Membership has its privileges

I gave a talk recently to the Ad/PR Club at ACU about some of the resources available to students for searching for internships and entry-level jobs. One suggestion worth repeating is that all JMC majors should belong to one or more of the pre-professional groups promoted by the department. This includes the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the Broadcast Education Association (BEA). Most of these pre-professional organizations offer internship and job boards as well as more general career advice like how to write resumes and cover letters.

A recent scan of the PRSSA Web site (www.prssa.org) showed employers have posted 20 internship leads during the past 30 days. If you're a public relations student looking for a top internship, this should get your adrenalin pumping. Access this site and you've hit the mother lode of timely PR internship leads.

Surprisingly, few students at the recent Ad/PR Club had ever accessed the job info on the PRSSA or AAF Web sites, even though they were dues-paying members. What about you? If you are not in a pre-professional JMC organization, you need to join. Already a member? Take some time to get familiar with your organization's Web site and what it offers in terms of career advice and promising leads for internships and jobs. Membership really does have its privileges.