When I first transferred to Appalachian State University, I thought that I wanted to be a business management major. After countless hours researching majors and career choices, taking business electives in community college, and having a constant fascination for people and business, I thought I had found my calling. Then I started classes.
I could not have been more wrong.
I will say that business is not for everyone—especially when you have a creative soul like mine that shrivels up inside at the sight of everyone in black and white suits. (Dramatic, I know.)
It was a month into my first semester and I hated it. I knew I needed to change it—and I wanted to. Badly.
I went to the Career Exploration Center on campus and looking at countless majors and careers, I was still undecided. Then I remembered a career that I had researched over the summer that at the time had not seemed very significant for me: Public Relations. It was a communications major and it had a lot of fun aspects to it: I would be working for businesses but I would keep my creative soul intact and I could interact with clients and people face to face regularly. I did additional research and decided to change it.
It changed my world!
The world of public relations has always seemed very illustrious and upscale, while also seeming very mysterious, even vague.
Many people imagine Samantha Jones from Sex and The City when they think of public relations.
Yes, going to parties and meeting famous people may sound appealing, but PR is a lot more—and sometimes very different—than what you see on the TV screen.
What drew me to PR was very different and are some of the reasons why I think PR stands out from many other majors.
1. People
If you are a people-person, this is your major. From communicating to informing, assisting and cooperating, PR requires you to engage with people on a large scale. Giving press releases, contacting journalists, engaging with your client’s audience on social media, building a website, handling crisis communications, overseeing advertising and marketing departments, you will be in contact with a lot of people. And you’ll be working in teams.
2. Flexibility
PR is a very flexible career choice. It prepares you for careers in writing, editing, publishing, public speaking, social media campaigns, working for a firm or for a small business or organization. The possibilities are endless. Plus, the classes are fun.
3. Management
The PR field is 70% women, meaning it is easier to gain management positions and have positions of power in an organization. You will most likely work for a man and get paid 30% less than a man with the same qualifications that you have (which we all need to change), but you will be one of the leading company advisors and influencers, something women in other fields fight harder to accomplish. PR managers—even in a large corporation—can influence a brand’s reputation and change a company’s corporate culture. It is a position of real power and influence.
4. Variety
There is a lot of variety as a PR professional. If you like doing new things or trying new ways of doing things, then PR is your place to be. Tasks depend on what is happening in the company and what factors outside the company are influencing how it runs, how the employees are responding to it, how your clients are responding to it, and—most importantly—how you, as the PR person for your company, are responding to it.
5. Strategy
Being a PR professional means having your fingers on the pulse of news: new technologies, social movements, business structures, public opinion, and client opinions. Everyone’s eyes are on you, the voice of the company. It is up to you to stay ahead of trends, to inform your clients of the best way to handle news, to make changes when needed, to tell your boss when someone at the company is destroying the company’s reputation, etc. PR has a bad reputation for being thought of as malicious manipulation when often it is simply strategic communication with a thorough knowledge of how the public thinks and reacts and being one step ahead of them, especially when your company messes up bad. Then you need to figure out how to ethically handle the mess.
There are so many other aspects of PR that I didn’t get to that have just as much or more important than the ones I have listed. It is a dynamic and exciting career choice for a lot of people and it is a great career for exciting and dynamic people-persons.
I am so glad that I chose PR three years ago. I have never felt so “at home” than I have with this major. I have learned a lot about myself over the years, reading and writing and learning new ways of communicating. I have also discovered my desire to inform the public and to stand by my convictions and passions a lot more.
Communication allows us an opportunity to connect people to people, to advocate for causes, and assist businesses to do good in the world. Being a PR major allows us to be just a little bit louder.