Alumni Spotlight

1. Name (First and Last)

Elizabeth Austin

2. Twitter

@elizabethaustin

3. LinkedIn

elizabethaustin19

Employment Info

4. Employer

Elizabeth Austin Strategic Communications

5. Title/Occupation

Principal

Academic Info

6. Graduation Year (list as "Month Year")

BA, BS 1980

7. Major

Journalism and Philosophy

8. Minor and/or Certificates

Minors in music and French

Other Stuff

9. Hometown

Rockford IL

10. Hobbies

Career Information & Advice

Please answer each of the following questions with as much detail as possible while keeping your answers succinct (aim for 2 - 4 sentences per question).

11. What are your job responsibilities/duties?

I'm glad you asked that question...

I have just started consulting after spending more than a decade in staff positions. Given that I spent most of my journalism career as a freelance writer, I didn't expect much transitional shock.

But I'm realizing that, for a contract writer, much of the job is done by the editorial staff long before your phone rings. They're the ones who develop the publication's voice and editorial mix; your job is only to fulfill the specific assignment to the best of your ability.

By contrast, a communications consultant often has to work with the client to discern needs and goals, and then to develop a strategy and tactics to address those needs. So as a consultant, I'm often involved at the earliest stages of the project -- which is a lot of fun.

12. What does a typical day look like?

I don't have many typical days, thank goodness. Like most reporters and ex-reporters, I have a very low boredom threshold. So I enjoy waking up knowing that my day could turn on a dime if the phone rings and it's a client with a crisis -- especially if it's a crisis that I can solve.

13. What do you most enjoy about your job?

I loved being a reporter because I loved getting out, meeting people, talking to them about the things that were most important in their lives, and then shaping those conversations into stories that engaged, informed, and entertained readers.

Now that I'm working on the other side (or now that I've turned to the Dark Side, depending on your point of view), I still get to do a lot of the same things I loved as a reporter. The difference is that I have more autonomy when it comes to deciding what I want to work on.

I also have more opportunities to develop a narrative that unfolds over time. With reporting, you often get only one shot at a topic before you move on. In communications, you can keep on stubbornly telling and retelling an important story (preferably in a variety of ways) until people finally start paying attention.

14. What is the most difficult aspect of the job?

Time management is always a challenge. When you're running your own business, you either have not nearly enough work or way too much work -- and if you panic and sign up a lot of new work when it's slow, you can wind up with more clients than you can handle when everybody suddenly needs you at once.

15. What on-campus activities were you involved with? Where did you gain relevant experience?

The Daily Illini changed my life (not just because I met my husband there.) I had the great good fortune to work at the DI alongside an incredible group of talented people who have gone on to do great things, in and out of journalism. By the time I left U of I, I had both the education and the daily reporting experience to move seamlessly into any newsroom.

16. How did your experience at ILLINOIS and in the College of Media prepare you for your professional life? For this specific position?

I have to confess: I did not properly value my education at U of I. It's only after I graduated that I began to appreciate my instructors' experience and professionalism. I have lost count of the many times I have blessed my U of I professors for holding me to high standards and insisting that I learn my craft properly before heading out into the wild world.

But I will say this -- it's been a long time since anyone asked me to demonstrate my ability to calculate photo dimensions using a Mul-T-Rule... (spell ck?)

17. What advice do you have for students interested in this field?

Journalism is so much fun, and journalists are the most interesting and charming people in the world. So try not to stress out too much over your longterm career path. (And yes, I am keenly aware that it's really hard not to stress out when you're trying to stay up to date with your student loan payments.) But if you have the opportunity to take a job that sounds fun and exciting, do it -- and try not worry about what "they" will think when "they" look at your resume down the road.

18. What is one thing that you know now that you wish you had known when you started in the field? When you graduated from the College?

You are not your job title. You are not an "editor," or a "reporter," or a "writer." You are a smart, talented, well-educated, resilient person with a unique set of skills (h/t Liam Neeson.)

Having the ability to observe, to reason, to research, to think, and then to write sets you apart in a world in which those skills are increasingly rare.

So don't define yourself by your major or the most recent entry on your resume. Instead, try to focus on the things that interest and excite you and figure out how you can put your talents and skills to work in those fields.