Gaining communications degree work experience at the undergraduate level can help you a lot in the future. Many of the top colleges and universities across the country let students do internships and work experiences throughout the school year or during the summer break. Those programs award you a certain number of credit or semester hours based on the work that you do, and some internships and experiences even pay you a regular salary. You’ll meet people who need workers with your skills, and you’ll have something to add to your resume. When you check the job board at your school, you might find some great jobs available.
Public Relations
Public relation specialists work hard at promoting a group, event or product. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these specialists make a mean wage of just over $63,000 a year, and the top earners in the field make more than $100,000 a year. You’ll find these jobs and experiences available through local PR companies and companies that specialize in advertising and marketing. PR specialists help companies build marketing campaigns, organize events designed to bring awareness to a topic and serve as the public face of various companies and organizations.
Writing Positions
If you love putting pen to paper or hand to keyboard, think about gaining some writing experience during college. While the college paper and literary journal won’t pay you, you can make money writing for others. Content writers specialize in creating content for blogs and websites, while marketing writers create product descriptions and write pieces designed to sell products and services to others. Many college students make enough to pay for their textbooks and living expenses writing, while others pay for their entire education through their writing.
News Jobs
Though a large number of newspapers and magazines closed over the years, you can still find communications degree work experience through news sources. Doing an internship at your local paper lets you see how reporters research and write stories, how editors cut down stories to fit different spaces and even what happens when news breaks at the last minute. Your local career development office might get you an internship or work experience at a local radio station or television station as well. Radio stations often use interns as a way to fill in empty time slots late at night.
Sports Experiences
Sports teams of all types and sizes hire communications majors for jobs. A local farm club baseball team might need an intern willing to work behind the scenes to create posters for upcoming games, while a professional football team might need an intern to work in the accounting department or finance office. Country clubs, college athletic departments and public sports complexes also offer internships for college students. Those work experiences will give you a better idea about what goes on behind the scenes of your favorite team or club.
Though some people think that communications majors spend their studies in speech classes and learning how to effectively communicate with others, the subject actually involves a number of other things. You’ll learn how to market products to others, how to create fundraising and other events and how to get people excited about various topics. The types of communications degree work experience available to you include internships at PR companies, athletic complexes and news stations.
