I went into my freshman year at the University of Oregon without declaring a major. As such, I decided to explore and take classes that sparked my interest. I landed on three classes: “Philosophy of Pop Culture,” “Social Inequality,” and “Media and Society.”
Looking back, it’s clear from the classes I chose that I knew exactly what I wanted to do — whether I had declared it or not.
A year later, I made it official and ultimately graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and minors in Ethics and Sociology.
Throughout the past four years at the University of Oregon, I received constant reassurance that I made the right decision. I found a true passion for PR and how I can use my understanding of society to create effective messaging that is still ethical PR for both the client and consumer.
In that process, I also realized that I often spend too much time making pros and cons lists instead of trusting my instincts.
I recently faced the next biggest decision in my life…the dreaded post-grad plans, and if you had asked me five months ago what area of PR I wanted to go into, I would’ve said, “anything but tech.”
But then I was given advice that, “if you could do tech PR, you could do any PR.”
During my interviews at The Hoffman Agency, I was surprised at how excited I was about the idea of working in tech. As soon as the interviews were done, I went to find my roommate, as an immediate debrief was necessary. She shared my excitement and then we geeked out over both of us potentially working in tech (for reference, she has a degree in computer science and had explained Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to me just two months before).
I was as uncertain about declaring my major as I was about working in tech PR – but I found the same certainty with The Hoffman Agency as I found with those first foundational college classes I chose. My first week at Hoffman exceeded all my expectations. I never thought I would laugh this much in meetings or learn so many new words and terms for things I didn’t even know existed.
I can now confidently declare that I made a great decision in joining the Hoffman team and could not be more excited for what the future holds!
