Start-up ventures in industries such as ecommerce and biotech continue to yield opportunities for entrepreneurial communicators in search of hotter climates. But the tech field is no place for the weak of heart, and those entering its gates should be ready to sweat through IPO mania, failed product launches, buy-outs and public skepticism about new technologies - with no guarantee that golden stock options will ever pay real dividends.
No doubt, some of today's sexiest PR jobs can be found simply by following the "e." Earlier this month, the Association of Executive Search Consultants reported an overall increase of 1,407% (over the same quarter a year ago) in the number of searches conducted for electronic commerce and Internet-related jobs. And wherever there are new businesses, there's a need for communicators who can package them and take them to market.
"The current jobs [in high-tech] are heavy on media relations and marketing communications," says Marie Raperto, president of the Cantor Concern, a search firm in New York. "They're looking for people who've got a high energy level because they want to get their name out there fast."
Fast is the operative word. "[In start-ups] you have an idea or issue, you walk into a room... you talk about it - sometimes for as little as 10 minutes - you decide what to do, walk out, do it, and don't look back," says Brian Ek, VP of communications at Priceline.com. Decisions at small tech ventures aren't made by committee, as is so often the case at big corporations, he says.
But with that freedom comes a big accountability price tag. "Everybody likes the accolades [of helping to launch a successful start-up], but if something goes wrong, you've got to stand up for it too," he says. If you help launch eBay, you also have to take the hit when the network goes down. "It can be exhilarating, as long as you're willing to accept both sides of the equation,"he says.
Breaking New Ground
On the healthcare front, communicators entering the uncharted wilderness of biotech face the same hurdles as those touting Internet services. "Biotech [is a harder sell] because you don't have the franchise credibility of a major pharmaceutical company in the therapeutic area," says James O'Shea, who left a cushy job at the pharma-giant Zeneca to become CEO of Sepracor, Inc., a budding venture in Marlborough, Mass. "The challenge is, how do you launch products in the face of little reputation or credibility?" he says.
Add to that the issue of funding. Start-ups, by nature, are beholden to the whims of venture capitalists and pioneering investors - which means PR execs in the business have to be able to shift gears from marcom mode to I/R at the drop of a hat. "It's not an accident here that the I/R department is two doors down from my office," Ek says.
Wearing multiple hats is also a given when you work for a small firm that can't afford to hire specialists. "It challenges every facet of your training," says Ek, whose daily plateful includes press relations, crisis management, media training for CEOs and strategic planning.
Contrary to popular belief, the best candidates for high-tech PR jobs aren't those with a solid grasp of Java scripting. And in an industry where success is more often counted in months than years, tenure doesn't mean much. The best contenders tend to be renaissance professionals who know a little bit about a lot of things.
The Right Stuff
"Smart goes a long way," says Jim Wills, president of the executive recruiting firm Wills Consulting Associates in Greenwich, Conn. "The market is moving so fast that having the ability to adapt is more important than tech-specific experience."
This principal applies not only to candidates vying for start-up gigs, but also those spearheading new digital PR departments for the thousands of corporations building a brand presence online.
Competitively speaking, communicators with agency (or inhouse agency) experience often have an edge in winning tech jobs because they're used to adapting to client projects of varying shapes and sizes, Raperto says. "Dotcoms tend to be very unstructured," and agency people are used to chaos.
Still other candidates are hailing from outside PR. "I'd rather take a person who has come out of the media than someone with formal PR training because they're used to working under deadline pressure," Ek says. When I hire people, I look for one, high energy; two, creativity; and three, a willingness to take risks," he says. For every dotcom that launches a successful IPO, 10 go under.
"It's a high-risk, high-reward scenario," Ek says. Yeah, stock options are standard in most high-tech job offers. But the worth of that stock rests, in large part, on the shoulders of the PR team. If you can add value to a company's IPO or stock price, you can grow your own fortune.
(Raperto, 212/333-3000; Ek, 203/299-8167; O'Shea, 508/481-6700; Wills, 203/622-4930.)
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Money Matters Base salary ranges for high-tech PR jobs |
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| SVP, Corp. Comm | $161,000 - $325,000 |
| VP, Corp. Comm | $140,500 - 297,500 |
| Dir. Corp. Comm | $126,300 - 188,200 |
| Agency CEO | $180,500 - 315,000 |
| Agency SVP | $134,700 - 196,500 |
| Agency VP | $99,750 - 138,200 |
| Source: PR NEWS Annual Salary Survey, Marshall Consultants, Sept. 13, 1999. | |
Tech Talk
Going for a tech interview? You don't have to know the hardware, but you do have to live the culture. "If I don't see an email at the bottom of a resume, it's going to be a short interview," says Brian Ek, VP communications at Priceline.com. "The first question I ask is, who is your ISP? How long have you been connected? What do you like to do online? Forget about the company. Tell me how wired you are."