It's Time to #GetChartered.

If you have ever consider Chartership status with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations , it is so much more rewarding than you may think. Here's my Chartered experience, in case it inspires you to start yours!

2010: My first ever encounter with the CIPR was during university. Round the corner from my flat in Russell Square, I’d regularly pass it when cutting across to get to my closest Waterstones (so pretty often, then!). I almost popped in a few times to find out what the CIPR actually did. Even then, though I’d never considered it a career for me, I was amazed that such a profession bestowed such an honour as a Chartered status. I had never quite realised professional development could be so…?professionalised. Perhaps more intriguing even then was that this industry was so well reputed that it had royal affiliation. Embarrassingly, I had never quite seen PR held in such repute in Botswana (yet). Then again, I can’t say I had ever looked.

?

2013: my London jaunt ended, and I greeted a beautifully unchanged (in the best ways) home in Botswana. A few months in and I quite literally stumbled into a career in PR. In fact, a friend reminded me of our “a whole royal status” discussion a few months into my first PR job.

?

2014: During a holiday trip, I decided I’d take the plunge and join the CIPR. I could hack it in this institution I’d been admiring from afar (across a door counts as afar in this case, surely), right? A few months later back home and I unenrolled as a Member and fast went down an incredible rabbit hole of CPD heaven.

?

2018: I’d been back to Londontown a few times since then - holidays, weddings and a sort of home away from home. Oddly enough, never staying too far from my old stomping grounds and thus not from that beautiful glossy black door. Even years later, it still had the perfect air of …. excellence. I sort of planted the seed of trying to build my accredited status up further. Chartered seemed somehow possible, and maybe a good bookend to my next trip, whenever that may be. The reality was that an 11-hour flight and life getting in between didn’t quite make for easy trips across.

?

2020: COVID-19 made herself known, and with a real vengeance. Travel seemed an unattainable dream and truth be told scheduling, a CIPR assessment in the UK equally dream-like. I was pleasantly surprised to come upon a CIPR Facebook post for virtual assessments. Oddly fortuitous! After all, the online learning bug was strong at that time! Not quite thinking it through, I booked a slot. I paid. I panicked. Then I exhaled.

?

2020,?2 days later: Preparation began - reading blogs, ordering books, chatting to others, and arming myself in every way I could think of.

?

2020 assessment day: amongst my panel of assessors was Ella Minty , whose interviews I had been reading online and whose writing I so admired. I was met by fellow international faces in my assessment cohort, bringing a smaller community feel to what I thought was going to be a wholly daunting day. Movement restrictions (lockdown) in full swing and with post-its plastering the wall of our dining room, the thing I realised I wanted more than I’d care to admit suddenly felt natural, simple and enjoyable. Assessors challenged us and yet helped bring out the best in us. It was a virtual session of like minded peers engaging in topics we genuinely enjoyed. And just like that, it was as though I was back in 2014 on a chilly London morning, filled with wonder and curiosity. Except now, I was on the other side of that beautiful glossy black door, and I have been ever since.

?

The knowledge that I’d be a first in my market, or proudly carry the Chart.PR lettering after my name was appealing, no doubt. The knowledge that others would perhaps see me as a professional in a different way attracted me at first. But truth be told, the community of learning, best practice, and opportunity to meet colleagues in the entire CIPR ecosystem has been the greatest asset.

?

I see now why the CIPR bears royal affiliation, why it instils ethical practice and teaching in all that it does, and why the sense of community I first encountered on assessment day in fact extends across the world daily, with an international reach I’m proud to say I’m now a part of. It’s a never-ending journey of learning and growth, and it’s an internal sense of pride to simply have access to this that makes me thankful I took the plunge.?Chartership doesn't simply make you better at your job or stronger in the industry. It helps you truly demonstrate your understanding and experience of the ethics, leadership, and strategy foundations of PR best practice. And this changes your very outlook and ways of working each day.

Chartered in 2015 and buzzed about it every day since.

______________________________

You can take the first step to committing to Chartership by signing up for a digital?#GetChartered?Kit?here: https://mailchi.mp/1dcc38526317/2t640ys2tr

#publicrelations?#PR?#CIPR?#GetChartered #ChartershipWeek