Ep. 93 - Public Relations/Communications Specialist - Cardinal Health - Heather Henderson

Welcome back to the Joust About Careers podcast! This is the place to learn about careers from the people who are actually doing the work every day. I’m your host, Brian Bratt, and this week’s guest is 2013 Van Buren graduate Heather Clark, a Senior Public Relations Specialist for Cardinal Health. In this episode, Heather shares how a typical day looks for her, why she has always been interested in communications, the difference between working for an agency or a company like Cardinal Health, the importance of maintaining work/life balance, and much more. Whether you are interested in a career as a social worker or are still exploring your options, I hope that what Heather shares today will help all of you make better career decisions and have fulfilling career journeys. Enjoy the show!1:10 - How a typical day looks for a Senior Public Relations Specialist.3:13 - Heather doesn’t spend too much time talking with reporters.4:51 - AI comes up daily.5:38 - “AI is a complement, not a competitor.”6:45 - How Heather learned to deal with crisis communications.7:24 - The communications at Cardinal Health are different from a place like Nike.7:45 - Internal and external communications are different animals.8:10 - Collaboration is always important.8:40 - Heather has always had an interest in communications.10:36 - The communications team for Heather’s portion of the large organization is a total of six people.11:57 - Writing has always been enjoyable.12:51 - Every day is a little bit different, and relationships are of the utmost importance.13:38 - Some topics might not be 100% interesting to a communications professional.15:11 - Internships and career experience open employment opportunities.16:35 - Agency vs. In-house communications18:43 - Participation in organizations and having hobbies help maintain work/life balance.20:16 - Passion vs. Purpose vs. Curiosity22:09 - It’s okay to not have a career path figured out as a high school student.Questions?Connect with Brian on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/brian-bratt/) or e-mail ([email protected]).Connect with Heather on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/heatherbclark) or by e-mail ([email protected]).