140: What It’s Like to Build a Career in Communications w/ Sean Gibbons, The Communications Network [Main T4C episode]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Sean Gibbons is CEO of the Communications Network, a professional network of foundation and nonprofit leaders that improve lives through smart communication.  Sean is also living proof that in today’s dynamic economy, it is becoming more and more common for professionals to change jobs almost a dozen times between the ages of 18-48! During his career,  Sean has worked in journalism, communication strategy in think tanks, and nonprofits. Before he worked in communications, Sean built a career in journalism as an award-winning producer at CNN. He served as the Washington producer for shows like American Morning, News Night with Aaron Brown, and Anderson Cooper 360.   Then Sean switched gears and moved into the think tank world first as the Director of Media Strategy at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive organization where he jump started an innovated online video department as well as the company’s social media platforms. Then, Sean became Vice President of Communications and Senior Fellow at Third Way, another public policy think tank in Washington, DC. 

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE:

• What is the Communications Network
• Why the social sector make up 10% of the US economy
• How data science and high EQ (emotional intelligence) are great assets in this field
• Why studying abroad can help you land a job in communications
• How people without majors in English or degrees in communications are needed in the field
• Why learning to say ‘no’ is a super important skill to cultivate
• What are the different roles that extroverts and introverts play in communications
• Why the future of learning is about the networks you build at school, among friends and colleagues in your professional pursuits