Q&A with Weber Shandwick’s senior media relations manager Kyle Moschen

‘I know that sometimes community college isn’t always thought of as the traditional path after high school, and I really want to change that narrative, because I do think it should be, and I think it can be for a lot of people.’

Kyle Moschen, a senior media relations manager at Weber Shandwick based in Seattle, was this year’s commencement speaker at Nashua Community College. Moschen, who grew up in Merrimack, started his college career in Nashua before transferring to Suffolk University in Boston. Over the years, he’s stayed connected with his local roots.

Moschen reached out to NH Business Review during his recent visit to the Granite State and appeared as a guest on the “Down to Business” podcast from which this story was adapted. Listen to the interview at nhbr.com or on your favorite streaming service.

Q. Can you share with us about your career and how you made the move from New Hampshire to Seattle?

A. I went to Merrimack High School and started my college career at Nashua Community College before transferring over to Suffolk University in downtown Boston. And the whole time I knew I wanted to be in communications. I originally wanted to be a reporter, but after a few loops and turns, I did decide to stick with public relations and be an in-house journalist per se.

After COVID let up a little bit, I got the itch and felt like I needed to try something new for a bit. I moved over to the West Coast and have been there for about four years working at Weber Shandwick on our media relations team, specific to social impact and sustainability. I’ve been able to help out a lot of nonprofits with their media relations as well as impact-driven brands specific to their different impact programs designed to give back to the world in some various way, shape or form.

Q. Storytelling is a big part of what you do and what we do. You sought us out; it was a great pitch. Why did you want to come on the podcast and share your story?

A. I know that sometimes community college isn’t always thought of as the traditional path after high school, and I really want to change that narrative, because I do think it should be, and I think it can be for a lot of people. For me it was really a launchpad to be successful, to work at one of the biggest PR companies in the world doing what I really want to do in the industries I really want to be in.

Q. In your commencement address, you talked about how building your community, being out there, was what has brought you success.

A. I pride myself in my ability to talk to people and just connect and have no expectations. I think that that’s really led me to different pathways. I was working on the speech and thinking, how can I give these students good advice that they can tangibly use that’s beyond just “use AI” and “don’t give up.”

Boston Children’s Hospital, at least when I worked there, was the No. 1 children’s hospital in the U.S., and I got that job just because I went to a networking event and stayed in touch with the person I met there, who didn’t even work at Boston Children’s Hospital at the time. Then she posted on LinkedIn that she was looking for an intern, and she remembered me. Most of my job opportunities in the professional world have come from just going to events and building community and making friends, too.

Q. When you were building your commencement speech, what else did you want to focus on to share your passions and your career trajectory?

A. I wanted to think about how I was able to merge my passion for the outdoors with PR. You don’t always think, “Oh, I love doing this hobby. That’s going to be my career,” when you’re in business school or you’re in marketing or PR, even accounting. I wanted people to know I was able to take what I really feel passionate about and merge that in a practical way in the professional world.

I keep seeing all these things about AI taking jobs away from entry-level folks. I remember when I was graduating college, I was afraid of a similar thing. I don’t think that the economy was that great. And I remember all these headlines about it’s so hard to get your first job out of college.

I really just leveraged my community, making connections down in Boston to make sure that I was set up to have a job out of college.