For Mass Comm Week this year, I was fortunate enough to attend two panels. The first on Monday was Entrepreneurial thinking: Habits you need to unlock your career and change the world. It featured Chris Perez, CEO of Left/Right Media and publisher for Citygram Austin. During the session, Perez talked about what it takes to be an entrepreneur in our field. He put an emphasis on networking to get where you want to be in your career. He also spoke about ways to tap into your creativity and how to apply that to your entrepreneurial skills.
"As an entrepreneur, your business should be at an intersection of your creativity, passion, and skill," Perez says @citygrammag #mcweek
— Jas (@jazzledazzle94) October 19, 2015
He also spoke about applying the LEAP test to your interest in entrepreneurship.
Apply the LEAP test. Learning, experience, and passions bridged by ambition. #masscommweek #txst
— Jas (@jazzledazzle94) October 19, 2015
The second panel I attended on Wednesday was the Careers in Web Development: a panel discussion. The panel featured three SJMC alums: Ashley Hebler, a front-end Web developer for Volusion; Josue Plaza, a junior PHP developer for Bravelets; and Glynn Jordan, a Web developer for Clearhead. Dr. Cindy Royal acted as the panel’s moderator. This was my favorite session out of the two that I attended. They discussed coding camps and academies for those interested in learning code and different resources to use for those who are having problems with their code and need help troubleshooting.
Alumnus Glynn Jordan, a web developer at Clearhead, recommends going to https://t.co/AGUqV03yxO for coding tutorials. #mcweek #txst
— Jas (@jazzledazzle94) October 21, 2015
They discussed how they go their start in web development and also talked about their “Aha-moment” when they realized this is what they wanted to pursue career-wise. They also stressed the importance of knowing about Google Analytics, especially if you are interested in a career in Social Media and about HTML/CSS even if your job is not in web development. Somewhere down the line, it will be useful.
Even if your job isn't in web development, it's important to have some sort of HTML/CSS knowledge. #TXST #mcweek
— Jas (@jazzledazzle94) October 22, 2015
I am so happy I had the opportunity to attend these two sessions this week. There was a lot of useful information. They also helped me solidify my interests and the career path that I want to take after I graduate next Spring.
I attended Chris Perez’s panel as well. His backstory on getting to where he is at now was very interesting. His ideas on what qualities a successful entrepreneur should have shows that starting your own business definitely takes all you have.
That’s really interesting about the coding panel. I’m really enjoying this class and being able to see actual results from my work and it’s making me wonder if PR was right for me and not focusing on web development. Kind of wish I had went to the panel after reading this.