The one skill that every major — and every career — requires
Sent by Lasse Palomaki | August 26, 2025
This post was originally published in The Strategic Student Newsletter — a monthly email sharing practical strategies to help students turn their degree into job offers. Want future editions sent straight to your inbox? Subscribe here.
The one skill that every major — and every career — requires
Public speaking is required in practically every career under the sun — but college makes it easy to hide from it.
Outside of the occasional class presentation, you can pretty much go all four years without speaking in front of more than a handful of people. And even when you do, you’ll likely only be on the spot for a few minutes at a time. But here’s the problem: treating public speaking as something you can (and actively try to) avoid is a massive disservice to your future self.
This is one of those skills that can either accelerate your career or quietly sabotage it. And it’s not just about performance once you’ve landed a job — it’s about getting there in the first place. Interviews, recruiter conversations, networking events, and even informational interviews are all forms of public speaking. Each one plays a role in opening doors.
The same applies once you’re in the workplace. Data analysts and CPAs need to present findings to colleagues and clients. Nurses need to explain treatment plans to patients. Engineers need to pitch design solutions to stakeholders. In every field, people don’t just evaluate you on what you know — they evaluate you on how clearly and confidently you can explain it. Clarity signals competence.
That’s why public speaking is more than a box to check. Most professionals never get truly good at it, which means if you build this skill early, it becomes a differentiator. It sets you apart in interviews, internships, and early career roles. On the flip side, silence isn’t neutral. Staying quiet may feel like the safe move, but in reality it’s often read as uncertainty, lack of confidence, or lack of preparation.
And here’s the kicker: if you can’t confidently and excitedly tell your story and explain your ideas, why should anyone else be excited to listen to them? The more practice you get now, in low-stakes environments, the more prepared and confident you’ll be when it really matters later.
7 ways to practice public speaking in college
Public speaking is a skill most students hope to improve without ever actually practicing it. They wait until they’re forced into a presentation and then treat it like a one-off performance. But if you only speak when you’re forced to, you’re not developing a skill — you’re just surviving.
The truth is, college is full of opportunities to get low-stakes reps that will pay off later in high-stakes moments. Every time you step up in class, in a meeting, or at an event, you’re training the same skill you’ll use in interviews, internships, and client conversations.
The catch? You only get that benefit if you choose to see public speaking as a skill like any other — one you build intentionally, not something you endure.
1. Participate in class discussions
Picture this: your professor asks a question and the room goes quiet. A few students glance down, others shuffle papers or pretend to type, and after a long pause the professor just moves on. It feels harmless in the moment, but it’s not. Every time you choose to hold back, you’re reinforcing the habit of staying quiet when your input is needed.
And holding back is a habit that follows you to:
An interview, when a recruiter asks you to walk through your thinking on a project.
An internship meeting, when a manager looks around the table and asks, “What do you think?”
Your first job, when your team lead says, “I had something come up — can you take care of presenting the update to the client?”
If you’ve trained yourself to avoid speaking up, your default reaction will be hesitation — and in those settings, hesitation doesn’t look safe. It looks like you’re unprepared, unsure, or lacking confidence.
That’s why class discussions are more than a participation grade. They’re one of the lowest-stakes environments you’ll ever have to practice public speaking.
Now — nobody’s expecting a perfect TED Talk. What matters is that you’re building the muscle of forming thoughts under pressure, hearing your own voice in a group, and sharing your thoughts. Those small, repeated moments compound into confidence that you’ll carry into interviews, team meetings, and client interactions later.
How to get started: This week, pick one class where you’ll commit to raising your hand once. Don’t aim for sharing profound wisdom — aim for consistent, basic contributions. Ask a question, offer a thought, or respond to a peer.
Each time you speak, you’re not just helping the discussion — you’re training for your career.
2. Volunteer to lead group presentations
Every group project ends the same way: somebody has to present. Most students scramble to avoid it. But here’s what that moment really represents: the chance to take ownership of the work and be its voice — and very few students step into it.
In college, presenting for your group might feel like a chore. In your career, it’s one of the most valuable things you can do. Managers don’t just want people who can complete tasks — they want people who can:
Take a set of data and explain what it means in practice.
Share an innovative idea and persuade your team to buy in.
Stand in front of clients and convince them why your solution is better than the competition.
That’s not just public speaking — that’s translating your work into something that others understand, believe in, and act on. And when you step up to present, you’re practicing how to represent not only yourself, but also a team, an idea, and sometimes even an organization.
Group presentations are free practice at being that voice. If you stumble, the cost is zero. But if you consistently choose to step up, you’ll graduate with a confidence edge over peers who always stayed in the background. By the time you’re in an interview explaining your role in a project (which is just another form of public speaking) you’ll already have reps under your belt. You’ll be used to taking ownership in front of others, while many of your peers will still be hoping someone else volunteers.
And here’s the mindset shift: presenting isn’t about reading slides. It’s about leading an audience through a story. When you stand up and make an idea clear, you’re practicing leadership. If you can do it for a group project in college, you can do it in front of a recruiter, a client, or your manager down the road.
How to get started: The next time your group hesitates, be the first to speak. Volunteer to present all or part of the work.
Don’t think of it as a performance — think of it as training for the role you’ll eventually have in your career: someone who can stand up, own an idea, and make others believe in it.
3. Take a leadership role in a student organization
Joining a student organization is easy. You show up to a few meetings, maybe help with an event, and add the club name to your resume. But taking on a leadership role changes the game.
Suddenly, you’re the one:
Leading a weekly meeting with 30+ other students and occasional faculty or staff in attendance.
Introducing a highly regarded guest speaker to an audience.
Convincing an auditorium full of new first-year students during Welcome Week why your organization is worth joining.
Those moments might feel small, but they’re exactly the kind of practice that builds real confidence in your ability to communicate.
And here’s why they matter: in the workplace, the most common public speaking situations aren’t flashy conference keynotes — they’re these exact kinds of moments. Kicking off a meeting. Giving quick updates to a team. Explaining the purpose of a project to a group of stakeholders. These are weekly, sometimes daily, occurrences in the workplace.
And here's thing: leadership roles give you repetitions. You’re not just presenting once or twice a semester. You’re speaking regularly, sometimes weekly. Confidence doesn’t come from one big speech — it comes from repeated practice in smaller moments. Student leadership quietly gives you that consistency.
How to get started: Look at the organizations you’re already a part of and see what roles are opening up. If you’re not in one yet, join a club in your field of interest and start showing up consistently — credibility comes before leadership.
Then aim for a role where speaking is built in, even if it’s not president. Secretaries who share updates, treasurers who explain budgets, and event chairs who welcome large groups all get valuable reps. Every time you step in front of that room, you’re not just filling a duty — you’re training for the communication moments that will define your career.
4. Serve as a tour guide, orientation leader, or TA
Think about the speaking opportunities you’ve had so far in college: maybe a handful of class presentations, a group project or two, and the occasional moment in front of your peers. That adds up to just a few hours of real practice across an entire semester.
But certain campus roles give you something most students never get — dozens of live reps in front of new audiences:
As a tour guide, you might lead families across campus multiple times a week — giving you repeated practice telling the same story to fresh faces.
As an orientation leader, you’ll run sessions day after day during Welcome Week, welcoming groups of 50+ new students (and sometimes families) each time.
As a teaching assistant (TA), you’ll speak regularly in front of a class — explaining instructions, guiding labs, or reviewing concepts week after week.
These roles give you consistent, repeated practice at speaking with clarity and confidence — far more than the average student will ever get before graduation.
You don’t build public speaking confidence from one big speech — you build it from consistent, repeated reps. Tour guides, orientation leaders, and TAs graduate with a massive advantage because they’ve trained their voice in front of others over and over again.
An added benefit? Instead of just listing “communication” or “public speaking” in the skills section of your resume, you’ll have the experience to back it up. Most students can’t do that. And communication still ranks as one of the top skills recruiters say they look for — which means your speaking experience signals real, career-ready value.
How to get started: Check your school’s website for open applications. Orientation leader positions often recruit in the spring, and tour guide teams typically hire every semester. If you’re strong in a subject, ask a professor if they need a TA for an upcoming course. These roles require commitment, but the payoff is huge: a steady stream of speaking practice in front of rotating audiences.
5. Attend employer events and career fairs
Walking into an employer event or a career fair feels different than standing at a podium, but it’s still public speaking. You’re introducing yourself, sharing your story, and answering questions on the spot — often a dozen times in a row. Each short exchange is a rep in speaking clearly and confidently to people you don’t know.
The real value isn’t just “meeting employers.” These events give you concentrated practice — rapid-fire, back-to-back conversations in a single day. They force you to practice micro-storytelling: taking your background, interests, and goals and condensing them into a 20-second version that’s clear and memorable.
They also build message endurance. You don’t just tell your story once — you tell it 10, 15, even 20 times. By the fifth conversation, you’ll start refining it naturally, noticing what resonates and cutting what doesn’t. That kind of feedback loop is something you’ll never get from a one-off class presentation.
Skip these events, and you miss one of the few chances in college to practice these skills in front of an audience of professionals — not just other students.
And after graduation, that’s exactly who you’ll be speaking to. You won’t be practicing in classrooms anymore — you’ll be 1:1 with other professionals:
In an interview, when you have to tell your story clearly and concisely to a hiring manager you’ve just met.
In the workplace, when you’re asked to introduce yourself to a new supervisor or a colleague from another team.
With a new client or stakeholder, when you need to make a strong impression in only a few minutes.
If you’ve already practiced talking to 10–15 professionals across multiple employer events and career fairs, those moments feel familiar. They’re not a performance — they’re conversations you’ve had dozens of times before.
How to get started: At your next event, set a simple goal: talk to at least 10 people. Have a short introduction ready and practice until it feels natural. Each conversation is a rep, and each rep builds fluency, confidence, and the ability to tell your story with energy.
6. Attend local professional association events in person
Classrooms and campus events are useful practice grounds, but sooner or later you’ll need to communicate in front of other professionals — not just students. That’s where local professional associations and young professional organizations come in. Many of them host monthly meetings, panels, or networking events, and almost all offer discounted student tickets (sometimes even free).
These events give you a unique mix: a professional setting, but with very little on the line. You’re not interviewing, you’re not presenting to a boss — you’re simply showing up, listening, and introducing yourself to people in your field. That makes them one of the lowest-pressure environments to start practicing how to speak with professionals.
And the benefits go beyond practice. By attending, you’re also building a network in the exact industries you may want to enter. Instead of waiting until you graduate to meet people in your field, you’ll already have faces, names, and conversations to draw on when it’s time to apply. That’s an edge most students never think to build.
How to get started: Look up professional associations tied to your major or field of interest — for example, the American Marketing Association, the Society of Women Engineers, or your city’s Young Professionals Network.
Check their event calendars and see which ones allow student guests (many do). Commit to attending at least two events this semester and introducing yourself to 3-5 people at each event.
Need help finding options? Try this prompt in ChatGPT:
“I’m a [major/field of interest] student living in [city/state]. What professional associations or young professional groups in my area offer events or student memberships that I could attend?”
7. Join Toastmasters or a speaking club
Think about how you’ve learned other skills in college. You practice math problems before the exam. You run drills at practice before the game. You write drafts before turning in the final paper. But public speaking? Many students skip the practice entirely and hope they’ll magically be good at it when the spotlight is on.
That’s the gap Toastmasters fills. Toastmasters is a global organization built entirely around one idea: public speaking is a skill you can train. Meetings are structured, supportive, and consistent. You stand up, give short talks, receive feedback, and try again. Over time, you’re not just “getting through” a presentation — you’re deliberately building clarity, confidence, and presence.
Every other skill you value, you train on purpose. Public speaking shouldn’t be any different. The students who get ahead are the ones who create deliberate opportunities to practice, not just the ones who wait for assignments. By the time you’re in interviews, internships, or client meetings, that difference shows.
How to get started: Check whether your campus has a Toastmasters chapter or a speaking-focused student club. If not, search for a local community club nearby — many welcome students. And if neither option exists, create your own version: gather a small group of peers, rotate giving short talks, and give each other feedback. It doesn’t have to be formal — it just has to be consistent.
This Month’s Challenge
Each month, I'll share a simple exercise, habit, or mindset shift that, when repeated and built upon, can help you maximize the return you get from college over time.
Here’s this month’s challenge:
Commit to completing the items below this semester. Why these? They’re available to every student in every major, they give you different types of reps, and they don’t depend on a specific timeline (like waiting for a leadership application cycle).
Speak once per class. Raise your hand at least once in one class each week — a question, a comment, or a response (and build from there).
Attend one professional event. Find a free or discounted student ticket to a local professional association or young professionals group and introduce yourself to at least three people.
Try the 10–person rule. At a career fair or networking event, set the goal of introducing yourself to 10 people.
If you commit to these three simple challenges and follow through this semester, you’ll graduate with more real public speaking reps than most of your peers will get in four years.
The payoff is simple: when the spotlight is on in interviews, internships, or your first job, you’ll already have the muscle built.
Ready to be more strategic about college?
If you found this edition helpful, the next step is to go deeper.
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This isn’t just about earning a degree or “making the most” of college. It’s about learning how to:
Turn your classes, student orgs, and campus resources into career assets
Build experiences that show up on resumes and in interviews (and lead to offers)
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Stop wasting time on low-ROI activities and focus on what actually leads to job or grad school offers
Replace “just staying busy” with purposeful, career-aligned actions
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Let’s make this the semester you stop guessing — and start building.
That’s a wrap for this edition. I’ll be back next month with more practical, no-fluff advice to keep you moving forward.
In the meantime, you can check out a full list of our resources (including free guides, tools, and more) here and follow me on LinkedIn for weekly content here.
College is an investment. Let’s make sure you get a return on it.
Lasse
Founder, The Strategic Student
