Towards the end of last semester, I had the opportunity to attend the New York Women in Communications’ Student Career Bootcamp at Twitter Headquarters in New York City. I attended three separate panels filled with influential, game changing women in the communications industry. Each speaker provided helpful insights into their careers and advice for young women entering the industry. I truly felt inspired to utilize my talents as a marketing major to make an impact and join the next generation of game changing women. This was an incredible experience and it was wonderful to be surrounded by passionate, successful women in my industry. Here’s what I learned.

The first panel I attended focused on a day in the life of women in Public Relations, Marketing, and Corporate Communications. I already knew I was going to find the marketing perspective insightful, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover an interest in PR. The PR speaker was from the public relations firm Sunshine Sachs. She spoke about how each day is different, as she deals with many different clients. I enjoy a challenging and constantly changing atmosphere, so that aspect of PR interested me more than I expected. The marketing speaker explained the growing importance of personalization campaigns in digital marketing. I learned how imperative it is to include some form of personalization in every advertising campaign.  

The second panel topic was building relationships and understanding how to network successfully. The speakers offered tips on how to grow relationships and build new ones. I learned the importance of how best to sell my narrative to others. The best way to think about networking is focusing on how to market yourself to people you want to connect with. The discussion revolved around the idea of bringing value to those around you. I was able to see networking from a different perspective; ever since attending this panel, I have been able to approach networking in a more thoughtful way. I now focus on how I can provide value to the person I am looking to connect with. 

The last panel I attended described the best way to be a boss and a leader. The speakers in this panel were women who rose to the top of their fields and helped pave the way for the next generation. These women gave insightful advice on career development and the next best steps for women starting out in the communications industry. At the end of the boot camp, the speakers recommended we reach out and connect with them on LinkedIn. I was able to network with these women and I know these connections will be useful to me in the future.

Professionals in the work world are eager to help college students. Take advantage of opportunities like this to learn from and network with people who are doing well in your prospective career field. Overall, this wonderful opportunity provided me with a better understanding of what lies ahead for me as a woman in marketing.