The fulltime job
I’m a PR person today for Google, which is super fun, chaotic, and involves lots of computers and internet things.
Growing up in Kansas, the people who made the internet stuff felt so abstract and far away. But when I wasn’t playing too many video games, I’d read PC and gaming magazines, falling in love with overanalyzing digital media. I’d pore over Gamecube reviews in Game Informer, analyze the minutia of the 6th generation console wars, and dream someday of launching cool and new technology that I actually cared about.
Now, I’m a part of that world leading PR for a few of Google’s products (you should buy Chromebooks and it’s not only because I’m biased), helping shape how they show up in the world while trying to bother journalists about news in hopefully the least annoying way possible.
Sample reporter pieces from campaigns I worked on.
What I used to do:
I came up in the world of Executive and Internal communications, which boils down to a similar objective, helping important people not say silly things. Speechwriting, public speaking coaching. It was crazy to be a 21 year old fresh grad, walking into a room with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and attempt to make suggestions on how they should communicate. It’s wilder that they had the grace and self-awareness to consider listening.
It was awesome, and the comms teams at Grainger and TransUnion taught me everything I know and I owe them forever.