Being a college student and a PR professional, simultaneously.

Currently, I am senior at the University of Oregon, double-majoring in Journalism and Public Relations. I am also in the School of Journalism’s Honors College. On top of this, I am working full-time as the Digital Sales and Public Relations specialist at Skeie’s Jewelers. My experience in working while completing my degree has been nothing short of stressful, but it has also been extremely rewarding.

How did I get here?

I often ask myself the same question: How did I get here?

I began my college career at Portland State University having no idea what I planned on doing, except I knew I was interested in communications. I was pursuing this major while also studying in the Urban Honors College. To make ends meet in an expensive city like Portland, I worked five days a week at two different Walgreens in customer service.

My experience at Portland State was less than picture perfect, it was more of a find-myself and figure-it-out year. This led to me transferring to University of Oregon to pursue journalism, as I needed to move closer to home to save money and find a career path.

Once at University of Oregon, I began figuring out what I believed my passion was. In high school, I was an active athlete; I played soccer for fifteen years and played high school football as a kicker. This and Oregon’s athletics reputation led me to pursuing sports journalism. I joined Duck TV Sports in my first term, and began learning about what a career in sports journalism entailed.

However, after shadowing a prominent sports reporter, she advised me on what her career required. There was constant travel, little pay, but fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Hearing about the lifestyle of the sports reporter made me less inclined to continue to pursue a career in the field. I wanted more from a career, in which I was compensated well and also felt intellectually challenged on a daily basis.

Public Relations?

After this disheartening experience, I decided to make myself a more well-rounded professional, so I added a public relations major. This occurred the same time I began working as a manager at Hollister full-time and I was accepted into the School of Journalism’s Honors Program. My plate was certainly full, but I was accustomed to working constantly and taking 16 credits a term.

However, it wasn’t long before the pandemic hit, and then I was unemployed and school was online. This proved to be a difficult time for everyone, but I felt it hit me especially hard. I had been working from the time I was 16 until this moment. I had never been unemployed before.
Thankfully, unemployment helped me stay financially stable, but I felt that my future had completely changed. The time in quarantine led to many instances of self reflection and 20-year-old crises in which I contemplated where I wanted to be in the next two years. The unemployment in the country made a future in public relations look bleak, so I decided the best thing for my future would be to take life day-by-day.

Thank you, Indeed.

When senior year of college arrived, I was in the same mindset as when the pandemic began. I had found a job at Richardson Sports, a wholesale hat company, working in customer service full-time, but it was not somewhere I saw myself post-graduation.

On a whim, I logged onto Indeed and applied to a few different jobs. One in particular stood out, which was to be a Digital Sales Specialist at Skeie’s Jewelers. I had never worked a sales job before, but I knew I could utilize my previous five years of experience in a sales-related field.

When I received a phone call to come in for an interview, I was surprised, but also extremely nervous. I felt as though I was unqualified and I also knew nothing about jewelry. I went into it with an open mind, knowing I was already employed, and it would not hurt to interview.

After the interview, I felt confident in the way I presented myself and my specific skillset. But at this point, I was comfortable at my current job and it would take a lot to make me uproot myself to work in a new, foreign environment. However, Skeie’s Jewelers offered me a position I could not refuse. I would be compensated well, while working more flexible hours, such as possible work-from-home opportunities. Ultimately, I chose to take the position in November of 2020.

Sales at Skeie’s

When I began, I felt like a fish out of water. I was the youngest person working on the sales staff and the only student. I also began around the busiest season of the year, holiday season. First, I had to learn the basics of precious metals and gemstones, and then I had to learn how to sell products, in general. At one point, I remember wondering how I was going to sell a product that I personally did not know anything about.

But within the first month, I was making sales constantly and I had thrown myself into the environment in order to learn everything I could. This needed up paying off immensely, because within two months, my manager promoted me to the sole Public Relations specialist of Skeie’s Jewelers. I had already been aiding the marketing team with certain projects, like writing the blog posts and taking pictures. But I did not expect to be promoted to public relations so quickly.

When I began at Skeie’s, I had expressed my interest in working with their marketing department and possibly conducting public relations projects. Skeie’s Jewelers is a family-owned jewelry store in Eugene, Oregon with less than 30 employees, so they did not have a dire necessity for a public relations department. But after I proposed some of my ideas for the future of the store, I believe the management team saw a potential for growth in our store and brand.

So Far, in PR

Since working in the public relations department and marketing at Skeie’s Jewelers, I have helped create a successful campaign that showed over 50% growth in sales than the previous years. I have also proposed multiple advertising projects that have proved to be successful. I do not want to divulge too much about the future growth at Skeie’s, but I know the sky is the limit for what I can achieve here.

Working as a public relations professional while also studying as a public relations student can be and has been extremely difficult. Trying to balance work and school is already challenging for a student working a college job. Working a job you genuinely care about and wanting to put 100% into it while going to school is nearly impossible. Especially when school is online, it is hard to stay motivated and keep up with what is required of you.

One aspect that has helped me stay motivated, is the fact that I am working through the impossible. I have associates, customers, and other professionals tell me daily that they could not balance career and school like I do. Specifically, I have had a veteran sales representative tell me I am one of the most hard-working and intelligent college students he has ever met. Hearing this has certainly boosted my confidence in myself, but I still feel every day that I have something to prove as a brand-new professional.

Future plans

Since I am such a young professional, I know I have a long, invigorating career ahead of me. At this moment, I am choosing to stay in the jewelry industry, as I have found a love for all the different aspects of jewelry. The industry is continuing to grow, and I know I will always have a place in it. I see a future at Skeie’s Jewelers for myself, as I can grow and learn more about public relations and the jewelry industry. With that being said, down the road, I know I will eventually want to move out of Eugene and somewhere else in the United States. But with that I say, a year ago today I had no idea I would be working this incredible job in my ideal career field. You have no idea where life will take you, so it is important to stay motivated and work hard.