can really do what ever you want,” Angela said.

I think one thing that a lot of us are a little confused about is how the new media people work with traditional newspaper writers. Jorge tried to make it clear that new media reporters have a separate story that can accompany a print piece. He used video story about a 14-year-old golfer as an example saying that his own personality came through in his video story. He says it’s like two different angles to the same story and that you’re not necessarily competing with the print journalist, nor is it that the new media reporter doing a favor for the writer by expanding on his story. The two are actually working separately but at the same time together on one story.

New media might sometimes have an advantage over a print writer because they can pitch a story in a different way. “Newspaper is not the driving force behind new media,” Jorge said. Angela agreed saying that because of these new media skills they are able to kind of do what ever they want. She said she was especially able to do this during her internship at the Express News because no one really knew what they were supposed to be doing.

So what do they do? Angela gave a brief description of her job routine. She said that 70-75% of her job is a deadline story. Some new media stories have deadlines just like print stories do. Angela said that the remaining 25% of her time is spent on long term projects or things that really don’t have deadlines. She said that it is good to have a long term story to turn to when there isn’t really anything else to do. “It’s a good way to avoid stupid assignments,” Angela said. Jorge agreed that there are often stupid assignments because a lot of people don’t really know what you do.

So, how will things with progress as new media becomes more and more embedded with in traditional journalism? Angela believes that reporters might begin to do their own videos for their own beats. But for more involved stories they will still rely on more specialized new media people. She believes that they will still ask the multimedia team for help with particularly tedious video editing. Jorge expanded by saying that it is important not to limit yourself to something like video and to try to have a range of skills. His advice is to try to be innovative and a little nerdy about new technology.

Mass Comm Week begins today

For Dara Quackenbush, Mass Comm Week is going so according to plan that she’s actually a tad nervous.

“It’s almost scary,” said Quackenbush, chair of Mass Comm Week. “I’m waiting for the shoe to drop.”

Mass Comm Week begins today with CNN International anchor Ralista Vassileva as its headline speaker on Wednesday. Vassileva has covered the Bosnian War, Middle East conflicts and a slew of international stories.

“She was on the air during CNN’s coverage of the conflicts in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Russia’s transition to democracy, Northern Ireland’s peace agreement, the fall of Indonesia's President Suharto and East Timor’s struggle for independence,” according to the CNN Web site.

Vassileva was invited to Texas State after one of the professors saw her on TV, went on the CNN Web site and e-mailed her, Quackenbush said.

Quackenbush said she’s looking forward to hearing Vassileva.

“I hope there will be a seat for me,” she said. “I want to sit in on as many (events) as possible.”

The event will also feature more than 50 experts in the mass communication field and distinguished Texas State alumni. The topics include online journalism, putting “bling” in your resume, covering war, interactive advertising and event planning. The speakers attend the event voluntarily, Quackenbush said, but some have travel expenses.

Quackenbush said San Marcos’ location makes it an ideal place to have an event like Mass Comm Week, since the group can invite people from Austin and San Antonio.

“I wish students would take more advantage of Austin and San Antonio,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity in both places.”

She compared San Marcos to other college towns, like Lubbock and College Station, which don’t have as much nearby opportunity for a diverse amount of speakers.

Quackenbush said she hopes Mass Comm Week opens doors for more students.

“I just want them to spark their interest and think of possibilities they want to do in their careers,” Quackenbush said.

This is Quackenbush’s first year as chair of the Mass Comm Week committee, which was comprisesd of about six other professors and instructors. The group began full-fledged planning in September, she said, with some of the planning beginning in the spring semester. Other faculty and staff helped as well, she said, and even her public relations students got in on some of the projects.