As the cliche and overused phrase goes, “practice makes perfect”. On October 1st, SU alumni Laura Foti shared with us her experiences before and after her time at SU, revealing to us why this phrase rings truer than one might think.
Before she entered the ranks of Syracuse University’s student body, her fascination with writing began in high school. Over the years, she eventually found her voice and, like her father, aspired to be a journalist.
Her father was not so enthusiastic. Being a journalism major himself, he believed that Laura could be challenged more intensely. He decided that she would be attending Syracuse University. Regretfully, she did not specify her take on this decision made for her.
Upon entering the university, she deemed it paramount to try everything she possibly could. On one notable occasion, she recalls traveling to Argentina. She emphasized her success in breaking cultural barriers through her intimate interactions with the community. She stressed that the most important aspect of communication is to “always share stories with people and connect with them in important ways.”
Upon her return to America, she continued a successful career at SU, working with citrusTV as a Spanish translator in lieu of her experience in Argentina, with Hill Comms (a student run PR firm), and eventually interned with GE, working primarily in digital marketing.
Digital marketing marked a turn in her career path. Public relations was the initial goal, but after working with GE Healthcare on fields of work such as medical imaging, she decided to follow a separate path that strayed from her major’s line of study. She emphasized the importance of finding opportunities that align with one’s own goals.
As a result, she applied and received a job at Deloitte. After making this decision, however, she was challenged by one of her professors that told her that she couldn’t do it. Public Relations, according to the professor, was her true calling and that’s what she was really good at. Then, Laura tells us, that is where she remembered words that her grandfather told her – “Do something that makes you uncomfortable. That’s the only way to grow.”
Because of this decision, she is still working with Deloitte and is constantly challenged by the ambiguous nature of the job – She claims that she constantly finds herself in a new situation every morning when she checks her e-mail, each job requiring different applications of the various skills Laura helped hone at Syracuse University. Before she left, she provided two final bits of advice:
Emphasize networking over everything. Meet people. And most importantly, create your own opportunities.