PR: The Great Unheard Story

How often have you had to explain to your parents or friends what public relations is? I can’t count the number of times I had to break the news to my father that, yes, that company is a client but, no, I did not work on that television spot that just aired.

Unlike advertising (or medicine, the law, etc.), PR is a profession that hasn’t sunk into the public consciousness beyond shallow depictions in popular culture of spin doctors or celebrity publicists.

It’s no wonder that when I asked PR leaders on LinkedIn how they got their start, the ones who grew up wanting to be a PR person were the rare exceptions.

An early taste of PR

Marisa Valbonna, APR, Fellow PRSA, was hooked at 12 years old. On “a blistering hot Texas day,” she got together with friends to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Her early nose for news prompted her to call a local TV station where she enjoyed her broadcast debut.

Barbara Escobar was another enterprising child who, at 12, started a “teeny nonprofit.” She soon realized she enjoyed doing the outreach more than the operational work.

Same with Peggy Steckelberg, who got an even earlier head start. At age 10 she won a local speech competition and quickly discovered she loved the writing, but not the public speaking.

But the vast majority traveled a more winding road to get to where they are.

Gerard Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA, spent two years majoring in engineering before realizing that PR was what he wanted to do. He got his degree while working the graveyard shift as a NASA engineer.

Similarly, Rob Lynch thought he’d become an engineer and later a veterinarian but found that science wasn’t his thing. When it came time to pick a major, he thought about what he was good at. “I’m a people person,” he says, so he landed on PR — where, of course, relationships are everything.

For Paul Sweetman, necessity was the proverbial mother of invention. He was working for a company “going through seismic change” that was terrible at communicating it to employees. That was a “lightbulb moment,” where he realized employee engagement was the path for him.

A beginning in journalism

A lot of PR people got their start in the news business.

Edward Bury, APR, dreamed of becoming a journalist. He worked as a reporter in Chicago and later for a chain of suburban papers, where he eventually grew restless. Among his beats was a local community college that happened to have an opening in its publications department. He interviewed, got the job, and kicked off a long, successful career.

Mark Mohammadpour, APR, Fellow PRSA, worked on his high school paper and studied journalism in college, but soon realized a journalism career would likely take him far from his beloved Portland, Ore. So he switched majors to organizational communication and got his big break when a professor introduced him to Weber Shandwick, where within just a year, he landed his first New York Times story.

There’s no doubt that journalism is a fertile training ground. Former radio and TV reporter Gary Ross says he learned about “distilling complex subjects into simple terms, working on deadline, storytelling and being a quick study.”

But Monique Farmer, APR, laments that most high school students don’t even realize PR is a possibility until after pursuing a career in journalism. “We have to do better,” she says.

After all, as Adam Ritchie puts it: “When I learned PR was a role that could be overlayed onto any industry where I might have an interest — music, beer, technology — with endless application and endless possibility... that was my moment.”

That’s a story more young people need to hear. PRSSA President Milagros Orcoyen agrees. High school outreach is a major priority for local chapters, she says, and PRSSA provides a range of support, including a detailed resource guide that’s coming soon.

And PRSA has a great video on from several years ago titled “Why PR? What Motivates You?” full of first-hand perspectives on the rewards that a career in public relations offers. It’s the perfect inspiration for us to get out there and share our stories with the world.