Profiles in Success  Submit a Profile In-depth looks at life after J-School. Class Notes  Submit a Class Note Shorter updates and recent alumni photos. Sort by Decade Sort by Name/Emphasis Show All 2000-Present 1990-1999 1980-1989 1970-1979 1960-1969 1950-1959 1940-1949 1930-1939 1920-1929 Show All: List by Last Name Graduate Degree Magazine Newspaper Photojournalism Radio-Television Strategic Communication Sort by Decade More Alumni Resources 2000-Present 1990-1999 1980-1989 1970-1979 1960-1969 1950-1959 1940-1949 1930-1939 1920-1929 @mizzou For All We Call Mizzou Mizzou Alumni Association MizzouNet

Christen Terry, BJ '00

What do you do?
I am an account executive with The Integer Group, a retail marketing agency in Lakewood, Colo., a suburb of Denver. Integer is a network of agencies that originally started as the Coors marketing department. I work on the Coors Light Account, which is broken up into three different buckets, and I work one of those buckets called Megas. Coors defines Megas as anything that goes on between Labor Day and Super Bowl. For the football season, we leverage our official beer sponsorship for NFL to create promotional programs during that time period. I am specifically assigned to the football season promotions.

What best prepared you for the job from the J-School?
Integer has a great training program for its employees. Some employees are required to take a one-day, all-day class. There are 350+ people just in the office I work, and my department is one that was required to take it. The gentleman who taught the class had done training in corporate world. After I sat through all day eight-hour training, it pretty much summed up my last two years of college in an eight-hour day. Everything I learned in the Journalism School was totally aligned with what this guy was saying. That was the perfect example in my mind. The School really does provide you with the things you know.

What would be your dream job?
I used to have that picture, but every job has just happened. It has felt like where I needed to go. I don't think of it like that anymore. I definitely enjoy the agency where I am in now, the clients and the industry. Going to client side is always the question in my mind, but I can't answer that. Right now, I can't imagine not being at an agency, but maybe in 10 years, the client side could be for me. I see so many people miserable in their jobs, so you have to like your job. I love my job.

What is advice you give ad students who are ready to enter the workforce?
As far as jobs go, you have to decide whether to work for an agency or client. Just pick something because you'll never know if you like it before you do it. The first agency I worked for was 175 people. Then I went to an agency with 75 people, and that was a big change. I knew I didn't want to work in that small of an agency. I knew that was kind of jump I wanted to take. Especially in this agency, you don't have to stay in a job for three years. I stayed in my first job 11 months. People move and change, and things don't work out. If you get into something that's not for you, change it. You have to be good with time management, organization and following through. If you don't have those basic skills, you won't be a good account person. My capstone class summed it all up - working with other people is huge. You feel like you work with groups a lot your senior year, but that's what I do every day. That could not be more real. Your internal circle is just as important as your external circle.

One thing you wish you would have done before you graduated?
I wish I would I have studied abroad, but I didn't want to give anything up on campus. I knew at the time I would have to make that sacrifice. I think it would have been awesome if I could have had an internship at an agency during the school year. That was really scary for my first job. The jobs I had were good, but they weren't the agency world. I wish I could have had those skills walking into that first job.

What would surprise people about you?
I just signed up to take violin lessons. I have always been involved in music. I played clarinet in marching band and drum major for three years in high school. I went to visit one of my fellow advertising grads, and she played the violin growing up. Then the next weekend, one of my friends in Denver was playing at a local restaurant, and it inspired me to sign up. My mom played the violin growing up.

As a kid, what did you want to do?
I wanted to be an attorney. I still thought I would be one until about my junior year of high school. After coming to Mizzou and changing majors a few times, I switched back to pre-Journalism and went into advertising.