Bob Martin has been named assistant dean for internships and career placement in the College of Communications at Penn State.
When Martin was appointed director of internships and career placement in November 1999, he was the college's first full-time staff member to oversee the operation. During his tenure, the number of college-facilitated internships has increased by nearly 75 percent and the number of approved internship sites from which students can choose has surged from fewer than 500 to more than 2,000.
Martin earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Penn State in 1987. Before joining the college in 1999, he was general manager of Citadel Communications Corp. in State College. At that time, the group included four local radio stations (WRSC, WBLF, WQWK and WNCL) as well as a cable graphics television station (WRSC News Channel). In that role, Martin led a staff of 40. During that time, he also served for two years as an adjunct instructor in the college, an opportunity that helped him realize the need of students for career placement and internship guidance and support.
Among the hundreds of sites that have offered internships to College of Communications students in the past six years are advertising agencies such as BBDO and McCann Erickson, public relations firms such as Edelman and Ogilvy, television networks such as ESPN, HBO and MTV, film production companies such as Miramax and Universal Studios, and a variety of newspapers from the Harrisburg Patriot-News to The New York Times.
Each spring semester since 2000, the college has played host to an on-campus event, JobExpo.Comm(unications), that attracts recruiters to a communications-specific job fair at the HUB-Robeson Center on campus.
In order to match students with companies unable to make a trip to campus, Martin has led "Success in the City," a networking event in New York for the past three years. Busloads of students are taken to participate in a Penn State-specific job fair at a hotel in New York, which is home to scores of major communications companies. This year's event, scheduled April 7, has already enticed 41 companies to attend. More than 200 students are registered to participate.
The Office of Internships and Career Placement also coordinates the College's Comm Career Alerts Web site, a job posting site that allows students to view full-time positions sent to the college from alumni, partnering companies and friends. In addition, Martin uses the college's e-mail list-serve to send job postings directly to seniors so they can respond to opportunities quickly.
Martin, a senior lecturer, continues to teach the broadcast and cable sales course each semester as well as advise students in the sales department at ComRadio, the college's student-run, Internet-based station.