 Hi everybody, my name is Jason Klein. Welcome back to another episode of Career Pathways Virtual Trailheads. I am the director of P20 initiatives at Northern Illinois University. Part of my job is to help school districts and community colleges throughout Illinois implement work-based learning solutions and other really exciting instructional solutions to help students learn in the most engaging ways possible. Unfortunately, as we all shelter in place, we can no longer be out doing job shadowing or internships. We can't have guest speakers coming into our classrooms. So we're bringing the work-based learning opportunities to you through this series. We're really excited to bring you people from a wide variety of occupations from throughout Illinois to share their experiences with you and so that we can learn about careers from them. Today, we've got a really exciting guest. Part of it, part of what's exciting about this conversation is going to be that we're going to be able to explore something that you don't think about when you're thinking about a career and that's actually changing jobs within a career, which is something that we do. But we're also going to get to hear stuff that I think a lot of people are going to be really interested in because you're affected by it every day and that's marketing, communication, some of those kinds of things that we don't even realize we're always affected by. So with that, I'm going to turn it over and let our guest introduce herself. Desiree. Hi, so I'm Desiree Vitaglia and I'm currently a media relations specialist for Northwestern Medicine. So tell us about what you do for Northwestern Medicine because you're not a doctor, you're not a nurse, but you're really important there, especially right now. So talk to us about that. Yes, absolutely. So I will start off by saying I am still relatively new to this role. I've been on the job a bit over four months now and I work on a team of seven other people in the marketing department and one thing that's been really fantastic is the ability to learn from people that come from a variety of backgrounds in marketing and communications. So some of my team members actually worked as TV or newspaper reporters before. Some of them come from more of a strictly public relations background and that's what my background was prior to this. So my role is really telling stories about Northwestern Medicine's hospitals specifically in the western suburbs of Chicago focused on four hospitals there along with another team member and it's getting stories out about the patients, getting stories about the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and just really giving people an inside look at how Northwestern Medicine is impacting lives. So you recently moved into that four months ago. Tell us about what you did prior to that. Sure. So prior to that, I worked for Wilton which is a cake decorating company that's based in Naperville, Illinois. So I was their public relations manager for six years and it's really interesting how I came into that role because I previously did not have any public relations experience. In fact, I never, it's funny to me now, I never even took a PR class in college but I think it's important to relay that because when you look back you can see how the different things you pursued, the different steps you take, the different jobs you even had all build on top of one another and help lead you down that path. So in college I was a journalism major. I was focusing on broadcasting and I did some different jobs after college, worked for a video production company and then when the time came and I was offered a news producer job I ended up deciding, you know what, this isn't the path I want to go down. So let's just kind of see what happens and I actually did staffing and recruiting for a couple of years and it was fine but it was then that I realized, okay, if I'm not doing something creative, something more tied to that degree I was pursuing, I'm going to go crazy. It's just not for me. So I found the opening with Wilton and it was just such a perfect fit. They were really interested in the fact that I studied journalism, that I did internships in that area and that I understood what is it that the media will be interested in. So I love telling that story because it really explains kind of how things came together. So in that role, you know, it was different. I was promoting fakeware, I was promoting cake decorating and sprinkles and fun things like that but it really gave me such a fantastic introduction and foundation to working with all different types of media and just getting people excited and interested in your company. So first of all, just so that students who are watching this know, I've had roles in three different school districts where I've been lucky enough to work on communication stuff and in all three of those districts we were lucky enough to, and many districts do not have this, but be big enough districts that were well resourced enough to have communications professionals and their backgrounds as an interesting case in point, one of them came from a TV background, one of them came from a newspaper background, and one of them, her background was in state government. She had actually previously worked in the Lieutenant Governor's office. So a shout out to all three of them, but also to their very diverse, though like your background, the journalism component, and they did all study journalism as part of their path. So tell us about your education path from high school through college, like what you wanted to do, how you knew you wanted to study that, and so give us some insight into that. Absolutely, and I kind of have a funny anecdote too, since we are in the stay at home order currently, we're finding different projects to do around the house, and so I was cleaning out some boxes that I had in my closet, and I actually found papers that I saved that were maybe favorites of mine from English class, and I found clippings from stories I did on my high school newspaper and my college newspaper, and as I was looking at everything and piecing it all together, I was just like, wow, I can really see how all of this shaped me, helped shape me into the person that I am today. Going back even as far as grade school, I always loved writing. I, in junior high, I was in drama club. I loved to do speaking, you know, whenever we had to do speeches in school, that wasn't something I was afraid of. I loved that opportunity, and it's something I still enjoy now. I love giving presentations. So in high school, it was probably around sophomore year, I want to say. I took an introduction to newspaper writing class, and then I ended up working on the paper, and that was just really when I fell in love with it. I liked interviewing people, I liked working on the paper and seeing the outcome, and then in between my junior and senior year of high school, I actually found out that NIU was offering summer camps, if you will, for high school students, and there was a journalism one, so I went and attended that. I think it was about a week long, and that was where I got the chance to see, you know, NIU's TV station that they had at the time, and the Northern Star newspaper, and I just thought, wow, this all really makes sense for me. Like, it's close to home, it's affordable. I was going to be the first person in my family going to college, so that was something new for my parents to have to navigate, and for it to be less than an hour from home, and still be a great option that would give me a lot of wonderful opportunities, it all made sense. So that is my path leading up to college, and then like I said, I worked on both the paper and TV station there. And so in addition to your classes, you were working on the paper and at the TV station in college then? Yes, and I just loved that. I remember, especially the first couple of years, I just wanted to be at the newspaper all the time. I didn't want to go to class. I was just like, I'm ready to work. I'm ready to learn how this is and just be in the trenches. That's awesome. So that's really, really great that you had all those experiences. And let's talk a little bit. Let's dive into both the work at Wilton and then the work at Northwestern, and then I've got a couple more general questions for you. So tell us about what a typical day or week looked like. Ed, either or both of the positions. So your choice. Sure. Yeah. Maybe we'll go into both just to kind of explain some of the differences. So back when I was at Wilton, one of the things I was doing for the last three years that I was there was every week, I would host a Facebook live episode. And I think it's interesting to mention that because it really, again, demonstrated how different things I did in school and different things I enjoyed, such as being on camera, came into play. When I took the job at Wilton, I had no cake decorating experience at all. I didn't know anything. But I was willing to learn. And then that ended up positioning me to be a really great champion of the brand because Wilton very much believed in everybody can learn how to decorate. Everybody can find something that they're good at with this. And I ended up going on live TV several times. I mean, ABC, Fox, WGN in Chicago and doing those demos and then getting to be able to do them, like I said, for Facebook live as well. So it was every Tuesday that we would do that. But besides that, it was really just a mix of reaching out to different types of media context. So that would be some for websites, you know, especially a lot of the dot com counterparts for magazines. So we'd work a lot with wood housekeeping. There was I would get to go to New York every year to actually meet with magazine editors and show them here are all the new products from Wilton. So that was really cool. It was something that I always look forward to. And then I mean, it was always just so rewarding to see the fruits of your labor and see that a media outlet would feature a Wilton pan or Wilton baking copper or sprinkles. And then in my job now, kind of what I was saying earlier, it really has taken me back to my journalism roots where I'm interviewing people a lot more. I'm not so focused on product. So I'm whether it's a patient or it's a doctor, I'm getting to really go back and think, OK, what questions do I need to ask them? Why is it going to be interesting to people? What would people want to know? And then I get to work on framing that to the media. So the thing that hasn't gone away, even though the two jobs are very different, is that the thrill I get every time I get a response from somebody that I've pitched. So whether that be, you know, somebody at New York Times or someone locally for the Daily Herald, or I was working with Fox earlier this week. And the time I hear back like, yeah, we'd like to talk to that person and feature them. You just get this rush of, oh, OK, great. So that's that's one of the things that I really love about the media relations role. I get to satisfy what always interested me about the media and work with them and just feel like I'm bringing value and information to people. So what are the skills? I mean, that's a in some ways, you've talked about some similar kinds of things you do working with the media and both jobs, some very different things. Highlighting what doctors and nurses are doing today or what patients are experiencing today is a lot different from sprinkles on a cake in a lot of ways. So tell us about the skills you need to be successful in either both of these roles. Sure. The first one that comes to mind is relationship building. That's something that's so important. And I mean, that goes for your relationships with the media. On one hand, if you see that you're going to deliver something, that be a product sample or an interview with someone, and then that falls through, you're not going to be seen as somebody that they can rely on. And you know, the media is working with a lot of difficult deadlines and they have more pressure on them than the never before with a lot of things that they're juggling. So that's really key. But then also the relationships with the people you're working with. So that can be your own colleagues on your team. And then in this instance, like you said, a lot of the medical professionals that I'm working with too. Obviously their time is very valuable, especially right now. And you want to be prepared. You want to have your questions ready. If I'm interviewing them about a condition that I'm not familiar with, I do my research and I am googling things and kind of learning what I can so as not to lose their time. So the relationship building is really important. And then in addition to that, just the writing and communication skills are so key. When I'm pitching media, it's almost always through email. And you know, we all get a lot of emails and the media does especially. So you need to be able to keep your writing concise. You need to grab their interest right away and you need to let them see why they want to feature your company or whatever that may be. Cool. Those are great skills for us to think about in terms of how we develop them when we're still in school so that we're ready to use them in the workplace. There are also skills that we've heard about from other guests of other episodes. Maybe not in the exact same words, but really important skills that cut across careers. Can you tell us about the most either exciting or interesting, maybe a better word, project or challenge that you've kind of worked through at work in either of these jobs? That's a good one. I'm sure I have a lot of examples. Okay. Most interesting. Well, everything, you know, since like I said, this job is recent. A few things come to mind with that. I'll go back to just this past December. So I've only been on the job for a few weeks, actually. And I learned about how at Mary and Joy Rehabilitation Hospital in the suburbs here, they were working with some volunteers from engineering backgrounds who were helping to modify toys for children with special needs or disabilities. And it was just the timing of it was so perfect because it's December, it's Christmas time. And I was able to craft this story about how in a way this gentleman who was volunteering I painted him as a secret Santa and for helping these kids be able to play with toys that maybe they otherwise wouldn't have by adapting them. So I pitched that out to local media and NBC5 did a really great story on it. It actually secured interest in a few other places. But that was something rewarding to me because as I said, okay, I'm new to this job. I don't know anything about medicine or working for a hospital, but I was able to get some good attention there. Besides that, I would say previously, my work with Wilton just working with the magazines was always exciting and the websites and then, like I said, doing the on-camera stuff as well and inspiring people to decorate. That's something that when I left, it was very rewarding to see the impact there because on my last Facebook Live episode when I announced that I was leaving, I thought I was going to hold it together and I did it and I was crying. But the comments from so many people telling me how we helped inspire them to try something new and there was one woman who told me that she was recovering from a stroke and that we really inspired her to try to get her hand function back again and be able to try those things and it was just like, oh my gosh, to know that something like this has impacted people this way, sometimes you don't realize how you're connecting with people and that was amazing. So all of our jobs has an element of either something we have to do that we don't like to do or that other people just don't have any ideas part of the job and I would, an example I would give is even for students, teachers have elements of their jobs that are kind of hidden from students. So is there something either for you personally or for other people you know in your line of work, in media relations and marketing and public relations that is a thing that people have to do that either they don't like or just that other people would have no idea about that we should be aware of to kind of get a full picture of what the career looks like. Sure, I would say that you need to be able to have, you need to have the ability to be resilient in this role because you deal with a lot of rejection and that is one of the most challenging parts. Yesterday was a perfect example. I emailed in the late afternoon probably 30 different contacts this pitch and I will admit sometimes I can be impatient and it's like why haven't I heard back from anybody yet? But you know you start to feel a little defeated when you're pushing all these things out and you haven't heard anyone back and then right before I was going to sign off somebody did respond so then you know you kind of feel okay all right this is at least worthwhile to one person but that's something that can be really tough if you are pitching and it's not getting anywhere so that's what I would say is one of the biggest challenges but it's also what keeps you pushing ahead. You know if something doesn't work out you keep going at it. We asked someone from another career and actually we had some high school students who asked us to ask that person about how they deal with rejection in their job. What advice would you give to anybody whether they're a high school student and adult whoever how do you deal with that rejection or forcing yourself to then be resilient? What's some advice you have about that? Yeah that can definitely be challenging so what I do is I always refer back to the wins that I've had and I think that's something that anyone even a student can do you know reflect on a moment a project something that you worked on and you did that you were so proud of and it made you feel you know valuable it made you feel like oh I really like working on this because of XYZ it helped me use these skills so that's what I always revert back to I say okay maybe today has been challenging and I got turned on from places but here's the list of all the times that I won and just focus on that and use that to keep moving forward. That's great thank you for that specific advice that's really awesome. So two last questions first of all how does your job have a positive impact on the world your current will go with your current role? Yeah absolutely so my job now with Mark Lester Medicine it has a positive impact on the world because it's sharing you know inspiring stories of both patients and hospital staff whether that be doctors or nurses there are just so many incredible stories some that have moved me to tears about people you know overcoming cancer or learning how to walk again after having a stroke or you know dealing with a new diagnosis in a new way of living and fighting their way through it and there's just so many inspiring stories and then many times seeing the relationship between the patient and their doctor or somebody that you know helped them along their journey getting to learn about that and share that with the world is just so impactful and I think that their stories are something that can inspire and comfort a lot of people that might be going through the same thing too Last question then what general advice thinking of a student who might be 14 16 18 20 years old just about careers in general what general advice would you give a student if they if they came to you and said I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do or I know what I want to do what would you tell them that would help them be successful in a career I know exactly what to say for this one whatever it is that you love to do whatever it is that gets you excited even if it's something that you think is weird or you're not sure how you could make a career out of it keep chasing that thing because I look back not only on myself but classmates going back to even junior high and something that they were really good at you know maybe drawing or they were really good with math and they just kept pursuing that or they really entered science whatever it is keep chasing after that because you will be really surprised at how you can turn that passion into a career and that was something also that really came to life for me when I started at Wilton because it was my first time working for a larger company and there were jobs I never heard of there were people on the photography team called food stylists whose job it is to you know they come from a culinary background and they're literally making those shots the picture perfect we had our cake decorating room and I never would have thought that somebody that maybe went to community college and pursued you know a pastry degree would be able to put something like that to use and make a career out of it so whatever it is that you love to do if it's working with your hands keep chasing after that and it's going to bring you down the right path for sure well that is great advice that is advice that also echoes it's becoming a real significant theme here and so that makes me excited for young people who hopefully will be able to have careers in those areas they're passionate about thank you so much for joining us today this was a real treat and thank you for your work especially given the incredibly significant role of hospitals and medical professionals right now and what you're doing to support and share their work so thank you so much thanks for having me for those of you watching remember you can share thoughts questions ideas for occupations you'd like us to investigate for individual people any questions you'd like us to ask please share those with us on twitter our twitter account is at p20 that's p20 network all one word and we'd love to hear from you thanks so much to everybody around Illinois and beyond who is watching the career pathways virtual trailhead series and we look forward to bring you more episodes coming again coming up soon thanks again