Over the past few weeks, a couple of PR students and hopefuls have asked me for advice about working in the industry. I wish that at the time, I had been able to point them in the direction of Chris Clarke's new blog post about Getting Hired in PR.
One of Chris' best points is about the networking aspect of the job search. While the idea of talking to a stranger may seem daunting to students, it is necessary aspect of both the job search and the eventual job. If you can't interact with people you have never met before, you certainly won't succeed in the business.
Chris also pointed out that it is important to have a good online portfolio, or at the very least a knowledge of online practices. These days, Google is your resume. I'm sure that potential employers still might use your former employers as a reference, but they'll probably also use search engines to see what you've been up to. In further support of the idea of having a good web prescence, Jeremiah Owyang tells us about Andrew Cafourek who used a few online tools to secure a job for himself as soon as he graduated university (I highly recommend you read his success story here...congratulations, Andrew!).
So if you're looking for a job in PR: read the links above, read Espen's post about the process he went through in Norway and even check out this post I wrote about the topic a few months ago.
Good luck!
-Parker