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Erin O’Brien

Erin O’Brien

Editor, NSIDE Publications

Age: 24

Place of Birth: San Antonio, Texas

Where you live: San Antonio, Texas

First Job: Junior reporter for an online entertainment news website

What it taught me: My first job taught me that you should never let a few setbacks stop you from pursuing your goals.

We all have to pay our dues, but as the cliché goes, no experience is bad experience. The best order of business is to learn from it, keep your chin up and move forward.

Status: Single

Three things people would be surprised to know about me:

1. I’m a classical musician. I started playing piano at five, clarinet at 11 and oboe at 15.

2. I seriously considered pursuing careers in marine biology, fashion design and law prior to deciding on journalism.

3. I’m related to Edgar Allan Poe through one of his cousins.

Best advice you could give someone starting out: Never underestimate the value of working in your area while you’re still in school.

A freelance assignment for a local publication or an internship spent making copies and answering phones may seem insignificant, but if you work hard and do the job well, your supervisors will remember you – and give you a good reference, if not a job.

ERIN ALLISON O’BRIEN is native of San Antonio, Texas, and began writing and telling stories at a very young age. Deciding to turn her hobby into a profession, she studied journalism at the University of the Incarnate Word and graduated magna cum laude with her BA in Communication Arts in 2008.

During college, she freelanced for a number of publications and held positions in magazine editing and online news reporting in both Texas and California prior to landing her current position at NSIDE Publications in January 2010.

Within seven months of her tenure at NSIDE, she was promoted to editor of all three of the company’s magazines.

She has also stayed active in the San Antonio community by serving as the youngest member of the Harp and Shamrock Society’s board of directors. She will soon coordinate the society’s social committee and thus, plan and oversee all of its events and fundraisers.

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