tailieunhanh - The Insider’s Guide to PR: Chapter 2 DO YOU FIT THE BILL?

This section takes a look at the skills and abilities you need to make a success of your PR career. Public relations is often misinterpreted as media relations, but as we will discuss in the next chapter, it also include disciplines as diverse as crisis management, event management and public affairs – all areas requiring people with very different skill sets. A universal trait, however, is the ability to interact with people from all different walks of life. There are other qualities that mark out good PR people. These include good organisation, writing and presentation skills, creativity, and the ability. | The Insider s Guide to PR Chapter 2 DO YOU FIT THE BILL This section takes a look at the skills and abilities you need to make a success of your PR career. Public relations is often misinterpreted as media relations but as we will discuss in the next chapter it also include disciplines as diverse as crisis management event management and public affairs - all areas requiring people with very different skill sets. A universal trait however is the ability to interact with people from all different walks of life. There are other qualities that mark out good PR people. These include good organisation writing and presentation skills creativity and the ability to multi-task effectively. PR is essentially a commercial discipline - you are hired by a client to achieve a set number of business objectives - and therefore it is important for PR consultants to have a clear understanding of how companies function within the commercial world. DO I NEED A PR DEGREE Definitely not. PR welcomes graduates from all backgrounds. In a recent survey carried out by the PRCA s FrontLine group only 9 of the respondents had taken PR degrees. However this is likely to rise as the range of PR degree courses grows in the future. The top degree categories in the survey were humanities and languages with arts and businesses following close behind. See the graph below for more details. MOST POPULAR DEGREE CATEGORIES FOR PR GRADUATES Source PRCA FrontLine Research 2001. Page 5 The Insider s Guide to PR Chapter 2 ARE YOU CUT OUT TO BE A PR CONSULTANT Imagine you re working in a PR consultancy. Do the following light-hearted quiz to determine whether you have the right personality for the job. Add up your answers A B or C and read the results 1. On your way to work you pick up a newspaper. What do you read first A the gossip pages B the front page C the crossword puzzle 2. There s a promotion on the station concourse and you are offered a freebie. It s a sample CD that will provide faster internet .