Let me ask you a question: assuming you’re in the business of public relations and communications, do you consider the work you do to be a job, a career or a profession?
It’s not a trick question, and there is no wrong answer. Everyone needs a job. Most of us will, over time, piece together a series of jobs into what can be called a career. But not all of us will consider what we do a profession. Medicine, law, engineering, accounting, even journalism – those are professions. But public relations? Surely it’s nothing more than a job on the path to somewhere else.
My journey into public relations began like many of you: with a job. Leaving the media, it was a natural sideways transition. I wasn’t sure at the time that it would become a career. And I certainly didn’t think of it as a profession.
And then a couple of friends invited me to a CPRS event. There, I was exposed to people doing the same things I was doing, learning how to do them better through professional development opportunities, and providing a certain amount of mutual emotional support for the hope that we were doing something of value in our community.
The next step on the journey was discovering the CPRS awards program. There was an official program recognizing excellence in the work we do? And that demonstrated our work matters? Sign me up. Let’s see how my work stacks up.
Next was the CPRS National Conference, where I discovered yet more kindred spirits, practitioners at all levels and across all disciplines from all around Canada, academics and researchers, and organizational leaders volunteering their time to build a national coalition of practitioners of this craft that had until then (for me) been mostly a job.
This network that had been opened up for me had opened my eyes to the fact that public relations and communications were a profession that was practiced by people all over the world. And through affiliations such as the Global Alliance, and the opportunity to attend the World PR Forum in Toronto, we have opportunities at CPRS to connect to and learn from our peers around the globe.
I pursued my Accreditation in Public Relations, read the Melbourne Mandate and subsequent frameworks, which introduced me to the rigour of practicing public relations and communications as a true profession, and to the importance of the ethical framework underpinning the professionalism of what we do.
I discovered opportunities to volunteer with CPRS at the local and national level, giving back to the community, mentoring a younger generation, and helping build an ethical, equitable and inclusive profession providing value to our employers, our clients and society through a relentless pursuit of transparent communications to drive mutual understanding in the public interest.
The lightbulb went on. I was part of the professionalization of an industry. I was helping build a profession of which I was proud to be a part.
That lightbulb moment may never have happened without CPRS.
Now, everyone’s journey is unique. Your journey into and through the profession will be yours alone. You may be happy just doing your job, and that’s fine. But I suspect, if you’ve read this far, that you may have started to think differently about what you do and why
Many of you may already be members of CPRS. Not all of you are. I would obviously encourage you to consider it, as Membership Month is upon us in March.
But either way, my challenge to you is the same. Take some time to ask yourself: are you getting what you need – from me, from CPRS, from yourself – to answer your why, and to turn your job into a career, and your career into a profession?
If not, I want to hear from you. What are we doing well? What can we be doing better to deliver on our member promise to you? How can we work together to make this organization stronger and build a profession to be proud of? My email is
cam@earnscliffe.ca
Cam McAlpine, APR
National President