My Confessions of a Summer Intern: Meet Alysondra Milano Guest Blog Post

This is an article that I wrote as a guest, along with added commentary at the top by Laura Jacobs (It is her blog for UWW that I wrote for). I will have 2 more upcoming posts this summer which I will be sure to post to this blog as well!

Here is the original link (http://blogs.uww.edu/internships/2011/06/06/confessions-of-a-summer-intern-meet-alysondra-milano/)

Confessions of a Summer Intern: Meet Alysondra Milano

By Laura on Jun 6, 2011 in Confessions of a Summer Intern

Alysondra Milano is a Communications/Public Relations Major with a minor in Advertising at UW-Whitewater. She is active on campus through her role as President of Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority and through her job in the Global Business Resource Center. Alysondra will be graduating in May 2012.

Virtual internships are still foreign to most people. When I tell people that my internship is virtual and that I have never physically met my boss, it can be confusing. Some people even think that I made it up! To share my advice, I must also share the experiences that I have had as a virtual intern.
I am a virtual intern for a nonprofit called Time at the Table. The main focus is to promote healthy eating to families and to reconnect them around the dinner table. It’s all about bringing them together in conversation to make stronger, healthier lives for all of the families that we are able to touch. They have major presence in Brooklyn and in a town in South Dakota.

What is my role in this? I run their social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I write newsletters, put together press releases, send out texts via an automated text messaging service, and help to monitor the website. The best part? I can do this all from home. There is no need for me to physically commute since everything can be done from my laptop and shared with my boss through emails.

That is the only different between a virtual and a “traditional” internship. I could drive to a building, work on a computer there, and then drive home. My other option is to stay home and save myself some gas money while helping out a cause that I otherwise would not be able to because I cannot drive to Brooklyn to sit and be online in their offices. The choice for me was obvious. Virtual internships benefit the organization because they do not have to have all local talent. Time at the Table has interns everywhere from Florida to Wisconsin who are motivated and good at what they do. We are all able to work together with the use of technology. We have Skype meetings every other week so that we can all relay what we have been working on and make sure we are meeting deadlines.

Virtual internships still require a lot of work. You have to have discipline to stick to your schedule and get your work out on time. I chose to be a virtual intern because of the flexibility it allows me to have. I do not have to commute anywhere so it is saving me money while I learn the skills that I would learn in any other office. Independence is another perk of the virtual realm as I can go online whenever I choose. And I can’t lie – not having to dress up every day for work is a definite perk that I am taking full advantage of!

Busy Week of Speakers!

We had speakers come in both days this week. First, we had Melissa Bohl come speak to us from GE Healthcare. She spoke a lot about the difference between the different offerings that her company has and all of the internal PR that they do such as multiple intranet sites for employees. While I am not very interested in the health care field, I did learn that internal public relations is something that I may be interested in doing and should look into more.

Out of all of the speakers that we have had in our class to date, Cory Zimmermann was my far my favorite. He is one of the owners of Z2 Marketing. He spoke to us like adults and instead of giving us the same list that everyone else does of the "Top 5 Things to Do in PR", he just spoke to us and was real. He took a different approach and showed us some of his work and talked about approaching life from a new perspective.

I added Cory on LinkedIn and told him how refreshing his approach to speaking to our class was. He sent me a message back right away and told me that I ever need advice to let him know. I intend to do this, and I hope to apply for one of Z2's internships for the spring. He also invited me to Cosmo Friday which is the best idea ever! I love that they have friends and family come and that they are not allowed to talk any business. When he first mentioned it I thought it would be where they bring in clients and try to pitch them new ideas, but this is something different than I have ever seen before. It stayed true to his statement that they want relationships and don't just want to be a vendor.Follow them on Twitter @Z2Marketing.

Learning About LinkedIn

On March 1, 2011, Katie Felten from MKELive gave a presentation to our class on how to leverage LinkedIn. She restated many valuable tips that I had previously heard about LinkedIn, and also gave many new points that I will be sure to incorporate into my profile. Her profile (Katie's LinkedIn) is a great example of how she has leveraged her online persona.

One new tip that she gave is to change your title bar. The default shows up as the position that you currently hold, whereas if you customize it, you can show your skills and professional interests. I will be changing mine because I think that little things like this will help me stand out in a search as well as when put in competition against other applicants.

She also made me realize that I should not be afraid to ask for introductions or connect with professionals I have met. She made a great point of telling us that that is what LinkedIn is for, and professionals not only expect but welcome these kinds of contacts with students. LinkedIn is used to establish connections and network with other people online. It is then up to you to take the relationship offline. I used to think that someone would find it strange if I sent them a message about a question I had if I did not know them very well, but my attitude has since changed. I believe that by taking chances and messaging more of my connections about opportunities and questions, it will help me stay better connected to my network.

I think that Katie Felten is an asset to public relations because of all of the work that she does to get people to network and all of the guidance that she gives to others on LinkedIn. I follow her on Twitter (@KatieFelten), and all of her posts seem to be about the next networking opportunity that she is involved in. Her company, MKE Live, is a great example of some of the networking that she does. Through this organization she is able to host events and training sessions. She also took time out of her day to come speak to our class and help put us ahead of our peers, and I really appreciate that as well.

BMA Lightning Round!

I went to the BMA event in Milwaukee and I have to say that it was the best networking event that I have been to yet. My group began with the speed interview portion. I have been told it is much like speed dating, although I have never done speed dating so I had nothing to compare it to! We went to each interviewer for about 5 minutes and then got quick feedback and then switched to the next person. I found it interesting how quickly I made connections with some of the people that I talked to. One woman and I really connected over our volunteer experiences. I found out that she worked for Manpower which was the facility that donated their space for us to use. She was so nice and gave me the best feedback of the night.

Next we moved on to a room where dinner was donated for us. After relaxing in this room and reflecting on the interview tips that I had been given, we went to have our resumes looked over at a third station. This one was also very helpful. One of the best things that I got was insight into what employers think of my campus leadership roles. I am the president of a sorority, and the first person that I talked to ( a woman who was with Johnson Controls) was able to really zero in and say "this is what that says to me as a potential employer". I really enjoyed that one on one coaching and experience.

Lastly, we moved into a room where @stratocasting @Apiwarun and @haleylandsman gave a presentation on how to market and brand yourself using social media. It was during this that I decided that I will soon switch from a Visual CV to a weebly.

The most valuable things for me were when I got honest feedback in my one on ones with the professionals. ireally appreciate them coming and taking the time to come look over our resumes and give us advice that may put us above and beyond when it comes to competition in the workplace.

The PR Student

My name is Alysondra (Aly for short). I am studying Public Relations and Advertising at UW-Whitewater. I am a Junior and try to keep pretty busy outside of school. I work on campus and serve as my sorority's president. I am set to graduate in May of 2012 which seems to mean that I am one of the lucky ones to be able to finish in just four years.

My career goal is to hopefully get a job with an event (or specifically wedding) planning company, or a non-profit organization. I have had an internship with a non-profit in the past, and I really enjoyed helping to plan their events and helping with the day to day operations of the company. I am currently working toward getting an internship with an event planning business so that I can experience that field while I am still in college as well.

After I work in event planning, I think I might want to work at a PR or Advertising firm. I find advertisements (especially print and non-traditional advertisements) to be very interesting.

As far as the rest of my time at Whitewater goes, after my sorority term is over, I plan on joining PRSSA and WAA as well as some honors societies. As I mentioned above, I want to complete at least one or two more internships before the end of college, so I will be actively searching for those. I want to experience as much as I can in college, so I would also like to look into travel study for next summer. I am open to new things, so if you have any other suggestions for profession related clubs on campus or different networking opportunities, I would love to hear them!