The Many Paths to a PR Career
January 17, 2007 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Ryan Anderson describes how he got into PR. It’s a fascinating journey, and the comments by his readers show some of the different ways to enter the marketing/communications field. He sums up:
"I never meant to go into PR, and in a lot of ways, the fact that I had a lot of random marketing experience opened a lot more doors to me. In all honesty, I’m a mediocre graphic designer at best, so it’s unlikely that I would have been able to waltz into an agency as a creative. Now that the world of marketing is changing so rapidly, I consider myself very lucky to be in the PR and interactive advertising field. It’s like having a front row seat to the next stage in evolution.
"It was an extremely random string of events that brought me to where I am today, but I don’t regret a single one.
My journey into business communications started in college, when I joined the student newspaper at Capilano College as creative writing editor. There was no such position until I showed up one day and offered to pull together writing and photos for creative pages. From there, I joined The Ubyssey, the paper at the University of British Columbia. My clippings eventually helped me get a job as a photographer, then as a reporter/photographer. After that, I worked as a trade journalist, writing and editing magazines for organizations. From there, it was a smooth transition to communicating for an organization, rather than just writing about it.
Tags: careers, public relations, student, university, advertising, creative
I’ve read a lot of interesting accounts of getting into the business since I posted that. Seems everyone has their own path into the profession, but they’re rarely linear. I think that underscores the fact that in order to be an effective communicator, you have to have a real breadth of experience. Just understanding “textbook pr” is not enough.
Ryan:
True. There are a lot of skills people can pick up that will help them in communications or advertising, but being a life-long student of the culture seems to be the best preparation.
My own path has been just as eclectic. I was doing work in health administration, and found myself interacting regularly with the media.
From there, it was simply a matter of shifting focuses to make PR a larger part of my work.