From Temple PRSSA to The Real Housewives, Julia Nietsch has always found success. Julia Nietsch, who was Vice President of Temple PRSSA as a junior and then in 2007 served as Chapter President her senior year, is now Senior Director of Communications of Bravo & Oxygen Media at NBCUniversal in New York City.
In this role, Julia has worked on everything from the Olympics to The Real Housewives of Atlanta over the ten years she has been with NBCUniversal. She oversees the communications strategy for a variety of television programming, as well as many of the networks’ corporate and digital initiatives.
Since 2007, Julia has seen a complete change in the industry. When she first started her career, social media had not fully taken off as it has today. This change in technology has affected the television industry because of the explosion of content online. Now the media has a plethora of options to cover, which makes sorting through the clutter a challenge from a communications standpoint. This challenge has pushed Julia to be a better practitioner and has helped her develop strong media relationships and get more creative with messaging and media outreach. Julia believes regardless of the industry, people’s attention spans have plummeted, making our jobs more difficult than ever. She says, “You have to think more out of the box, be innovative, but also captivate your audience’s attention quickly if you want to have a successful PR campaign.”
Julia’s time at Temple played a major role in setting her up for success. She joined PRSSA her sophomore year to get more involved and meet other students and professionals working in the field. Julia became a part of Temple PRSSA’s executive board and gained real-life experience in leadership roles and had the opportunity to network and form lasting relationships with peers and professionals she connected with. She also gained mentors, like Faculty Advisor Gregg Feistman, who have helped her navigate tough work situations and guide her through her career. Julia believes Temple PRSSA prepared her for entry-level positions upon graduation and gave her the confidence to leave her comfort zone and grow personally and professionally. She benefited the most from guest speaker events, PPRA’s Careers 101, and being a part of the fundraising committee.
While at Temple, Julia also interned at the American Kennel Club, Tierney, NBCUniversal, and Temple’s Fox School of Business. Out of college, she worked as a Public Relations & Marketing Associate at Abington Memorial Hospital, later participated in GE’s Communications Leadership Development program, and in 2010 landed her first manager role at NBCUniversal and has grown at the company since.
She advises students that it is important to work hard but to also enjoy your time during college. Julia would remind her younger self she has “a whole lifetime ahead to work and although working hard is important in growing your career, you also only live life once — so make sure to study abroad, travel and don’t take life too seriously.”
This blog post was written by Olivia Rotondo, Vice President.
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