There was never a doubt in my mind that Shay Myrick would make an absolutely amazing first profile of my Professional Posse series. Not only is she brilliant, gorgeous, and total #
stylegoals, but she is also my go to gal when I need a little career perspective. My sister actually introduced us when Shay decided to make the move from Pittsburgh to NYC. They had previously interned together, and Alexandra correctly assumed we'd hit it off (obviously because we're both hilarious).
I'm so grateful Shay agreed to participate in this project, even allowing me a glimpse into the beautiful new Conde Nast offices at 1 World Trade Center for our photo shoot. I'm incredibly excited to share our interview with you. It's insightful and witty, and I hope you enjoy it. Although honestly, I was probably a little overbearing during the whole process -- below is a screenshot of a real convo in our working doc.
I really did laugh out loud.
Name: Shaquela Myrick
Age: 25
Field/Industry: Advertising / Publishing
Title: Advertising Coordinator
Company: Conde Nast - Architectural Digest
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Current City: New York, NY
Alma Mater: Point Park University
The Job:
Describe your role at Architectural Digest.
I am the coordinator to the Associate Publisher and Advertising Director at the magazine. Many of my duties involve supporting the managers across all departments with anything they may need. This includes making sure they're prepared for weekly management meetings, as well as pulling information quickly for random corporate requests or responding to the needs of advertisers. This role manages expenses, travel and the day-to-day scheduling of the AP and Ad director, but I’ve also had the opportunity to go beyond administrative tasks to do things such as prospect and run a list of accounts to be sold into the magazine.
What was the application and interview process like?
The application process at Conde started out pretty non-traditional. I was applying to everything and trying new ways to get in front of hiring managers, and started using Twitter. One late night after working a double shift in a hotel restaurant in Pittsburgh I saw a tweet from the Conde Nast Careers Twitter handle asking very broadly, “Does anyone want to work at Conde Nast?” I rolled my eyes and thought to myself “Duh,” while tweeting at the handle from my own account “yes, of course!” with a raised hand emoji. Fast forward to two weeks later, I had interviewed three times in the city, once with human resources, once with my current bosses, and once with the Executive Assistant to the Publisher. I accepted the position as advertising assistant, starting as soon as possible. Honestly looking back at this, it was a magical moment because, at the time, I never would have imagined securing a job here.
About how many jobs did you apply to when you graduated?
A ton sums it up! I wasn’t afraid to shop my resume around in order to in theory, find the “perfect” first job after graduation. So, I applied for any job across industries like fashion, entertainment and beauty until finally landing in magazine publishing.