Before graduating college, I had an expectation that my first job in public relations would involve writing and connecting with people, but I had no idea just how many different responsibilities there are that fall under public relations until starting my first job as a Communications Apprentice at DMA Solutions. While my transition into this new role has been smooth, my reality has been quite different than the expectations I had as a senior in college. Here are the 5 biggest lessons I’ve learned in my first few months as a post-grad working in PR for the fresh produce industry! 

Writing is essential.

Something I was told in school – but if I’m being honest, I never really grasped how much writing public relations requires. After being in my new position only a few days, I found this to be the cold, hard truth. Public relations not only builds relationships between clients, influencers and any other stakeholders, it has to maintain those relationships. Since my time at DMA, I have noticed that the trade media looks to public relations to fill them in on news, trends and events going on within the fresh produce industry. In order to be in-the-know at all times, public relations must be present in every conversation that goes on within the agency. I have learned that the key to success when looking to keep clients relevant to the media is collaborating with fellow marketers to see all aspects of the brand.

Time is money.

Really though, your time is valuable – especially in public relations. Working within an agency, there are multiple clients that you are required to manage within the working day. Regardless if you find yourself getting paid hourly or by salary, you are constantly tracking your time in order to invoice appropriately. In order to track your time, you must be able to manage your time efficiently. This can be a chore to the recent grad that never really understood how to manage their time spent at the bars versus in the books. Recently, I have learned just how important those mundane ‘study skills’ courses were in college because they taught me the fundamentals of time management and how to be a more organized individual. Not only should you be an organized person that works efficiently, you have to be conscious of how much time you are putting into a project in order to stay within the budgeted time. In a nutshell, you must keep all your ducks in a line and accounted for.

Find your voice.

While the actions that are completed for each project can all take similar shapes, the way you accomplish each has to be different. In order to form relationships with bloggers for partnerships with different brands, you have to prove that there is a human behind the emails. We live in a digital era where we are much more confident hiding behind our keyboards, but when you are trying to form relationships, you have to break that barrier and show you are a genuine person looking to build a relationship and nurture that bond. I have learned that finding your voice can be intimidating at first, but it gets easier with time and practice.

Think outside the box.

Throughout college, I was taught many different theories related to public relations. Many of them had fancy names like “ad hoc” and “contingency” plans, and I even completed projects that I thought justified all of my studying for public relations. However, I now find myself continuously learning about public relations and at times, I feel ill-equipped in my role. Although this may be my fear of failure speaking louder than my actual capability, I’ve learned that it’s totally acceptable (and encouraged) to ask multiple questions until you fully understand the context and purpose behind each tactic public relations takes. My role here at DMA has made me think outside the box and think of new ways to tell the stories we want to make newsworthy. Not only that, but I get to be creative in my approach to every day tasks – which is awesome for right-brainers like myself.

You are not perfect.

I think I can speak for most recent grads when I say you feel as if you are on cloud nine once you graduate. You just completed four (or five) grueling years of college where you completed many assignments that seemed as if they were to never end. You have been taught many rules that have been engrained in your brain to get a passing grade from your professors. Now, you find yourself in your first job in the real world – and for me, it is in public relations. I have learned that in order to become successful in a newfound role, you are going to have to swallow your pride and have the realization that you are going to make mistakes. Yes, you have a wealth of knowledge coming out of college, but you lack the years of experience most of your colleagues have. While your knowledge is valued and your work ethic is exceptional, you will make mistakes – some would say this is synonymous for learning. Not only are you going to make mistakes, which you will learn from, you will bring a breath of fresh air to your work environment that can benefit everyone around you when developing new ideas.

So you see, while many people told me I wasn’t going to find my dream job right out of college, I would like to object. I have found myself in a position that I absolutely love because I am challenged to grow every day, am working towards the greater good and have awesome co-workers. Right out of college, we think we know everything we need to know about the world – but we couldn’t be more wrong. I think it’s beautiful how we are still required to learn because it forces us to grow up. For me, this has been an unbelievable moment in my life as I feel like I am learning more about myself every day while fulfilling my passions.