This past week, Texas PRSSA had the pleasure of welcoming Benito Leyva to share his career story and insight on how to succeed in the public relations industry. Leyva graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a major in Public Relations. He began his PR career as an intern at WE Communications and now serves as Account Director. WE Communications is one of the largest independent communications agencies with approximately 1,200 employees. As a global company, WE Communications supports about 100 different countries and has offices in various locations such as Seattle, Portland, New York, and Beijing.
WE Communications is well known for its specialty in technology public relations and even has a long history with the famous tech company, Microsoft. Additionally, the company has a strong healthcare PR team. Because dealing with people’s healthcare information involves lots of complex policies and politics, healthcare PR is extremely interesting, yet challenging. Consumer public relations is another area that WE Communications supports, with well-known clients such as LEGO and McDonald’s.
Supporting companies like Honeywell Aerospace and Intel, Benito Leyva’s focus at WE Communications is the technology sector. He has worked with Honeywell Aerospace for eight years and has partnered with them to tell stories about the future of flying. As for Intel, Leyva has lots of experience working with stories about semi-conductors; however, he tells all kinds of stories big and small for the client. Overall, Leyva emphasizes to his clients that you should use your intuition and brain to learn what’s around the corner. He says, “It’s not so much what can you tell me about what everyone else is talking about. It’s about what are you going to tell me that no one is talking about.”
The main recommendation Leyva gave was to attend the Moody Career Fair. Leyva received his first internship at WE Communications through the career fair. Although he mistakenly told the WE Communications representative that he didn’t read, Levya has worked his way up in the company for eight years now. Thus, the opportunities you can receive at the Moody Career Fair can be instrumental in obtaining not only internships but also future jobs and a long-lasting career.
Finally, if you have not turned in your yearly chapter dues yet, they should be submitted by October 1st. Be sure to fill out the membership form and pay your dues so you do not miss out on a year filled with lots of learning, internship and job opportunities, social events, and so much more!