Your First Year in PR

Presented by Joel Drucker, consultant and veteran public relations practitioner By Adam Freestone

Joel Drucker, a veteran public relations practitioner, spoke about some of the things that you should expect your first year in public relations. He centered his presentation around a list of six major things that are important to remember when you get so frustrated you feel like you could rip out your hair.

Tenacity means everything!

Drucker said you will do many odd things your first year in PR, (i.e. as one of his first assignments he had to comprise a list of 235 hospitals within a 500-mile radius). He stressed that you must have a good attitude. "Don't look at any task as grunt work. Be alert, primed and enthusiastic. Look at every project as a chance to excel."

How to think PR

In order to think PR you must get involved with organizations (i.e. PRSA, PPRS, etc.) It is also important to keep in tune to world events and how they affect business. A third way you can begin to "think PR" is by free-lance writing. No matter what magazine or article you are writing for or about, it still shows you're a self-starter.
Agency PR vs. Corporate PR

Drucker was pretty adamant about taking a PR agency job rather than a corporate PR job. He said either is a great experience for your first year, but he advised students to take an agency job even if a corporate job pays more. Agency's primary business is to make communications using many different tools. In addition to this you'll also learn to be a self-starter.

Time is a curve

Juggling projects is a challenge because you are going to have too many projects and you won't know how long they will take. If you can master and focus on writing, it will help you. Drucker said that it is OK to tell your boss that you're getting too much "that's their job."

You will make mistakes

Just learn from them and don't get down on yourself.

Play to win

"The key is to learn how to be effective and master it, and no matter what, follow things through," Drucker said.