My Skills as a PR Professional

After reading an article by Dave Fleet about the skills up and coming PR professionals need, I began to reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses. I feel that my strongest capabilities come from my writing skills, communication skills, and work ethic, while my weaknesses are mostly in the technology department.

Writing Skills: I believe that writing skills are a key advantage in almost any profession, not just PR. In college, my writing has helped me tremendously in all of my classes, even in environmental science, where my A+ on a research paper end up getting me an A in the class. Writing has always been a passion of mine, and I have had experience in lots of different areas, from being my high school yearbook editor, to writing sports, news, and features for the GCSU Colonnade.

Communication Skills: My skills as a communicator stem from the fact that I have grown up in the world of hospitality management. My parents own hotels, so I have constantly been around employees and guests, interacting with people of all ages and backgrounds. My job at Georgia College is actually centered around communication skills. As a freshman, I began working at the GCSU phonathon, calling parents and alumni and encouraging them to donate to the school. Since then, I have been promoted to phonathon manager, training and motivating our student callers to reach this year's goal of $175,000. I feel that I am a strong communicator because I not only talk, I listen.

Work Ethic: I am person who gives 100% in all that I do. I strive to be the best in any and all of my activities from my job to classes and sports. Quite simply, I like work. I enjoy being productive, and I hate free time. I have had a job since the day I turned 15 and have worked as an office assistant in a print shop, a gymnastics instructor, a nanny, an assistant to a real estate agent, and a phonathon caller and manager. Basically, I will do what it takes to get the job done.

Technology: AAAHHHHH!! I must say that before last week, I was an e-mail and Facebook only kind of girl. Expanding into the world of blogging and twitter has been a big adjustment to say the least. On my first day of blogging, I sent my teacher a Facebook message announcing the fact that i was basically blog illiterate. After four hours of what I would call "Ging's Twitter and Blogspot for Dummies," I now feel that I am on the road mastering social networking. I mean, I'm a year away from a college degree, I can figure this out :)