>> I'm Katie Nederie [phonetic].
I am in brand public relations at the Richards Group
which is the largest independent advertising agency in the country.
It's about 700 people, but 30 of us are crack PR professionals.
And I'm on the nonprofit cause team and have done that the last few years
since I graduated from Kansas State.
You probably get this a lot but no day is the same for me,
for many public relations professionals.
Especially with the 24 hour news cycle you never know what's going to pop up.
You plan and you have scheduled meetings, but they get derailed
from whether it's a journalist wanting to cover your client,
and it's a great feature story or hit for your client.
So you have to switch gears and jump into that.
Or whether it's -- there's a number of things in public relations that -- questions.
A lot of it's to do with the media and media relations on my side.
So no day is ever the same.
Since I work for a public relations branding agency, I have more meetings
and more conference calls and that because I have seven clients,
seven or eight clients at a time.
So if you have one client if you work on the private side it's probably less meetings
and knocking and getting more work done.
But for me I'm in a lot of meetings.
So sometimes my work has to come after those meetings.
So for me I do a lot of Dallas-based nonprofits and organizations so I don't travel
as much as some of my colleagues.
But I probably travel five percent of the time so not very frequently.
My favorite part about my job is all the people I get to meet.
Moving to Dallas, being a Kansas native, moving here and working
for the nonprofits I was immediately able to meet leadership, philanthropists, influencers,
civic leaders, top business people in town
because they're all involved in the nonprofit world.
So for me meeting those people, learning from them is absolutely the favorite part of my job.
The other thing is public relations you have to be really a curious person.
And that may sound a little cliche or silly, but there's always something new in our industry.
From what public relations was 30 years ago to what it is now has changed immensely.
Social media, the internet, I mean there's so many things
that every day -- Facebook is changing every day.
Whether it's Instagram or Pinterest you have to keep up with the latest and greatest.
So you really have to be I think an early adopter and someone who is willing
to learn before others and then being able to educate.
And especially young people in public relations.
Senior -- people who have been in PR for 30 plus years are looking to you
to have that expertise and to know that.
So just really always keeping up with news in public relations and all that is what I love,
and being on the leading edge and kind of knowing before a lot
of people is something that's kind of a must have for the industry.
The best way to figure out exactly where you want to work
in public relations is through internships.
Because I work for an agency we are only employed by our clients versus working
for a corporation where you're the communications coordinator
or associate director or whatever that may be.
So it's less about like more junior level or more senior level.
It's about do you work on the agency side or the client side?
So you can think of it sort of like a law firm that has several clients but in maybe one area.
I'm on the nonprofit cause side so most of my clients are nonprofit or cause.
It's sort of similar to I specialize in that area, but I have lots of clients.
Which for me since I've only been a graduate of K State
for two years I think an agency is a great way to learn because you get exposed to a ton
of different clients and situations in the industry.
So I was actually pre-health my first three years at K State which is wild
because now I'm in public relations.
I actually do PR for the fifth largest pediatric hospital in the country,
Children's Medical Center here in Dallas.
But I had no idea I wanted to move to Dallas or anything like that.
Really K State what it helped me do is because I was involved in a lot of clubs
and organizations there I figured out that I kept assuming the communications roles
and thinking, oh, maybe this is a career.
Maybe this is something I can actually do.
So class-wise spring of my junior year I transitioned
to the public relations as my major.
And what I did right away was got involved
and made sure I was doing communications in lots of organizations.
So I worked for the KSU Foundation as a communications writer for about a year.
They really taught me and allowed me to do writing and direct photo shoots
and really wrap my head around what exactly PR was.
Especially in a degree that it's so much experience, and it's a lot less theoretical.
Theory helps and the basics help, but really getting out there
and doing it is I think the best way to learn.
Number one thing is to be involved in something outside of academics.
Right now it's a given, but if you're not involved you're not going to be --
I mean people at my job look for leaders.
It's not about what was your GPA.
GPA is sort of an aside as long as it's above a certain.
So study, but it's equally as important to be involved.
And so be a writer, do something in communications.
Don't just -- if you can don't just get a job at your local bar or restaurant.
Try to get a job in communications where you're using those writing, photography.
Any skills that relate to public relations are going to help you.
And then the other advice is that start out or at least have an internship at an agency.
I think at an agency you're exposed to different people, different industries,
just so many different problems to solve.
And you really learn a lot.
And you sort of become nimble and say, oh, I've done that before with this.
So it's just finding ways to utilize those skills, and internships are critical.
And they may seem like, oh, I want to do something else for a summer.
Try to tie it in any way you can to public relations.