Work Life

The modern workplace is changing rapidly, and PR agencies and communications leaders at brands and nonprofit organizations must adapt to provide the best benefits and opportunities to attract and retain the best talent. On Nov. 29, PR News celebrated those organizations that have gone beyond mere adaptation at its 2017 Top Places to Work in PR dinner at the Edison Ballroom in New York. Workplace culture and the recognition that employees are people first, and PR pros second, ruled the evening.

If you’ve just started working in PR no doubt you’ve learned that the life of a PR pro means juggling a lot of tasks and skills. Perhaps you’re overwhelmed. Worry not. Veteran communicator Andrew Blum has tips and tactics to help as you get acclimated to professional life. And while it’s unlikely your first job in PR is glamorous, it can be a steppingstone to the rest of your career.

PR pros move between corporate and agency roles regularly. Although there are a set of common skills that you must bring to both corporate and agency environments, there are some key differences. Srikant Ramaswami, who has worked in corporate and agency settings, shares his wisdom for success in transitioning from the brand side to an agency. He also shares tips for new grads on how to choose between working in-house or at an agency.

If you’re knee-deep in an all-consuming career, you probably don’t take much time out to ask yourself how and why you got there. A little navel-gazing can go a long way, though. Paychecks aside, asking yourself why you’re in a particular line of work can put you back in touch with your original inspiration, your core ambitions and your native talents.

Many job interviews end with the interviewer asking the candidate if he/she has questions. It’s best to use this opportunity to obtain important information. Topics to inquire about include the company’s culture, its salary/promotion review process and the structure of its work environment. After all, this is the time to figure out if the company is the right fit for you. On the other side of the table the interviewer is deciding if you will be a good employee.

If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you started your career, what would it be? As recent PR and communications graduates embark on their first jobs out of school, we asked the PR News community to offer some advice for our profession’s rookies. Here’s a sampling of what PR pros on Twitter had to offer their soon-to-be colleagues.

Chances are that most of the people around you are looking a new job. One of the best ways for PR pros to keep current with skills and potential employment possibilities is to take advantage of the contacts that you’ve been provided through your career, family and social networks. It’s imperative to make networking a lifelong commitment. At a certain point in our lives and careers we can easily become complacent in our roles and surroundings. We need to be sure to make an effort to invest personally, professionally, intellectually and socially in those individuals strategically placed in our path.

It’s that time of year again: Spring is in the air and so are graduation caps. Recent college graduates looking to enter the communications field will face the challenge of their first round of interviews, rife with think-on-your-feet moments. Whether you’re graduating or have a friend or family member entering the PR workforce, here are six interview prep tips for aspiring PR pros.

PR is changing so quickly that what students learn today in college may be outdated by the time they land their first job. Still, there are concepts that are unlikely to change despite this fast-moving industry, argues Edelman VP Amanda Sapp. Making sure you are authentic in your storytelling, speaking to audiences not at them and having passion for what you do will serve you well at the start of your career and during every stage that follows.

In just a few weeks, hundreds of social media-savvy professionals will descend upon the W Atlanta-Midtown hotel for The Social Shake-Up Show. And in this personal account, author Chris Strub details three interactions he had at a past Shake-Up—including one with the show’s late founder, Robin Fray Carey—that forever altered the course of his career.