Hordes of PR grads are now or will soon be applying for positions at agencies. Some from elite schools will be granted interviews by elite agencies. Others from lesser colleges might seek employment at the many “mom and pop” and mid-size agencies out there.
Both are similar in that unlike many other fields, a career in public relations offers staffers the opportunity to work on different types of accounts that require different management skills and creative input, instead of doing the same work over and over.
While the public relations industry is still relatively small compared to others, it is a growing field. Thus, it offers practitioners the opportunity to move to another agency or to a corporate PR position when they are ready to change their situation. And, importantly, every day is a challenge, so it’s hardly ever a “dull day at the office.” Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of a job in public relations is that unlike workers in other fields, PR parishioners can immediately see how their good work made a difference.
But there is another similarity, whether being interviewed at major large national agencies or smaller ones: Job seekers should take everything they are told during an interview with a grain of salt, because interviewers will emphasize what a great future awaits you if you accept their offer, without mentioning the below bullets that detail some truisms about the PR business that novice job hunters show know.
- PR agencies have among the highest turnover rates of any industry, with reports saying that the average length that an employee remains at an agency is two to five years, unless you can demonstrate that you have a skill that separates you from being considered expendable accessories or “cannon fodder,” as a high ranking executive of a major agency told me when they were firing dozens of employees every month. Obviously, because of the high turnover rate most practitioners in our business don’t have that “extra something” that separates them from the pack.
- There are many brass rings, but few gold ones at agencies. So even your best agency friend is liable to stab you in the back if vying for the same promotion.
- Good work is not necessarily the road to promotions. Office politics often is. At large agencies, top management most likely doesn’t know about your excellent work. That’s because reports from supervisors are often written as “team efforts,” without singling out anyone. (The best way to get around this is to ask your client contact to let top management know how pleased they are with your work or if your client says nice things about your work, ask if the comment can be put in a note to you so you can forward it to top management.)
- Seeking a position at a large agency is not necessarily the best decision for a new grad, because there are layers of people above you and chances are that for a year or more you will be assigned detail work, instead of practicing public relations. (Personal experience: While at Burson-Marsteller, a good friend of mine, whose daughter was about to graduate from a communications school, asked me to hire her. I told him that I wouldn’t do it because it would be a mistake and that I wouldn’t be able to have her work on my accounts because I only worked on big budget flag ship and international accounts that insisted on experienced practitioners. Those accounts also kept me out of the office for weeks at a time so I wouldn’t be able to make certain that she was given a fair shot at advancement. I also said that she would be better off beginning at a smaller agency and I could get her a job at one, because at small agencies she would immediately practice public relations and after a year or so I would get her a job at B-M. He didn’t listen to me and asked another person he knew who got his daughter a job. After about a year of grunt work, she left the agency and went back to school to become a teacher.
- Obtaining a position at a smaller or mid-size agency will likely let you show what you can do immediately, and after a year or two you can use that experience to interview at a large agency as an experienced practitioner—although many practitioners who have worked at mid-size or smaller agencies prefer it to a large one because they are always in the mix and management knows who does what.
- In management’s eyes, doing a “good job” most often depends on the profitability of an account.
- Often, PR is not a 9-to-5 job.
- Telling it like it is is not the job of a PR person. In almost all cases, you will be asked to disseminate only one side of an issue. (People in our business might not like the word but we are “propaganda” merchants.)
- Clients can always find fault with your work, even if it’s excellent. So can agency top management, even if it’s excellent. So can your immediate supervisor, even if it’s excellent.
- A good program is in the eyes of the beholder. What you think is a good program with news value, the media might think is not worthy of covering.
- When things go sour, top management and account supervisors are always looking for scapegoats.
- The good work you did today doesn’t mean much. It’s expected. Clients and agency management are interested in what you will do tomorrow.
- Management will always side with the client, even if you’re right and the client is wrong.
- Human Resources is not there to help you. Their job is to protect management.
But despite the above truisms, based on my decades-long career, the public relations business can be rewarding for people who want an exciting job that gives a person the opportunity to demonstrate creativity and who like the challenge of promoting new products or helping solve the problems of major corporations, nationally and internationally.
If you are an individual that will not wilt under the daily pressure of delivering what clients want and the rejection of journalists, and can demonstrate your ability to top management, there are many exciting opportunities available other than trying to convince journalists that a #10 pencil is better than a #9.
They include shaping corporate positions, introducing new products, working on political, sports marketing and entertainment accounts, and my two favorites—working on international accounts that provided me the opportunity to see the world, and developing story lines that others couldn’t that meet the needs of journalists.
The three most important things to remember for people interested in a PR career are:
- Promises will be made by supervisors and top management to underlings that they have no intention of keeping. So employees should always remember what Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in “The Prince.” “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”
- No matter what management tells you, you’re nothing but an employee number, so always do what’s best for yourself.
- But for people who want an exciting career, if you have the necessary talent, public relations can provide an experience unlike many other tedious professions, and provide practitioners with the satisfaction of contributing to projects that can make a difference in the way people live.
