By Ericka Burey
As a graduating senior, one of my many concerns upon the final ceremony of my college career at the University of Oklahoma is what am I going to do after graduation? The question is purged on me almost every day by friends, family, teachers, etc. and to be perfectly honest my answer as always “I don’t quite know yet”. And with the economy in shambles a job in my desired field seems somewhat unlike
ly. But if being a public relations major has taught me anything it is how to be creative. So I began to think creatively and I’ve decided that in a job market that isn’t so hot right now maybe it is a blessing in disguise that I am in a field that is so broad. What can sometimes be seen as a negative in the public relations field no can be turned into a positive? By this I mean that because our filed is so broad and because we learn about so many different aspects of business and communication techniques we can apply our skills to job fields that we would normally overlook. For example, becoming a middle school or high school teacher. We can apply our communication skills to deliver a message effectively to an active audience, we plan a strong education campaign and apply it throughout a long period of time, and we must convey an image of authority to the students, competence to parents and other teachers and certification to the state boards. So you see we are not really in a job drought we just have to reanalyze the situation effectively in order to gain the most success.By reassessing the situation we can analyze other jobs such as: hotel management, store manager, Human resources, communications, etc. So when you really think about it... the job opportunites are endless for a public relations practioner!
6 comments:
I completely understand where you are coming from. I hate getting the question, "what are you gonna do when you graduate?" Right now I am looking at graduate school---which is something I never thought I would do!
This economy, job market and housing market are not ideal for recent college graduates!
You had a very interesting insight to thinking creatively for jobs with a public relations degree. I have been pursuing jobs in the hospitality industry. I don't know if that's because I think there are lots of opportunites or because I have been doing it for the last two years of my life. Working in a hotel also opens up more opportunities in tourism and at convention and visitors bureaus.
I think another good job industry for us to lok into would be sales. We are supposed to be people-people. If we can make connections with a dozen people then it would be really easy to make a sale. They say once you make one then you can sell to anyone.
I've answered that question more times than I can count, and keep coming up with the same answer. Hopefully within the next year things will change for us all. I do like the suggestions of what we (as P.R. students) can do with our degree, and think that is what many of our classmates will end up doing upon graduation.
I agree with you Ericka. I have been asking myself the same question "What will I do after graduation?" Graduating at this time can definitely be scary, and I feel that everyone who is graduating in May is in the same boat. I agree that we have to get creative, and really try to focus on an aspect of Public Relations that makes us happy. One reason that PR is such a good major is because it is such a broad field that offers many career options.
Good post Erika! I like how you talked about how diverse PR is and how we can use our creativity to find that very desired job. I do not think a lot of people, PR field or not, realize how broad PR is. We can work almost anywhere, and that is a great thing to remember when job hunting. I think when people see a PR degree they see writing, communications, and also spin doctors. Yes, we know how to do all of this, but there is so much more to our field.
Great post:)
Ericka, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. It once again gave me some hope into finding a job after graduation. It has been a tough year for the economy, that is for sure. I was a little uneasy about preparing to graduate, but I agree that if we have learned anything in our path, it is to think outside the box. I agree that it is time for us to be creative and start stepping out of our comfort zone. It is time for students who are graduating to begin thinking of how they can apply their skills for a job that maybe they didn't think about in the past. Lucky for us, public relations is such a broad field, which allows us to broaden our horizons and step outside our comfort zones. I think the economy does stink right now, and it surely will have a negative effect on us graduating, but it could be a blessing in disguise.
I found your post to be real and honest. Public relations practitioners are able to really succeed because we know how to work with what we've got!!
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