16 Tips for Starting a Communications Career
I’ve recently had the privilege of volunteering as a mentor through the Edmonton chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), of which I am a member. Previous to this, I had never worked as a career coach, but I got a taste for it by mentoring a young aspiring communicator looking to break into the communications world.
My proudest professional moment this year thus far has not been anything I’ve personally achieved, but rather helping my mentee secure her first ever formal communications role this spring, after only a few months of mentorship. I couldn’t have been prouder had it been my own kid, and it caused me to wonder if this kind of coaching is something I should explore further as an aspect of my professional offerings.
The process of mentoring an aspiring communicator caused me to reflect a great deal on my own career up to now, and most notably on the mistakes I’ve made. Much of the advice I gave amounted to “Do as I say, not as I do”-type advice, as I would hope that my mentee will manage to avoid some of the missteps I’ve made in my own career. There are things I didn’t do that I wished I had done and some poor professional choices along the way, choices that I never would have made had I had a decade older version of myself whispering in my ear.
With that in mind, here are my 16 pieces of advice to a person who is either a fresh university graduate trying to get into a comms job or someone working in a different field trying to transition into comms.
Write as much as possible.
I was able to transition into communications work fairly easily when I decided to, and this was due in no small part to my background as a professional writer. Almost any comms job description you’ll see calls for good writing skills, and this is one of the easiest things to develop on your own. Journal every day. Start your own blog. Find a newsletter to contribute to. Anything helps.
Identify communications skills and try to develop them.
Writing is just one of the many comms skills you can develop on your own. Want to work on your public speaking skills? Try signing up for Toastmasters or joining an amateur theatre troupe. Want experience managing a website? Perhaps a local volunteer group needs such assistance. There’s no shortage of opportunities out there to develop skills free of charge in ways you can highlight on a resume.
Look for opportunities to take on communications-related tasks in your current role.
If you’re working in a non-communications job but are looking to migrate into comms, try finding opportunities in your current job that will build your skills and add to your resume. Maybe you can offer your services as an editor/proofreader. Perhaps your employers’ website needs a backup web manager. Perhaps they need help with social media or the company newsletter.
Identify instances in your past and present when you’ve demonstrated communications skills.
It’s likely you’ve already done stuff like this. If you’re still young and new in the workforce, revisit your university years. Did you publish or contribute to a dorm e-newsletter? Did you help manage social media for your basketball team? Highlight it all.
Join a professional association.
I did this early on and it really helped. In Canada, there’s the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) and your local chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), of which I’m a longtime member. This will open the door to networking and mentorship opportunities as well as job listings you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It also looks good on a resume.
Find a mentor.
This is what I wished I’d done earlier on. While I picked senior communicators’ brains here and there when the opportunity arose, I never had a formal, dedicated mentor, and having now been one for a junior communicator, I now see the tremendous value in this relationship. Professional associations will generally make this easier.
Find volunteer opportunities that will enable you to develop skills.
If you’re having a hard time breaking into a paid communications role, consider an unpaid one—at least for a time. Guaranteed there are charitable organizations in your area who would love someone to manage their website or their social media or write communications plans and strategies for them, or to provide their senior management with communications advice.
Revamp your LinkedIn presence to highlight communications skills.
As harsh as I was on LinkedIn in my April 9 post, LinkedIn is undeniably your friend when it comes to career building. Start listing those communications skills under your “Skills” heading and hopefully get people to endorse them. You can also rewrite your job history blurbs to highlight communications skills.
Try to get in with a large organization with a large comms team.
This falls definitely into the “do as I say, not as I do” category, although this is not entirely my fault. I was never able to get in with a large organization early on and as a result I moved around a lot in my early career. A job with a large organization is not only conducive to longevity, but it will also get you around a lot of experienced people from whom you can learn a lot.
Go back to school.
Unless your university degree was in communications, you’re definitely going to want to get some further education in the field. You can either do this full time and get it over quickly or do it part time and do it slowly. (I chose the latter option.) I recommend doing a diploma program rather than taking courses here and there on Coursera or wherever because it gives you an actual piece of paper at the end, but at the end of the day any training is beneficial.
Find a balance between tasks that are easy and enjoyable for you with ones that challenge your abilities.
If you’re a writer by nature and this is what you love to do, by all means find a job where you do a lot of this, but especially early on in your career you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself. Take on those opportunities to do strategic communications planning or media relations, especially if these are challenging for you. If you’re studying in a program while you’re working, you’ll want to find opportunities to apply whatever you’re learning at the moment.
Don’t be afraid to specialize. Or not.
I’m divided on this one. There are lots of communicators who specialize early on, who become, say, writing specialists, social media specialists, or crisis communications specialists. That said, there’s a lot to be said for being a robust generalist. I came into the field with a pre-existing writing background, and as such have tended to be pigeonholed as a writer, but I’ve always tried to maintain my generalist cred. That said, if you know what you love to do and want to build a name for doing that, by all means go for it.
Look for opportunities for award nominations.
As a PR student, I was able to submit a communications plan that I co-wrote for an IABC Edmonton Capital Award, which I ended up winning. Having this on my resume was a major boost for my career. There are generally opportunities to submit your best work for an award, and even a nomination looks good on a resume.
Try to build some longevity with an employer.
It took me a while to do this, but I eventually managed to build some longevity with my current employers. PR/communications people have a tendency to move around a lot on their careers—it seems to go with the territory, and this generally won’t be held against you by prospective employers. That said, longevity and stability are good things, as they’re indicative of excellent work performance and reliability.
Make note of any measurable achievements in your resume/CV.
This, again, is something I wish I’d done more of early on, although I consider I’ve made up for lost time. Don’t count on being able to remember everything you’ve done in your past roles, especially measurable metrics like clickthrough rates, SEO growth, newsletter audience reach, social media impact, and so on. It’s well worth your while investigating to see what measurable results your work has generated and, when you obtain this information, putting it in your resume.
Speaking of resumes, you should always have a general-purpose long-form resume (or more likely a CV) that captures every single detail about your career, from which you can pull information for specific job applications.
Don’t neglect the rest of your life outside of communications.
At a certain time, I was working full-time in communications, taking two evening courses at a time, and also volunteering as a board member with my local IABC chapter and participating in all the chapter events. This was a mistake, as I ended up neglecting my physical and mental health and after a certain point I burned out and was forced to reduce my activities. A career is worth investing in, but don’t overdo it. There are other important things in life, like your relationships outside of work and your physical and mental wellbeing.
Disagree with me? Got your own suggestions? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me through my site or hit me up on LinkedIn!
