I was in school for two years studying marketing/PR. I soon realized that the education I was being fed was worthless and no where near worthy of its high price tag. I left,”I knew everything”, and stared my own company. I then proceeded to fall flat on my face…but I learned so much more in those eight months than my friends with degrees know now. Beyond knowledge, leaving school, failing and still wanting to press on, only helped me confirm my love for the art of communication.

It seems to me that getting into the American marketing/PR/Ad industry is just about having a degree in anything. I literally know of several people with PR firms that didn’t even know what “PR” was short-hand for until the day they submitted a resume! However, they had a degree in agriculture so all is well.

The thing that riles me about this is that so many of these “practitioners” couldn’t care less about the craft, industry or people they represent, it’s simply a job to them.

I find solace in hoping that there are still some greats in the marketing world that truly just want to be great. The Ogilvy’s, Ayers and Arden’s of the world. Amazing people that hire people that are even more amazing based on their passion, potential and a sense of obligation to produce astounding work for their clients… not because they were willing to sit still and take note for four years.

That’s my two cents.

-Thanks

I’m a final year student at Leeds Met studying PR and am writing my dissertation about how pertinent the knowledge gained on the PR degree is to the development of a PR professional. This debate has definitely brought to light some interesting points.

With PR being one of the top three career choices for graduates we are competing against a whole array of students. At present I am applying for graduate level PR posts however, it is hard to tell whether employers prefer those with a PR degree or not.

I agree that PR is a personality and that cannot be taught however, I think that as boring as PR theory may seem it has provided me with a great foundation to becoming a better PR professional.

Although the degree may not have taught me how to become a practitioner, having a weekly placement has definitely enabled me to understand the industry and put my skills and theory into practice.

If it is possible I would like to include some of the comments to this discussion in my dissertation. Would you mind if I did?

Thanks

We all need to keep developing our skills and knowledge and there are opportunities presented by studying for qualifications, attending training courses or conferences, self-improvement from reading and multimedia, as well as actual practice, and networking, mentoring, etc etc etc.

One problem with the “learn on the job” approach is that it depends who is doing the teaching. Isn’t it likely that many of the really poor PR practices have survived because these are being passed on by those who are unaware (or don’t care) that there are other, better, ways to achieve the end result?

I’m a fan of post-graduate PR qualifications (like Stuart, I gained the CAM qualifications, and I now teach the CIPR ones). These help those who have gained experience in PR to add the solid foundations of theoretical principles and best practice research to their existing skills. As such, these qualifications offer a vital lift into management for many and help demonstrate there is more to PR than having a bubbly personality or being able to craft a press release.