Travel Alumni Spotlight: Turning Passions Into Careers
Photo Credit: A college commencement ceremony. Flickr / COD Newsroom
Skift Take
Sometimes the skills you can't learn in a classroom are the most important for success, especially in travel.
Sylvia Weiler, general manager of advertising sales for the tourism vertical at Sojern, moved to San Francisco in the late 1990s during the dot com boom after leaving Bulgaria where acting taught her that putting on a good show is a lot like selling an ad.
Working with film studios in Washington, D.C. like Warner Bros. Pictures is where Sara Morgan, founder of Eleven Eleven PR, which has several travel clients, realized she could make any brand seem relevant. Studying broadcast news in college supported this developing philosophy of hers at the time.
Morgan drafted press releases about movies and needed to make them seem like blockbuster hits even if that wasn't to be their destinies.
Both Morgan and Weiler found their own inspiration to help them tell a brand's story, and in doing learned how to better convey their passions. When students leave their college days behind, it's up to them to continuously discover how to be their own advocate. They must make the decision eac