The Impact of Graduate Degrees on Professional Growth with Robb King

Welcome to the Victors in Grad School podcast, where we explore the graduate school journeys of people and what they had to do to find success in this journey. Today, we welcome Robb King, a seasoned professional in public relations, who shares his insights on the importance of ongoing education and the significant transitions that come with it.

The Spark for Continued Education

Robb King’s professional narrative began with an undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Michigan, Flint. After diving into the workforce as a sports reporter and later making significant contributions in public relations, King reached a pivotal moment—realizing the need for higher education to fulfill his career aspirations.

Reflecting on his journey, King states, "_I always knew that I wanted to continue and do more with my education... [enabling me] to make that same kind of difference for even just one student during my tenure at any of those campuses was important for me kind of as a way to give back._" 

King's story illustrates the significant factors influencing his decision to pursue a graduate degree. Despite successful professional stints, the desire to impact others in higher education reignited his academic pursuits.

Navigating the Transition Back to Education

Transitioning back to education after a significant hiatus posed unique challenges for King. Nearly 20 years had passed since he completed his undergraduate studies. "

Being out of that student mindset for so long and being out of that pattern where you have to set aside time to read your texts and to do your assignments and to write your papers... it was still about getting into that read study mindset and getting back to dedicating yourself and setting aside the time to do the assignments and to learn and to grow” King recollects.

The essence of becoming a student again, juxtaposed with years as a professional, required King to draw upon his skills in research and storytelling to make the transition smoother. He emphasized the value of maintaining a student mentality, essential for adapting to and excelling in a rigorous academic environment.

Choosing Public Relations and Kent State

King’s decision to pursue a master’s degree in public relations was driven by his intrinsic passion for storytelling and his extensive experience in the field. Rather than venturing into other areas such as marketing or an MBA, King chose to deepen his expertise in public relations.

"At the heart of what I have done everywhere I've been has been to be a storyteller... That's why I wanted to continue my concentration in public relations because it's about connecting people and connecting their stories and sharing their stories and bringing people together,” King explains.

 Choosing Kent State was strategic—leveraging a tuition waiver offered by his employer made financial sense, enabling him to focus on his education without the burden of significant student debt.

Applying Graduate Education to Professional Life

King’s narrative underscores how graduate education fortified his professional trajectory. The advanced degree provided him the credibility and toolkit necessary to assume higher leadership roles. It also served as a refresher that validated his past decisions and corrected any previous missteps.

"In doing my time in grad school really solidified for me that I had made the right career choice... It was a neat thing to relate my personal experiences to my reading assignments and go, ‘Okay, I was doing the right thing all along,’” King remarks.

His education facilitated smooth transitions into senior roles, including as the Chief Communication Officer at Slippery Rock University and later as the Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Michigan, Flint.

Tips for Aspiring Graduate Students

King offers sage advice for individuals contemplating the pursuit of graduate education:

• Commit Fully:** "If you believe that that is the right thing for you and for your career, then you just have to jump in with both feet and go after it."
• Embrace Resilience:** "Expect to stumble and make mistakes, but remember that these are learning opportunities."
• Prioritize Wisely: "It’s essential to set aside time for study, even if it means sacrificing certain social engagements for long-term gains."

Robb King’s journey exemplifies the power of continuous learning and its capacity to transform one's career and personal growth. By fully embracing the student mentality and leveraging educational opportunities, King charted a path of professional excellence and meaningful impact.

For those contemplating a similar journey, King's experience offers a beacon of insight and inspiration, affirming that the path to higher education, though challenging, is unequivocally rewarding.

If you’re considering advancing your education, the University of Michigan Flint offers diverse graduate programs catered to both in-person and online learners. For more information, visit UM-Flint Graduate Programs. Embark on your own journey to educational and professional excellence today.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the victors in grad school, where we have conversations with students, alumni, and experts about what it takes to find success in graduate school.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:11]:
Welcome back to Victor's in Grad School. I'm your host, doctor Christopher Lewis, director of graduate programs at the University of Michigan, Flint. Really excited to have you back again this week. This week, as always, I love being able to talk with you about this journey that you're on. I say that every week, but it's so true. It is a journey. And some of you may be just thinking about you may be just thinking, starting to think about this idea of going and continuing your education. You might have been in the workforce for some time and now saying, You know what? I think I need to do something to be able to push me in a little bit different direction, to get some different experiences.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:52]:
You might be saying to yourself, you know what? If I do this, I'm going to be able to get that job that I always wanted. I'm going to be able to meet that goal that I've set for myself. You might be in graduate school right now or looking at the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter where you are, this podcast was set up to help you find success in that journey. And that's why every week I love being able to talk with you, to work with you, to introduce you to different people that have had different experiences that have gone on to get that graduate degree and can give you some of their experiences, positive, negative, in between, that can help you to be able to add some tools to your toolbox that you can take with you as you go on this journey yourself. That's why every week we do bring you different guests, different people that can share some of those things with you. And today we've got another great guest with us. Rob King is with us. And Rob did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan Flint, and then went out into the workforce, worked for a number of years, and then continued on and got that graduate degree at Kent State University.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:01]:
And we're going to be talking about that journey that he went on and learning from his experience. Rob, thanks so much for being here today.

Robb King [00:02:09]:
Thanks for having me, Chris.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:10]:
It is my pleasure. Really excited to be able to talk to you today. And what I love doing 1st and foremost is I wanna turn the clock back in time. I know you did your undergraduate work at the University of Michigan Flint, and then you got that bachelor's degree in communications. And from there you went off and got some experience. You jumped out into the workforce. And after a period of time, something went through your head. There was some inkling that made you just say to yourself, you know what? I think it's time. It's time to continue my education and move into a graduate degree. Talk to me about that thought process and what made you decide that you wanted to get a graduate degree? 

Robb King [00:02:47]:
For a long time after I got my bachelor's degree many years ago, 1990. Like you said, I did jump right into the workforce. Right out of college, I worked as a sports reporter at The Flint Journal, which continued my endeavors into writing, which I had done on campus as a reporter for the Michigan Times, spent all 4 years that I was on campus at the student paper. But it was always in the back of my head very early on that I wanted to do more with my education, and I think that was a combination of both, in addition to the paper, I had an on campus job. I liked the idea of being in higher ed. I knew that at some point, that's where I wanted to be as far as joining ultimately being in the workforce because there had been so many people on campus, whether it was the legendary, that's how I like to refer to him, Charles Apple, who was the head of the comms department during my time there and was also my advisor, whether it was him or Mary Jo Sokolsky, there were so many people that affected my life and my education in those 4 years that I was on the Flint campus that really pushed me to be the best version of myself that I was able to be at that time, that I knew that getting back into higher education is ultimately what I wanted to do because I thought, if all those people had such an effect on my life and made such a difference for me and were able to push me where I needed to go to do what I'm able to do, if I could come back regardless of whether it was working here at my alma mater or wherever at Kent State or, as you know, I spent 7 years at Slippery Rock University to be able to make that same kind of difference for even just one student during my ten year at any of those campuses was important for me kind of as a way to give back. So I always knew that I wanted to continue and do more with my education. But at the same time, when you get out with your bachelor's degree, you're 22 years old and you want to make money and you want to strike out on your own, and then life starts happening and things get in the way.

Robb King [00:04:46]:
Over the course of time, you end up being a partner and being a father and I had a wife, I had 2 girls. Those responsibilities, work responsibilities, it just got put on the back burner. Then when eventually I did get into higher ed doing marketing and communications for one of Kent State's regional campuses, been there about a year, and that's really when I thought about, okay, I'm in a place now where my kids were older, things were kind of settled, had a good routine, and quite frankly, the opportunity to be able to take advantage of educational credits with tuition assistance from my employer made it even more palatable and kind of a no brainer not to do it. So I did decide to pursue my master's degree in public relations, which had been my field for the bulk of my professional career, so it just made sense to continue down that path. And the funny thing is is then when I got to the end of that road, which was 2 years of constant study, I get to the end of the road and the head of the program comes back to me the week after we conclude. He's like, okay. When did you start your doctorate? And I was like, nope. I'm good.

Robb King [00:05:53]:
I'm good. Have my master's degree. I'm fine. We'll go from there and see where that takes me.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:05:58]:
It is definitely a continuum, and you are going to, as you go through that process, I mean, you have to figure out for yourself which direction you wanna go. You kind of talked about the fact that you were out before you came back, there is going to be a transition, a transition that you're going to go through to be able to be able to be successful in the program. So talk to me about what you had to do to be able to make that transition back into education and what you had to do to be able to not only set yourself up for success, but what you had to do to be able to maintain that success throughout graduate school?

Robb King [00:06:46]:
From graduating with my bachelor's until I started the master's program was roughly like a 20 year gap. So being out of that student mindset for so long and being out of that pattern where you have to set aside time to read your texts and to do your assignments and to write your papers. It was easy to get back into that rhythm to a degree because working in public relations, you're usually researching for stories and then you're writing your texts. So, doing that part was easy, but it was still about getting into that that read study mindset and getting back to dedicating yourself and setting aside the time to do the assignments and to learn and to grow. It's really about becoming a student again. You learn different things as a professional day to day to help you do your jobs better, but I think learning as a student versus learning as a professional are 2 entirely different things and 2 different mindsets related, but different. So, it was about even though everything was online, I'll use the term getting back into that classroom mentality. And you know what? 20 years later, it was the same thing.

Robb King [00:08:00]:
I would look at the syllabus and go, how many chapters do I have to read this week? So, a lot of that stuff still hangs around. But I think with anything, it's keeping your eye on the prize and what you wanna do. I think that my my undergrad degree had taken me as far as it could. I mean, I had a wealth and decades of experience behind me, which helped me advance even without an advanced degree, but I knew that if I wanted to lead a group of people in higher ed and take the reins of a marketing and communications department and be the one to foster the change and lead the charge, so to speak, that I was going to need that because job descriptions were constantly having bachelor's degree required, but master's preferred. Well, to me, master's preferred means if you don't have it, we're probably not going to consider you as strongly as we do somebody that does. So I knew that to take that next step and to be an executive director or a chief officer in the communications and marketing department, I was going to take need to take that next step for myself dedication and wherewithal to make that commitment to not only myself and my education but to whatever institution that I was working for.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:09:21]:
Now I know I said that you were working in public relations. Your master's is in public relations. Now you could have studied in a lot of different areas and there's a lot of different sub components to a communication degree. You chose to continue on in public relations type of work. Talk to me about that decision and the thought process behind whether you would stay like you did in selecting public relations as the field of study versus probably could have done something else. You could have got an MBA. You could have got another kind of type of communication degree. So talk to me about the choice of a public relations degree and what was going through your head and why you chose to stay in that area, and then why you chose Kent State as the ultimate place to stay versus other institutions where you could have gotten other types of programs or other opportunities?

Robb King [00:10:14]:
Well, for me, before getting into higher ed, public relations was always at the center of it. When I was at Flint, like I said earlier, I spent 4 years on staff at the Michigan Times going from a student writer to an associate editor to the editor of the paper. But while I was doing that, I was also working in the student, what back then was the student entertainment office working on events. I did a internship with the then Flint Spirits, which was the old International Hockey League team in town, and did 2 semesters for credit and ended up spending another 3 seasons with the team as an unpaid intern working in PR and marketing. And at the minor league level, your staffs are always small, so you do wear a lot of hats. So it's not just writing press releases. It's writing press releases. It's making arrangements for public appearances.

Robb King [00:11:02]:
It's putting together ad copy for the radio and for TV. So you get all that exposure. So there are, as you noted, different areas where you could when you wanna continue your education that you can choose to focus on. I chose to stay, and I could have done MBA or I could have done a marketing concentration. Concentration. But the reason that I chose to stay in in public relations is because at the heart of what I have done everywhere I've been has been to be a storyteller. And that goes back to being a writer for my high high and that goes back to being a writer for my high school paper in Swartz Creek as I've always enjoyed sharing other people's stories with the masses. And even, I spent 16 seasons in minor league sports, But even when you're in that field, you're sharing stories through press releases and through magazine stories or connecting your beat writer with your with your captain who had a 7 point night in a hockey game and has hit a milestone. There's always that storyteller center was always there for me. So that's why I wanted to continue my concentration in public relations because it's about connecting people and connecting their stories and sharing their stories and bringing people together. So that's that's really why I chose to concentrate on that versus veering off into marketing or an MBA or something of that nature, which isn't to say anything against those concentrations. But that's all areas that I worked in along the way and felt good enough about those, which isn't say I didn't feel good enough about my PR stuff. I did.

Robb King [00:12:35]:
That was just the area that I gravitated towards because I am a storyteller. And the reason I chose Kent, if I'm just being honest, it's because they were my employer and I had a tuition waiver. So, that made it a lot more palatable financially to be able to continue because the only thing that I had to pay for every semester was I had like a $7.49 legal fee charge that every grad student had to pay. So you know what? For $7.49 a semester, I'll earn that master's degree.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:13:09]:
Definitely. There's no issue there. So I guess one of the things that I guess that I am interested in is that you took that degree and you did take advantage of being able to move on, move up, and move out from Kent State after finishing that degree a little bit after that. And as you said, you moved to slippery rock to be their chief communication officer, ultimately, and then now being the director of marketing and communications at the University of Michigan Flint. As you think back to the education that you got in your bachelor's degree, your master's degree, talk to me about how you feel that that graduate education prepared you for those next steps and beyond that you're doing now, and how do you see yourself using that education on a daily basis?

Robb King [00:14:02]:
In pursuing the master's degree, it really, for me, having all those years in the field prior, reading the texts and doing the assignments was kinda like a great refresher course for me during that time because as I was reading case studies or white papers, I'm reading this material, and I'm relating it to things that have happened to me during the 20 years prior and instances or situations that I've encountered, and and I'm drawing parallels, and it's reinforcing in me decisions that I made that were correct or decisions that I made that were not the best choice at the time, but was able to use them as learning opportunities. So I felt that in doing my time in grad school really solidified for me that, one, that I had made the right career choice and that it also said to me, okay, here are these situations which are very similar to things that I had encountered and that most of the time in reading texts from experts in the field that I had made the right decisions. And it was kind of it was a neat thing to be able to relate my own personal experiences to what I was reading in my assignments and going, okay, wow, you know what? I was doing the right thing all along and I made the right choices for me and my crew and my employer. And in those instances that I that I didn't, I was being provided with the tools to allow me to have a different thought process when I was presented with those situations moving forward.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:15:41]:
Now this show is all about success and helping individuals no matter what kind of degree that they're inter interested in find success in that graduate school journey. As you think back to your own graduate education, what are some tips that you might offer to another student, another person thinking about graduate school that would help them find success sooner?

Robb King [00:16:03]:
I think ultimately you have to be once once you've made that decision that that's something that you're going to pursue, I think it's like anything else that you're trying for the first time. You may waffle. You may the pendulum's gonna swing back and forth on, do I really wanna do this? Do I have the time to commit to it? How is it going to affect my family life? What do I do when I'm in a time crunch? How do I prioritize? But it's like anything else. If you believe that that is the right thing for you and for your career, then you just have to jump in with with both feet and go after it. It's like anything else. It's like pursuing a promotion or a salary increase or anything else in life that you encounter. If you want it, go for it. You're gonna stumble along the way.

Robb King [00:16:46]:
Everybody does. It's okay to make mistakes. And I know that those are all cliches and everybody says them, but they're cliches because they're accurate. You are gonna stumble. You are gonna make mistakes. You may upset someone because you can't do x or you can't go to y because you have to set aside that time for yourself to study. But you have to remember that at the end of the day, yeah, going out for dinner would be fun, but improving yourself, improving your mindset, improving your career is going to do so much more, not only for yourself but for those around you. And if you're in a field where it can also help make a difference for others and for your community, what's a better choice in that moment? And at the end of the day, to earn a master's degree in most in most cases, it's 2 years out of your life, which really is not that big of a commitment overall in the big scheme of things.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:17:44]:
Rob, thank you so much for sharing your journey today, for being willing to help others in the journey that they're on, and I truly wish you all the best.

Robb King [00:17:52]:
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate it. It was good to be here.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:17:54]:
The University of Flint has a full array of masters and doctorate programs if you are interested in continuing your education. Whether you're looking for in person or online learning options, the University of Michigan Flint has programs that will meet your needs. For more information on any of our graduate programs, visit umflint.edu/graduateprograms to find out more. Thanks again for spending time with me as you prepare to be a victor in grad school. I look forward to speaking with you again soon as we embark together on your graduate school journey. If you have any questions or want to reach out, email me at [email protected].