Temple PRSSA and PRowl have some pretty awesome alumni who get to work with some well-known companies. Faiz Mandviwalla (’16) moved to San Francisco post grad to work for OutCast Agency and now gets to work with various tech clients including Amazon, HBO, Lyft, and Facebook.
Faiz joined PRSSA and PRowl his sophomore year. He held various executive board position in PRowl including Director of Finance and Assistant Firm Director. During his PRSSA and PRowl career, he also worked as a liaison between PPRA and PRSSA to strengthen the relationship between the two organizations through networking events such as Careers 101 and Networking 101.
“PRowl and PRSSA played big roles in helping me get my internships during college, and those experiences really set me up for success in my career. PRowl and PRSSA also taught me how to be a leader, from effectively managing teams and editing work, to dealing with clients and coordinating events between PPRA and PRSSA,” Faiz shared.
During his time as Director of Finance for PRowl, part of Faiz’s job was planning the executive board’s trip to the PRSSA National Conference. Faiz attended three PRSSA Conferences in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. When asked his favorite PRSSA memory, Faiz shared that the PRSSA National Conference in Washington, D.C. because he got to know the rest of the executive board more and came back with close friends, many of whom he keeps in touch with today. He also made connections with the Director of Communications from the British Embassy at the conference.
After graduating with a degree in strategic communication on a PR track, Faiz knew he wanted to work in tech PR, specifically in an agency setting so that he would get to work on a variety of clients simultaneously. He set his sights on Silicon Valley post-grad as it is the hub for all things tech! After learning about the OutCast Agency and connecting with their HR manager, Faiz was offered to join their associate program. He is now an account executive and has worked on projects for Boston Dynamics, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Facebook, and Primer.
When entering the field, Faiz shared that he wished he could go back and tell himself to read more of the news. “An early meeting I attended at OutCast consisted of a few more senior folks brainstorming which reporter they wanted to pitch a specific story to—but they were only using first names. “Oh yea I think John at the NYT would be interested in this, but what about Lauren over at CNN?” I had no idea who they were talking about!” His advice for students entering the field: “Read more of the news, 1000%.”
This blog post was written by Brianna Greco, Conference Coordinator.