My Advice to College Graduates and Interns

As the academic year comes to a close, many graduates are looking for jobs in public relations and those who are on summer break are about to begin their summer internship. It is a very exciting time as they get to take what they have learned in the classroom and start to apply it and hone additional skills from their work experience. On the agency side, these are very exciting times as new team members join the team with fresh perspectives and ideas. Over the course of the next few weeks, our senior staff will share some tips that they would give to those starting out in public relations and those who are about to begin their summer internships.

To kick off this series, here is my tip –

I believe the key is to get your first job at an agency. One of the things that an agency will give you is exposure to all of the aspects of public relations – everything from how to begin to deal with the media, fine tuning your writing skills, understanding how we merchandise the work that we do. I think it is good grounding in the basics of public relations, it is good training and in fact, we call it here “graduate school for public relations.” I think then you move on to wherever in your career where you have an interest – whether that is sticking with an agency or going to the corporate side or to a not-for-profit – it is very much up to the individual.