Graduates and the dilemma of ‘which PR Sector’

When I started my public relations course at Uni I knew there was more to PR than just pseudo events, crisis managements and CSR. What I didn’t know was the fact that PR is a much more complicated discipline than many people think it is. It’s not only either B2B or B2C. In today’s complicated business and consumer markets it is just a natural thing that public relations, with its broad concept, has developed into many specialized areas. In fact, there are so many different sectors within the PR sector that I’m beginning to think that many fresh graduates might find them selves confused after leaving universities and entering the working life.

Different Sectors

At school they teach you the most important things about PR. Everything seem to be easy and understandable. And yet, you leave the academia and suddenly ‘public relations’ becomes such a generic term. There is political PR, public affairs and public sector PR, there is consumer and corporate PR (and even these have their even more specialized sectors). There also is PR for NGOs and charities; PR for beauty, healthcare, lifestyle and entertainment (which I actually discovered only while job hunting and although at some level I was always aware of such PR sectors, I hardly perceived them as something different than consumer PR. To my previous surprise they are different. Some of them often require specific qualifications such as for example science degrees, which – again - makes me wonder whether my public relations diploma is going to help me in landing a job in communications); and there of course is technology PR – the most trendy, on demand PR there is.  I don’t think I even need to mention the social media side of PR industry.

The vast number of different public relations sectors might seem a little bit overwhelming. How the heck one should know which specialty to go into when we were thought how to do PR in rather general terams, and not in specific industries? The good thing here is that although all of the above areas of communications might seem very different, in fact the practice of PR in all of them is similar. All the basic/general rules apply to most of these sectors. Every public relations profession requires similar set of skills and attributes, such as good communication skills, ability to quickly grasp opportunities and react to crisis, be creative and proactive, to be confident. Of course, in every sector these are being altered to some extent. There are no two work environments exactly the same.

What makes them different

The difference between all the various PR sectors lies in the type of a client, the audiences and messages which will be sent to them, the public relations services, and of course the language used to communicate with the clients as well as the public (including the media). In my experience the most difficult to master is the language which is used in communication with different audiences. It requires a lot of understanding of the particular business (for example, pharmaceutical industry in UK where most  messages are directed not to the public but to the medical staff, etc), and if someone has no interest in this specific sector, they might find themselves struggling doing their job. Public relations entail a lot of research, a lot of reading especially news about the industry involved. This at times might become a daunting task. That’s why it’s important to find for yourself a PR sector which reflects your interests. No wonder employers are looking for people who have genuine interest in their business. If you like what you do, you commit to it and you do it better.

The Dilemma 

On the other hand, there are so few job openings for PR graduates and then each of them asks for someone knowledgeable and interested in the specific industry, that it’s difficult to follow your personal fascinations. Sometimes you just have to reach for something that is there and then just grow your interest on the job. The important thing is to be willing to expand your interests and show it; but this will involve a lot of hard work and determination.