Do you need a degree in public relations to work in PR?
Photo Credit: Mike Adams, York College of PA
My advice to those considering an undergraduate major in public relations or communications is: don’t go there.
Don’t major in public relations or communications as an undergraduate. These undergraduate majors are not always taken seriously in the market place, as they are perceived as less academically challenging than other majors, and will not propel you to a management level career later.
After all, you may not work in PR forever. You may end up in law or medicine! Also, you need more diverse and challenging academic experiences to be successful in public relations, later.
I believe students are better served at the undergraduate level by pursuing a course of studies that includes a wide variety of liberal arts subjects. You might consider a major in English, Government, History, or some other academic area for which you have a real passion and aptitude.
However, this approach will only work well for you if you obtain public relations work experience while at school and during internships. The best way to learn about public relations is through work experiences. You can also supplement your knowledge and public relations skills through independent study and professional development workshops. But I feel using your valuable undergraduate academic credits for a major is a waste of your resources.
You can always get your masters in public relations later, after you have worked at least six years, or even better — your accreditation in public relations.
Be sure you work on plenty of writing projects, however, in college. Developing your writing skills is essential.
Alternatively, get an undergraduate degree in business, and take some communications courses.
Whatever you decide, try to diversify your course load as much as possible — when you work in public relations, having a broad knowledge base is essential, particularly if you work in an agency, because you’ll be expected to acquire expertise on issues and industries fairly quickly, depending on the clients.
However, this is only my opinion, based on my experiences. If you are seriously considering a public relations career, and you have not yet declared a major, ask other public relations professionals what they think you should do.
Posted on August 24, 2011, in Public Relations Tips and tagged public relations, public relations careers, public relations degrees. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Interesting post Mary! I have Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in history. The key is to get a lot of hands-on and practical experience. My start in PR emerged out of my community activism and I wrote for a college newspaper for 3 years as an op-ed columnist. These gave me a lot of good experience in writing and media relations, and they helped me get a job at a university communications office. I moved from there to another office and other jobs, and then got accredited in public relations. I did find the accreditation process was very helpful to me at understanding how to assemble all the pieces. I also sought mentors working in public relations to learn from.
Thanks for your comment and for these great PR career tips, Ami!
Mary, I hope your opinion is widely held! I have a MA and BA in Philosophy from a well ranked program, however I find that I am constantly having to explain my choice in education. Do you think that non-PR (or non-communications) students face difficulty finding a job after pursuing challenging, but less traditional degrees paths?
You know, honestly, I do see in a LOT of job postings: must-have requirement is a PR, communications, or journalism degree. I just think the employers are making a mistake to make that a must-have and are missing out on excellent candidates. No one can sneeze at undergraduate and master’s degrees in Philosophy. If you can demonstrate that you can do the work (through portfolio) and you have impressive academic chops like that, I don’t see how it would hold you back (or rather, it SHOULD not), but then there can be short-sightedness in HR screening…(I have a French Lit major so I can relate!)
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