I frequently draw on my three-and-a-half decades of experience as a practitioner (before I started teaching at Towson three years ago) to help my students understand careers in communication/PR. I think it is critically important in helping prepare students for success in their careers to help them understand the many and varied jobs they might have in communication/PR. This includes what will be expected of them on the job. Oftentimes, undergraduate students are not really aware of all that they might do with their degrees. Membership profiles from surveys by both IABC and PRSA show: about 40 percent of practitioners work in corporations of all types; about 27 percent work in PR firms, ad agencies, marketing communication firms, or as solo practitioners; about 14 percent work for associations, foundations, or educational institutions; eight percent in health care; six percent in government; and five percent in charitable, social welfare, or religious organizations.
The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech reminds us to consider what certain communication/PR jobs require in terms of job-related knowledge and skills. For communication/PR directors at colleges or universities or other educational institutions, there are so many lessons that it is difficult to decide where to start. However, one guideline will govern this discussion; we will be positive. We are not looking to find fault or to cast blame, but to treat this as a learning opportunity. There is enough blaming and second-guessing going on out there now. Instead, let’s focus on communication/PR jobs in times of crisis, share our collective knowledge, and try to learn something.
There are many positions out there for communication/PR directors at colleges and universities and all types of educational institutions. For example, in addition to colleges and universities, city public school systems, school districts, etc., often have communication/PR departments. Given the horrific events of last week at Virginia Tech, what must an effective college or university or educational institution communication/PR director be able to do? The following things come quickly to mind:
- Be proficient in crisis communication planning and management. Educational institutions, just like other entities, must have crisis communication plans in place. Given the terrible events at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, this is a clear priority. Effective crisis communication planning should begin with assessing the organization’s vulnerabilities and the institution’s ability to handle them. While the tragedies at Columbine and Virginia Tech are extreme examples, communication/PR practitioners must anticipate all types of events in order to be prepared and handle them effectively if the time comes. Is there a crisis communication management team in place? Are spokespersons trained and ready to deal with the media? Is the president, or whatever the highest ranking executive is called, ready to meet the media? Is the communication/PR department trained, practiced, and ready to support him or her in the effort?
- Handling communication effectively during and after the crisis. How will communication be managed and/or facilitated during and after the crisis with all key stakeholders, such as students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, the local community? Think for a moment about Virginia Tech. The communication needs of all stakeholders, especially current students and their families, are easily recognized by any practitioner. But what about every other college and university and educational institution across America? When the news of Virginia Tech broke, it is understandable that students and their parents everywhere would immediately become concerned about safety, no matter what the educational institution. If you are a communication/PR director at another college or university or educational institution and an event like the Virginia Tech incident happens, what do you do? Are there proactive measures you should take, even though the crisis is at another institution? I believe that there are. The more quickly you are proactive in communicating with your key stakeholders, the better. Lack of a quick response in a crisis, whether it is yours or that of a similar organization, creates a vacuum that will be filled with rumors, incorrect information, or speculation. For similar organizations not having the actual crisis, it is an opportunity to demonstrate concern for stakeholders and show that your organization is prepared to deal with crises.
- Media savvy. Communication/PR professionals must know media characteristics, both positive attributes and limitations, and how to work with each medium. This includes social media. I have read reports of Virginia Tech students and other stakeholders using all forms of social media to communicate during the crisis there.
- Reputation management. One of the best ways to help an organization get the benefit of the doubt during a crisis begins long before any crisis actually happens. Organizations, including educational institutions, must work hard to develop a good reputation. Bad news — it takes time and effort to develop a good reputation. Good news — that’s why they hire us. An organization with a good reputation before a crisis has a better chance to come through a crisis with its reputation intact. But, only if it manages crisis communication effectively.
- Coordinating with other agencies. How will you coordinate with local, regional, and national law enforcement officials and/or their public affairs officers? Have you planned for this in advance? Do you have a working relationship with these individuals? Effective coordination helps cut redundancy and conflicting information, and subsequently, helps all key stakeholders to get accurate, up-to-date information.
This posting is meant to be a thought and discussion starter for the More With Les Learning Community. We post these initial thoughts and questions for students to consider as they prepare for their careers. Instructors must be aware of and knowledgeable about such topics, too, in order to prepare students. The task of teaching current and future practitioners falls to entities like Towson’s Mass Communication department and IABC and PRSA professional development programs. But now I ask you, given what we have seen in the last few days, what’s the complete list of job-related knowledge and skills future communication/PR practitioners (and their instructors) must have to be successful and effective?
Here are some of the comments I followed with on my blog:
Proficiency: it is not possible to anticipate every type of event that may occur. What is important is setting up to handle the most probable. That preparation should then be modifiable for a specific circumstance that has not been anticipated. It is about the underlaying system more than the specific details.
Coordinating: this communication delay also encourages media to climb into the fray and generate their own versions of the facts and create the news themselves – a particularly dangerous situation.
Media savvy: especially for the local media that will be first on the scene and who may be reporting on behalf of national entities.
Reputation: no comment.
Coordinating: conflict in information released creates doubt about the truth of what is being disseminated and creates situations where numbers become unreliable because both the left and right hands are counting the same thing and not realizing it happened.
Awareness. The multiplicity of media and communications channels allows facts, rumors, and their hybrids to spread globally within seconds. While it may be impossible for the communicator to be on top of each and every thread, he/she must at least be in tune what what’s being said in the communication universe, and be prepared to respond quickly to–quite literally–anything.
By the way, this multi-channel proliferation of information is constant. As we saw a couple of times last week, it’s not going to suddenly pause while you hold your press conference.
Follow-up: The spread of news/rumor/other in college environments is being done by students and their peers who likely know how to manipulate social media channels better than the communicator, further complicating the challenge.
Hey, nobody said the job was easy.
Influence: If the communication/PR professional has not positioned himself/herself within the organization to “have the ear” of the administration, then all of the experience and knowledge in the world won’t matter. Having a “seat at the table” (ugh – what an overused phrase) is about more than just personal status, ego and a good paycheck. Being able to influence the decisions made at the top — before, during and after a crisis — is an ability that must be planted and nurtured.
“I think it is critically important in helping prepare students for success in their careers to help them understand the many and varied jobs they might have in communication/PR. This includes what will be expected of them on the job. Oftentimes, undergraduate students are not really aware of all that they might do with their degrees. ”
Les, no matter how we define ourselves on the job, specialist in a particular discipline or generalist, what we get thrown into is largely a result of how the executives view us. While I started in strict PR as a career, later on getting credentialing in publications and taking a broader position in “corporate communications”, I have neverthless played webmaster, newsletter editor, advertising manager, director of still photography (and indeed a television commercial, including providing voice-over), media trainer, and communications strategist. All because the various executives I served under each came to me and said, “You’re the communicator…handle this.”
At Virginia Tech, as elsewhere during a crisis, all communicators will be called on to play a role. Employee Communications will have to react quickly to ensure employees know what’s happening, what they need to do, and where they need to go. Public Relations will have to deal immediately with the media and family members from outside. In the corporate world, investor relations will have to be responsive to ensure investors don’t run for the hills as well.
To the broader question, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of real world experience. For your students, that means internships and summer jobs that relate to communications. Over their time still in college, it would be best to try to get a variety of types of internships to get a flavor of the various disciplines.
It means having the chutzpah to call up people in the “real world” working the jobs they think they might consider and asking pointed questions about details and requirements of the job, maybe asking to shadow for a day. And here’s a great added benefit to that…that’s practice for successful job-hunting networking later on, and it’s starting to build the all-important network of contacts to get a head start before graduation. They can start right there on campus with University media relations and employee communications, and locally with the companies that surround the Baltimore area. Or start with the Baltimore Sun or local NBC-, ABC-, and CBS-affiliate newsrooms, if they’re interested in PR and media relations, to get started knowing something about the journalists they’ll be pitching later on.
michael
You know, I just reread my post and realized there’s a question left begging by my last paragraph. That being, “Hey, Mike, if it’s so important to have the chutzpah to call people in the real world to talk about various jobs and to perhaps shadow, well, you’re in the real world, aren’t you?” I am, indeed, Les, and should any of your students desire to take the advice, good or bad as it is, I’m more than willing (gulp) to put my money where my mouth is! I work for a large company in McLean, Virginia, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that they look this far south for opportunities.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
michael clendenin
This is an excellent discussion, Les and the followup comments are on target. I would like to add one other factor that really seems to separate those that are successful versus those who are unsuccessful in landing in a desired area in public relations upon graduation from college. For many who worked in the field, such as myself, the first job in public relations led directly to the second job to the third job, etc. That first job and what anyone chooses to work at in their first job in the field can be an important choice as to opportunities that follow. Too many students view the process of landing in the public relations field as a matter of luck and do not target exactly what they desire from the outset. Michael Clendenin mentions that “oftentimes, undergraduate students are not really aware of all that they might do with their degrees.” I agree. I know I present this information in multiple ways to students in my classes. However, for many students, internships and finding a first job upon graduation often are a matter of luck and looking at what comes to them instead of deciding exactly what they want to target, working dilligently toward that target and being determined to reach it. I am frustrated, at times, in watching students who work hard in their courses, hand in outstanding work and ultimately decide they will think about and devote time to what they will do with their life a couple of months before graduation, or after they graduate. There are many students who I teach that seemingly do not fully understand or care about the ramifications of the choices they are now making in regards to their careers.
The Virginia Tech tragedy teaches us about the preciousness of life and how we need to live each day as if it could be our last. As a college lecturer, I wish I could do a better job in convincing my students that you are likely to be more successful in a career if you decide what specific area you want to focus on a year or two out before graduation and don’t wait for opportunities to come to you over the Internet. Rather, tell everyone you know and the people who hire in your specialty what you want to do and you are likely to have a better outcome than if you go about the process waiting for opportunities to come to you. I am frustrated by students who settle for less than what they could become and welcome any suggestions on how I as a college teacher can work to get a better result.
Garry Bolan
Garry,
I think you are teaching your students the greatest lesson they can learn, no matter what their major. That is to think and seek on their own. And to start now. I mention “chutzpah” to call up someone in the real world. And that is really what it’s about. Go-get-it-iveness, self-initiative, call it what you will, it comes down to the same thing. So you don’t know what you want to do? Then take a step in one direction, any direction, seek out some experience now. If you find that you don’t like it, fine, then step in a another direction, but step. Standing still will get you nowhere and no one is going to come looking for you.
And don’t worry, you’re not “locking yourself into something” by taking that step. I’ve got news for your students, especially if they go into communications, they’ll likely have several different positions, in different disciplines, and perhaps several completley different careers. This comes from someone who started in PR, got wooed away by the glamor of money in sales and came back to communications after making money but being unhappy. It wasn’t easy, but I did it.
I would much prefer to hire someone who shows that quality but has mediocre grades, than a valedictorian graduate who is passive about seeking a job. They show me that no matter what situation arises on the job, they’ll find the answers or the resources, rather than trying to show me through past grades that they’re smart enough to know the answers to something in which they have no real world experience. Even better, of course, is the valedictorian who is a go-getter, too, so keep studying, students! (smile)
Hope this helps!
These are all great points. I add my endorsement to the ideas that students should spend their college years discovering the many avenues they could take and beginning to focus on the areas that most interest them and for which they are most skilled. I also agree with Michael that students should not worry about “locking yourself into something.” My degree in mass comm was focused on newspaper journalism, where I spent two years after graduation, but I’ve made my career out of corporate communication, focusing mostly on employee communication. Funny the twists and turns our careers sometimes take, but I believe those journalism skills are being put to excellent use.
I’ve also noticed a couple of other things about students as they look forward to life after graduation. 1) They expect that perfect job upon graduation. This is just not realistic. I think the heady days of the ’90s, in which many companies experienced explosive growth and young brilliant 20-somethings became millionaires overnight thanks to the dot-com boom, set an unrealistic standard for young people. The fact is that most of us take that first job just to get started making some money and getting some experience. It’s usually not where they want to spend the rest of their lives, but a few months or even a few years won’t kill them. And, on a related note, 2) Be willing — indeed, eager — to learn from those first jobs. Pay your dues. Makes some mistakes. Learn the ropes. Gain experience and take it on to the next job and the next one. Careers don’t just happen. We make them happen by embracing all of the opportunities we’re given to learn and to grow.
Well put Robert. I couldn’t agree more. Students should work hard to set their sights and be ever willing to adjust those sights along the road. There’s no way I could have guessed all the places I’ve been or will go with this career, but that doesn’t stop me from keeping an eye on those companies I think I like. And contacting the people there hiring for (or doing!) the job I think I’d like. That’s the way you’ll learn if, in fact, you do want to do that job for that company, and, lo and behold, meet the people who’ll get you the opportunity.
Students, understand this…jobs and opportunities don’t just fall in lucky people’s laps. Resourceful, aspiring and proactive people put their laps where things are falling. It took me a long time and cost me some lost opportunities to learn that nugget. I offer it to you free. Just make sure to “pay it forward” when you’re further down your career path to someone starting out on theirs.
Michael and Robert,
Great comments to the dilemma I face with many students. I love your line, Michael, that “resourceful, aspiring and proactive people put their laps where things are falling.” Which makes me wonder how do we get students to move to the point where oportunities are falling in their laps. It seems simple–get students to attend professional meetings and interact with professionals through internships and assignments we give in class. In other words, interact with professionals in a significant way before they graduate.
Les and I were talking this morning about the millenial generation now in college. For many millennials, you can’t just preach what they need to do, you have to get them to do it in order for many to believe in it. Many have grown up with a greater reliance on their parents than previous generations. I wonder if independence and self-reliance are underdeveloped skills that many lack. It may be painful but I am increasingly looking at my job as a college instructor being one of forcing students to figure out ambiguity and to set a structure where they will need to find answers without me giving them the roadmap. Hopefully, readers follow what I am saying. Give guidance, yes, but increasingly I feel I need to force students to find the answers themselves. I don’t do them any favors by lecturing to them what they need to do unless they have multiple opportunities in classes to go practice it and find out and do it themselves.
As the Crisis Response Team Leader for the Columbine High School shooting, I found this blog and the follow-up responses to be very interesting. You all have great points, but in my 17 years of working in school public relations (K-12, Dept. of Education, and now as a private consultant), I have found the best hires are those who have become great generalists, be it writing, web design, community relations, employee relations, public engagement, or video. Why? Because it is expected in today’s PR world. A person who can tout their many experiences with real-life examples about their work, their response, and how they evaluated what they did, will have the inside track to working in the communications world.
One other note … we must be strategists to the very core. I’ve lived by two basic tenets: I provide options to solutions through cardiac assessment (what I believe to be the right approach based on what my heart and mind say within the context of having faith in my skill, experience and spirituality).
Garry,
Thanks for the kind words. Take heart, though, that your students are not all that different from their elders already out in the workforce. I think most people — even seasoned professionals — are slow to move those laps. It’s a scary and presumptuous thing to do. And yet , it’s what’s required. And there’s not a lot you can do to make them do it other than show them how to start looking for the opportunities . Indeed you hit the nail on the head; the more you do for them, the less initiative they have a chance to develop. We all like to be invited. But for the job hunt, employers want to see candidates who are confident enough to invite themselves.
So tell them in your most authoritarian voice as their professor and guidance counselor that you hereby and evermore formally invite them to make the presumption that they are welcome to make inquiries with companies and individuals about employment opportunities, potential career paths, and how to achieve them, and to register for any and all networking opportunities, and join professional groups.
Think of it this way — if I’m looking for someone strong-willed enough to stand up and present my company’s position, message, arguments, why would I hire someone, or even seek someone out, who isn’t confident enough to do the same for themselves (arguably any one person’s number one priority is themselves, right?)? And the earlier you start networking and meeting important people, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you become with it. And if we’re seeking a “place at the executive strategic table”, the executives will want to see someone they believe is comfortable in that role, not intimidated by the title of anyone they with whom they come into contact.
Rick, my hat is off to you for the important role you play, and I’m sure in the wake of VA Tech, you’ve hand your hands full. And I wholly agree with you. In fact, I ignored a previous mentor I had in a position in my early career who counciled me to seek a specialty. I felt then and feel more strongly now, that I want to be a generalist with some very specific skills. More to the point, as you can see from my earlier comment, I don’t think I had much of a choice! By virtue of the tasks thrown my way, I gained broad experience that makes me more attractive as a candidate who has proven he can handle a wide variety of requirements.
Just some personal opinion for what it’s worth.
All of this good advice is right in line with what I just told a roomful of 14 communication professionals during a seminar on Monday. I’ve believed a strategic mindset is the price of admission into this business since Les Potter first introduced me to strategic communication 15 years ago. As for the need to be skilled generalists, nothing makes the case more strongly than the new era of social media that is now firmly in place. In the “olden days,” we could specialize in publications or media relations or even websites because our clients/bosses believed they “owned” the messages and the media for getting their messages out. So it made sense — to them, at least — to have someone who could specialize in those areas. But the days of top-down, message-control communication are over. While many of our clients/management still believe they control the messages and the media, the fact is that they don’t. This is especially true during a crisis, as we saw during the Va Tech tragedy. I’m sure Rick can attest to this fact. We need to be strategic-minded problem solvers who are knowledgeable and capable of using the entire scope of communication vehicles to help our clients/management achieve their goals.
Let me tell you a quick story about an undergaduate student whose recent action embodies some of the advice shared above in these excellent comments. A family friend has a daughter who is a Mass Comm. major (not at Towson). She is a junior. The student attended a guest lecture by a dynamic 29-year-old PR agency executive who spoke on crisis communication management. The student was so impressed with the speaker and interested in the speaker’s wise counsel that she got her address and wrote to her thanking her for the presentation and all she had learned from it.
The speaker/PR executive wrote back with words of encouragement and gratitude for the student’s thoughtful letter. But not only that, she told the student to send her a resume for consideration for an internship. Further, the agency executive explained that in her firm, internships lead to full-time employment.
Lessons? There are several:
1. Be proactive. This student, a junior, acted on an opportunity and is well-positioned for an exciting and educational internship that may well lead to a meaningful career path.
2. Networking. Every week, in all of my four classes, I tell my students about the value of networking and especially professional associations for networking. Many of the comments above echo this. In fact, I advise students to seek out guest speakers and get their business cards and contact them later. Few take this advice, I am truly sad to say.
3. Own your career and the preparation for it. Michael, Garry and others above have said it — students must take the initiative to shape a career that is right for them. The competition for good jobs is always fierce. With a simple letter, a proactive, thoughtful, and effective follow-up to a speaker who moved her, the student in my true story aligned herself with a golden opportunity.
Les and everyone,
So much has been said, but I want to add a couple of thoughts.
When you ask us to list the knowledge and skills that future communication/PR practitioners (and their instructors) must have to be successful and effective, you might inadvertantly give an impression that a career can be shaped in cookie-cutter fashion. Obviously it cannot, and just as obviously, none of our careers have been totally shaped by our careful planning and adherance to a checklist.
Knowledge is important. Skills are important. I would add that experiences are important, as well. It is our experiences which hone our skills and force us to seek greater knowledge.
Your students shouldn’t even try to think that they can seamlessly enter the workforce and perform as though they are 20-year veterans. It’s like driving. Remember taking driver’s education, watching the movies, sitting behind the simulator, and then thinking how easy it was? Then you got behind the wheel of a real vehicle and entered traffic for the first time. A much different experience–and an experience it was!
When I was a journalism student at Eastern Illinois University, my advisor (who happened to be the publisher of the daily student newspaper) told me and others that the lessons learned in actual work would be far superior to anything taught in a classroom. He was right. A benefit for me was that journalism taught me how to ask questions, get information, distill the facts and then shape them into a tightly written, well-balanced article. That has served me in every position that I’ve held during the past 25 years.
So join associations and network as much as possible. More importantly, roll up your sleeves and find some place to “do what you want to do.” You almost assuredly will never regret it.
Tom Keefe
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