Yesterday I enrolled in the CIPR’s Chartered assessment day. As well as being a direct financial commitment it appears to also involve a fair degree of preparation and planning. So why have I done it?
PR is a no-qualification entry profession. Personally, I think if you want to make a success of it you need to show some commitment and getting qualified helps. People see you have put yourself out and respond better. I have been a CIPR member on and off since the early 90’s. I took the Diploma 10 years ago and have done their CPD since, calling myself an Accredited Practitioner. So why am I putting myself through the apparent grief that is the assessment day, especially if right now I think my chances of passing are not that great?
Katie Marlow @ktmarlow helped convince me. In her blog post she mentioned that she felt like an imposter in the PR space. This is me. Because I do media analysis and don’t do ‘mainstream PR’ every day. That is not to say I don’t have an involvement. I help PR clients with pitches and proposals, I make recommendations formed from research on how to account for their actions and take their PR forward.
I am in a PR niche and also self-employed. Currently I am pondering how good a fit this is for the Chartership. I may not have the level of practical ability, hands-on time and leadership contact to get me through the three 75 minute group discussions. That is quite a long time and I worry I will come up short if, for example, I am quizzed for experiences with dealing with top management regarding a PR strategy. I will just have to hold my hands up, work with what material I have and hope the assessors are feeling charitable. But I can’t help feeling like an imposter!
What I do have is a bit of time to prepare. The pre-event preparation material won’t turn up until the end of the month so in the meantime I can work on my 2 year CPD plan. Currently it is blank (see above). I have tried writing some ideas but it’s not coming easily. I am hoping that by writing this I might form some ideas…
I must thanks Lindsey Collumbell @LindsCollumbell for her help.
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