Rose McKinney, APR, Fellow PRSA’s Post

As students work their way through college, they move from acquiring a broad base of knowledge to developing the specialized skills needed for their career. Each year learning becomes more specific, more narrow, until just one final capstone course prepares them to join the workforce. 

Mass Communications Week 2024 was a goldmine of insights into the ever-evolving world of media and communication. Here are 5 Key Takeaways for all Mass Comm Majors:   1. Network  -Throughout Mass Comm Week, industry experts, alumni, and professors stress the critical important of building and nurturing professional relationships. Engaging with industry professionals, peers, and mentors provides insights into different career paths and can offer unexpected collaborations and job prospects. Don't walk away before you've added everyone on LinkedIn!  2. Discovering Diverse Career Paths in Your Field  -Mass Comm Week showed students that their chosen major opens up far more opportunities than they might initially think. It encouraged students to explore paths they might not have initially considered, emphasizing the importance of staying open to new possibilities.  3. Interdisciplinary Skills  -Many sessions focused on how professionals often combine skills from different disciplines. For example, blending date analytics with creative storytelling is becoming more crucial in advertising and public relations. This interdisciplinary approach allows students to come across more marketable. It's about taking everything you've learned in school and applying it! 4. Evolving Media Landscape  -Numerous panels focused on the rapid evolution of media and the mass communication profession, emphasizing the necessity for professionals to adapt to new technologies and platforms. It's important to remember that never really stop learning. 5. Grow your Experience  -Whether it be on campus or through internships, this years Mass Comm Week really pushed the significance of growing your experience and getting involved anyway that you can. You have to start building your resume NOW!    Feel free to add your own key takeaways in the comments if you attended any sessions! #masscommweek #txst #sanmarcos #pr #communications #txstsjmc

I saw this yesterday on a post from Kerri Twigg and I almost leap from my seat. It sums up so many of the recent conversations I've been having with students. You can also read it like this: When applying to a masters program, you don't need to be an expert in everything. You do need to know how your (maybe slightly unconventional) undergrad enhances the new focus. OR When starting your career, you don't need to be an expert in everything. You do need to know how your education, and work, volunteer, and extra-curricular experiences will enhance the new work. It's all about your story! Know how to tell it! Need help with self-reflection and identifying your strengths, skills, and values? Book an appointment with your Career Advisor!

In a recent job interview, one of the interviewers asked if I thought marketing and communications had a role in upholding the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was so fitting that my social media newsfeed brought me down memory lane that has always answered this very question for me. But first: 👶 I was a younger professional. ❌ I said a lot of “umms” in my interviews with the media then. 💚 I liked wearing my university shirt as my work uniform to don my school pride. 📱 The iPad was the hottest gadget at the time. A lot has changed over the years since these media clips but one thing remains true: marketing absolutely should uphold DEI. It’s all I’ve ever known. Over 10 years ago, one of the highlights of my job as the inaugural social media manager at Portland State University was organizing dozens of events that brought the campus community together. Young and old. MySpace or Instagram user. Rain or shine. It didn’t matter. And boy, we made so many great memories along the way that made the culture of a large, complex institution infinitely better. Good times, right Tracy Weber, Julie Smith, Kenny Dow, Kenny Katz? And a special shout out to Lucila Cejas whose media team frequently covered these events. To my marketing network here: your turn. How are you leveraging the power of marketing to create your workspaces, your community, our world a little better? 🦸 #marketingmonday #marketingforgood #marketing #diversityequityandinclusion #community #psutweetup #GoViks #throwback

Reasons why majoring in communication is important - and what skills you bring to every job. If you don’t want to major in comm, now you know why you are/were required to take that comm class in college. Each of these is consistently on the Forbes list of skills employers look for in a new employee/colleague.

#Update Your Resumé, GRAD STUDENTS 📄 Before sending your resumé for your grad school application, make sure it’s optimized! Here are some quick tips: ➡️ List your experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current role. Use action verbs like "achieved," "launched," "negotiated," or "trained" to describe your achievements. Quantify wherever possible! ➡️ Tailor your resumé to align with the grad program you're applying for—highlight your relevant skills, experience, and professional milestones. ➡️ Don’t have much work experience? Research the program’s prerequisites and reach out to an admissions counselor to ask about experience requirements. 📅 Stay prepared and be confident that your resumé reflects your readiness for grad school!

It was a pleasure serving on The Career Leadership Collective's Career Advising & Student Engagement panel yesterday. Thank you for the engaging conversation, Nick Cattin, Jackie M., Eric Curiel, & Charles Jennings, GCDF! Some of my takeaways from yesterday's Think Tank event include: ⭐ Career services must move from a "come and see us" model to proactively partnering with the full range of individuals students turn to for career advice including faculty, families, and employers. ⭐ We must design services based on students' common career development life cycle stages. ⭐ Asynchronous and readily available content 24/7 will help to scale services, alleviate student anxiety, and remove barriers. One-on-one appointments are important, but you will never be able to meet every student without a significant investment from your university. Focus on creating virtual content that is easy to understand, offered in multiple forms, and readily accessible. This will increase your reach, and you will serve more students.

Meet our first pre-conference presenter, Miranda James! Read more about their session through the link in our bio. Centering Student Learning in Campus Jobs This session is a case study of how the Multicultural Center (MCC) at Clackamas Community College is hiring, onboarding, and offboarding student employees differently. Whether you have student workers with very specific job responsibilities, or more ambiguous job responsibilities, this session is for you! In summer 2023 I wanted to change up how I recruited and hired student employees, and find ways for more buy-in from the students and their work. After re-centering the MCC’s mission statement, I created a process for hiring, onboarding, and evaluating students that is mission driven and co-created with students. Specifically this session will cover: 1. How to identify actionable pieces of your department’s mission statement 2. Building individual position descriptions with students 3. Using that position description as their roadmap for work, that in turn becomes their evaluation.

Our students from Shippensburg University Grove College of Business had the opportunity to listen to Erica Brandt from Eliance Health Solutions who shared invaluable strategies on marketing in digital platforms, including crafting effective strategies, actionable tactics, and utilizing analytics to measure ROI. She also touched base on the professional development advice for the Job Search Journey! • Before You Apply: ✔️ Peer-review your application materials. ✔️ Conduct thorough research on roles and companies. ✔️ Identify key skills and job interests that align with your experience. • Resources to Leverage: 🔗 Career centers, professors, classmates, job websites, and, of course, LinkedIn! • When Applying: ✏️ Polish your resume and portfolio to showcase relevant coursework, skills, and projects. 🖼️ Highlight accomplishments with tangible outcomes and metrics. This session was a powerful reminder that success lies not just in technical skills but also in thoughtful preparation and networking. #digitalmarketing #university #careeradvice