Last Friday, I spent all day at a PR firm in Seattle.

The entire day was an interview. I walked in with ten other candidates bright and early, met some staff members and met each other. From 9:30am until 4:30pm, we met with staff, were given group challenges, and had the rounds of interviews. The interviews were odd, two candidates were interviewed at the same time, and we just went back and forth answering the questions. As a result, I got to hear how qualified the other candidates were for the same position.

It was a new interview experience for me. In groups of three or four, we were given a scenario, asked to come up with a PR plan in 20 minutes and then present it to a team of staff members.

We spent lunch networking with staff members, the people that were going to make the decisions about us. After lunch, we got back and had a few more group challenges, this time we were given 5 minutes to determine who the audience was, what media we would use, what the story would be, and how we would pitch it. Again we presented our ideas to staff members.

We were given a final written challenge where we had forty minutes to create an online and offline campaign for a client.

While this entire day was stressful, it was also exciting, fun, and challenging. I spent all day with ten other students my age studying at colleges around the country doing exactly what we love. The energy in the room was exciting. I worked collaboratively with my peers to come up with innovative concepts, putting a spin on a tired product, presenting our ideas in a professional manner. Not only was this the sort of company that I want to work for, but these are the sort of people I want to work with: qualified, motivated, passionate, charismatic, innovative, creative, intelligent students.

We all knew they would only pick two (maybe three of us), yet none of us made it into a competition. We embraced the collaborative environment that was set up for us, used it as a time to network amongst ourselves as well as with staff members.

This experience not only got me excited about working in a PR firm this summer and hopefully after graduation, but I’m excited that these other candidates and students are to be my future colleagues.

That being said, it definitely took its toll on me. I constantly had to be smiling and introducing myself. The balance of advocating for yourself versus letting your fellow candidates speak is hard to find. You want to stand out, but blend in; shine, but not outshine everyone else; answer the question, but also letting someone else answer. It was taxing, yet rewarding nonetheless.