Culpwrit

In the current economic environment, finding a PR job is increasingly difficult to achieve.  From time to time, we’ll hear how individuals have landed jobs–in PR and sometimes in other fields.  Crystal Ware tells her story below. 

   Crystal Ware

I graduated with my Master’s Degree in Communication, ready to enter the PR field and start a career.  All might have worked out as planned if the economy had not been tanking and a recession in the forefront. I moved to Denver and began my search. 

After two months of looking, the spirits fell and the frustration grew.  I decided to expand my search to include marketing and advertising. After another month I got an offer in advertising and marketing.  Not the field I wanted, but a job none-the-less.

I went in knowing very little about advertising or marketing – only the differences in relation to PR.  I thought, how hard could it be?  I would take the techniques I had learned for PR and began adapting them to see how and where they would it fit.  Before I knew it, my position was expanding to include more content writing and social media.  I demonstrated that I was efficient in these areas and could integrate my knowledge of PR to create effective campaigns.In today’s job market, restricting your search may not be an option.  Finding a position in a field closely related to your primary interest can have its benefits. By taking a position at an integrated marketing and advertising firm, I was able to gather skills that competes the circle, so to speak. Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations are so closely related that many people just lump the three together. 

I now know the differences and I think having knowledge in all three areas gives me an advantage.  I also learned that taking a job you know nothing about forces you to be at the top of your game. You do things and work with people you never thought you would, and in doing so, you add highly sough-after skills to your toolbox.  Besides pitching ideas to journalists and reporters, I can now sell a service and create social media campaigns.

I suppose the main point to take away from this post, is to never sell yourself short. If you are in the job market, don’t pass on opportunities that can only further your career in the long run.  Weigh your options and determine if the new skills you will gain are worth veering from your current career path. You just never know where you will land and what you will learn.  A few years from now, those skills may turn out to be invaluable.

Crystal blogs about  frustrations of her initial job search and her promising career at My Journey As A Young Professional.