Through the reflections of professionals occupying a variety of corporate communication roles, our aim was to understand what the corporate communication profession looks like in the current marketplace and the career pathways professionals take. We find that roles and functions are “broad and blurred” and “evolving and escalating,” while pathways and job titles are “varied and vacillating” and “tentative and time bound.” Our article offers theoretical and practical implications for industry and academic professionals looking to bridge the gap between the classroom and the marketplace. We end with pedagogical and curricular implications for corporate communication educators.

This case study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) through the perspective of communication professionals at a large financial services firm. These employees rely on both external communication through formal reporting as well as informal internal communication to understand CSR activities, and tend to describe CSR by what it means within their organization. We find that communication employees perceive that CSR is obligatory, rarely questioned or explained, labeled as “voluntold,” and mainly employed for good press due to its philanthropic focus. We offer theoretical and practical implications that center on making CSR operational, not additive, and ideas for educators teaching CSR.