>> Hello. I'm Tracy Mason and I'm
Senior Director of Public Affairs
for the Nuclear Energy Institute.
I've had careers in communications
and branding, special events marketing
and strategic planning throughout
my business career.
My job is really three parts.
First part is running the advertising
and branding for our organization
which is the American Policy Organization
for the Nuclear Energy Industry.
[Inaudible] Third part of my job is integrating
what we do in the communications group
within the Nuclear Energy Institute
and what happens with our policy group
and also our government affairs
organization, so,
making sure that all three areas are cohesive
and are messaging and in our strategic approach.
A typical day at work is
different than a typical day
for me because I'm a stay at work mom.
So, I get up very early in the morning.
I do the exercising I need to do at
home, get my kids ready for the day,
get them off to school and
then my commute begins.
Though it takes a little bit of time to
get in but I can use that time to book
up on what's happening in the media about my
industry and answer any emails and get connected
with what's happening before I get into work.
Once I arrive which is typically
between 8 to 8:30 in the morning,
I'm in meetings for a decent part of the
day working with the different organizations
within NEI and our member companies.
So I learn the priorities of the
day, my projects that I'm working on,
get addressed during these meetings as well.
But I also have to squeeze in time to
take the phone calls with the media
that I'm buying advertising
through and also the members
that we serve at the Nuclear Energy Institute.
So, it's very fast paced.
It's very high energy.
It's a lot of collaboration, a lot of strategic
thinking but also a lot of attention to detail.
Wherever marketing is needed I'm there.
I go where my organization
needs me now domestically.
I travel mostly across the
United States but over time
since the nuclear energy industry is very
global we're building four reactors here
in the United States but we're
building over 65 globally.
So people need to know how to communicate the
benefits of nuclear energy around the world
and the United States is the best
place for best practices in that area.
So, we're being asked to travel all
around the world to tell that story.
Traditional hours are 8:30 to 5:30.
I get there a little bit earlier some days.
I get there a little bit later when my
kids have something going on at school.
But I then can work later or through
lunch if I need to, to get the job done.
[ Silence ]
Many of the government jobs
give you a lot of flexibility
in that they have compressed work schedules
or work from home capabilities since we're
so virtual these days, as
long as you can stay connected
and meet your deadlines I have the
ability to do that if I need to.
Some people know what they
want to be when they grow
up very early and I was one of those people.
I love to communicate.
I love the power of branding.
I like when people understand the message you're
trying to tell and it helps them do their job.
So, throughout my career I found jobs where
I can get paid to do what I love and that's
where I am right now I'm a brander.
I'm a marketer.
I'm a communicator and you can tell I love it.
One of the biggest challenges I have
is working on somebody else's schedule.
I book seminars and political
summits to talk about our issues
and sometimes my issue isn't the most important
one on their radar and I have to be able
to convince that it's worth their
time and to be there or they're trying
to solve the companies policy problems and
I'm saying, please come and do this for me.
So, you've got to be really persuasive and
you've got to know what you need and the benefit
of what's in it for them
as you're presenting it.
You have to be convincing and you
need to have a sense of persistence
to get what you need to be
able to get your job done.
[ Silence ]
There are a couple of things
you need to do to prepare.
You need to know the types of classes
that get you the experience and skills
that you think you need for this
dream job we've been talking about.
So, understand your curriculum.
Get to know the professors.
The faculty at Penn State is top notch
and I've made some amazing connections
because I've taking the time to go
to the office hours of my professors,
share with them my dreams and professional
goals and when they know that information,
they'll help me pick the right classes, find the
right connections from their professional ties.
I'm still in touch with my professors and
I graduated many, many years ago and it's
because you created those relationships.
Know the companies you want to work for.
Put a list together of the industries and
organizations that are important to you.
Get as high up on the Fortune 500
as you can so that the companies
that you think do it best and learn from them.
Make sure once you find out those
companies that when they're going to be here
and if they're not here, how
you can get in touch with them.
Know the companies.
Know your value and what you bring and
never, ever, ever give up on yourself.
Try to get as many internships as you can and
they all don't have to be in the same company.
They can be from different companies.
They can be from different
geographies of the country.
It just shows that you are
interested in learning as long
as you can clearly articulate
where you think you want to go.
You have to stay connected.
So read the publications
that matter in your industry.
Now that we have so much information socially,
make sure that you follow the organizations
on Twitter that you need to, that
you're LinkedIn appropriately
in the social networks to
find out what's going on.
Share ideas.
Volunteer for projects and programs
so that you can get your foot
in the door and get some experience.
Penn State brings such a high caliber
of an individual into an organization.
You come in rolling up your sleeves saying, how
can I help you and what do we need to get done
and you go in and do it which is not easy
to deliver on what they're looking for.
And when you do that even as you're a student
juggling all these things, multiple priorities,
being able to prioritize, it's real important
but once you develop those skill sets
and that work ethic and you have a few of these
projects under your belt you might be able
to better answer the question
what do I like about working?
Where do I want to go because
you've seen some of these things?
You have to be flexible.
Things don't always turn out the way you
expect but you have to be able to roll
with what happens during your day and
handle multiple things that get thrown
at you and you need to be persistent.
You have to keep going.
Every day you've got to wake up and know
that this day is going to be the day
that something big happens or that
you're going to get something done
that you've been working really hard on.
And when you go in with a positive
attitude you're the type of person
that everybody wants on their team.
Work is not hard anymore.
It just becomes the challenge that you
look for professionally and you make it fun
because that's how you approach it.
My undergraduate degree is from Penn
State's College of Liberal Arts.
It's a combination of classes from the
business school and the communication school
and at the time I couldn't get the degree
I wanted from just one of those schools so,
luckily liberal arts gave me the
flexibility to get the classes I wanted
for the career that I was looking for.
From that point, I worked for about 10
years on a variety of jobs for everything
from advertising sales and
real estate project management.
I did marketing for a professional sports team.
I built office buildings.
I did a variety of things and
then decided I needed to go back.
I came back for Grad School.
I knew I wanted to have a
global business background.
I knew someday I wanted to have my own company
and I'd actually done some consulting
prior to coming back to Grad School.
So, I took some entrepreneurship classes
obviously, marketing because that's what I love
so I took branding, product
management and finance classes here.
I studied abroad at a program
at [Foreign Language] with--
I was actually the only Penn State student in
the program but there were other MBA students
from across the country so I expanded my
network there and then had an internship
at Apple Computers and all of those
things helped me get my Master's
in Business Administration.
I'd say it's a global business focus.
A lot of people probably say that's a
generic thing but I really did learn
from professors globally about marketing,
finance, communications, supply chain
and that experience both at
Penn State and then abroad.
And then from that time I went to work
for I'd gotten advice to go as high
up on the Fortune 500 list as I
could and at that time number one
on the list was Exxon Mobile and I thought that
they could really benefit from a strong brand
and Public Relations person that's who I am.
I sold that component of my
professional character to them
and I worked with them for about 10 years.
Now I work for I think my dream job really
is working with Nuclear Energy Institute
as their Senior Director of Public Affairs where
I get to take all of the experiences I've had
in advertising, marketing, branding,
communications, crisis management,
event planning spanning decades of a
career and I'm now able to leverage it
and learn some new things I
didn't know as much about so,
everything you do really feeds
into where you want to go.
You should always be growing and evolving.
That makes a healthy career.
[ Silence ]
You need to believe in yourself.
Work hard, really work hard
because this is about you.
This is your career.
This is your future.
This is your vision.
This is your dream and no one else
is going to get you there but you.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Don't be afraid to try new things and celebrate
the successes, big ones and the little ones.
There are going to be some tough days and there
are going to be hopefully, many great days
and take a minute to be thankful
for what you have.
And be sure to give back to Penn State.
Part of the reason I'm doing this video
is because Penn State was very good to me.
I learned a lot here about myself and about my
career and I hope that you continue to give back
to this great university too because that's
what will help students going forward.