To think PR is a very easy job?

[Lifeismagic]

I’m thinking of applying for a junior PR role in a multi national corporation. AIBU to think there’s not much to the job and I should be able to do it? It’s not exactly rocket science is it? Or is there something I’m missing? I’ve never worked in PR before

Managing bad news depends on what it is.
Basic rules are don't minimise, don't cover up, but don't be proactive and spill your guts.

Makes me wonder who advised Prince Andrew. PR is basically quasi politics and thankless for the most part.

I also worked in government for a while. Very long hours and no glamour. For those roles you need to be able to explain complex government policy clearly.
I enjoyed the boot being somewhat on the other foot though, as journalists really depended on getting information correct and were largely keen on good relationships.
You don't get involved with party politics.

He apparently ignored advice from his team.
The Royal PRs used to be civil servants when I worked in gov.
You can give people advice but as this job is so easy your bosses often think they know best.

It was apparently Beatrice who said he should do that to interview.

Kind of a PR fail then? 😉

While many of the skills can be gained via on the job experience, excellent communication is vital and you aren’t demonstrating good communication on here, particularly as you say you’ve already done your research! In all honesty, you’re coming across as lazy and complacent which will shine through, even if you lay on the charm at interview.

Working class and very bright here.
There's an image of PR that is built on a pretty sexist stereotype.

@Lifeismagic you can learn on the job but you need to get your foot in the door by using those skills you'll need in the role.
Really look at the breadth of the industry. In house or agency? Specialist role? Niche?
Read a lot of newspapers and magazines. Watch the news. Write and get a portfolio together.
You need to be committed.
A qualification in tourism is a good start, but you need real life experience to get you in there.

And that proves how difficult PR or any form of communications work can be. If you got that job and made a remark which was then pounced on by journalists, you could find it very hard to back track. There is no 'may be not the best choice of words' in PR - every word has to be thought through.

And, don't forget, if you are on a specific project, you'll be on call. So if something happens - let's say something awful happens in Italy and you're on that project team - you'll be called in at short notice to field calls from the press, work out a strategy to ensure the least amount of crap hits the fan, work out how to cut losses for the company and be able to give advice even when you're just learning about the issue yourself.

Not an easy job but very rewarding when it goes well - a lot of running about fire fighting when it doesn't.

I love your optimism and your can do attitude OP and judging from your resilience in response to some of the flak you are receiving, I think you could stand a good chance. I run a small PR business. I absolutely love it and it’s incredibly hard work. Clients judge and pay you on getting results - coverage of their business in their relevant target media. It’s never been harder to deliver than it is now. It depends on the job but broadly speaking you need great writing skills, to be organised as others have said, be really on it in terms of reading the relevant publications fr your client, happy to “news jump” stories in the press and get your client to comment on them. Be endlessly optimistic in the face of countless knockbacks. Be very service oriented and available for clients. If that’s you, good luck. 😊

A good grasp of grammar and punctuation is probably needed, OP.

You're 100% wrong 🤣 (Years of PR experience here, left that career a few years ago. Wouldn't fancy it again tbh)

''@ChagSameachDoreen
It's that typical job that semi-bright middle class women who went to Nottingham University have.''

Fascinating.

Can I remind you that David Cameron first had a career in PR before politics. Alistair Campbell was the all powerful PR adviser to Tony Blair. The Saatchi and Saatchi PR agency executives played a big part in getting Thatcher into power and that Penny Mordaunt worked as Comms Director when she was in the process of campaigning to become an MP.

Whether you agree with their politics or not I think they all did quite well for themselves and I don't think they quite fit your description.

PR is not just fluff, these days it is a massive of part of keeping politicians in power and of influencing everything that you see in the media from television to magazines.

I’ve worked in journalism and PR for 30 odd years on and off. PR has changed dramatically from what I knew, it’s all about digital and social and influencers these days. You ought to get a bit of unpaid work experience under your belt, so you can see if it’s really for you and shove it on your CV or start your own travel blog or something.

I don’t think a bit of cheekiness and cockiness will hurt you tbh OP, I’ve found some people do well in the sector without having very much talent and without doing any of the actual work very well. No offence to anyone on the thread, it’s just my experience of SOME people in PR. If they can talk a good talk, they go quite far and leave other people to do the nitty gritty of writing the press releases, analysing the results, coming up with pitches, writing a PR plan etc.

Travel PR would be HUGELY competitive I’m thinking. I’ve been on many press trips around the world and the PRs were really good but had loads and loads of experience.

I work in a completely different field now as I grew to hate PR work, it can be quite full on and stressful and mind numbingly tedious all at the same time.

I started in an agency and went in-house purely because it pays more.

Do you mean the University of Nottingham - that’s more RG academic courses I think. You’re probably getting mixed up with Nottingham Trent University, bless you.
Big round of applause for the hilarious joke though!

I’m the global head of comms for a multinational (finance) company, and have been in fairly senior in-house roles for the last 15 years in PLCs

I’ve skimmed your posts and in all honesty, you’re not the sort of candidate I would expect to see short listed.

Our junior press officers have all done internships, have usually got English (or similar) degrees from good universities, some have masters, and all are very media and social media savvy
The quality of applicants is incredibly high, and someone who has done little or no research into the role would be easily spotted.

They already know the career path they want, and will have done things on the side to prove and improve their writing skills (a blog, student newspapers, managing a large social media account etc)
They know the industry lingo, and while they are ‘learning on the job’ to a large extent, they can usually work on their own initiative on a lot of tasks.
They know how their work fits in to the marketing and public affairs teams, and know their lingo as well.

I’m happy to answer any questions you have but it sounds like you’re after an easy job which you can blag your way into, and this isn’t that…

and as a junior, you won’t be doing much media relations to begin with. There will be lots of researching and admin before you get to ‘long lunches with journos’ territory

I worked in PR for the police. Most of my colleagues were, like myself, ex journalists. A few came from a marketing background.
it was very interesting but hard work, and definitely not glamorous.
Apply by all means but I think you'd be extremely fortunate to get an interview without any experience, and with respect, a travel and tourism degree wouldn't be a massive help.

No, it's not easy. It's hard, relentless work and you sometimes put in a lot of effort with very little results. You will then need to report the results to your client/employers, who often have varying levels of understanding and appreciation for PR. It can be thankless.

If you aren't a strong writer then you won't make it. I've always found that it is the hardest element to teach a junior PR. You either get it or you don't.

If it’s in travel PR, have you thought about how you’d handle a situation where a gunman walks onto a beach in Tunisia and shoots 38 of your customers dead;or how you’d handle a teenage girl dying on your plane after eating a sandwich with no allergy warning on the label; or students dying from balcony jumping their hotel rooms in Spain? All real incidents. Travel PR isn’t just glossy hotel launches

No, that would be a junior press officer.

PR varies greatly depending on sector, experience. You'll be doing a chunk of copy writing I bet and assisting with pitches to new clients (if agency).

I’ve worked in PR and comms all my life, mostly in-house.

It is not easy and most people are really shit at it. The ones who think it will be easy are the ones who are the most shit at it.

The way you’re presenting yourself in this thread alone suggests that you are absolutely not suitable for a career in PR and I wouldn’t employ you. You’d be a liability.

Junior PR will be mostly desk research, you won't be speaking to journalists or senior managers. Compiling the reporting and spreadsheet work too.

No, that would be a junior press officer.

Yes - and also, fielding and responding to media enquiries isn’t easy anyway. There’s a huge reputational risk to the organisation if you get it wrong, and some media enquiries are very complex and take a hell of a lot of work to respond to, often on a very tight deadline.

Haven’t RTFT but as a journalist I can tell you that if a PR offered to do that I would be even more determined to run the critical piece. It would be highly unethical to take a swap, and frankly, a joke.
What experience do you have of working with journalists? Because that will be one of the first questions you are asked in interview. And it seems you don’t have even a basic grasp of how the journo/PR relationship works.

No, PR as a whole isn’t glorified admin but it could be in an entry level role. The best PR people are highly strategic, naturally inquisitive, fast learners. They have an impressive eye for detail, can read people within seconds, write beautifully and could probably negotiate world peace if they changed profession. The skill set between entry level and manager/senior leader are completely different so there’s a lot to learn which takes time!

I’ve worked doing in-house PR and comms for over a decade now and I absolutely love it. I work long hours, often without lunch, and do on call regularly so, although I take home a decent wage, I sacrifice a lot of my time. I specialise in crisis management which is pretty stressful and my industry is highly complex so a lot of my non-crisis time is spent reading technical documents/talking to experts/doing research. My partner works in tech and earns twice as much as me for half as much work, it’s also much easier to get promoted in tech.

Entry level PR is extremely competitive and most people already have media/PR experience. I’d recommend getting some work experience under your belt and doing the AMEC foundation course in media measurement and evaluation if you’re actually serious about the profession. Good luck!