I’ve worked at RoseComm for the better part of 18 months. During my first year at my first job after college, I learned a lot about public relations and our clients’ industries, built great relationships with my colleagues and even earned a promotion.
A lot of people offered advice (some solicited, some not) when I started my career. I listened to all of it, followed most of it, but looking back, I wish I believed it all. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine the person actually understands your circumstances well enough to give you good advice. As someone who recently completed her first year on the job, I’d like to share a few things I now know to be true.
The learning curve is real. I refused to believe this existed, but it’s true. It’s impossible to come in on your first day and know everything there is to know about your clients and the work they do. If you’re starting out in an agency, that work can vary drastically from non-profits to healthcare to heavy duty lawn equipment. Yes, you can do baseline research before your interview or even in your first weeks, but that’s surface level. The longer you work with your clients, the more you learn about your day-to-day contact, their messaging, preferred styles and more. The same can be said for your supervisors and their nuances.
Asking all the questions. Your biggest asset as a newbie is that you are a blank slate yearning for experience. My colleagues tell me that not many young professionals stop to ask questions and they wish they would. I recommend asking questions about anything and everything relevant to your position. Request templates of pitches, press releases, media audits, coverage reports, etc. from your supervisors (they would rather you do something close to right the first time than hand in something that misses the mark!). Most importantly, have patience with yourself. You’ll need fewer answers as you go. It takes time.
The ongoing battle between scope of work vs. fee. You’ll run into this a lot if you’re in an agency. The amount of time you spend on a client’s business depends on their scope of work and fee. Unlike schoolwork, where you can invest whatever amount of time you’d like in any given assignment, you have to watch “over-servicing” your accounts. This will require time management skills and coordinating with fellow team members to disseminate the workload so that it will be completed efficiently and effectively. Remember: The end goal is to meet your client’s needs, but try to do so in a timely fashion.
Communication is key. No one is a mind reader, so it’s incredibly important to be direct in communicating with your supervisors. If you need an extension on a deadline, a second opinion, a note for a client reviewed, or to discuss your workload if you’re drowning, don’t be afraid to speak up. Again, especially in your first year, it’s expected. Effective internal communication is crucial in the process of producing meaningful external communications for your clients.
Building on existing knowledge. A huge take away from my first year in PR is that running your personal social media channels is NOT the same as running your clients’. While posting to our own Instagram and Twitter accounts can be done on a whim, there is more strategy involved when working on behalf of a business. And the stakes are a lot higher if you make a misstep. You may find yourself writing a pipeline with posts for all channels for a few weeks or a month. The posts need to be engaging (read: ROI), so you’ll have to include a call to action, share a recent article on an industry-related topic or ask a question. It’s also important to check if the hashtags you’d like to use have appropriate connotations. Oh, did I mention the client has to approve them, too? And those are just the basics!
Tying it all together. For a whole year, I was the newest team member and didn’t have much opportunity to exercise what I knew by way of teaching. A week before my anniversary, we hired another junior level employee. I saw her onboarding as a way to apply my learnings. Assisting her with projects, general housekeeping questions and offering advice when I can has helped me realize how much I truly know about public relations and RoseComm.
What other pieces of advice would you give to someone starting their first year in public relations? Tell us in a comment below.