As I was reading different blogs today, I found two interesting posts. The first is by ArizonaBrian entitled "Does a master's degree in PR or Comm help?" The author is also facing the same dilemma as me and doesn't know if he should continue his education or enter into the workforce. This is an issue a great amount of PR students are facing, so I tried to help him by sharing the information I know. If you want to know my thoughts, check out his blog - his posts are pretty insightful.
The second blog, "What makes a PRofessional" by Zackery Moore, addresses items like earning a PR degree and obtaining your APR. After reading his post, I realized that if I do not get into graduate school, I will be fine getting a job. Even though I would love to go to graduate school right away (since I think this would give me a competitive advantage), I realized that experience is what gets you into the door, not where you went to school. Also, if I do not go to graduate school right away, I can work toward my APR. This, as Moore said, is an honor which many professionals do not have. I think my name would look pretty cool as Katalyn, APR.
If you're a professional or are in graduate school, let me know your thoughts about this topic. Should PR students continue their education after undergrad or should they enter the work force? Will earning an advanced degree be helpful or will having more education hurt you?
2 comments:
Thanks for the link and the comments, Katalyn. I'm actually in the workforce right now. I have about two years of experience in higher education PR.
Right out of college I recommend one dives straight into PR - but if grad school is the way you want to go, then do it. I applied for an online master's degree, so I can work and go to school at the same time, but then again - I didn't get accepted yet nor do I know if I'm going to do it.
My deep down feeling is stay in school as long as you can! College truly was the best four years.
Where are you applying?
I hope you got as much out of the PRSSA convention as I got out of the PRSA convention. I guess we were both in Detroit at the same time.
thanks so much for the blog mention and it's such an awesome feeling to see proof that I'm helping someone and people are actually reading what I write.
It was kind of surprising to see that so many PRofessionals preferred experience over education. Personally, going to grad school is only an option for me if I go to work for an agency or business that has tuition reimbursement policies. Otherwise I'm going to wait or maybe not at all.
I think that in the future, the APR may hold more weight, but like you said, it's only a cool sounding acronym that sounds fancy. And only a personal accomplishment until something happens that makes it a requirement to practice PR.
Thank you again for the reference.
ZM
http://zakmo.wordpress.com
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