Tag: career

Dear PR Majors

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Dear public relations majors,

I would like to offer up a few words of advice in regards the fast-paced, stressful, wonderful, insane industry we have grown to love in between all of the chaos.

First, I wanted to share the best advice I have ever been given. Sophomore year I was in the middle of a visual campaign when every possible thing seemed to be going wrong, and my professor told me, “Make it work.” Profound huh? Well in public relations there is a 110 percent chance that things will not go according to plan, no matter how well you plan. A client will change their mind about what they want months into a campaign, a venue will cancel the week before a big event, or just when all is seeming to go well – a crisis will come forth. That is the beauty of PR though, we are the chosen few who make things better. So when it feels like nothing is going right and you are drowning in chaos – be resourceful, take things one  step at a time, think outside of the box, ask for help – and you will make it work.

Secondly, I know that we all live and die by our Erin Condrens (or Emily Leys or Lilly Pulitzers or insert favorite planner here) but do not let take away from truly living. There have been far too many times I have missed out on really enjoying myself because I didn’t pencil it in. I love the fact that I am obsessively organized, punctual and time efficient, but it has also been my fatal flaw in truly living my life. So let’s stop glorifying busy and write in a little wiggle room so we can start enjoying things a little more.

My next word of advice is stop letting competition discourage you and start making it inspire you. Public relations majors are notoriously competitive, always fighting for the next big internship, leadership position or opportunity – and that constant clawing to be at the top of the totem pole can be utterly exhausting and disheartening. Stop thinking about your peers’ resumes and just focus on being the best at what you do. As I have said before, I would rather have friends in high places. Let’s all make a collective decision to stop with the underhanded brags and competition and just encourage one another.

Lastly, explore. PR is so multifaceted, between media relations, event planning, crisis communications, integrated marketing and the other million sides of the industry – it can be easy to feel lost. It is okay to not have a staunch answer when people ask what you want your focus to be, but what is not okay is if you are not exploring to find what that answer is. Finding your calling is a journey and 4 years is usually not long enough to make that destination. So calm down, take a deep breath, and explore away.

Best,

Natalie Adams

Sitting on the Fence

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“He has sat on the fence so long that iron has entered his soul”

Remember that time when you couldn’t really wear clothes from the children’s department anymore, but the junior’s department was still a little too mature? The time when you floated around in this gray, gap tween purgatory, lacking a grander identity.

That’s where I am at right now, only instead of not being able to find an outfit for the middle school dance, I can’t find the next move I am supposed to make in this journey we call young adulthood.

I realized the reason I am unable to move forward is because I am quite literally sitting on the fence in almost everything that I do. I have got one foot at my childhood home in North Carolina, and one in my new home in Athens. I have one foot in law school applications and one filling out applications for a career in PR. I have one foot telling me to grow up and take on the responsibility and one telling me to stay a kid as long as I can. I am perched so high upon the fence, that my humpty dumpty moment is approaching inevitably.

I am sitting on the fence, because I thought from up here I could get a good look at my different landscapes, and hopefully be able to make the right decision. That’s not how it works though. When you perch yourself up on a fence, you get just a distant, skewed perspective on what is around you. To get a real view, you have got to dive right in and take everything in from experience.

That is what I have got to do. Just pick a side. Dive in. Experience. Learn. Grow. Learn some more.

Honestly, anything has got to be better than sitting in the middle. So that is my vow, stop teetering on the fence of indecisiveness and lunge off onto a side. What’s the worst that can happen?  So I don’t like a side, I can just climb back over and try out something else.