Shhh...don't tell your journalism buddies

Greetings, fellow media enthusiasts!

Hats off to my bestest and colleague for that delicious introduction. While D is off in Augusta, GA interning for media giant Morris Communications, I’ve been trekking through the cloud forests of Costa Rica teaching English to Ticos (see my other blog http://brittaneysdestination.blogspot.com/). Not exactly the next stepping stone in a media career, but what can I say? I needed a break from the cover-letter-writing, craigslist-scouring life of a recent college grad looking for the perfect job. But now I’m back, and the job search beckons once again.

So, what is the perfect job for me? After four years in college and two slices of Hawaiian pizza at Mellow Mushroom yesterday, I concluded that I still don’t know. I was on a very informal interview for a PR/writing internship in Atlanta. Granted, the job is only meant to be something to hold me over until I can find something more permanent, but…me? A PR assistant? Who’da thunk? Certainly not I, all the while writing flowery essays these past four years about changing the world by practicing ‘true journalism.’ My interviewer said something to me that struck a real chord, even if it was only in half-jest. “Don’t tell your friends that you’re working for a PR firm.” I chuckled along with her, but I knew it was true. If any future employer in the magazines industry found out I was part-timing it as a PR intern, I might be all but blackballed from the world of magazine writing.

And so it was. As I bit into the crust of that pizza yesterday, I felt the crack in my life plan grow decidedly longer. I realized in that restaurant booth that I want take a trip to the dark side, to practice the art of verbal seduction…yep, I want to be a PR guru.

Well, at least for a little while.


See the battle between Journalism and PR through the eyes of the PRSA.