The document discusses how to choose a college major and career path. It recommends identifying the job and location desired after college, then discovering the necessary skills. It provides an example of Jill Gerig who realized she enjoyed PR, wanted to work in San Francisco, interned at an agency to learn skills, and got a job at Edelman. The document advises planning today to achieve one's ideal career.

1. Harrison Montague
19 March 2015
Dr. Brubaker
Comms 321
Oh the Places You Will Go…If You Chose the Right Major
By Harrison Montague
The options are endless. Well, maybe they just seem endless. I switched majors five different
times before settling into public relations, so I know the decision of choosing a major is a
difficult one.
With hundreds of majors to choose from, college students often find themselves without oars in a
sea of possibilities. Even after the daunting task of selecting a major is done, there are yet
hundreds of opportunities within each individual major.
Many students are ill-equipped to choose which aspect of a major they would like to pursue. A
simple three-step approach to reaching your ideal job situation can prove valuable for college
students faced with the uncertainty of the future.
1. Identify the job you would like to have out of college
2. Discover where you would like to live out of college
3. Identify the skills necessary to land the desired job in the desired city
Identifying the Things You Like

2. When considering your ultimate landing spot, there is an important consideration to make.
Consider the activities and assignments from your coursework that have been enjoyable.
Professors can prove to be a valuable resource when considering your academic likes and
dislikes. They have been in your position. They have experience in the industry.
Jill Gerig, a senior account executive at Edelman San Francisco, said that she first realized she
enjoyed public relations while she was a junior at Sonoma State in California. During one of her
communications classes, Gerig was able to write press releases, blogposts and manage the social
media for Habitat for Humanity in Sonoma, Calif. This class helped Gerig realize she enjoyed
building brand awareness, as well as many other aspects of public relations.
Where Would You Like To Live?
While still in college, Gerig identified that she wanted to work and live in and around the Bay
Area. Narrowing her focus of places to look for internships and local jobs helped Gerig hone in
on public relation opportunities in the San Francisco area.
I lived in western Nebraska for a few months. While there, I met several people who were
recruited to live there right out of college by a large sporting goods company that has its
headquarters in the area. Many of the employees of the company said they liked their job but said
the small-town environment they now lived in left a lot to be desired. The careers they had were
satisfying, but the location of the company was not.

3. This question of where you would like to end up living should be at the forefront of your mind
when trying to figure out your career. The surroundings you place yourself in have a major
impact on your happiness. While a higher salary might seem enticing, do not underestimate how
important location is when determining where you would like to work. When looking for a city
to settle in, a great place to start is Best Places, a website dedicated to helping you find a city in
the United States that you would be best suited for.
What Skills Do You Need?
After identifying the job you would like to have and the city you would like to live in, the final
step is to identify the skills you need to acquire to succeed in your desired position. Each and
every stop in your academic and professional career should be a stepping stone towards your
ultimate goal.
After realizing that she wanted to work in public relations in San Francisco, Gerig was able to
find an agency in San Francisco called the Outcast Agency that turned out to be great place to
intern at. The Outcast Agency is a smaller PR agency that hired on 10 interns at once to work
together. Throughout the six month internship, Gerig was able to learn how to work as part of
agency, an experience that has been invaluable to her in her career. Her experience at the Outcast
Agency centered on tech clients like NEST and Yahoo!, helping her learn the skills of news
monitoring, creating and maintaining media contact lists as well as database and tracking tools.
Gerig was able to use her experience at the Outcast Agency to land a job at Edelman San
Francisco. In just a few short years, she has worked her way up from an entry-level account

4. manager to senior account executive, taking the lead on the Microsoft and ZAGG accounts that
Edelman manages.
Success Is Not An Accident
Great careers don’t happen by accident. Take control of your future and plan today how you will
arrive at your ideal career. Figure out what you like to do, identify where you would like to live
and sharpen the skills needed for your preferred career.
About the author: Harrison Montague, a senior public relations student at BYU, knows what is
like to fly. After 80 flights miles in six months, he has discovered a love of the United States and
the different foods each state has to offer. He has eaten at hundreds of local eateries from
California to Maine and swears the best barbeque he has ever had was not in Tennessee, Texas or
Missouri, but rather at a local joint called Four-Rivers Barbeque just a few miles outside of
Downtown Orlando.
About the article contributor: Jillian Gerig is a senior account executive in Edelman’s
consumer marketing practice, based in San Francisco. She currently works on the Microsoft
stores and ZAGG accounts. She is enthusiastic about the growing mobile and consumer
technology industry and has worked on several different clients in the space including Belkin,
Lightt, Adobe and StarMaker. She graduated from Sonoma State University with a bachelor’s
degree in communications in 2011.

5. Caption: Jill Gerig loves San Francisco, so she found a way to get a job she loves in the city she
loves
Tweet: Stuck wondering what the next step is for your career? Find out how to land the job you
want in the city you love.
Tweet: Don't get stuck working in a city you can't stand. Find out how to launch a successful
career in the city you want to call home.