I recently had the amazing honor to visit two PR classes at Gonzaga University (GU) to share a little insight on what to expect in the professional world and why it is so important to take advantage of professional organizations after graduation, such as PRSA.

As a student, I was not involved in student clubs. Now as a professional, I can definitely see how that put me at a disadvantage when I first started my career. I didn’t have any kind of professional community established and I didn’t have access to quality professional development resources.

PRSA has been a big contributor to the success I have achieved in my career by giving me some really great benefits. Here are a few that I shared with the GU students:

Continuing education

This is what initially attracted me to join PRSA. There is a fantastic library of webinars and online resources available to members. The offline conferences and monthly chapter and section programming are fantastic. For me, this made all the difference making the jump into public relations from human resources. I was able to catch up on industry best practices, and now I keep up-to-date on trends and hot topics.

Networking

The saying, “it’s all about who you know” goes beyond your first job. Having an established professional community will help you be successful throughout your career. I love my PRSA community. This means I have people to ask when I have questions, gain insight when I need inspiration, and also help out when there is someone else in need.

Leadership

A factor important for your personal success, but also for the success of the profession. Volunteering with PRSA has been so valuable for me. The leadership experience I gained through PRSA gave me the guts to venture out into the freelance world, be a better advocate for myself and my role in my 9-5 job, and to pursue obtaining my accreditation in public relations. In addition, we all need to be advocates for the professional and ethical practice of communications. Your contributions to the advancement of professional knowledge through PRSA helps to raise the bar for communications professionals across the board. If you haven’t considered it, I encourage you to volunteer and get involved!

Mentoring

PRSA’s accreditation process has a formal mentoring element, which was key to my success in achieving my APR, but networking also gives you exposure to other potential mentors. If you do not currently have a professional mentor: get one as soon as possible. Then, get another one! I have several wonderful mentors who have been instrumental in my professional development and success, each with his or her own area of expertise. These people do not have to be formal mentors either. There are a couple integral professionals that I lean on regularly, and who I consider mentors, that I did not get connected with through a formal mentoring program.

In all, my PRSA experience has been pretty great so far. I am so thankful for the opportunity to interact with some of the outstanding students at GU and share a little bit of my story with them. My hope is that we will see some of them at one of our upcoming chapter events and make them feel welcome to the Greater Spokane communications community!