Group Project: I would arguably say these can be a student’s least favorite words to hear. As a student who is used to getting good grades, putting lots of work into projects, and doing things my way it can be really hard to adjust to working with people you have never met before and know nothing about. You might be concerned that there will be that person who wants to do nothing but still get credit for it. You may worry that no one will do anything and you will be stuck with all the work. But one thing I repeatedly get told is that in the real world you are always working in teams with other people, and you have to learn to rely on those people to do their jobs.
Since we all know what waits for us in the work environment, we might as well get used to it now and develop those skills so we have them before we need them. I do think working with teams in a company will be slightly different than class projects, since you will have time to form connections and build real meaningful relationships with your co-workers. You will find that your success overall does depend on each member of the team doing their part to make the plan work.
Another huge side to relationship building is forming new connections with people you aren’t already working with. Many people refer to this as networking, building your network of contacts. One thing I have learned over the years is that you really can’t just look at it like this if you want to be successful. You have to go into it with a mindset of relationship building and not just meeting people for your own personal gain. I found an article that does a good job of diving deeper into this: https://speckyboy.com/relationship-building-not-networking/.
In my personal experiences this applies to many different fields within the PR realm. One place I have encountered this has been in working with fundraising groups. Successful fundraisers know that it is more about “friend-raising” than fundraising. This means actually building relationships with the donors and cultivating these connections and not just asking people for money. By building these relationships, you actually increase the likelihood of these people becoming repeat donors or being willing to make larger donations.
If you take one thing away from this post, know that building these relationships will benefit you long into your career, and you might even make some lifelong friends along the way.
Check out UVU PRSSA at http://www.uvuprssa.org, or on Instagram @prssa_uvu.
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