Communication in nuclear facilities - Alumnus Spotlight on Brooke Mills
December 6, 2017 |
Brooke Mills is a 2017 Xavier graduate who majored in Public Relations and minored in Communication Studies. She has recently begun a two year program with General Electrics. This program entails working in different sectors of communication within the company, including work within their nuclear plants. The rotations each last eight months and entail internal, external and marketing communication. Brooke is currently solely responsible for internal communication in Wilmington, NC. She also takes care of the San Jose, California internal communication. Some of the usual assignments are: all communication channels, website, emails, digital monitors, community engagement events and community partnership, along with planning and executing employee meetings. Brooke plays a major role in sharing executive communication, thus writing emails, blog posts, articles coming from the business leaders.
Here are some more questions we asked her:
How have your Communications classes helped with your job?
My communications classes have helped tremendously with my job, especially PR Writing, Junior PR Seminar and Strategic Communications. Being able to develop key messages in a timely manner and use communication strategically is very important and I learned those skills in class.
What tips or suggestions do you have for communication students?
Challenge yourself now so you are more prepared in your career. It's easy to work on a press release or an article for a week and have time to make edits to make it perfect, but I recommend challenging yourself by making the need more immediate. In my role, writing usually has to be turned around in a short amount of time. So, take time to learn the fundamentals. Once you have it down, challenge yourself to effectively write in a time crunch.
Learn about effective project management and practice with every academic project you have. Track progress and set deadlines- it will help once you have projects in your career! You have to make sure all of the bases are covered or the details will fall through the cracks and derail a project.
Ask questions and don't be afraid to engage business leaders. It can be intimidating, but it's the best way to learn and make connections!
Set your own personal goals and communicate those to your manager. It's important that you are getting what you want out of your career so that you can grow, thrive and be happy.
Brooke was a Xavier scholar and won several awards, surely a sign that she has a bright future ahead of her.
It's always great to see our alumni succeed!
You can find more information about Brooke on her website: https://millsb11.wixsite.com/website
