Kevin Trosine ⋅ Oviedo, FL Verizon ⋅ 30 years experience

Mychal,
Another option would be to join your local Toastmasters club http://www.toastmasters.org/ If you haven’t yet heard of Toastmasters, its a worldwide organization that’s focused on developing the members leadership and communications skills. Each club has 7 officers and one of those is VP of PR. They provide all the training you need to learn and implement PR related activities.

Best regards,
Kevin

Glenn Keels ⋅ Austin, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 18 years experience

Hi Mychal,

I like Randy's suggestion above. P.R. has many facets. I'm personally not a PR professional but watch my PR team every day in action. Its a fascinating role. You might also want to check out http://www.prsa.org/ to look at all of the different types of roles, and get a feeling for the overall profession. Lastly, I'd suggest getting into college if you can. While you're getting your education you can then be exposed to challenging communications roles within a university setting for various campus organizations.

Randy Byrnes ⋅ York, PA Byrnes Associates LLC ⋅ 20 years experience

Mychal,
Depending on your financial situation, you might consider approaching a number of not-for-profit organizations in your community who have someone devoted to PR and ask if they would consider letting you work with them. Even if part time, most not-for-profits have Boards that are composed of community business leaders and this could offer you an introduction opportunity.
Randy Byrnes, PhD

Judy Tomlinson ⋅ Dallas, TX Energy Future Holdings ⋅ 25 years experience

Find a non-profit organization you would like to support and volunteer. Judy Tomlinson

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Kevin - Great advice re Toastmasters. THANKS!

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Mychal. If you wish, start a new post and let us know how we can help.

Mychal Anthony Thomas ⋅ Plano, TX U.S. Army Reserve, Sergeant ⋅ 9 years served

I am currently looking into Information Technology, gravitating towards my natural interests and talents.

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Mychal,
Can you please updates us on your status and current goals?

If helping a non-profit interests you (as Randy suggests above), also research:
http://missioncontinues.org/fellowships

Thanks,
Tom

Dan Eddinger ⋅ Cary, NC Tantalus Systems ⋅ 1 years experience

I would work my personal and professional network to find someone in the field and shadow them for some period of time - asking in this forum being a good start. Particularly helpful is when you couch the request as you wanting to help out in anyway possible on some projects to get a feel for the field. Definitely you want to go the route of volunteering some time and work in the effort and make your expectations are clear. The best shot at getting someone to buy in to help is to make sure that it's known that you're not looking to work someone over for a job - you're just a vet trying to get some exposure to the field.