How PROs develop their careers

The CIPR Profession Typology Report reveals some interesting stats about the behavior of UK PR professionals.

Career development

When it comes to developing careers, it seems more traditional sources of information appear to be on top. In the last year, PROs say that their career development has mostly come from magazines (67 per cent), followed by training (54 per cent) and books (43 per cent).

Source: CIPR Profession Typology Report

There are marked trends in how PROs of different ages approach career development. Younger people claim they have benefited more by joining a chartered institute, mentoring, training and gaining qualifications. Older professionals have been more assisted by continuous professional development, books and participating in a trade body This is no surprise, as more senior PROs have already gained qualifications and/or plenty of work experience and so are in a position to offer mentoring, and their general training needs are less.

Traditional news sources lose out to online

According to the research, the first source of information for PROs is online news websites. Three quarters of respondents said they are most likely to use online news websites to access information, which compares to just over half who check out national newspapers (55 per cent) and just under half who switch on the television (46 per cent).

Source: CIPR Profession Typology Report

There is a noticeable difference in how different ages access information, with older practitioners being more likely to use newspapers, television and radio, while younger PROs are more likely to turn to Twitter and Facebook.

Methodology

This information is taken from the 2011 CIPR Profession Typology Report. This is based on research by consultancy ComRes. It surveyed 1,564 CIPR members online between 7 September and 10 October 2011 and 1,575 non-CIPR member PR practitioners between 22 September and 10 October 2011.