Why PR Advocacy Matters in a Shrinking Grad Market

Today’s graduates - and young people in general - are being hit with a discouraging career outlook from near enough everywhere. Whether via social media, TV documentaries, personal testimonies, AI update news, and so on, the general sentiment is that we’re witnessing the death of entry-level roles. 

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For the second time since graduating in 2021, I recently returned to Canterbury Christ Church University to speak to third-year students preparing to tackle the world of work beyond university. My visit two years prior, where I mentored journalism students on shaping an early career in PR, was against a starkly different backdrop. 

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Students are no longer just looking for tips on how to write a press release, or what kind of clients you get to work with; they're much more preoccupied with whether or not the industry is genuinely open for business - especially to them.

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There was certainly an early indication of brewing concern during my original visit, but offering tips on how to get into the industry was still the order of the day. This year felt more like an attempt to quell panic. Feedback from this year’s cohort shows that the market is more competitive than ever. Many students have already been trying to get their names out there - to no avail. This situation sits in stark contrast to two years earlier, where students were already quite comfortably bolstering their CVs with valuable work experience opportunities.

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So what gives? Why are upcoming young PR professionals being thwarted at every turn? 

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The reality is that traditional career pathways have fundamentally shifted with the advent of AI selection processes. Many graduates, from PR and other industries, feel like they're fighting with ghosts - battling the algorithm on keywords to try and get CVs to land in the lap of a human. Are these “machine gatekeepers” unwittingly creating a talent drought in our industry?  

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 Maybe it’s time to lean into our humanity. We need talent and these young people need experience. It’s down to those of us already in the room to reach out to grads and and young people, letting them know that we see them and that we still want and need them in our companies. We must add PR advocacy to our job descriptions.

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