Jenny Hill Interview Questions

For my interviewer I chose Jenny Hill, her official title is Director of Marketing and Communications at Otterbein University. I chose her because I wanted to see how another small school conducted their public relations section of the school. First I asked her some background questions this allowed me to get to know her before I asked about her position. I found out that she graduated from The Ohio State University in 1999. She majored in journalism with and infuses in public relations. After she graduated she was offered the job at Otterbein University but she was not hired for public relations she was hired for a graphic design position. She slowly made her way up the line to the position of Director of Marketing and Communication. She
went through six jobs to get to Communications.She has currently been at Otterbein for 17 year and loves it there. She has had no other jobs before Otterbein.
The first question I asked Ms. Hill was “What is your typical day at Otterbein?” At Otterbein University, Jenny’s said that she does not have a typical day and nothing is really “normal”. The only typical thing she has each week is to write press releases and then proofread the press releases. I thought that this was interesting because it would seem like there would be a certain routine. She told me that many things are happening constantly. Ms. Hill also told me that many days are in cycles. Right now she wears many hats in her position. She is head if the alumni magazine and is also in charge of what gets out in the media positive or negative. Jenny Hill also decides what people find out or what the people need to know. For example, the press recently came out with a news article about the university's president, Kathy Krendl. The article was about some of the accomplishment that President Krendl has done for the university. Jenny Hill had to make sure the article had correct information.
Next I found out about the other project that Ms.
Hill works on. I loved how she talked about the many events she does and how much work she accomplishes. Jenny Hill is taking on the alumni magazine for Otterbein University. For this job she has to keep the former student of the university updated with events that go on at the school. She also helps direct students to the blog that she also created. Jenny Hill is very much media relations and deals with external communication and some internal communication. She helps with certain crises over communication. The blog is also a way that she is able to connect with the digital
generation.
Ms. Hill also helps choose speakers that come to the school. We laughed because she mentioned a speaker that some to the school and I had no idea who they were but the were famous. She tried to give me hints to maybe who the person was. She told me that he wrote a novel and was very important to her generation. Finally we came to an agreement that the speaker was too old my generation. The other minor job that she does right now until they hirer a new person is manage and update the Otterbein website. She told me that her degree in journalism helped her manage the website.
The fun part came next and that was asking the challenging questions.
I asked Ms. Hill what is the most interesting part of her job? This answer was hard for her because she said that a lot of her job is very interesting but one thing she loved the most is meeting the speaker that come to the school. She is able to sit down and meet with them and have lunch. Ms. Hill is also able to get to know the speaker and later keep in contact with them. I thought this was awesome because she is able to get to know many great people. One thing that she loved at a small university was that small universities are very flexible and a very tight knit, family oriented community. If someone is sick the family is able to take over the sick person job until they come back. After asking her about what was the interesting part I decided to ask her about the polar opposite and that was the challenging part of her job. One challenging part is that being at a small university you have to be aware of the budget. In higher education there may be a very tight budget. In addition to a small budget you also get short handed with the work load. She told me that she goes home many nights and still has a lot of work to do and that it can be tiring because her job really never stops. She told me that “Work is you life in a communication and media job”(Jenny Hill). She is also trying to do a lot with very little and she says sometimes she has to be creative with what she does. I tried to understand what she
was saying by relating it to school. You have many assignment from different professors. You have to get assignments done with a little bit of time. It may be hard but it works and you manage to accomplish a lot.
After the complicated questions I asked Jenny Hill about the trends that she sees in the in industry. She told me that some of the trend that she sees is that public relations is coming into a more digital age. More ideas and articles were going online and that men that more news got out faster and there are earlier deadlines. She told me that when she started her job at Otterbein she was able to do more graphic design but as the internet become more famous she had to use the computer more and had to create posters online. She believes that the web is is important because it hold everything and it is a way of analysing and measuring everything. You also get your latest information from the internet. The Last question that I felt was the most important of them all was what advice would you give a student interested in the field. i felt like this was the very good advice. Jenny Hill told me that it is really important to be the “jack of all trades.” As marketing and communication I have to make sure that I can be able to do a lot of things like talk on phones, responded to emails, do short conversation and communicate with people. She also stated that I should be able to speak to agents and book important speakers. Also social media is very important and update social media frequently. Lastly she told me to remember no job is too small like proof reading and article. I had a great time talking to Jenny Hill from Otterbein because it allowed me to get to know what small school do with media relation compared to Ohio Dominican University,