{"id":10020,"date":"2019-05-16T09:23:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=10020"},"modified":"2019-05-14T12:34:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T16:34:09","slug":"the-future-its-yours-to-conquer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2019\/05\/16\/the-future-its-yours-to-conquer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future \u2026 It\u2019s Yours to Conquer!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Courtesy of Pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The funny thing about growing up is that you\u2019re expected to take on more and more responsibilities. You get to venture into often uncharted waters in pursuit of \u201cyour future.\u201d<\/p>\n

College studies don\u2019t necessarily prepare you for this. They provide you with the knowledge and the basic skills that will prepare you for that future, but they don\u2019t actually make you ready for the realities of the workplace.. You can gain this experience through internships as well as part-time jobs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a scary proposition, this \u201cadulting\u201d thing. You\u2019re going to be surrounded by others such as co-workers and friends who are working themselves. At times, they all may seem to have \u201cadulting\u201d under full control.<\/p>\n

Bit of advice here, don\u2019t obsess about other people\u2019s lives! Good for them if they\u2019ve figured it out! Take advantage of this and turn to them for advice and guidance. Benefit from their successes AND their mistakes.<\/p>\n

The important thing, though, is that this is YOUR opportunity to blaze a potentially new trail. Throughout my professional public relations career, I never ceased to be amazed by how my younger colleagues approached challenges. Not everything worked as planned, of course, but we tried new things or approached old things from a different angle. We tried, and we learned in the process.<\/p>\n

But how to get started on this adventure? Another bit of advice: \u201cDon\u2019t hesitate. Start now by connecting with professionals who can help you on your upward climb.\u201d And, yes, it\u2019s an \u201cupward\u201d climb \u2026 no blissful coasting along.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t done so already, attend meetings of the PRSA Chapter serving the area where you hope to launch your post-grad career. If this isn\u2019t geographically possible right now, turn to PRSA members in the Chapter where your college or university is located; ask them for names of PRSA members in the area you\u2019re targeting so that you can start networking there. Odds are, someone will be able to help you get started.<\/p>\n

Persistence counts, and you have to commit yourself to the challenge. Go to the local PRSA Chapter meetings; become known as a future public relations pro determined to make a go of it; the effort will pay off!<\/p>\n

A quick word now about your internship(s) \u2026 you have completed at least a couple, haven\u2019t you? One is good, but it\u2019s the \u201clow bar.\u201d It\u2019s the minimum requirement for most public relations majors\/minors\/concentrations. You want more. You want to experience different areas of the profession, and you\u2019ll get that experience through multiple internships. And you get a chance to get a better handle on what type of industry you\u2019re more comfortable working in (agency\/corporate\/nonprofit\/public sector?). This, in turn, will help you better target the opportunities that offer the experience you\u2019re hoping for.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. The future, as so many wise ones like to say, is now. And it\u2019s yours to conquer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.\u201d \u2013 Charles Franklin Kettering, \u201cSeed for Thought\u201d (1949)<\/p>\n

–<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kirk Hazlett, APR, Fellow PRSA<\/em><\/strong>, is an associate professor of communication (undergraduate) at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. He also is visiting lecturer, organizational and professional communication (graduate), at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. Prior to his move into academia, Hazlett practiced nonprofit and government public relations and marketing for more than 35 years in the U.S. as well as in Asia. Accredited by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), he was inducted into PRSA\u2019s prestigious College of Fellows in 2009 and is one of just two actively teaching college professors in Massachusetts to have earned this distinction. You can read more of Hazlett\u2019s musings at his blog, \u201c<\/em>A Professor\u2019s Thought<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em>\u201d and follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/em>@KirkHazlett<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The funny thing about growing up is that you\u2019re expected to take on more and more responsibilities. You get to venture into often uncharted waters in pursuit of \u201cyour future.\u201d College studies don\u2019t necessarily prepare you for this. They provide you with the knowledge and the basic skills that will prepare you for that future, but they don\u2019t actually make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":10021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2892,1555],"tags":[401,1771,91,175,2019,3091,40,3090,2880],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10022,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020\/revisions\/10022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}