Career Advice

Intro to Education PR by Kirsten Khire, APR

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Are you ready for a PR career in higher education?

By Kirsten M. Khire, APR

This year marks my 10th anniversary working in higher education public relations, following seven years in journalism. When people ask me what I do, I can predict some of the reactions. “It must be so nice to have the summer off.” Or “What a fun laid-back job!” Oh yes, I’ve come to identify the stereotypes and misconceptions about higher ed PR. For those new PR professionals considering hoping to break into the field, I have more information about working in higher education public relations and communications.

  1. Truth: It’s a very rewarding career. I often tell new interns during orientation that we are promoting one of the best products in existence – education. It’s a universal need and it’s very fulfilling to watch students complete their degrees and succeed. It’s also a thrill to be around faculty members who are researching and teaching new ideas in the field. That energy is genuinely contagious.
  2. False: Higher ed PR pros have the summers off. In my experience, the summer season is definitely quieter in the physical sense because the students and faculty members are mostly on hiatus. But for me, it has traditionally been a heavy production period (particularly in terms of publications and web projects) and a time to plan and strategize.
  3. True and False: It’s a fun, laid-back job. Fun it is, laid back it is not. If you are working for a public university, you are dealing with a non-profit budget, probably budget cuts, and a very small staff. You learn to be creative with your time and your talents. This morning, I created a PowerPoint for the dean, ghostwrote a dean communiqué and gathered photos for 3 fundraising videos – all before noon.
  4. True: Higher education public relations provides a solid public relations foundation. Recently I successfully completed the PRSA Accreditation process. The work I was doing met all of the major PR campaign processes – research, planning, implementation and evaluation. I may not have the budget that a major soft drink company might, but the strategy involved in PR campaigns remains the same.
  5. False: Higher ed PR doesn’t have clear goals. Like any business, higher education has very tangible business metrics. These include student recruitment (tuition dollars), external research funding (grants and contracts from government, foundations and industry) and individual support (donations from alumni and “friends.”) These are extremely real financial goals, and the sooner PR pros plug into them, the better. Public relations can proactively boost the brand and lead to measurable results of objectives.
  6. False: You need specific training for a higher ed PR career. My path is a case in point. As a former journalist, I’m comfortable conducting interviews with faculty members on topics that are unfamiliar or need layperson translation. As with most humans (we are only that!), PR professionals have strengths and areas of growth. Some are wonderful at media relations; others have a background in marketing. The goods news is that universities need a good variety of communications professionals.

All of this is a long-winded introduction to say, if you are still interested in this career, read on. Breaking into higher education PR is not impossible, but you need to be strategic. Having experience in non-profit settings, writing about research and of course being an alum/alumna all help. Pursuing your master’s degree or Accreditation also can help. Above all, networking with and talking to current PR pros in higher education can provide you with insight into the field and valuable connections during the job hunt.

Kirsten Khire is an accredited communications professional with more than 17 years of experience in public relations and journalism, with a focus on strategic, digital, web and social media communications.

My First Six Months in PR or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job by Heather Sliwinski

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About one week into my job, I wondered if I oversold myself during my interviews. I’m not saying I lied—no one should ever lie in an interview—but I had to question if I made it clear that I had zero PR experience when I landed my first position at a PR agency in August.

I took the advertising and PR classes in college, toiled at the obligatory unpaid internships in marketing and promotions and gained more than two years of marketing experience after graduation. With that said, I still didn’t know what a media list or subject matter expert was.

I had a lot to learn, not only about our clients’ businesses, but also the business of PR; I was terrified.

I had more than a few sleepless nights in the beginning, worrying about how I was going to tackle my projects. But in the past six months, I’ve embraced agency life and realized that, when it came to my early fears, there was more than met the eye:

Phone pitching is daunting.

I’ve never been a big phone talker. Calling up complete strangers (reporters) and telling them to cover a story idea made me feel like a telemarketer. I couldn’t believe that this was a common practice in PR. Why would a reporter care about me, someone they’ve never met, and my client, a company they’ve never heard of? Little did I know, with a good story idea, a knowledgeable expert and some flexibility, reporters do care.

Phone pitching is part trial and error and part knowing your stuff. I still get intimidated by phone pitching, but when we have a great idea, know our client’s expertise and go into the call with the intent of having a conversation, the results are always positive.

Plus, reporters are just people, too.

Media lists are crucial.

If you start with the wrong reporter, your pitching will get you nowhere. My first media lists were terrible. I relied on Cision to tell me who to pitch, rather than going to the source and figuring out who would want to cover our story. Having reporter history and past articles is great ammo for pitching and makes having an intelligent conversation with a reporter much easier.

My colleagues had me work and rework the early media lists, partly because I didn’t know Cision could be wrong (I would say it’s 50/50 on being right/wrong about a reporter’s beat). I feel that I am getting better at gauging who would cover a story, and I still edit, add and delete as I get on the phone with folks.

Seeing red doesn’t make you a bad writer.

My roots are in journalism: up until sophomore year of college, I thought I was going to be a reporter. I have adequate knowledge of AP style and proper grammar. I’ve been published in a few outlets. I thought I was a decent writer. When I started writing for PR, I lost most of my confidence.

My press releases, emails, media alerts, pitches—anything I wrote, really—came back with red ink all over the page. Seeing all the edits was definitely a blow to my ego. In time, I’ve seen that seeing red actually makes you a better writer. Considering I came from marketing, I wasn’t expected to know how to write a pitch. My writing style was much more focused on sales for marketing purposes, where PR is more about featuring news. My writing evolved. I learned to dig deep into a pitch and figure out where the story is, and I see less and less red as a result.

Social media isn’t the devil.

After coming from a few corporate cultures where using social media at work is frowned upon, I was excited to see that not only was I allowed to use social media at work, it was encouraged! The transition was difficult in the beginning. I felt a little naughty, checking Twitter for updates, retweeting during the workday and actually responding to messages between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Social media is part of my job, and I’m expected to stay on top of the news, retweet important content and interact with journalists during the day. I’ve had a handful of pitches that have sprouted from a breaking news tweet or friendly correspondence with a reporter. You never know what future opportunity can come out of social media.

You always have something to bring to the table.

When I joined my agency, I didn’t know what a ProfNet was. I didn’t know how to use Cision. I didn’t know how to write an expert available pitch. I knew nothing about my clients. Having every task in your job be completely new can weigh heavily on you.

However, not knowing the PR ropes didn’t mean that I didn’t have unique skills to contribute. Being a relative news junkie, I was able to spot breaking news stories and find angles where our clients could comment. My background in marketing has lent to assisting one of our clients with a website revamp. Having knowledge of graphic design programs allows us to offer additional design services to our clients, if needed.

And, we all have ideas. I was reserved in meetings, reluctant to share my thoughts. What do I know? I’m the new kid—my colleagues are the experts. But, we all read different publications and have different skills, experiences and approaches to thinking. I try to share my opinion more now, since there is no ‘wrong’ in brainstorming. No matter your level of PR knowledge, the next big idea could be yours.

My first six months in PR were definitely a roller coaster. I’m still adjusting and always learning, which I don’t think will ever go away. If we’re lucky, we’ll keep adding new clients, changing the game all over again. PR is never dull, and much like snowflakes, no two days in PR are ever the same.

While the unknown of each day used to stress me out, I try not to waste my energy worrying about what I don’t know and instead revel in the small victories that make it all worthwhile: being ahead of breaking news to land our client in the New York Times, securing an interview with a Reuters reporter, watching our client on live TV at 7 in the morning.

Don’t you just love PR?

What were some of your biggest challenges when you started your first PR job? Did you recently transition to PR from another field? Share your experiences below!

Heather SliwinskiHeather Sliwinski is an account executive at KemperLesnik, a Chicago-based public relations agency, providing media relations and social media services to a variety of B2B clients. She has held positions in marketing and event planning for corporations, nonprofits and higher education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications with an emphasis in strategic communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sliwinski is the blog co-chair for the PRSA New Professionals Section. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Never Stop Learning: Why Having a Mentor is Crucial as a Young Professional by Brandi Boatner and Kate Enos

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Albert Einstein once said, “”Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”

Yes, we’ve checked the boxes: graduated from high school, received a diploma in college and got our first, second or third job. But that doesn’t mean learning should ever stop, especially in the workplace.

In public relations, all the classes in the world can’t teach you what you learn while on the job. The art of managing tight deadlines, heavy demands and expecting the unexpected isn’t on any syllabus. But there is one resource that remains untapped and full of knowledge – those who have blazed the trails before us in the world of public relations, otherwise known as mentors.

January marked National Mentoring Month, a celebration of those who choose to dedicate valuable time and energy into the next generation of professionals. No matter your age and title, everyone can use a mentor.

The trick is finding a mentor.

According the New York Times, it won’t happen overnight. Here a few tips and tricks to finding the right match for you:

  • Time: It takes time to cultivate relationships and to see if the chemistry fits to make a match.
  • Industry: Find someone in communications and public relations if that’s the career path you see yourself in.
  • Commitment: Make sure your potential mentor is willing to put time into meeting regularly and making you a priority.
  • Goals: Set goals, and know your strengths and weaknesses before you meet with a mentor.

Mentoring is not only for those who are seasoned practitioners in the field. New professionals in the industry can also be mentors through “reverse mentoring”.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal found “many businesses are pairing upper management with younger employees in a practice known as reverse mentoring. The trend is taking off at a range of companies, from tech to advertising.”   

With the advent of social media, new technologies and innovative marketing techniques, businesses across a variety of industries recognize the skills, knowledge and expertise young professionals bring to an organization, thereby benefiting all employees.

Your mentor is out there – all you have to do is ask. So, what are you waiting for?

 

Brandi Boatner and Kate Enos are the PRSA New Professionals Section mentorship co-chairs.

Intro to Government PR by Doug Matthews

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I’ll be honest. I never made a formal decision to get into government communications. Would you believe that I was actually a forensic science major for my first two years of school? Yep. I wanted to be CSI before David Caruso inexplicably made it seem cool. Now, how David Caruso and “cool” found their way into the same sentence is a subject for another time. Suffice it to say, I’m a bit of a nerd at heart.

It was a combination of life experience, timely opportunities and great mentors that guided me to where I am today, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. So here’s my first bit of advice: create your own opportunities, but don’t get so focused that you fail to see the new, unexpected ones that present themselves along the way.

I joke that I was “infected” with the public service mindset. I blame my parents. My father was a career law enforcement officer and police chief, and my mother was an emergency room nurse. The first “marketing” I ever did professionally was working at the city pool, getting families to show up for “Dive-In Movies”…in between fits of whistle-blowing and telling kids to “walk, not run” on the pool deck.

So, after an epiphany while sitting in Applied Calculus II (another interesting, albeit off-topic story), I left class and changed my major to advertising and public relations. I secured my first internship as a sophomore doing marketing and events for the county recreation department. (Another aside here: get as much job experience as you can before you graduate–it’s the single best thing you can do to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other job-hunting graduates entering the work force.)

I continued that work until graduation, with a short stint in between studying in London and interning with Fleishman-Hillard. It was during this venture into corporate public relations that I had my second epiphany. The assignments were interesting enough, and the people were great, but I had trouble finding satisfaction with the work I was doing. For me, there was a satisfaction and fulfillment that I got from serving the public that I didn’t get when serving a client or a private industry.

That’s something I love most about this career: the absence of a traditional “target market.” Sure, you’ll always have specific audiences for specific programs, but government service is a great equalizer. After all, everyone needs their garbage picked up, right? And every one of you expects the lights and sirens to arrive when you call 911.

There’s also unbelievable variety in what our team does. I mentioned garbage collection and public safety, but we also do engineering. We do public health. We manage parks. We build roads. The work we do truly touches the lives of everyone who lives here in Austin and I get to be a part of that. We help people understand, appreciate and connect with the products and services they have invested in as taxpayers. We help make good government.

In my role, I get to be both the PR pro and the media pro. We run an in-house agency, with teams spanning media relations, Web development, employee communications, project management, community engagement, marketing, events and interactive media. We have our own television station and graphic design shop. The opportunities for learning and development are limited only by your desire and willingness to expand your horizons. The work environment is what you make of it: there is more space to try new things and take risks than you might think!

We do, though, have to talk about the other side of that coin. When you sign up as a public servant, you do so with the understanding that virtually everything you do is public. The work you do belongs to the taxpayers, and they can be a fickle and demanding audience. Likewise, there’s always an undercurrent of politics. Ultimately, my boss (the city manager) works for seven elected officials, so you can’t escape it. You can, though, maintain a distinct line between political and professional communication.

If it sounds interesting, you can start by looking for internships in your local jurisdiction. I learned as much interning with Orange County Parks & Recreation as I did in four years of coursework. Get involved with the International City/County Managers Association or the City/County Communications and Marketing Association. Look into public administration and public affairs courses as a supplement to your normal coursework.

The work might not be for everyone, but for someone with the passion to serve, a love for the art of governing, and the willingness to wear virtually every hat in the haberdashery (or millinery), there’s not a better job on the planet. 

 

Doug Matthews is an 18-year veteran of local government communications, currently serving as the chief communications director for the City of Austin, Texas. He served similar roles for the Florida cities of Largo and Clearwater before becoming an adopted Texan in 2009. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Florida.

Intro to International PR: Why Going Global Can (and Should) Be Your Next Career Move by Stephanie Takach

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For new public relations professionals looking to get ahead and obtain a unique skill set, getting international career experience is more than a viable option—it’s one that’s becoming a necessity—as organizations increasingly expand outside of the United States. To find out more about what it takes for PR professionals to get experience overseas, I sat down and interviewed Stacie Berdan, an international careers consultant and author of the new eBook GO GLOBAL! Launching an International Career Here or Abroad. Stacie has more than a decade of experience at Burson-Marstellar and later joined Unilever before publishing her first book Get Ahead By Going Abroad.

Stephanie Takach: Why do you think it’s important for PR professionals to experience part (or all) of their career abroad?

Stacie Berdan: Globalization is here and its pervasiveness is destined to expand. There has been a shift in many companies as to where their revenue is being generated–for many it’s in the emerging markets and at increasing percentages. As a consultant or a support function in-house, PR professionals who have a combination of industry skills and international experience can better support their client’s or organization’s global growth.

ST: Are there any unique skill sets that PR young professionals need or should pick up before looking to jump-start their international career?

SB: Acquire as much international experience as possible. Before you graduate, study or intern, join international clubs, practice foreign languages, volunteer or work abroad. Once you’re in the workforce, work on global teams or with global clients to demonstrate that you can work cross-culturally and on virtual teams. If you have foreign language skills, practice. If you have knowledge of or experience with another culture or country, try to get involved in a relevant assignment.

It’s important that young PR professionals build up what I like to call their “toolbox of talents”–working with top-notch professionals at the start of their career. This could be anywhere in the world but requires some thought. Once you have three to four years of experience, you can start branching out and looking for opportunities most anywhere because you will then have multiple offerings: solid PR skills, international mobility and the global skills you’ve acquired.

ST: And what about languages? For PR pros who only speak English fluently, how much of a barrier can that be?

SB: Being bilingual or trilingual is a definite benefit to working in the global marketplace, but it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. Consider what other skills you have that an organization would benefit from and market them. Exceptional English language skills can prove beneficial in many markets where English is the second or third language to ensure accuracy, but you’ll want to be careful you don’t simply become the editor as opposed to the strategist behind the PR.

ST: What advantages does international PR bring to the table for young professionals? Are there any disadvantages?

SB: International PR provides the opportunity to work at the forefront of the globalization wave, which shows no sign of slowing down. Most internationalists agree that the personal and professional growth is explosive–working abroad for one year usually feels like the equivalent of three in experience. However, the downsides can be the incredibly challenging circumstances you face every day. It’s difficult to live in another country and work cross-culturally every day, in a second language or through interpreters; learning new ways of doing things as well as new regulations, currencies and politics can be draining.

ST: When is the right time in one’s career to go global?

SB: The right time is when you spot the opportunity because there are benefits to going at any stage in a PR professional’s career. If you go early on, you probably have fewer restrictions, yet the flexibility to go anywhere, which many companies appreciate and want, so the opportunities are probably the broadest. If you go mid-career, you’ll have significant talents in your toolbox and can probably step up your game in a smaller or emerging market that needs your professional expertise. This could then transfer to greater responsibility faster to be leveraged in another market or your home market after a few years. If you go as a senior person, you have a great deal of practical knowledge and experience to offer a new market, yet you’ll still need to learn about your new home. It all depends on what you’re looking for, your expectations and your flexibility, which are key in seeking, landing and thriving in an international role.

Is now the right time in your career for you to go global? What challenges or roadblocks have you encountered on your journey to gain international PR experience?

Stephanie Takach is a senior at Drexel University, majoring in communication with a minor in marketing. Takach is also president of Drexel’s Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter and an aspiring PR and marketing professional. Feel free to contact Stephanie on Twitter.