By Alexandra Crump
One of the biggest challenges that any college student faces is resume building. Just going to class and getting good grades isn’t going to cut it anymore – you need to keep yourself involved in as many ways possible and try to make your application stand out from the hundreds of others that are just as qualified as you.
The easiest way to really hype up your resume is to participate in some extracurricular activities. Most college campuses have literally hundreds of different student organizations that you can join, and even if they don’t blatantly focus on public relations, there is always a way to gain some real-world experience in your field.
The first club that I joined when I was a freshman was actually pretty random – the racquetball club. Although I am ridiculously unathletic, I was desperate for new experiences and friends and this club seemed like a good place to start. Now here I am a year and a half later, and I’m the secretary of the club. When I first joined, I definitely didn’t think I would ever hold a leadership position, let alone be able to apply this position to PR. However, now that I have taken on more responsibility within the club, the skills that I am learning are definitely going to be applicable to a PR career in my future. For example, I am in charge of sending out the emails every Monday and Thursday to remind everyone of our meetings. This seems like a menial task, but the truth is it’s a lot tougher than you would think. Each week, I send those reminder emails to over 50 people, and usually a maximum of 15 show up to the meetings. Before I joined the club, only 2 or 3 people attended each meeting. I have been working to come with different ways to increase the club’s membership, as well as promote around campus. I like to look at the club as a client – it’s my job to do my best to get the most publicity for it and help create a good reputation throughout Ball State.
Another student organization that I’m very passionate about is Cardinal Metrics. This is the student-run data analytics firm on campus and I’m so excited to be a part of it. When you’re focusing on a field like PR, you have to be aware that things are always changing. Technology is really creating a new environment for public relations, and it is our job as PR specialists to grow with the environment. With this being said, it is clear that everything is going to begin to depend on data analytics. Being able to see how many interactions a post gets, and compare that to another post that maybe didn’t do so well is going to help us as PR professionals guide our clients to create the best content to help their business. Being able to practice skills such as researching, auditing and report writing, as well as becoming Google Analytics Certified is something that not only looks good on a resume, but is going to give me an extra level of knowledge and expertise in my future career.
If there’s one thing that I urge you to take from this post, it’s this: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Don’t shy away from new things just because they might not be exactly what you think you need. Be creative and daring. Find a place where you can fit in and let yourself grow. Not only will your resume thank you, but also you’ll be thanking yourself later.
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