The night before last was a perfect example of how bartending will probably help me get a job in an industry other than hospitality.

Four guys come in, and they are hilarious – they like me, I like them, they can take my sass and dish it back, in essence, they are my ideal bar guests.  We get to talking the normal bar chat and it turns out my new favorite guests are Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan from Sirius NFL Network’s “Moving the Chains” (and their producers). They’re in town from NYC (Pat) & San Diego (Tim), doing live broadcasts from Radio Row at the Super Bowl Media Center. We get to talking about the business, what they like about it, how they are enjoying their time in Tampa, and by the end of their stay in my section at the bar, I’ve got my name on the list for a Day Pass to the Media Center.

Clearly, knowing how to sell yourself will play to your advantage in almost any situation.  This is one of them.  Pat, hailing from NY, is bringing his brother in on Friday, he said he and his brother are very well connected in the city (the guy used to manage the Jets, I bet he knows some people), and that they’d get me some contacts in NY about jobs for after graduation.

Penelope, thank you for helping me develop the tools to market myself as a star performer.  Ryan, thank you for getting me all set up with Brazen Careerist.

Pause.  If you aren’t following me on Twitter, do it, because that’s where I’m posting the pics from Radio Row.

Resume.

Being in PR, I haven’t had a lot of exposure to radio.  I mean, have listened to a couple shows in my day, but I haven’t ever been around it. Yesterday was sensory overload, to put it lightly.

My friend Stacey and I pick up our credentials and enter the Super Bowl Media Center.  After wandering around for a bit, we make our way to Radio Row.  Sirius is the first radio station you see when you enter, making it a very busy place, and also a very good place to post up and see athletes, TV personalities, and other people being interviewed.

The entire back wall of the room is a media table, and as of yesterday, there were already over 350 official Super Bowl press releases on the table.  Press kits, releases, media advisories, Pittsburgh publications, Arizona publications – it was like a semester in the classroom on one gigantic table.  So naturally, I walked out of there with every feature story written about both teams (via press kits), season-long statistics, quotes from press conferences, and knowledge of every photo opp for the rest of the week.

The pictures tell the fun part of the story, all of the people I saw there, so be sure you follow me on Twitter to catch the pics.

“do you ever get phantom phone vibrations? It has felt like my belt has been vibrating all day. Talk about annoying”

And I was thinking, okay, I’m not the only one who is perpetually checking their phone to see if they are missing calls, texts, emails.  I do this at work as I walk from one end of the bar to the other, convinced that my pocket is alerting me of something important.

Nick said the phantom vibe annoys him because it makes him feel like one of those d-bags that is always checking his phone.  I am one of those d-bags – and I’m not afraid to own that fact because 90% of the time, I did miss a call, a text, or an email.

So, a remedy for the situation? Turn off automatic email checking, and do it manually.  It will decrease the amount of vibration, causing you to check your phone.  Here is a list of 10 reasons why you should turn off the auto checker.  Number 8 on the list?  You look like a tool if you’re always checking your phone.

Plus, you don’t want to end up here.

So the real question that’s blowing my mind is this: am I imagining the vibe, or does my iPhone have a mind of it’s own?  Do I want so badly to be connected that my side feels phantom vibration to reassure me that I am?

My iPhone just vibrated.  11 new emails.

Last night, before #journchat, I had around 120 followers on Twitter.  This morning, after having participated, I have 196. All of my new twitter friends are in the industry, some from my area, the rest from around the country.  I learned a lot about how journalists feel about PR pros and also made some valuable connections that could help me land a job after graduation.

Lizz Harmon, President and CEO of Harmon Tampa Public Relations is one of those contacts. I had actually started following her a month ago, and she is how I found out about #journchat. I reconnected with her last night, and I am working on arranging a time for me to pick her brain about anything and everything PR.  She’s a fellow USF alum and so is her daughter. 

Now how does any of this change my life?  Twitter #journchat allows for me to connect with people I wouldn’t other wise have an opportunity to connect with.  Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is someone I’m following now, via recommendation from Rob McNealy, in regards to my interest in PR in Vegas.

Browsing the people that follow my new contacts is also helping me build my future-employer/friend/mentor community.

Someone said last night, facebook is for people you used to know, Twitter is for people you want to know better.  How true.

So to all my followers on Twitter, sorry for flooding your Twitter feed on Mondays.  That’s the only day of the week where I’ll be posting like crazy.  Join the fun, 7-10 pm CST Monday nights at #journchat. Send your questions that you want to have answered to @PRSarahEvans in advance for a shot at getting feedback on whatever you might be wondering about.

Have you participated in #journchat?  If so, what did you think?  If not, why not?

My dad always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be, if I stuck my mind to it.  And I’m starting to think he’s right.  Why?  Because he has done three major career changes in his life, one of which included a cross-country move.

The difficulty with career change and measuring it is it’s hard to define.  Is it simply switching occupations, a promotion or changing career fields all together?  In my dad’s case, it was the latter.

Dad started off as a caterer, then he opened his own restaurant with his mom in the 70′s.  When Welcome Home (their restaurant) didn’t work out as some restaurants don’t (90% failure is a myth, fyi), he eventually wound up as a GM for Olive Garden and Bennigan’s.

I was born during his tour with Olive Garden, which moved us from Overland Park, KS to Tulsa, OK, where my sister was born.  With two girls under four and my mom not yet back to work, his job was our families only source of income.  When he got tired of 18-hour days and never seeing his family, he took a job as a newspaper carrier, working nights to spend the days with my sister and I, and so my mom could go back to work.  He was, in essence, a stay-at-home dad (the definition of which, btw, is ever-changing).  I think his presence in my life growing up is why we’re so close today, and I think it had a great influence on my confidence as I was growing up.

He did the newspaper thing for 15 years – and made a really good living at it.  Then, when online newspapers started to take effect in 2002-2003, the distribution rates started to drop, and it became less prosperous. My sister and I helped on the weekends when we were growing up, and during the summers in high school, I would work 5 nights a week and got a great paycheck for it.

In 2005, my mom had the opportunity to transfer to a hospital outside of Orlando.  We wouldn’t have the income from the paper route anymore, and we didn’t know what living in Florida would be like.  But we did it.  We all moved down here together, and dad started his company, Dream Cruise Vacations.

He is the only employee of Dream Cruise Vacations, but he has a couple other agents in different parts of the country that he works with.  Since booking travel is a commission based business, the strength of the industry directly affects his income.  Fortunately, even in times of great economic stress, people are still traveling – as he has been “in the weeds” (a restaurant term for really, really, really busy) since last year.

His days are long, and he works around the clock to keep up with the demand for cruise vacations, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.  He lives for this.  He spent 50 years in Kansas, where the summers are like being in a convection oven and the winters are similar to that in the Arctic Circle.  He looks outside every day at his sparkling pool and the swaying palm trees and is thankful to be here.

I drove up to Orlando to stay with my parents for a bit during winter break and Dad said to my mom: “you know, I wondered today if this is what it was like when I was working 18-hour days at the restaurant and never saw you, and you were raising the girls on your own.  And I just want to say I’m sorry, I had no idea how hard that could be.”

Have you changed careers?  Is your degree relevant to your field?  Did you go a completely different direction than you had planned to while you were in school?

As of Monday, I was borderline bipolar.  I started out excited to go to class.  Then, as the day wore on, I realized that I didn’t pay rent yet this month, and tuition was due Friday.  Crap.  My Tampa Electric bill is late.  My car payment is due on the 22nd, Verizon was due on the 1st.  This is not looking good.

I got a short term loan for $1000 from USF – and shortly after I did I got the email from the registar’s office  saying I could take 19 hours (how many I need to graduate in the spring).  Too bad I can’t afford to pay for 19 hours this semester, or I totally would.

So I’ll return to USF this summer for the two classes I need to finish my degree.  I was really worked up about this, but I’ve come to peace with the idea.  Taking 13 hours this semester (four of which are internship/directed reading credits) will allow me to have ample time to be the Account Executive for my team in Advanced PR.

Earlier this semester, when the board of professors was selecting the Bateman team for 2009, I emailed all of them and told them why I would be an asset to the team.  Only one out of the four professors knew my work and knew who I was, so I wasn’t selected.  That professor that does know me, however, is the department head and teaches Advanced PR. 

After the Bateman team was selected, she pulled me aside and told me that she strongly suggests that I apply for the Account Executive position for the teams in Advanced PR.  This position puts me in charge of six of my classmates while we create a campaign from start to finish for a client.  Well, I got it.

I am ready to tackle the AE position because for me, it’s like practice for after graduation, without the risk of getting fired.  This is a time to learn from mistakes, and improve my skills to gain the confidence I need to set foot into a world outside of the classroom.

Not wanting to disappoint the critics, and staying true to the perceptions of Gen Y, I needed some instant gratification after realizing the results from killing myself on the treadmill won’t show up overnight. So while I wait for the calories to burn, I thought I’d give my blog a facelift.

I imagine like my hairstyle, this new blog theme won’t hold for long – but it’s way better than that basic WordPress default.

I’m off to my first class of spring semester.  I’ll update everyone on what I decided to do about school after I get out of class, so sit tight – it’s coming.

How was your holiday season?  Do you have a resolution?  What do you think of the new look for Sydney On: PR & New Media?

I’ll tell you what I hate about Christmas at my “office” (read: restaurant). I hate that one of my coworkers says “Merry Christmas” to guests as they leave. I told her we should probably say “Happy Holidays” so we don’t offend anyone, and she said “well I didn’t get that memo, and I’m saying Merry Christmas”.

Barf.

I hate that we’re tuned in to Sirius’ Christmas channel from the day after Thanksgiving on. I can only take so much of the carols. And the volume at which we project said music through the restaurant is at borderline obscene levels. Add to that my said coworker above loves to sing at the top of her lungs while making martinis for the regulars. It’s annoying.

More over, I hate the guilt that I feel, this year in particular, because I can’t afford to buy presents for people. Sorry, but I’d rather have a roof over my head and the electric paid. I’m a “starving” college student, I have maxed out all of my cards, I am living night to night on tips alone – I don’t have the money to get the stuff that you won’t buy for yourself.

Christmas at work would be better if we got bonuses.  Then I could pay my Verizon bill on time.  Christmas at work would be better if I didn’t work in a restaurant.  Who wants to eat at a steakhouse on Christmas?  Nobody – they’re all at home with their families, like I wish I could be as well.

Why do I hate Christmas at work?  Maybe it’s because I come from a very loose Christian background.  I was baptized Lutheran but I can count the number of times I’ve been to church on two hands – half of those times for funerals or weddings.

My dad’s parents were Jewish – but we don’t practice.  We eat Matzo crackers and Matzo ball soup around Passover but that’s about the extent of our Jewish life.  We practice when it’s convenient – say, when, we’re hungry for Matzo ball soup.  That’s about as into it as we’ve ever gotten.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind working Christmas if I thought we’d bring in more money than it takes to keep the lights on in that place.  When I was at Disney, I worked 12-15 hour days before and after Christmas – because those are the highest attendance days of the year.  I got OT and Holiday pay – which brought me up from $7.53 an hour to like $10.  Whoa.

My sister, for example, is still at Disney.  She’s a PhotoPass coordinator for the resorts on property and will be in charge of six resorts tomorrow with no direct management to report to.

Our Christmas has never been traditional.  We always did our own thing once we realized that getting together with everyone on my Dad’s side of the family sucked.  Seriously, like 50 people packed into a clubhouse at somebody’s golf course or Aunt Paddy’s complex, cold food, old people – it wasn’t our scene.  After my sophomore year of high school, we started taking vacations instead of putting up a tree.

My idea of what Christmas is differs drastically from those around me.  My friends always have to pick their jaws up off the ground when I tell them my family doesn’t do presents.

Well, until this year.  Now, because my sister is at Disney every day around Christmas, we’re doing presents again.  We can’t get organized enough to do a vacation because of our schedules, so we’re doing our Christmas on Sunday, and going back to exchanging gifts.  Read above paragraph for my thoughts on gifts.

What is the holiday season like for you and your family?  Do you have a “traditional” holiday (whatever that means in your world) or has your family created their own traditions?

My excitement for graduation came one semester too soon.  As it stands, I will have to take one class this summer.  At USF you can only take 18 hours at a time, and I need 19 to graduate.  So instead of graduating in the spring and being done, I’ll walk in the spring, and return for one class this summer.

USF = U Stay Forever

I have been going to school non-stop since I started back up at Valencia in Fall 2006.  It’s enough to make me go crazy.

So now, I ask you….

Case in point – when I met Penelope Trunk. I was an innocent bystander to a speech she gave at the PRSSA National Conference.  Her words were inspirational, and the way she delivered them reminded me very much of myself.  She suggested to the audience that we find a mentor, no matter if we’re young or old.  So I figured who better than Penelope herself?

A couple emails later, I learned about Brazen Careerist and what it could do for my career.

Stop here.  After a couple emails and phone calls, and no real results, I contacted Penelope and expressed my interest in speaking with her when she indeed had the time.  She emailed me back saying she’d be available until 3 a.m. so I called her.  My first meeting with Penelope was at 2:15 in the morning.  She appreciated the fact that I was persistent from the beginning and that I didn’t give up when our schedules were conflicting.

I think that’s what being Brazen is all about, going after what you want and then some.  And I wasn’t even part of the Brazen community yet.

Having read Penelope’s book, I was eager to jump into the world of blogging and really dive into social media and what it’s all about.  I had already started a blog with a couple posts for my PR Writing class, so I decided to morph that into what we see here.

With Ryan Paugh’s help, I’ve established my blog and my presence in the Brazen community.  He helped me get an idea of what I want my blog to do for me, and what I hope to accomplish through my posts.  He advised that it would take a couple months to get established and it’s going to feel like nobody’s reading, because they aren’t.  He’s about right – just under two months and I got my first blog comment yesterday (thanks Meg).

Since October, I’ve written several new posts on everything from an agency tour to how I met the soldier.  I’ve drafted my resume three times with Penelope’s help and we’re working on making it a viable sales tool. I discovered Twitter, and have been active there as well.  In the last 48 hours I’ve been flooded with a stream of followers – and for me, the flood means my total is up to 31.  That’s a lot from the two or three I had when I started.  Through all this, I hope to make some great contacts, and in a perfect world – possibly land a job because of those contacts I’ve made.

Ask me again in six months what blogging has done for me, and I’m sure it’ll be a lot of the same song and dance, with a few more comments (hopefully) and some more followers on Twitter.  Or ask me in four months in person when I’m at the Austin Hilton with the Brazen crew at SXSW.