Running head: PMTM SELF-REFLECTION 1

My Summer with Pro-Model & Talent Management

Rachael Abaray

Kent State University

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1. Explain in detail using examples of how you contributed to your organization.

Pro-Model & Talent Management (PMTM) was a completely new work

experience for me in terms of what I have been used to doing. Whereas my time at

MassMutual Pittsburgh as a receptionist was nice in that it helped me learn to

communicate and write in a business setting, PMTM thrust me in to the world that I have

always dreamed of being a part of: the entertainment industry. While I have always

wanted to be an actor, this job allowed me to take my interests in the acting world and

present them along with my extensive knowledge in communication through interviews,

blogs, and social media posts!

At PMTM I showcased my communication skills vocally through several personal

interviews with local models and talent face-to-face, over the phone, and through email.

Then I took the information that I learned through my interviews and turned them into

blogs for the agencys Blogspot! While I have always been told that I am a good writer, I

never really believed anyone until my experience with PMTM. I feel as though my

writing was never really a majorly noticeable skill to myself because I was always

writing papers and assignments in a classroom setting for one person: my professor.

PMTM allowed me to break out of that comfort zone and write for an audience that had

never seen my writing before. I was no longer writing for a grade, but for the purpose of

informing the readers of the Pro-Model & Talent Management blog and Facebook. This

was truly an inspiring realization for me, that my writing was reaching so many different

people that were reading just to read and to be entertained and informed! The beauty of it

all was that I was not just writing short little posts here and there; I was writing

biographies and documenting lifetime achievements for the models and actors of PMTM.
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These are stories that the models and talent of PMTM are going to share with their

friends, families, and potential agents and managers! The thought that I may have been

writing a post about someone that may one day be a big-time model, actor, or singer in

the entertainment industry was an amazing feeling. I was even able to use my knowledge

and skills that I learned from my own acting experiences at Kent State to write other

blogs such as ones on vocal care and audition nerves. My other blogs also consisted of

major research on locations and even music that is currently popular. I was always eager

to come in to work to see what fun and interesting story I would be working on that day!

My blog posts were not the only thing that I was completing at PMTM. I was also

in charge of making and then scheduling the Facebook posts to promote my blogs. There

are going to be blogs of mine that will be posted to the PMTM blog and Facebook for the

next few months even when I am not there! It is very cool to know that I will have left a

lasting impression on the agency.

Blogger and Facebook aside, I also ran the PMTM Pinterest account several

times. On my slower days, the Pinterest account was always a great way to pass some

dead time. I would research different styles, trends, and other fun popular culture related

themes, and then pin them to the various boards on the PMTM account for the readers to

look at and enjoy. It was fun and a great way to show a little bit of my own flare and

interests in the entertainment industry.

2. List three new skills you learned and used during your practicum. Provide

examples.
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While at PMTM, I learned some interesting skills that I did not ever use before

my experience. One main thing that I learned was how to use Blogger. I had never in my

life heard of Blogspot or Blogger before my time with PMTM, but I am pretty sure I am

an almost expert when it comes to Blogger now because of the amount of time I spent

using it this summer.

Blogger is a platform that can be used to run a blog. Whether it is for personal

purposes or for business purposes, it is a great tool that lets you pick a theme and then

helps you create fun and interesting blog posts. You can include pictures, links, text in all

kinds of colors and fonts, and you can even play with the html code to make sure that it is

exactly how you want it. I had a lot of fun with Blogger, as well as a lot of troubles;

however, in the end I ended up eventually getting used to the interface, and I made some

great blog posts as a result!

I was also able to learn how to email in a much more professional manner than

what I am used to doing. I know that in my Organizational Communication course, we

touched on business communication a bit, and even had an assignment where we had to

email our professor in a professional manner. However, that was just an assignment for a

grade that was quite easy to get by on. At PMTM I was emailing back and forth with the

models and talent of the agency, as well as the parents of some of these people, plus, I

even had to email an industry professional at one point who has had over 15 years of

experience as an actor and comedienne! This was a whole new level of communication

for me because I was now a representative of the agency. Everything that I was saying

was being sent through an email with the agencys name and of course could be seen by
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my supervisor, so there was a lot of thought that needed to be put in the many messages

that I needed to send.

The same amount of thought had to be put into the many phone calls that I needed

to make. Just like the emails, I was communicating with the models and talent of the

agency, so I had to be extremely professional over the phone and clear and precise in

everything that I had to say. Many of the people I was contacting were just adolescents,

so I had to be personable and happy sounding every time I made a call. You never wanted

to come across as being uninterested, especially when you are trying to get these kids to

answer some important interview questions for you based on their experience with

PMTM. Luckily, in my case, I was extremely excited and interested in everything they all

had to say, so it made the talking quite easy for me. Plus, in the end, because of how I

was so personable with them, I ended up writing some amazing blogs that all were

different and really packed a punch and garnered many views, likes, and comments!

Finally, another skill that I gained from my time with PMTM was to be more

spontaneous. I am someone who always needs to go by a set plan, and this job left no

room for that. Every day I came in to the office, I thought I had an idea of what I would

be doing, but I always ended up needing to adapt to changes throughout the day. This job

kept me on my toes, and it really helped me step out of my usual comfort zone. I loved

how there was always something new every day, like a new blog entry, a new contact, or

having to help run a showcase! The showcase was a lot of fun because it gave me the

opportunity to introduce myself to the models and talent of PMTM face-to-face!

I found myself taking a lot of steps to better myself and prepare myself for the

real world. The spontaneity is extremely important for a quiet individual like myself.
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Even with my experience in acting, I have still always been a more introverted person,

but this job really made me take what I learned as a communication major and theater

minor and apply all those skills together to really benefit myself in this internship.

3. Provide examples of how your organization was successful and ways they need to

improve.

My time with PMTM was short-lived, but there was a lot that happened in the

three months I was there that showed me how this is such a successful organization. I

must admit that before I started working at PMTM, I had read a few reviews online, and

some of them were fantastic while a few were not the best. While those few bad reviews

stood out to me before I started my journey with PMTM, I cannot even fathom the

reasoning behind those reviews now that I have completed my internship. The

organization at PMTM is unlike anywhere else I have been. The room I was in was

shared with one of the ladies in bookings, and she was always honest on the phone, and

extremely kind. There was never a moment where I doubted anything that she ever said

to me or to anyone else for that matter. There was never even a moment where she would

comment negatively after a phone call about the person on the other end or anything. It

was so bizarre to me because I was used to such a different atmosphere with MassMutual.

I loved the honest nature with PMTM and the professionalism. I never once felt out of

place. They did everything to make me feel as though I was truly a part of the team.

The rest of the PMTM staff was also extremely kind and organized. They always

worked well together and handled situations in the office with extreme precision and care

even when it was extremely busy. One downfall with the staff, I would have to say was
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the communication amongst everyone. While everybody worked super well with one

another, there was always an issue with things getting lost in translation or things just

being miscommunicated. I feel that this may have been attributed to the fact that the

space they are working in is extremely small, and nobody is really assigned to a specific

area except for where my supervisor was located and one other staff member. Aside from

those two definite placements, everyone else was always switching computers and

offices, so it was sometimes a bit congested and things would get a little bit out of hand

with everyone being so close to one another.

One other issue was the amount of work that was assigned to certain people.

Sometimes my blogs would get a bit overwhelming, and I had a few too many assigned at

once. This ended up being okay, though, because I could easily pass any unfinished

projects on to another staff member once my internship was finished. The editing process

was a bit of an issue though because I had to wait for extended periods of time on many

of my posts to be proofed by another staff member. Unfortunately, they tended to be too

busy to get the posts back to me, so the time it took for posts to be proofed ranged from

three to four weeks for completion. I will say though that the proofing and editing that

was done on my blogs was excellent! I always loved receiving critiques from the one

staff member that I shared my office with because she was always extremely thorough

and helpful with my writing. I really do believe that my writing improved immensely

with PMTM because of her critiquing and the number of blogs that I worked on.

4. What did you learn about yourself as an intern that you could not learn in the

classroom.
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I believe that I learned so many amazing things about myself upon my completion

of this internship with PMTM. I must admit that one of the main things I learned about

myself is how I am not one for spontaneity. While I was somewhat aware of this about

myself beforehand, it was made clear during this internship. I will say that I did learn

how to be more adaptable because of this realization. As I said previously, I do believe

that one of the skills I developed over time with PMTM is spontaneity. I eventually ended

up reaching a point at PMTM where the spontaneous nature of it all started to become

exciting for me. I feel as though I will take this newfound skill with me in life to

wherever I plan on heading on my career path in the future.

The amount that I learned about myself at PMTM was so great, but I must say

that the other most important thing that I learned about myself was that I really am a good

writer. I have gone through my entire high school and college career being told by

teachers and professors that I am a good writer, but I will tell you in all honesty that I

never believed any of them. It was not until I started writing and publishing the blog

posts for PMTM that I truly noticed my knack writing. The woman who was editing and

proofing my posts even asked me at one point if I was already working a job as a blogger.

I told her that I was not, and she was surprised to hear that. She really thought that I

already had experience with it all because of how well my posts were written. When she

first said that to me I honestly did not believe her like I was with all my past professors.

When I published my first blog post, however, and I saw the interaction that it was

getting on the PMTM Facebook, that was when I realized I really should stop putting

myself down so much when it comes to my writing.

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You really do not realize how much you put yourself down until you are put in

these amazing situations that help boost your confidence. If it were not for this internship,

I do not know what I would do with myself after graduation. I at least have a bit more of

an idea of where I would like to go with my career because of these new discoveries I

have made for myself. These things that I learned about myself were all little mental

setbacks that I had to figure out ways of overcoming, and there is just no way of learning

how to do that in the classroom setting. It is only the real-world experience or the

concrete experience that is really going to help you learn these things about yourself

because the classroom is limited to a professor and students. These people you may

already know, plus you are working for a grade. That is all. There really is no extreme

feedback other than what you get from your professor and maybe one other peer. This

internship helped me realize there is so much more to myself than meets the eye, and I

could not be more grateful for this newfound knowledge and confidence.

5. Now that you have nearly completed your summer practicum, what advice would

you give to an incoming student about the organization you interned with?

My advice for anyone coming into an internship with PMTM is to study up on the

entertainment industry as much as you can. At least know a little bit about how it works

because it will help you immensely, especially if you oversee writing the blog posts or

running the social media. You need to know the interests of those who are in this

business and understand a bit about the process to write posts that ring true to what the

agency promotes. Many of these blogs are about the models and talents and their

achievements with PMTM and at the International Modeling and Talent Association
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(IMTA) conventions. These conventions are crucial to jump starting careers, and PMTM

has been affiliated with IMTA for years, so just knowing and understanding a bit and

then researching the rest once you start is going to be a major help.

One of the things that I think is extremely important for a blog writer is that the

writer understands exactly what kind of audience they want to reach as well as what is

going to speak to their audience. If you do not do the research, then you will obviously

fall flat, and you will never gain the interaction that you want with your posts. Go into

this internship with knowledge already on hand, and you will succeed. I did not know

what IMTA was before I went to PMTM, but I did know about the industry and I did

have experience in acting. They also loved that I was a communication studies major and

that I had experience in an office environment already. These were all extremely

beneficial experiential factors that I had already, but I will tell you that they really loved

that I already had an interest in the industry and in acting. They believed that was an

extremely important factor, especially for a social media team.

Show the PMTM staff that you are willing to work and that you are willing to be

independent but also listen to them when they have a certain way of doing things.

Understand that over time you will be able to work outside the box a bit, but always

know that you are working and representing an agency that has been around for over

thirty years. They know what they are doing and they expect you to follow their rules.

There is always room for fun and for experimenting, but be sure to listen to them first and

collaborate!

Finally, make sure you are always presentable. Come in with a positive mindset,

dress professionally, and stay on task. As I said previously, the PMTM staff looks at you
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as though you are truly a member of the PMTM family. Even as an intern, you are treated

as an equal, so always remember that. Your experience as an intern will go very fast and

will be extremely beneficial to you and your future, so be respectful and remember to

have fun! The staff is super positive and extremely kind, so do not worry!