See, working in a non-profit was very beneficial for me. I had no agency experience previously, only print journalism experience, but at the non-profit I got to do a whole lot of different things, deal with both small and large media outlets, and do press/media releases of differing complexity. I think that, if I had stuck with PR, I would have been set up quite nicely to make the transition to an agency.

A big part of it may have been that my boss was great, in that she got me a lot of exposure, and gave me some really interesting projects.

Also, being that you had a journalism background, you understood what the media wanted, which is a key piece of the PR puzzle. For someone just out of college, though, a nonprofit in most cases won't be the best place to start just because at most (small/typical) nonprofits you only have one or two people that handle PR/marketing/fundraising/events and therefore don't have a lot of people to teach you a variety of things. Also I've found that most PR folks at nonprofits wear many hats and end up doing all kinds of things completely non-PR related. They often get overwhelmed with fundraisers, and though so many people think it would be fun to be an event planner, I find it to be the most miserable job imaginable...lol. My second job out of college was at a nonprofit, and my friend was in a "PR" position at another nonprofit at the same time, so I've seen how it works.