>> Joan Kurylak: So my name is Joan Kurylak, and
I graduated from Penn State last year in May.
And right now I work at Lutron Electronics.
And what I do there I'm a
associate marketing representative.
If you're not familiar with Lutron --
a lot of people hear the name and they
don't -- they haven't heard of it.
We actually invented the dimmer, so, you
know, in your dining room or wherever
where you have the rotary dimmer or whatever.
That was actually our company's first
invention back in the late 1950s, early 1960s.
And so now what I do at Lutron is I work on our
residential systems side; do all the marketing
for how that product is marketed
and sold through our distributors,
and how we get trained professions to install.
I do all the marketing for them.
And then also I help work with those installers
and a third-party company to give them tools
that they can use to market
the products to end consumers.
So I work with our product team and my
boss, who is our product marketing manager,
and sort of throughout the year we set
our strategy on what we're going to do.
And then a lot of my job is actually
taking those things and making them happen.
So we need a new piece that will explain
how this product fits into this industry.
So I'll work directly with the design
team to get something accomplished,
work between the design team and the strategy
team more so to figure out is this on the spot?
So most of the time I'm in the office working
with a team between designers and people more
on the business side to get these
materials and programs created.
And occasionally too I do
actually get out in the field.
I think what I like most is that they just
give you a lot of responsibility up front,
which allows you to just get your feet wet
right away and try things, and learn as you go,
because I think for me, at least, I learn
best by doing, not just being spoon-fed.
And I've -- so what I really like
is that they let me go out there,
learn about what I'm marketing, learn about
the customers, and then actually have a voice
to give opinions and speak about it
and actually carry it out to the end.
I think the hardest part is -- and this is
an advantage and a disadvantage kind of,
our company is based -- we do
a lot of consensus management.
So if we want to launch a new
piece I think the hardest thing is
that before we do something we get a lot --
actually go ahead and make a move on something.
We get input from lots of
different people and it's --
right, there's no official person that
necessarily needs to approve something.
But if enough people have seen it and think
it's good, then you can go ahead with it.
But the hard -- I think the biggest struggle
then is you get a lot of differing opinions.
I think in the end the end result comes out
better because you get all of the feedback.
But sometimes that can be a struggle just
getting enough people involved in the decision
and not being sure, "Should we move ahead?"
But I also think that it's good
because you start to get a perspective.
That's how you've made decisions
in your own life too so.
I think -- and especially at Penn State too
it's such a big school, I think getting involved
in clubs is a really important thing.
Within the Sapphire Program I was talking
about, I was in the Sapphire Leadership Council,
and I ran for a position within that.
I was our vice president of community
involvement, so planned group events,
and also helped run a clothing and food drive.
And I felt -- especially for the
time I was very active in the club
for that year I felt a really good
connection to the people and the program,
and even in the business school for
the events that we were doing together.
And I think that making those
types of relationship
where you're not only doing something that
makes your community, your school better
but where you're getting to know people
better and learning how to work with people
on real projects, I think that is a
great way to prepare for the real world.
And looking back now there's a couple
classes specifically too that stuck out.
It was my advertising class, and one of
our business marketing strategy classes.
Both of them required us to actually do
group projects, or projects on our own
where basically had to create
-- there was a business case
and we had to create a plan from it.
And I think for me that's what I ended
up doing a lot of in my real job now.
And so having that experience of
working with a team to tackle something,
or actually even create pieces based
on a decision that we made as a group,
I think that helped a lot going into my career.
I went to Penn State.
I was at our main campus.
And I was also in our Sapphire
Leadership Program
within the business school,
which was a great experience.
I majored in marketing within Smeal,
and then I also had a double
major in international studies.
I ended up getting an internship with Lutron.
So I interned with them twice, once on
one side of our business in marketing,
I did another internship with
them in competitive analysis.
And then I figured I should
try something different.
I love Lutron, but I've always been
really interested in advertising,
so sort of went out on my own then and
looked into ad agencies I'd like to try,
applied to a bunch of them and
ended up getting an internship
with a place in Princeton, New Jersey.
Had a great summer there.
It was this really cool small ad agency
where, again, got to get really involved
in different projects that they were working
on, and really get some ownership on things.
And I loved it.
And when it came time then
to go into a fulltime job,
I would have very much so
been happy to work with them.
And I also had the opportunity,
then, to work with Lutron.
And looking back at my internships that
I've had, I loved the people there.
I loved, again, that they
let you just take things on,
give you that responsibility up front.
And it was -- just felt like a really good fit.
I loved too that they were going to
give me a marketing position right away.
A lot of times -- at least in my
experience, that was hard to find.
And I'm thrilled with it.
I've had a great -- been there for just over
a year now, and it's been really wonderful.
I think my final piece of advice is, is
that every assignment you get may not sound
like the most glamorous assignment,
especially when you first start out.
And I think there's a fine
line between doing something
that you're completely passionate about,
and also paying your dues a little bit.
And I think if you can get
into whatever role you're in
and really take an assignment you've been given
and run with it and do the best you can with it,
even if it's not something that maybe
excites you personally right now,
I think that people acknowledge
good work that's been done.
And I think ultimately if you put effort and
passion into what you do, you'll be recognized
for that, and you'll ultimately go
towards the things that you do want to do,
and get on more exciting projects, and
have more say in what you do and don't do.