Positioning Paper

When I was about 17 years old I had the opportunity to attend a presentation given by Larry H. Miller. Soon after that experience I worked at an event he hosted at one of his auto plazas to celebrate the passing of the Olympic torch in 2002 when the Olympics came to Salt Lake City. These interactions along with a book about some of his accomplishments and his life experiences made me admire the way he conducted business, his foresight for a good business opportunity and drive to grow and develop a company. Also having grown up in Utah I was naturally a Jazz fan and have a lot of fond memories of attending Jazz or Bees games.
I have always been the type of person that loves to be involved and in the middle of all the action. I enjoy being involved in the planning process of things. I became interested in public relations for a couple of reasons. First of all my real passion is marketing and public relations seemed like a good way to learn good writing and communication skills before acquiring an MBA with a marketing emphasis, I also love the interpersonal communications aspect and the relationships side of it, and I liked the idea of how close public relations is related to interpersonal communications.
It seemed only logical to me to try to get involved professionally with a Larry H. Miller organization since they are so well established and are constantly growing and developing. I spoke with public relations director from the Utah Jazz, the Salt Lake City Bees and the Energy Solutions Arena. I love sports and I love the fact that I can not only participate in the public relations aspect for a sporting event but also press conferences, and other team events, or in the arena aspect it is constantly changing and developing, there is always something going on and new challenges to face.
However it is difficult to acquire one of these positions. There are only about 10 positions available between all three organizations for public relations. There are also other positions available specific to event planning and advertising, but with all the positions they require previous work experience, whether it was an internship or work with another organization. Derrick from the Utah Jazz said, “Just schooling won’t cut it. Writing experience is crucial both in sports and general writing. The more well rounded you are the better.”
One of the other difficulties involved is that there are so positions that the turn over rate to make positions available is very few and far between. The expected starting pay is about 25 to 30 thousand dollars a year, but Hanna Lee of the Salt Lake Bees also said that it is difficult to get an entry level position without prior work experience with both sport and non sport writing.
This experience has been helpful for me to be able to become more aware of what the expectations will be for me as I get closer to applying for jobs. I was unaware of how essential writing and work experience is through internships. Everyone I talked with emphasized the necessity experience prior to acquiring a full time position.