My Box of Public Relations Chocolate

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get"

I wonder if my parents thought of that quote when thinking about how I would turn out. What skills would I acquire? What attributes would I possess? Would I be a cheerful person or a moody person? I believe some parts of my personal strengths and weaknesses were given to me naturally, others were from sweat and tears. So what's inside my box of chocolates you ask? Well, that question is influencing my topic for the week, "My box of Public Relations Chocolates".

According to a post on davefleet.com these are the skills, old and new, you need in order to be a Public Relations Professional.

Traditional:

• Writing
• Communications Skills
• Attention to detail
• Media relations
• Proactiveness
• Work ethic

New Skills:

• Blogging
• Microblogging
• Social Networking tools
• SEO
• Coding
• RSS, RSS Readers
• Blogger relations
• Social media ethics

So, lets start with the old. My top three strengths from the "traditional" include Work ethic, Proactiveness, and Attention to Detail. I do, however, have a little bit of the other listed strengths that will be presented to you through my examples.

Work Ethic and Attention to Detail: My work ethic is typically what I am known for. I have been referred to as Katie the choo-choo train (it was in 6th grade soccer). When working at Victoria Secret (No, I do not know Victoria's secret) I was typically known for my attention to detail and making sure the job was done correctly. Speed would be one of my weaknesses. I am too much of a perfectionist to finish a job half "butt", which can require extra time. I follow the theory of doing it right the first time so you don't have to do it again later. My managers, being the awesome people that they are, figured this out and began assigning me to tasks that required a more detail oriented person. They, along with my coworkers also found out that I am the one you call if you need your shift covered. I don't like saying no and letting the team down. I will work until I can barely move if it is required. I also like to get the job done, socializing is for after the work is done. Work is work, fun is fun. Though, at times, work can be a lot of fun.

Proactiveness: Why I say that I am proactive is because I tend to do research and "google" my way into solutions. Example being my buisness analysis homework the other day. The teacher was out so as a class we were assigned to watch youtube video's on the Microsoft Project Management tool. Well, the videos wouldn't play so over 75% of the class left and refused to do the work because they didn't "know how". I stayed with one other person and we googled our way into learning how to use the program and then how to complete the assignment. I also ask a million questions. It's how I learn. I didn't realize how many questions I ask until I took a road trip with my mom and sister to Baton Rouge. They kept laughing at me for asking so many questions. In my mind, if I don't know an answer, I like to combine heads with other people to see if they may know. I learned my lesson with them though, from now on I will only direct my questions at my dad... who also asks a million questions.

For the New Skills section, its easier to say what I am taking classes and working on to improve daily. Over the summer I did a social media internship, so I worked on many of these bullet points. My strongest ones would be blogging(hello, you're reading it!), social networking tools, and microblogging. That is only because those are the ones I am the most practiced in. I have dibble dabbled in each of them and am currently taking a class on webdesign that teaches HTML and I am taking a computer science course next semester. So, when I say it is a work in progress, it is. As it should be for everyone.

That's My Box of Public Relations Chocolate!