DAY TWENTY-ONE – Defining Moment. Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.
A defining moment, or moments, that affected my life this year was serving on the Public Relations Search Committee this past semester.
Why were these events so important? Mainly because I learned so much from being a part of the committee. As someone from the “inside,” I got to learn what sort of things are important in a job candidate, what are qualifications for someone going for a research 1 position, and what sort of things should/shouldn’t be said in a cover letter, CV, and job talk.
What’s more, seeing my colleagues go through the job market on the other side of the token gave me even more perspective on what it takes to be the best candidate out there. I took notes upon notes in my notebook (speaking of which, I should really type those out, make a handout or something) which will be super helpful when I go out on the job market in 2012-2013.
Though it may not seem like that big of a deal to any other person, being on the search committee made a huge impact on me this semester. Special thanks to Drs. Liu, T. Parry-Giles, and Khamis for teaching me so much and giving me pointers, and thanks to my friends Abbey and Beth for sharing what they’ve learned. Hopefully come next year, I will be more than prepared and ready. Watch out PR academic world, here I come!!
