Ashley Zauft: "Internships and CPAM 1110 Class" (December 2006)

The Career Planning office at St. Edward’s University definitely helped me in starting my search for an internship. In the spring semester of my junior year, I enrolled in the CPAM 1110 (Career Planning and Management) independent study class expecting to just work on my resumé, but what I got out of the class was so much more. I could have never imagined all the information and connections I acquired during the duration of the class and after. With the guidance of an Instructor/Career Counselor I created my resume, went over examples of cover letters and explored all the different internship options that were open to me. I also conducted some Information Interviews where you interview someone in a field you’re interested in. I interviewed an alumnae of St. Edward’s, Loralynne Dickey, and she was very helpful in advising me about Public Relations and internships.

After completing the CPAM class I sent out my resume to several Public Relations and Event Planning firms in the Austin area. One interview I went to was with a Public Relations firm, TateAustin. They only had one internship position open and competition was extremely tight. In the end, I did not get the internship at TateAustin, but they were so impressed with my resume and interviewing skills that they forwarded my resume to an event management firm, Kennedy Creative. A few days later, I received a call from Kennedy Creative asking me to come in for an interview. They hired me as an intern and I’ve been working there since August 2006.

My internship at Kennedy Creative is everything I was looking for in a job. I received on-site as well as behind the scenes experience and I learned every detail that goes into preparing an event, including creative brainstorming, proposal creation and event execution. Currently, as well as being an intern, I am an On-site Facilitator for many events that Kennedy Creative has produced. Kennedy Creative has asked me to return for another internship next semester, so I plan to continue working with their company through graduation in May 2007.

I feel very well prepared for the next phase of my career journey which is searching for a full-time job upon graduation. I’m confident that by utilizing Career Planning services, taking the CPAM 1110 class, doing information interviews, going through several job interviews, and having a great internship experience, the doors will be open to me for an exciting and challenging career.