Professionals stress importance of internships

On Wednesday, students gathered in the auditorium of Eisenberg Classroom Building to listen to a panel discussion from professionals in the communication field about what employers are looking for when hiring.

The panel consisted of Larry Stock, who is the Cultural Center Director at Butler County Community College where he is the head of the Succop Theater, Kelly Ann McMillin, who is the Sociel Media Marketing Manager for Concord Hospitality, Mark Mann, who is the Managing Director of the Butler Eagle and Tracy Alexander Plevel, who is a member of the community relations team at Lifesteps and graduate from Slippery Rock University.

Larry Stock talks about the importance of internships to students at the "What Your Employers Really Want" panel discussion at Slippery Rock University. 

The panel touched on several topics, one of which was discussion on the importance of internships and what potential employers look for when hiring.

Mann, who has been the Managing Editor at the Butler Eagle since 1992, said that there are two questions you should always be prepared to answer at an interview and he feels they are the most important.

“I always ask two questions when hiring people,” Mann said. “The first question I ask is, ‘Why should I hire you?’ and the second is, ‘What do you bring to the company?’ These are two questions you should have very detailed and specific answers for.”

Plevel agreed with Mann’s comments and added that you should focus on more than just getting a degree when at college because extracurricular activities are very important.

“You should definitely get involved in organizations on campus,” Plevel said. “If I see someone applying for a PR position from Slippery Rock and they don’t have PRSSA on their resume’, that automatically brings up a red flag for me.”

Tracy Alexander Plevel talks about how to get involved with organizations during college to add experiences to your portfolio.

Overall, the panel agreed that being prepared and ready to take on any situation that comes your way is very important in preparing for getting a real world job beyond college.

Stock said that one of the most important things that you can gain from college is an ability to think critically and be curious about things.

“The best thing about college is that it teaches you the ability of how to learn and problem solve,” Stock said. “It teaches you how to be a critical thinker and that’s one of the most important things in being in the communication field in the real world.”



The panel also touched on the social media issues concerning jobs. For more information on that, check out Courtney Nickle's blog, "Nickle for your Thoughts" at www.nickle4yourthoughts.blogspot.com