Articles by KamiHuyse

Even though it is the start of a new school year, it doesn’t hurt to look ahead to what awaits the senior class when they graduate and start looking for a job. Better yet, those with a few years to go should be looking ahead and acquiring the skills that will make them employable.

In that pursuit, it might help to look at the University of Georgia’s James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research’s Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates for 2006, which found that the job recovery that started two years ago for communication and journalism positions has now stalled (pdf of survey results).

“Graduates of U.S. journalism and mass communication programs confronted a weakened job market in 2006 and early 2007,” according to Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center and professor of journalism in UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

But it isn’t all bad news, while benefits are in decline (for all workers), salaries for graduates with full-time jobs increased and even outpaced inflation slightly.

Before you get too depressed, remember that the best and brightest will still find a job. They will just need the skills that employers are looking for. The survey gave some clues as to what those skills are. Here are the skills that employed graduates reported using in their jobs:

Looking at these numbers you might think that you should specialize in writing, editing and reporting for print. But I would say that while you MUST have the skills that are used most, having skills like producing content for video and mobile devices might make you stand out from the crowd and win the job.

Most communication professionals are looking for ways to include these new skill sets and many don’t have them. An entry-level employee with these skills in hand looks attractive. I know this because in my consulting business I am often hired by these same senior managers to do the jobs for which they haven’t developed the skill sets in house. As a new graduate, you can save your company a lot of money (hiring people like me) by bringing these skills with you.

So, join your school television station, learn graphic and web design by getting an internship or helping a non-profit, learn how to take and edit photos at the school newspaper…and so on.

What skills do you think you need to get a job and how do you plan to get them? Let’s share ideas and resources to help your fellow students and those that will come in the future.

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Starting a new job in public relations can be very daunting, especially if you are starting and internship or are newly graduated from college.

Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to be prepared, and Leo Bottary of Hill & Knowlton, who writes the excellent blog Client Service Insights, has wrapped them all up
into a neat package of eight articles for newly minted professionals.

Here are the eight topics on which Leo focused in his posts to junior public relations professionals, with some of my insights thrown in for good measure:

1. Use all of the resources at our disposal, don’t try to reinvent the wheel every time
2. Learn to question everything, even things you have done a thousand times, in order to find flashes of brilliance
3. Take ownership of any project you are given (from start to finish), don’t “throw it over the wall� and hope someone else will handle it
4. If you don’t understand something in a client meeting, don’t ask about it there, but wait until you can ask a colleague privately, or until it becomes apparent by the context
5. Develop the skill of listening, then do it. Listen, really listen, before you talk. There is a reason we were given two ears and one mouth
6. I had a boss once that told me, “Never come to me with a problem unless you have a suggested solution.� Proactive workers generate options, be proactive
7. Learn to write well. I mentioned this in one of my pervious posts, Three Critical Skills. I am not alone in my opinion about this. It is the one complaint I hear from fellow PR professionals about new graduates, “They just don’t teach them to write.� Leo breaks down what constitutes good writing.
8. Learn how to make presentations with passion, thinking more of your audience that your nerves

Leo has created an outstanding body of work that we should all study – even we seasoned “professionals.� These skills, if digested and adopted will make you indispensable in your first job, or even in your internships.

This stuff is pure gold.

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