What It’s Really Like to Work in PR
When people think of PR, they often think of Lauren Conrad on the Hills, crazy (but killer) Kelly Cutrone, or they genuinely know nothing about it. I’m here to clear the confusion and tell you what a career in PR is really like.
It’s hectic and unexpected in the best way possible.
Public relations is defined as “the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person,” in addition to maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders. There are different PR environments to work in, the two main distinguishers being corporate and agency.
In a corporate setting, a large company often has a singular PR person. If you are interested in working in PR and you like working on your own, this is the choice for you. Corporate PR pros deal with a singular client, making consistency much more common within this realm of the industry. If this sounds boring and the thought of not having anyone else around to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with intimidates you, agency work would be a better fit.
In a PR agency or firm, you will often work as a team with your coworkers with a common goal of giving the client what they want effectively. Agencies deal with a handful of clients and projects and tasks vary day to day. If an unexpected schedule and group work gives you a thorn in your side, avoid agency life.
PR people are creative, organized, flexible, idea makers, and writers. We’re social media mavens and we probably spend way too much time on twitter and instagram. We’re always asked to come up with multiple ways to approach a situation and creative ideas to execute projects – and we love starbucks. If this sounds intriguing, PR may be the career for you!
I’ll be doing countless posts on PR – so stay tuned!
Even though we sit on opposing sides of the same field (I’m a reporter), I did work in corporate PR for an internship once. I must say it’s tough work and can be quite time consuming. I felt that it didn’t give me the creative outlet I needed, but maybe that’s because I should have tried agency PR instead?
I have worked in both and I do believe there is more room for creativity in agency PR. You deal with a handful of clients rather than just one company, allowing you to work on a variety of projects at once – in which I find myself much more engaged.
Thanks for commenting Aleda!
PR sounds like an interesting job. Look forward for jour future posts. 🙂
It is, I really love it! No two days are the same and it’s the perfect career for social media obsessed people like myself. Thanks for commenting – checking out your blog now 🙂