How to Land Your Kick-Butt Dream Job: Episode 2

Last Thursday was the first episode of the new series on the blog How to Land Your Kick Butt Dream Job with Cait Weingartner, voice behind Pretty & Fun. The idea all started when I was reading interviews on the web of successful business women, but I had so many other questions besides the 5-6 questions they answered. I wanted to dig deeper and discover the steps they took that lead them to their successful careers. There's the saying that if you have a question there's probably others out there with the same one so I decided to make a blog series out of it! When I reached out to Cait and told her my blog series idea she thought it was great! 

Thank you again Cait for putting in the time to answer some questions with your busy schedule and new job! If you missed last week's episode about college and Cait's experiences check it out here. 


Name: Cait Weingartner

Age: 25

Job Title: Digital Strategist, 360i

Blog name/year started: Pretty & Fun, 2011

Tell us about your 2 internship experiences and who they were with.
During college I did two internships and then freelanced for one company until after graduation. My two internships were with Success Communications Group, working within their Public Relations team and All American Games, supporting PR and social media for the company’s training camps and events. While at All American Games I noticed a huge void in social media for the company (whose target was mostly teenage football players and parents) and launched social channels for all of their brands, then worked to manage and provide ongoing support as a freelancer.


What was the process of landing each internship? How did you find each?
My college’s career services department was very helpful as far as internships go – I had a general idea of what I wanted to focus on (Public Relations) and was able to set up interviews for both internships through my college. 

How do you think your internship experiences played a role in landing a job right out of college?
My internships gave me a lot of really valuable outside of the classroom experience that served as the focus of my resume at graduation. Being able to speak to real client work that I had done and having a feel for the agency world provided me with real-world examples that I could reference during interviews beyond courses I had taken.

What was the biggest lesson you learned during your internships?
Be a self-starter. I quickly realized during my first internship that “down time” was a complete waste of time. My managers were busy themselves and didn’t have time to be continuously monitoring my activities and progress on tasks – creating little side projects for myself and going beyond the initial task during any free time showed initiative and got me started with thinking strategically. Don’t be afraid to speak up and offer suggestions or weigh in on assignments and the work you’re doing. You’re there to add value, not just follow directions.

As always, come back next week for episode 3 discussing interviews and what employees are looking for. 

Image via Refinery29