Starting a new job in public relations can be very daunting, especially if you are starting and internship or are newly graduated from college.
Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to be prepared, and Leo Bottary of Hill & Knowlton, who writes the excellent blog Client Service Insights, has wrapped them all up
into a neat package of eight articles for newly minted professionals.
Here are the eight topics on which Leo focused in his posts to junior public relations professionals, with some of my insights thrown in for good measure:
- Use all of the resources at our disposal, don’t try to reinvent the wheel every time
- Learn to question everything, even things you have done a thousand times, in order to find flashes of brilliance
- Take ownership of any project you are given (from start to finish), don’t “throw it over the wall� and hope someone else will handle it
- If you don’t understand something in a client meeting, don’t ask about it there, but wait until you can ask a colleague privately, or until it becomes apparent by the context
- Develop the skill of listening, then do it. Listen, really listen, before you talk. There is a reason we were given two ears and one mouth
- I had a boss once that told me, “Never come to me with a problem unless you have a suggested solution.� Proactive workers generate options, be proactive
- Learn to write well. I mentioned this in one of my pervious posts, Three Critical Skills. I am not alone in my opinion about this. It is the one complaint I hear from fellow PR professionals about new graduates, “They just don’t teach them to write.� Leo breaks down what constitutes good writing.
- Learn how to make presentations with passion, thinking more of your audience that your nerves
Leo has created an outstanding body of work that we should all study – even we seasoned “professionals.� These skills, if digested and adopted will make you indispensable in your first job, or even in your internships.
This stuff is pure gold.
