Saturday, November 7

Rubbing elbows with creative types could lead to internships & jobs

November 6, 2009

PITTSBURGH, Pa.- Sixteen Westminster students traveled to CMU in Pittsburgh on Friday for a glimpse into their futures as they participated in the Creative Arts Career Seminar.

Organizers presented a variety of panels made up of experts ranging from filmmakers and broadcasters to poets and publishers to actors and musicians.

Each student picked two panels out of eight to attend. Those panels featured professionals discussing their backgrounds, internships and the future of careers in their fields.

"Wander and explore until you find something you really like that feeds your creativity and don't be afraid to take risk," Deborah Acklin, WQED Multimedia COO, said during the seminaor's keynote address. "I never looked for a job, they seemed to find me and I took chances on what I thought would make me happy."



The seminar also included a networking session where students rubbed elbows with panelists and had a chance to collect business cards.

Westminster Broadcast Communications major Lori Wise met Modcloth.com's Molly Prosser. Prosser is the Lead Eidtor/Writing Team Coordinator for the company. Modcloth is an online Pittsburgh-based fashion retailer specializing in vintage, vintage-inspired and indie clothing as well as blogs on fashion, art and music.

"We're definitely growing despite the economy and we're using social networking media to connect and we're looking to hire good writers who can work in new media," Prosser said. "I need people who can write for the web as well as Tweet, Facebook and be creatie with content for our products and for communicating with our visitors."

Wise happened to be wearing a shirt she purchased from the company.

"I like fashion and I like to write," Wise said. "It's also interesting to find out from Molly Prosser that she wants to read someone's blog as she considers who she hires."

Prosser says she looks for employees who can write in various formats and she's impressed to hear some Westminster students, like Lori Wise, maintain blogs and video blogs.

"Anyone who sends me a resume and has a blog link gets my interest as that's what we're about. The whole blogging and social networking for marketing is what we're doing."

Wise and other Broadcast Comm students maintain weblogs as part of their capstone projects.

The Westminster delegation to the Creative Careers Seminar was organized by the Career Center. Career Center Assistant Director Kati Edminston says the chance to network and ask questions from all these experts is extremely valuable when looking for internships and jobs.

"Knowing someone really helps you get a foot in the door," Edminston said."We're very pleased with the turnout we had from our students and it looks like they will take a lot away from this experience."