IMC

February 10, 2008
This past week I sent out an e-mail letter to a few dozen colleagues who are either the CCO (VP) of Corporate Communications of a corporation with $3 billion in revenue (mostly Fortune 200) or the Sr. officers of a public relations and communications agency with large billings. Some have replied immediately including two very, very large firms. A challenge I face is that most of the U.S. firms do not have the time or inclination to offer international students in marketing and communications visa standing (if they were to employ the student) to stay in the U.S. It may be up to the School to make the argument that this generation of marketing and communications students are as strong as the earlier generations of engineering and science students who were eventually sponsored. However, we do not make it a condition of summer internships to offer a visa (no job has been offered). However, many of the companies may consider placing a the international students (55%) in corporate post in their home country if they have offices there.
The jobs requested from me will demand strong writing and editing skills, strong team skills, planning ability, knowledge of stakeholders, media and PR.
Effective project management is essential and typically involves:
· Learning and analyzing client businesses to determine communications issues
· Developing actionable recommendations
· Building strong client relationships through effective integrated communications
· Participating on multi-disciplinary teams
· Interacting with internal and external resources such as research suppliers, advertising/creative agencies and other corporate resource groups
Other skills include:
Marketplace Insight Integrated Solutions
- Target Market Analysis - Communications Planning
- Needs-Based Segmentation - Marketing Planning and Integration
- Customer Understanding - Brand Building
- Messaging Assessment

Message Generation Execution and Measurement
- Positioning - Program Implementation
- Key Message Development - Communications Measurement
- Creative Strategy - Process Evaluation
- Persuasive Business Writing - Six Sigma/Commercialization

The market is chaotic this year. I suspect the softening business market will make it difficult to match students, but I know that we will match students to excellent projects. Watch this space for more information on residencies.