To all of the college seniors studying PR out there, it’s okay that you’re freaking out a bit right now. Graduation is just months away, and it doesn’t help that your peers studying business probably already have job offers (don’t worry; that’s totally normal. The PR industry does not work the same way that finance and accounting industries do).
Whether you’re a soon-to-be grad or still have a few years of college bliss left, here are four things to do that can help ease your transition into the “real world:”
- Write, edit, and then write some more. If you are not already an editor, reporter or photographer for your school’s newspaper or magazine, you might want to ask yourself why you’re interested in PR at all. A career in PR involves writing and editing every. single. day. There is no better place than your school paper to practice your skills (in AP Style, no less!) and gain valuable insight into how the editorial side of things works. Experience at your school paper will help you build the portfolio needed to land an internship or entry-level job. Plus, you’ll probably become a master at tools like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Desktop Publisher in the process. Which brings me to my next point …
- Hone your digital skills. If you are a college student today, you are a “digital native” – someone who grew up with technology and the Web as part of your daily life. Being a digital native makes you a natural fit for some of the PR world’s most in-demand skills, such as social media, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), graphic design and video production. While still in school, review case studies on companies’ best uses of social media. Read articles about how to implement SEO in the PR field (shameless plug #1 and shameless plug #2). Take a class on desktop publishing or graphic design, or simply play around with different design software to familiarize yourself with each tool.
- Vary your internships. Nothing serves as a better career test-drive than an internship. With each internship, make sure to cover different industries and different areas of PR so that you get a glimpse of what a job in that organization might be like. Look for internships at PR agencies, especially those serving both business (BtoB) and consumer (BtoC) clients. Seek out roles within an internal marketing group at a corporation, a communications or development team of a nonprofit, or an editorial department of a newspaper or magazine. Mixing up the type of internship will help you know what you don’t like, which will make your search for a full-time position later on much easier.
- Have fun. You are never going to look back on your college days and wish that you had stayed in more to study. But you will wish that you had appreciated it more, especially since most of your friends will spread out after graduation and full-time work schedules make life less spontaneous.Take advantage of your flexible schedule to broaden your experiences – book a long weekend to visit other cities; travel abroad; volunteer for an organization or cause about which you are passionate. While it’s important to map out your career goals and lay a strong foundation for your post-grad life, it’s also critical that you be present and enjoy the moment – especially when those moments happen during the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when you probably don’t have class, during the three-and-a-half months of summer that you still have off, or during the back-to-back snow storms that result in all of your classes (and your cares) being put on hold.