Feature Friday: Sarah Tiambeng.

•  Brea: Tell me about yourself.

Sarah: I am a Public Relations Account Executive at Zehnder Communications in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’m in my third year at the agency with clients in food and beverage, health care and banking industries. I am a proud graduate of the journalism school at the University of Missouri.

• B: What do you like most about PR?

S: I love the versatility of the industry. Public relations is a career that requires adaptability and agility because the landscape of communications is always changing. My career keeps me motivated to experiment with and evolve the ways I try to accomplish my client’s goals in a way that allows me to combine my technical skills and my creativity.

 

• B: How did you land your current position at Zehnder Communications and what are your responsibilities in that position?

S: I decided I wanted to move back to New Orleans, my hometown, after completing a 6-month internship in Dallas. I always considered going back there so I knew of a few companies I was interested in and admired. I cold emailed a handful of people with my resume letting them know I’d be moving back and would love the chance to meet with them. It was a big gamble because I’d never taken that approach before, but I was pleasantly surprised by the responses!
 
I started with the company as an Account Coordinator and am now a public relations account executive. I serve as the day-to-day contact for my clients and I execute the PR plans and strategies I’ve developed with my supervisor and team members.

• B: How has being a member of PRSA helped you in your career?

S: I can’t say enough good things about PRSSA and PRSA as an organization. I was a member of PRSSA in college and it allowed me to connect with PR professionals and get feedback on my resume and portfolio and led me to several of my internship experiences. It was a natural fit for me to then join PRSA after graduation. PRSA is a great place to begin networking as well as gain exposure to webinars and luncheons with some great ongoing education opportunities.

•  B: You have a blog, TypicalSarahStuff.com, why did you decide to start it?

S: I live pretty far from most of my closest family and friends so I started the blog as a way to keep in touch with them. It’s been really fun sharing things with people who I may not always have the time to connect with individually. When starting a personal blog I think it’s really important to think of your audience as your best friends or family because it’s the only way that you’ll hold on to your true voice and writing style, so I try to keep it fun and casual.

 

• B: You've held many internships, what was one challenge you faced as an intern and how did you overcome it?

S: The biggest challenge I faced as an intern was learning to assert my voice. It’s easy to naturally sit back and defer to your supervisors during an internship because you want to focus on taking everything in. I would say it’s still something I’m working on and I try to overcome it by realizing that if you’re working with the right team, any idea is worth sharing and everyone on the team brings value in different ways. Understanding that builds confidence and it becomes more natural to consider being vocal and assertive as just being a valuable team member.

 

• B: What is your dream job?

S: My dream job is a mix of traditional public relations and community management, which fortunately is something our industry is very much headed toward in my opinion. I look forward to the day when drawing hard lines between public relations, marketing, and social media is no longer considered out of the norm. 

•  B: This past year, you and your boyfriend created NolaValentines.com. What inspired this site?

S: Love that you saw this! We are a pretty corny couple and Nola Valentines was very much a representation of our shared sense of humor. We came up with it on a whim while driving — just thinking it would be something our friends and family would enjoy. We had the site concepted, designed, and published within four days and then five days after that we were seeing about 60K unique visitors a day! It was a really fun experience and taught me a lot about being creative and putting something out there without over-thinking.

 

• B: As a post grad, what advice would you give to undergrad PR students?

S: I think a lot of PR students know the importance of interning and networking, but one thing I think gets overlooked a lot is ongoing education. What a PR person does on a daily basis is equally rooted in the traditional aspects of PR as it is in the industry of the client.
Don’t be afraid to study other interests while in school and minor in other things because, while it’s important to be a strong writer and marketing student, it’s equally important to be able to know the client through and through. In my short career, I’ve had to learn and understand things like various cancer treatment technologies, insects and home improvement, and even glass manufacturing and recycling!

• B: This is probably my favorite question to ask and I apologize for the randomness but what song best describes your life right now and why?

S: April in Paris- Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong. Because it’s April and I’m answering these questions from Paris :)

• B: Anything else you'd like to add?

S: One last tip for PR students- Work on being the strongest writer you can be. As I said before, the communications field is constantly changing and if you know how to write for your audience, well and within deadline, you’ll be able to adapt!

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