How to Be Energized, Not Discouraged, by Academic Advice
Every day, PR students are flooded with tips on how to make it in this highly competitive field. Professors, classmates and guest speakers all have laundry lists of “must know” advice that they assure us will lead to future success. Online too, we’re bombarded by click-bate headlines like:
6 Must-Have Productivity Apps for PR Pros
Infographic Design Tips Communicators Must Know
Five Traits Every New PR Professional Needs
The implied threat is that not following these tips will lead to failure. Is this true?
Of course not. When you add them all up, there are clearly not enough hours in the day to do them all. Every successful graduate that went before you, then, did not do some of them.
For example, nearly every alumni speaker at GV PRSSA this year has said that they wished that they had done more internships as a student. While this shows how valuable a variety of internship experiences can be, it also proves that future success is not contingent on it. Despite having less than they would have liked, each of the speakers has gone on to have impressive careers.
Does this mean that all of this advice is bad then? Absolutely not. Nor is it malicious. Writers and speakers use urgency and certainty to motivate and push students to be their best. The problem comes when students internalize these messages.
Every day I hear classmates voicing their fears about entering the work force. Their portfolio isn’t big enough, they worry, or their internships were too specialized. After four years, they still haven’t figured out how to keep up with enormous blog and media reading lists. They are proud of their writing skills but aren’t experts at graphic design, or vice versa. The list goes on.
Whether in the classroom or on digital, the advice-givers are getting our attention by tapping into the pervasive PR student fear: I am not enough.
To take in all these valuable pointers without becoming discouraged, remember this:
1) Advice is often based on regrets, not realities.
While doing extra research in college may have landed them that perfect internship, or taking more art classes may have gotten them promoted sooner, it’s impossible for anyone to know how doing things differently would have changed their life. It’s easy in hindsight to say “if-then,” but the fact is that life is complicated. Decisions made in the professional world are multifaceted. It’s not just what you know, but how it stacks up to the person sitting next to you and those who came before you. Perhaps making a personal connection with that speaker would have gotten your foot in the door, or perhaps they have a niece your age that has had the position you wanted locked down since she was born. Until we have time machines, it will be impossible to say.
2) You’re just getting started.
When we listen to laundry lists of other young professionals’ skills and achievements, it’s easy to feel like we’ve already lost the race. When GVPRSSA toured Ogilvy’s Chicago office last spring, our tour guide advised us not to attend graduate school because we’d end up behind our same-age peers when we entered the agency world. The implication was that becoming an Account Executive at 30 is inherently better than becoming one at 35. But what about being a better Account Executive? Again, the world is not as black-and-white as we imagine. It’s about quantity and quality, experience and expertise. Every seasoned PR pro will tell you that they have learned as much (if not more) from their failures as their successes. So no matter where you’re at in your journey, you’re headed in the right direction. Even slogging through the world’s worst internship or bombing a huge class project teaches you a lot.
3) Nobody knows or does it all.
PR is an enormous field that encompasses a huge array of professional skills. Even the most talented, accomplished professionals have strengths and weaknesses. So if you’re a social media whiz but struggle with pitching, that’s ok. If you can design a gorgeous, eye-catching pamphlet, but struggle to fill it with equally impressive copy, that’s ok. Certainly work on improving your skills, but also understand that you will never be an expert at everything. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad student or employee, it means you’re human.
Katherine G. Skocelas is an undergraduate public relations and advertising student in her senior year at GVSU. She holds an Associate’s degree in Communication Studies from Grand Rapids Community College and will graduate this December with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations. A strong written and verbal communicator, Katherine excels at copywriting, editing, project management and strategy development. Her previous work includes comprehensive PR campaigns aimed at raising brand awareness for GVSU’s Community Service Learning Center and the Kent Special Riding Program. In addition to working with GrandPR, Katherine serves as the president of the GVSU Comic Book Club, is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society, and is a writer for DestroyTheCyborg!, an independent small press publisher.