Media relations is becoming less a personal contact function and more an informational service. This requires a more sophisticated understanding of business affairs.
The investor relations field is now perceived by companies more realistically than it was earlier in the 1970's. The key to success is current knowledge of increasingly complex corporate disclosure requirements, and ability to communicate with the investing public and the dwindling number of security analysts. Internally, a financial counseling ability is essential.
Marketing public relations has survived economic vagaries as imaginative programs closely tied to marketing objectives are being created. Routine product publicity has given way to broader, full-range, bigger-budgeted programs involving social responsibility, community relations, and consumer affairs.
Opportunities for women and minorities have increased substantially to the point at which some companies are ac-cused of reverse discrimination. Many talented women are being sought as management executives when they have mastered basic communications skills. However, qualifications of women and minorities often differ from "classic" requirements since they have not had the business exposure to develop certain specialized skills. Despite this, those who exhibit high energy levels and intellectual curiosity appear to succeed on the job.
Public relations counseling firms often provide better momentum of progressive ideas, services, or things. They deal with the changing social patterns of society-social, political, economic, and ideological-and work for accelerated progress. The public relations practitioner often devotes capabilities to the advancement of progressive socially constructive causes that might otherwise die before the people had an opportunity to act on them. Another reward in public relations is the accumulation of experience, which adds to the richness of life. Contacts are of the broadest, are stimulating and enriching. In public relations you have a ringside seat to watch the functioning of society and to participate in the actions of the time.
The Way In
It would be logical to assume that if your ambition was to be the head of the public relations department of a great department store you would apply for a position as an assistant in that store's public relations department. Yet you will find that in life matters do not necessarily follow logical sequences. The store of which you want to become the public relations head may have a policy of choosing its new personnel from among employees of a large department store in another city. Your chances would have been much better if you had started there instead of in the store of your choice.
One large corporation I know of had a policy of choosing members of its public relations department from among its brand-name salesmen. If you had wanted to become head of that public relations department, it would have been wiser for you to make application to the sales department and be a salesman for a time.
There are, of course, conventional ways to get a position in public relations, but I would explore them only after I was reasonably certain that the job I obtained through such means led where I wanted to go. One conventional way is through an employment agency, private or public. Another is to advertise in the publication that reaches the public of your choice. The third method is to advertise for the specific job in the specific field that will lead where you want to go.Media relations is becoming less a personal contact function and more an informational service. This requires a more sophisticated understanding of business affairs.
The investor relations field is now perceived by companies more realistically than it was earlier in the 1970's. The key to success is current knowledge of increasingly complex corporate disclosure requirements, and ability to communicate with the investing public and the dwindling number of security analysts. Internally, a financial counseling ability is essential.
Marketing public relations has survived economic vagaries as imaginative programs closely tied to marketing objectives are being created. Routine product publicity has given way to broader, full-range, bigger-budgeted programs involving social responsibility, community relations, and consumer affairs.
Opportunities for women and minorities have increased substantially to the point at which some companies are ac-cused of reverse discrimination. Many talented women are being sought as management executives when they have mastered basic communications skills. However, qualifications of women and minorities often differ from "classic" requirements since they have not had the business exposure to develop certain specialized skills. Despite this, those who exhibit high energy levels and intellectual curiosity appear to succeed on the job.
Public relations counseling firms often provide better momentum of progressive ideas, services, or things. They deal with the changing social patterns of society-social, political, economic, and ideological-and work for accelerated progress. The public relations practitioner often devotes capabilities to the advancement of progressive socially constructive causes that might otherwise die before the people had an opportunity to act on them. Another reward in public relations is the accumulation of experience, which adds to the richness of life. Contacts are of the broadest, are stimulating and enriching. In public relations you have a ringside seat to watch the functioning of society and to participate in the actions of the time.
The Way In
It would be logical to assume that if your ambition was to be the head of the public relations department of a great department store you would apply for a position as an assistant in that store's public relations department. Yet you will find that in life matters do not necessarily follow logical sequences. The store of which you want to become the public relations head may have a policy of choosing its new personnel from among employees of a large department store in another city. Your chances would have been much better if you had started there instead of in the store of your choice.
One large corporation I know of had a policy of choosing members of its public relations department from among its brand-name salesmen. If you had wanted to become head of that public relations department, it would have been wiser for you to make application to the sales department and be a salesman for a time.
There are, of course, conventional ways to get a position in public relations, but I would explore them only after I was reasonably certain that the job I obtained through such means led where I wanted to go. One conventional way is through an employment agency, private or public. Another is to advertise in the publication that reaches the public of your choice. The third method is to advertise for the specific job in the specific field that will lead where you want to go.
