Three Ways To Launch and Manage Your Career (PRofessional Development Week)

This post is a part of PRofessional Development Week. The posts from March 2 to March 6 will focus on the development of professional skills of public relations students. If you would like to contribute to this special week on A Step Ahead, e-mail Rachel.M.Esterline {at} Gmail.com.

Renee Walker, the associate vice president of public relations and marketing at Central Michigan University, shared this quote with us at the CMU-FSU PRSSA Regional Activity:

Don’t let the fear of falling keep you from knowing the joy of flight.

— Lane Wallace

Here are three ways to help launch and manage your career that I learned from Renee:

1. Create a list of “must haves,” “deal breakers,” “professional goals” and “personal goals.”
   To help you evaluate whether or not your career is going in the right direction, Renee suggested creating a list. For example, one of my “must haves” is a job that challenges me. If it is too easy, I won’t be learning much. A “deal breaker” is a job that requires me to fetch coffee. I believe in paying my dues, but I don’t want my position of intern to be taken advantage of.
2. Identify your talents and experience gaps.
   By identifying your talents, you can better promote yourself. And, by identifying your experience gaps, you can find ways to gain the experience you need. My talents include social media and writing for publications. But, I don’t have a lot of experience in media relations. In order to close the experience gap, I should work on gaining experience in media relations in order to advance my career.
3. Establish stretch goals.
   Since working with Renee when I was an intern in her office, I have realized she believes in pushing yourself to reach higher goals. She calls these “stretch goals.” She said it is OK if you don’t always reach your stretch goals, but you can never reach them if you don’t try. This is where her favorite quote, at the top of this post, comes in.

Tags: Career, career direction, Central Michigan University, CMU, experience gaps, getting experience, goals, Internships, launching, professional development, reaching goals, Renee Walker, setting goals, talents

Taking Action Over Uncertainty

Girl Meets Business recently wrote about overcoming fears. It’s not the afraid of spiders and snakes kind of fear, but the kind that holds you back from doing what you really want to do.

The kind of fear she wrote about was the kind you feel when you write a blog post. What if people think it’s stupid? Or, the kind of fear you get when you mail out a resume. What if they laugh because of my lack of experience?

Uncertainty is a feeling I have more than I would like. Even writing this blog post makes me feel uncertain. But, by taking action and overcoming that feeling, you can do more than you ever thought possible.

When I was applying for the Edelman Award, I started wondering what I was getting myself into. Was I even qualified enough? Were my portfolio pieces good enough? I’m a good writer, but am I that good? The cover letter was pretty tough to write too. How do you brag about yourself when you feel a little bit uncertain?

After talking to a few people, I realized I was letting fear take over. A lot of people have told me I have a great portfolio and good experience. I shut out that little voice in my head and sent in the application.

I didn’t get the award, but I did get a note from someone I know saying the group had been really impressed with my entry. Apparently, I was in the last group to be eliminated.

It’s a bittersweet feeling.

I’m disappointed because I was so close. But, it also feels good to know that they were impressed and took in a lot of consideration before eliminating me.

So push through those fears and uncertain moments because you never know who you’ll impress.

Tags: action, fear, goals, uncertainty