My co-worker, Justin, is on the local board of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), our professional association. He said he was interested in studying to attain accreditation in public relations (APR). Good for him, I thought. In fact, if he finds it useful, we just might include this among the stepping stones to a certain level of leadership for the PR staff in the firm. We’ll support you, let me know how it goes, I told him.

I hadn’t done it, studied for accreditation. Didn’t know much about it. PRSA was not part of the culture where I worked early in my career, and becoming accredited just didn’t come up in the 15 years since Linda and I founded our integrated communications firm in Kansas City. As PR defines itself as an “emerging” profession, having or not having the accredited designation is not decisive in our freedom to do the work. In fact, of the 275,000 the Bureau of Labor Statistics says work in public relations, only 5,000 have this designation.

Who really knows or cares what APR stands for anyway? Or, AICP, ASE, CCIM, CLU, ChFC, PE, SIOR (just a few of the certifications I pulled from names in my Outlook database)? In the professional designation alphabet soup sweepstakes, the clear winners are CPA, DDS, JD, and MD. Most people know what those mean, and really want you to have one if you are their service provider.

In recent years, I have come to appreciate the rigor required of strategic communications campaigns submitted for PRSA’s awards program. They have to show clear goal setting, strategy, steady execution, and measureable results for clients. The association’s professional development opportunities for co-workers also have value. So being the strategic thinker that I am, I tried (really, really tried) to think my way through justifying requiring accreditation of more junior staff when I had not required it of myself.

When you have a well-stated goal, it clears the decks for defining what you need to do, how much and by when – the architecture of any good plan. I wanted to know if accreditation should be among the considerations for advancement among our senior PR team members. I needed to participate, study and take the test myself to be credible in that decision making – and I needed to do so before I let my focus go elsewhere.

So I did. And here is what I learned: That the process validated the discipline and rigor our firm has long brought to strategic planning and campaign execution. That research should be front and center for any firm’s in-house capabilities, not relegated to the specialist closet. That I really don’t like theory. That while accreditation alone is insufficient preparation for firm leadership, it is a worthy building block in the foundation.

I did pass, I am relieved to say, accredited in public relations. Now I know what it means.

This year, I’ve asked our intern applicants to submit a cover letter that explains why they chose to pursue a career in public relations. I decided to take this approach for several reasons, the most important of which is a desire to find candidates who really “get” what it means to work in this industry, and want to do it for the right reasons.

It occurred to me that if I expect others to articulate a clear and compelling rationale for why they pursued a career in PR, I should be able to do the same. So the following is my response to that question.

From a very early age, there were lots of signs that I would end up in this field. I was extroverted, loved analyzing and constructing arguments, enjoyed learning new things (especially when they were complicated), and was always fascinated by current events (particularly news related to government and business).

But just because you have certain personality traits, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re destined to work in a particular field.

The real defining moment came when I was a freshman in high school. You see, when I was in eighth grade, my mom passed away after a long battle with HIV/AIDS. This was back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – a time when this disease was making headlines and causing fear, and prior to the advent of “the cocktail” of medications that has improved and extended the lives of people living with HIV.

Her diagnosis as HIV-positive was an ironic turn of events, because prior to her own diagnosis, she had volunteered at the local health clinic providing HIV counseling and testing. She also spoke to community groups about the disease, making her among the first wave of volunteers in Maine to do so.

After learning she was HIV-positive, she continued speaking and training, but instead of talking from the perspective of a health professional, she spoke as a person living with the disease.

She was just one of many voices working hard to change and shape the national dialogue about this new and scary topic…and I saw first hand what happened as a result of those efforts.

I watched as school districts changed policies to encourage better education about the disease. I saw support services expand and people’s attitudes begin to shift. And close to home, I witnessed our community overwhelm my family with love and support at a time when other families in similar situations in other parts of the country were ostracized and maligned.

When she passed away, I knew it was my turn to be part of the solution. I spoke to my school board. I did interviews in the newspaper. I visited other schools and talked to kids my age about HIV/AIDS. And as luck would have it, it turned out that I was pretty good at this public relations thing.

When I started thinking seriously about college, I figured out that I could actually make a living using these skills. So I went to the University of Southern Maine and double majored in communication and political science. From there I went to the University of Kansas for graduate school, where I studied how rhetoric shaped public discourse and popular opinion.

After KU, I moved to Kansas City and started at Sturges Word. My clients come from a wide variety of industries. Some are government, and some are corporations. Some are for-profit, others not-for-profit. All are doing things that make the communities, customers and clients they serve better and stronger…and every morning, I get to wake up, walk down 9th Street, sit at my desk, and do my part to take their complicated ideas and make them understandable to the world. And that’s really cool.

On occasions such as this, it is customary to look back and contemplate all that has changed in the past 15 years.

On a personal level, it’s pretty easy to see the difference.

Back in 1995, while Melissa and Linda were hard at work developing business plans and laying the foundation of our company, I was focused on passing driver’s ed, surviving Mr. Charboneau’s honors chemistry class, and cheering the South Portland Red Riots football team to their first of two consecutive state championships.

Of course, our industry has changed a bit, too.

Fifteen years ago, the internet was just starting to grow in popularity. News releases were faxed and snail mailed. A Rolodex was an actual thing on your desk, not another term for your contact list in Outlook (though I must admit that I still have a Rolodex, too).

Today, social media is a staple of any integrated strategic communication program.

A great many folks in our industry like to say that everything is different in today’s electronic environment. That the rules have changed, and we have to fundamentally shift the way we communicate with our key audiences.

I disagree. Sure, the tools have changed. So has the speed at which (and the ease with which) information can be shared.

But you know what hasn’t changed? The way you build strong, lasting relationships.

Whether it’s a face to face lunch meeting, a letter in the mail, a voice on the phone, a message on your iPhone, or a post on Facebook, good relationships have always required work at the individual level.

I suppose that the new media environment has made it harder to take shortcuts like speed pitching, one-size-fits-all news releases, marketing that focuses on companies instead of their customers, and other top-down communication strategies. But I’ve been blessed with a several great mentors in my career…and none of them believed in shortcuts.

From my days as a student at USM, to my time as an intern at HNTB, to my first day as an account executive at SWC, I’ve always been taught that great communications campaigns are hard work built upon a foundation of research, planning, individual outreach, listening, problem solving, and doing what you said you would do. Anything less than that is a shortcut…and shortcuts don’t yield long term results.

I am excited to see what our industry will look like 15 years from now. I’m sure we’ll have nifty new media that makes today’s technology look quaint.

I’m also willing to bet that we’ll be building relationships the same way. It might look different and feel different, but at its core, we’ll still be researching, listening, understanding, communicating, problem solving, and doing what we said we would do.

What do you think?