Public Relations Major?

[Disney=Love]

I'm a college student strongly considering majoring in Public Relations. I think I'll enjoy the major, I'm just a little unsure about a career after college. If anyone here is a Public Relations major can you please tell me a little about your job, and most importantly, if you like your job. Thanks in advance!

 

[ilvsocr00]

I was a Public Relations major in college. If you are creative, love to write and are not afraid to talk to people, then PR is a good career choice. I am the spokesperson for a large public library system and love my job. It is rewarding, challenging and, above all, no two days are ever the same.

PM me if you have questions!

 

[Disney=Love]

Thanks so much. You definitely make it sound like something I'd be interested in.

Anyone else? The more input, the better.

 

[KelNottAt]

I was a PR major and actually work in the field. I'm running off to a meeting now and don't have time to put down a thoughtful, helpful post. I'll come back later and share more info.

 

[RadioNate]

I was a PR major. During college I interned at a publishing company putting their backlog of articles on the web so PR led me to the internet.

After graduation, I worked in Corporate Communications for a large utility company. I published their online internal employee newsletter.

After that I worked for a media relations agency. In all honesty, I didn't like agency work. I didn't like managing several different clients who all had different needs and messages. Our success was usually measured in media placements so I spent a lot of time on the phone pitching stories to media who weren't really interested. I didn't like all the cold calling and press release follow up.

After that I lucked into a job working for a large radio group managing their online content. That is where I've spent the last 6 years.

There are a lot of career paths that PR majors can take. Like ilvsocr00 said, you need to be creative, a good writer and not be afraid to talk to strangers!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I have a BS in BS as I like to call it. Anyway, I work out of field but that is because I considered going to law school and while I changed my mind about that, I am still in the legal field. Even though I work out of field my public relations degree has served me well. Writing skills are quite important in my line of work as are verbal skills as I conduct negotations. My employer does use me for public relation-type matters but we also have a firm on retainer that handles most PR functions.

In the past I have been resposnible for our company's newsletter but as I have taken on other additional duties that has fallen to the side. I do edit another department's newsletter. I also proof all presentations and I am supposed to proof and edit all correspondence but not all of my coworkers understand that and work around me. I also proof and edit any brochures that my agency puts out (ack bad grammar, I apologize).

I guess my point is that a Public Relations degree will arm you with many usefull skills that can be used in a wide-range of careers.

 

[stuffedw/fluff]

I majored in PR a little less than 10 (yikes!) years ago. I interned at my local Parks and Rec dept. and for a real estate development in their marketing department. After school, I worked for a mid-sized ad agency for about year, then moved on to PR/Marketing work for a hospital for several years. I stay at home with the kiddos now, but I really enjoyed the hospital work. I agree with a previous poster about agency work...would rather focus on one company/message/purpose, rather than juggle multi messages/clients. I loved working for the hospital. Planned special events, worked a lot with local media, wrote/designed both internal and external newsletters, physician relations, etc. It was a great job, and if I still lived in that state, I'd still have it!

I have several PR major friends who work in alumni relations at a university, for not-for-profit organizations, sports marketing, and sales (not really related to the major, but I guess it takes a "people person" to be successful in sales).

Just because you major in PR doesn't mean you have to sit around writing press releases all day. And you can usually graduate on time in 4 years. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Disney=Love]

Thank you all for your comments. I think majoring in Public Relations is a good decision for me, and I'll try to minor in something too.

 

[mantysk8coach]

I work in public relations too! My major was actually communications with an emphasis in public relations, so in college I got experience with news and feature writing, photography, corporate communication...etc.

I currently work in public relations/marketing for a health network that consists of a medical center, several physician clinics, 2 pharmacies, and a Wellness Center.

I do a huge variety of things, though my main emphasis is writing/editing. I do all of our press releases for events, new programs and services, new staff, etc. I also coordinate our monthly newsletter, produce brochures for all of our services, write radio ads, create flyers for events, create newspaper ads take pictures, plan events, and handle tons of daily misc. requests that we get each day. I was assigned most of the writing because that is my strong point.

Each of us in the department kind of has our own nitch depending on what you are interested in/good at. We have a person who does our website, a graphic designer, a community education event planner.

I love my job. It is something different everyday. I was undecided on a major until my junior year of college, and I choose PR because it seemed like a major that you could do alot with. My dream job is either a PR job with Disney, or the United States Figure Skating Association!

Oh yeah, I also do volunteer PR/publicity work for our figure skating club.

Good luck! It's a great field, you'll love it!

 

[OhhBother]

I'm director of marketing communications for a multi-state hospital system. I've worked in PR for the past eight years and love my job. I've also taught "Writing for PR" at the local university.

I didn't major in PR, however. I'm a journalism grad who worked in newspapers for seven years before making the leap to PR. If you major in PR, my biggest pieces of advice are this:
1) Take journalism classes, too. You have to learn to think and write like a reporter to be an effective PR person.
2) Minor in business. Those finance and accounting classes will come in handy when you're trying to write an annual report.

Good luck!

 

[Jestocost]

I didn't major in PR, but have spent 20+ years in various aspects of the business after getting a degree in Radio-TV-Film. In fact, most of the PR people I have known and worked with didn't major in PR, so it's clearly not a prerequisite. I think a well-rounded education that gives you a good working knowledge of business, psychology and other fields is just as important. As other posters have noted, being able to organize your thoughts, and clearly and convincingly communicate them in writing probably is the single most important thing.

I've done a lot of different things during my career. I started as an assistant press secretary in a Senate office on Capitol Hill in DC, then did stints with a school district and a couple of large financial services firms before spending seven years on the agency side. I moved back to the corporate world in 2003 and have since taken a sideways journey into government relations and public policy issues. Along the way I've done everything from consumer media relations to crisis management to investor relations. It's been a great ride for the most part and there are plusses and minuses to virtually every different variation on the theme.

Feel free to PM me or post again if there's anything else I can answer.

And good luck!

 

[Disney=Love]

I'm director of marketing communications for a multi-state hospital system. I've worked in PR for the past eight years and love my job. I've also taught "Writing for PR" at the local university.

I didn't major in PR, however. I'm a journalism grad who worked in newspapers for seven years before making the leap to PR. If you major in PR, my biggest pieces of advice are this:
1) Take journalism classes, too. You have to learn to think and write like a reporter to be an effective PR person.
2) Minor in business. Those finance and accounting classes will come in handy when you're trying to write an annual report.

Good luck!

Thank you. I'm a part of the school newspaper, I joined in order to improve my writing. I probably will minor in business, I'm just looking at my options for minors, find out the required classes, etc.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I'm director of marketing communications for a multi-state hospital system. I've worked in PR for the past eight years and love my job. I've also taught "Writing for PR" at the local university.

I didn't major in PR, however. I'm a journalism grad who worked in newspapers for seven years before making the leap to PR. If you major in PR, my biggest pieces of advice are this:
1) Take journalism classes, too. You have to learn to think and write like a reporter to be an effective PR person.
2) Minor in business. Those finance and accounting classes will come in handy when you're trying to write an annual report.

Good luck!

Good advice. I started off as a journalism major and then moved over to PR. Our curriculum required a number of journalism classes. I happened to minor in business as well and let me tell you it was a GOOD THING I did. I forgot to mention that I also proof and edit our annual report (in the past I also designed it).

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I was a Communications Major in college; many companies will hire people with my background for public relations work.

Experienced PR professionals earn upwards of $80K here in Dallas with experience. Look on Monster.com for intern opportunities at public relations companies; don't wait for graduation to get out there and get busy in the field. Many students make the mistake of waiting until graduation to call themselves by their profession name...making it exponentially more difficult to get a position in the field.

 

[RadioNate]

Good advice. I started off as a journalism major and then moved over to PR. Our curriculum required a number of journalism classes. I happened to minor in business as well and let me tell you it was a GOOD THING I did. I forgot to mention that I also proof and edit our annual report (in the past I also designed it).

At my college PR majors attend the Journalism school so obviously lots of core journalism classes were required. Do most universities have different 'schools?'

I also minored in business but at the time a marketing minor was also highly recommended. Marketing fell under the business school at my college.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

At my college PR majors attend the Journalism school so obviously lots of core journalism classes were required. Do most universities have different 'schools?'

I also minored in business but at the time a marketing minor was also highly recommended. Marketing fell under the business school at my college.

At UF it is the College of Journalism and Communications; and then there are four undergrad programs (Journalism, PR, Advertising and Telecommunications). I would think this was the case for most PR programs. But I would also think the curriculum can differ between universities.

I am three classes away from have a B.S. in Marketing. I went post bac for a semester but then the real world called... My minor was a general business minor (I still have flashbacks to my accounting and finance classes, a numbers person I am not!).