How To Gain PR Experience Without an Internship

So, you want to be a PR professional, but internship opportunities are slim. What can you do to gain PR experience? Public relations student and GrandPR Account Associate Sydney Gibson has 4 ways to gain PR experience without having an internship.

Build your own portfolio
Building your own portfolio is a great way to produce engaging content and build an audience. Once you start publishing your work, it can showcase your talent for potential employers. Starting a blog while you’re in college can show employers that you have the discipline, knowledge, and writing experience they’re looking for in new team members. Whether you start the blog as a part of a school assignment or for something you’re passionate about, it is a way to get your name out there-especially on a Google search. If you can build an audience and create engaging content during your school years, it’s safe to say you can probably do the same for your clients when you land a job.

Network
Networking can be as simple as getting to know a professor or someone you meet on the street, someone that can help you land that first job or internship. Getting to know other PR professionals can give you that extra foot in the door and can lead you to those first interviews with their network of professionals. Your professors are a great resource for this, as they know so many working or retired professionals that they can set you up with. It is always important to get to know as many people in the industry as possible, because you never know where your job will take you. You can gain PR experience by getting to know different industry professionals and see what firms they are working for or what clients they have.  Ask a lot of questions, like what they do for a client, or special projects they are working on, so that you can see what it is like for a working professional in the PR world.

Classes and Projects   
As basic as it sounds, for students classwork and projects are some of the best ways to gain PR knowledge without an internship. These projects are often something that we will encounter in a real world setting, with real clients to impress and working with real budgets and audiences. Put your all into these assignments, it will help you learn so much about the PR industry and what will be expected of you in the workplace.

Volunteer or Freelance
Yes, I said it: freelance. As scary as it sounds, being able to set your own hours and work on projects without the commitment to the company or client is really the best way to gain experience and get your feet wet in the world of PR. If you do an amazing job for a client, they will remember you and could ask you to work for them again or even hire you on full time. This is also a great way to find out what you are passionate about.  Volunteerism can often be overlooked when it comes to gaining experience in the PR field, but it allows you to learn, test your skills and expand your network.

With these 4 things in mind, remember that you don’t always need an internship to gain PR experience during or right out of college. Take the time to find what you are passionate about by volunteering or freelancing, network with other PR professionals, working hard on class projects, and blogging.  After gaining experience, apply for that job or internship you’ve been eyeing, and take the PR world by storm! 

Sydney Gibson is a public relations and advertising student at Grand Valley State University. She has worked as an Account Associate for GrandPR for a year and is the Promotions Manager at the Grand Valley Lanthorn. For more information about Sydney, please contact her at gibsonsy@mail.gvsu.edu.