School is out and now it is time to enter a new world of Public Relations. What ever you have learnt for the past year(s) is now going to get implemented.

Hopefully every student has attained many Skill Sets to show to their prospective employer and hopefully you have done some work placement(s) and other special activities to show you apart from the competition.

Besides these skill sets, Harold Burson gives his advice on career prospects for students and young professionals. In Summary his points:

1. Networking is the most important activity you can undertake, But never think that networking is simply a matter of knowing people. To be effective, it takes an underlying relationship – shared experiences — and you’ve got to work at it.
2. Working as a member of an organization – a team – is an essential in most careers, especially business.
3. Never cease working to become a better writer and a more effective speaker. One of the scarcest commodities in public relations today is the scarcity of competent writers. (This is a big topic to explain, hence part 2 of this post)
4. Develop as broad a knowledge base as possible. In our kind of work, all kinds of problems arise. And as consultants, in all fields of social, political and economic endeavor. Strive never to be caught tongue-tied for a total lack of knowledge even on a subject remote to your every day existence.

It is interesting to see that 3 of the 4 points (except no. 2) have blogging written all over them.

• By Blogging you can network, especially when you are a student as you do not get a chance to meet journalists or many practitioners on a daily basis.
• Blogging improves your writing skills way beyond any student can realize. You can see in my writing since I have started this blog. It also gives you a confidence to write for a live audience.
• Developing a broad knowledge base – If you are a Blogger, you are aware of the current topics in the world, more than any person who is just reading ‘The Sun’ or the ‘The New York Times or ‘The Times of India.’