One of the things that I've always found frustrating in my career in public relations is how much who you are working with impacts how much you enjoy the job.
Unlike a lot of careers - accounting, medicine, plumbing, etc. - in public relations your ability to thrive can be highly augmented or prohibited by the creative and personality forces around you. PR simply cannot succeed in a bubble, it needs to draw on all the resources around it.
I recently got the opportunity to work with someone that I've wanted to work with for some time - Paul Goyette over at PG Communications.We'd interacted quite a bit over the years, mostly in various companies that were doing business together, but we never actually had the chance to work on the same side of the fence.
It was really nice getting the chance to do so for the first time. The process of PR is so much fun, stress-free (as much as it can be) and productive when you are working with someone that understands what you are saying, the strategy behind your decisions and shares a passion for PR.
It can be quite stressful when you work with people that don't understand PR and think that just because you have the letters P and R in your title that this somehow magically enables you to pick up the phone and get Wolf Blitzer on the line. Or if you find yourself working with marketing people that only want to hear one thing, that what they've done is the best the world has ever seen and that's all that needs to be said - heaven forbid you articulate how it will be perceived by the media and request slight modifications to support the communications process.
When you are watching the media and wonder why people do silly things (Trump's birther campaign for instance) it's often because there isn't a tight-knit PR unit behind the scenes steering the ship towards the best decisions. I firmly believe that when you have people who work well together, who are in-synch with each other, there's almost nothing that can't be achieved in the realm of PR.
So for all the new grads out there just entering the PR field, one of the biggest tips I would give them is to seek out like-minded PR folks - folks that share your strategic stylings and who understand your creative slants. Not only will you enjoy the process of doing PR a lot more, you'll accomplish more in less time and with less stress as a result of the momentum created by genuine synergy.
If you find yourself spending 80 per cent of your time trying to get your company, colleagues or clients to understand or buy-in to your suggestions, you are in the wrong place and fighting a losing battle.
There aren't a lot of truly bright, talented and creative PR people out there, but there is still more than enough that you should always be in search of them. The key to enjoying your career will hinge dramatically on the people you find yourself working with.
Unlike a lot of careers - accounting, medicine, plumbing, etc. - in public relations your ability to thrive can be highly augmented or prohibited by the creative and personality forces around you. PR simply cannot succeed in a bubble, it needs to draw on all the resources around it.
I recently got the opportunity to work with someone that I've wanted to work with for some time - Paul Goyette over at PG Communications.We'd interacted quite a bit over the years, mostly in various companies that were doing business together, but we never actually had the chance to work on the same side of the fence.
It was really nice getting the chance to do so for the first time. The process of PR is so much fun, stress-free (as much as it can be) and productive when you are working with someone that understands what you are saying, the strategy behind your decisions and shares a passion for PR.
It can be quite stressful when you work with people that don't understand PR and think that just because you have the letters P and R in your title that this somehow magically enables you to pick up the phone and get Wolf Blitzer on the line. Or if you find yourself working with marketing people that only want to hear one thing, that what they've done is the best the world has ever seen and that's all that needs to be said - heaven forbid you articulate how it will be perceived by the media and request slight modifications to support the communications process.
When you are watching the media and wonder why people do silly things (Trump's birther campaign for instance) it's often because there isn't a tight-knit PR unit behind the scenes steering the ship towards the best decisions. I firmly believe that when you have people who work well together, who are in-synch with each other, there's almost nothing that can't be achieved in the realm of PR.
So for all the new grads out there just entering the PR field, one of the biggest tips I would give them is to seek out like-minded PR folks - folks that share your strategic stylings and who understand your creative slants. Not only will you enjoy the process of doing PR a lot more, you'll accomplish more in less time and with less stress as a result of the momentum created by genuine synergy.
If you find yourself spending 80 per cent of your time trying to get your company, colleagues or clients to understand or buy-in to your suggestions, you are in the wrong place and fighting a losing battle.
There aren't a lot of truly bright, talented and creative PR people out there, but there is still more than enough that you should always be in search of them. The key to enjoying your career will hinge dramatically on the people you find yourself working with.
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