If you are looking for the employer of your choice at an advanced-level position, you may use executive placement services. These organizations use resumes. You will want to prepare a factual evaluation of yourself in depth.
The method for such public relations activity should be carefully studied before being carried out. Brashness is to be avoided. A highly visible profile has inherent dangers. Jealousy often results to the detriment of the person concerned. But a flower that blooms unseen in a highly competitive society might just as well not bloom. The novice will need to be guided by conditions before he carries out a plan.
As to promotion, there are several schools of thought. Some organizations believe in promotions by degree annually. Another school of thought moves people ahead several or more rungs on the ladder if special talent is indicated. If the person so promoted does the job well, the organization has added years of service by him or her. It is well to know the promotion practice of the organization before you join it.
Switching from Other Fields
A young person who enters the field after the study suggested has great opportunities for achieving his or her hopes. But what about the older person, the 35-year-old or 40-year-old who decides to switch. Every week people write to tell me that they have been teachers, lawyers, engineers, or diplomats and now want to become public relations experts. What realistic, helpful advice can be offered them?
If they are applied social scientists in the other field and want to enter public relations, I tell them that they can move ahead in the new field. They will simply apply what they know to new areas of activity. But if they start without such understanding of human behavior, I advise against their entering the field.
In our society youth has great advantages. Many organizations think of an applicant for employment in terms of the number of years of his or her usefulness. The younger the applicant, the longer the potential life with the organization.
Help from Others
Third parties should not be neglected when you are seeking an employer. Third parties can approach employers as friendly middlemen. Friends of the applicant with knowledge and contacts can presumably be depended upon for a friendly service. Professional and trade executives or editors may act as unofficial, unpaid employment agents. Other public relations practitioners may know where opportunities lie.
There are other aspects of the career of public relations that you will not want to neglect. One was discussed by the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and is pertinent. He said that life is action and passion that a man (or a woman) must share in the passion and action of his time lest he be judged never to have lived at all. What Justice Holmes said applies to all career entrants. Follow that advice. Enter into the broad activities of the time. You may solve your own problems and help solve those of the city, the nation, and the world.
Status
Status is a not unimportant incentive in most vocations. Individuals feel that favorable judgment by their peers satisfies their need for accomplishment or achievement. Public relations in the past 50 years has gained a measure of respect that enables those in the vocation to achieve honors they merit-some official, some unofficial.
Society has many ways of honoring those who excel. Citizens who make contributions receive honorary doctorates from universities. The public relations practitioner has received such honors and other kinds of recognition. He or she may become the head of a political party, a cabinet member, or an ambassador. He or she may become head of a business or financial organization. Trusteeships of voluntary service organizations, institutions of higher learning, or other social organizations may be bestowed.
