I just got home from meeting with my client project. This morning I met with someone who graduated from a post-secondary PR program in Toronto a couple of years ago, used to work for a pretty big Toronto corporation and now works for a not-for-profit organization.
We started talking about the different areas of PR and how you can jump around within it and how people from her program all have such different jobs, but still all PR. She started to describe her job in the big corporation in comparison with her current job. She said, “that was easy PR…this, well, this is more challenging and rewarding.” Intrigued by this comment I asked what she meant. Her explanation was as such:
“at my old job, I would publicize events and hope people would not show up. I would send out press releases and now have to follow up because they were in the news daily. It was simply easy PR. Now, well, I have to keep in contact with every person I send something to, hoping it will be picked up and hoping for a good turnout to events. It’s all up in the air and never a sure thing as it used to be. But I like this more, I’m helping people and seeing how my work is a success.”
I found this to be a very interesting point. I never heard that side of PR before nor had that thought come to mind.
This is only one person’s opinion but I thought it would be interesting to see what other people thought of it.
I think it’s very interesting as well.
For so long I was in the not-for-profit sector, not of PR, but in general. Even when it was “for profit,” it wasn’t really — such is the plight of many environmental programs/opportunities.
Then I started our PR program, and fairly quickly decided that I would fit in VERY well to the corporate world, mainly because the energetic and competetive nature of the work is extremely attractive to me. The corporate world sounds exciting, period.
However, I’ve once again flipped around — I am starting a project in the not-for-profit sector (you’ll hear more about it during our next speech presentations) and once again, I am so energized by it.
Ultimately, I hope to do CSR and begin a wave of corporate ENVIRONMENTAL responsibility within PR as well. My point? I think all areas are challenging, so long as the work excites you. Certain people need certain things to make the work meaningful or exciting, which I guess is where people divide into the sectors.
I guess I’m just not picky.
And by the way…the girl that posted before you on my last blog post has responded to your comment (and the rest of ours). I wonder if she’s his PR person or something, because she’s obviously concerned enough to have come back to PRnography to rebute your comment. kinda funny.
An individuals interest in a particular area of PR is a pretty good gauge of character. Your client obviously finds not-for-profit work rewarding, and while I can’t side with her, I can appreciate her opinion. Believe it or not, there are some genuinely great people left out there who consider helping others rewarding (I’m not one of them).
Maybe her labelling of corporate as “easy PR” stems from her personal involvement. It’s natural for somebody to try harder when they’re involved in something they consider worth while, rewarding.