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May 29, 2009
The Graduates
I am in the midst of graduation sensation, with my eldest to receive her college diploma next Thursday and my middle child having earned her high school diploma just a week ago. We entertained thirteen college students at our home last weekend; I could now write a new script for “Survivor; The Parents” based on that experience. I am very pleased that my college graduate will begin her career at Edelman Chicago in the fall; Generation Three begins!
Given the terrible job market for college and professional school graduates, I thought it appropriate to offer some advice on how to approach the employment search in PR.
First, consider working initially as an intern. Most of our offices are utilizing summer interns. Some of these jobs will become full time in the fall, given normal employee turnover. We have the interns do real work, from preparing press lists to writing press materials.
Second, digital is your fastest way in the door and to the top. All PR firms are rapidly adapting their core offerings, as the game shifts away from sole reliance on media relations. Show us how you’re blogging, tweeting, utilizing video, participating with communities, advancing issues. If you can demonstrate how you can advise on social media, then you have immediate value. We operate a facebook site solely for potential interns, and a twitter, facebook, widget and a LinkedIn site for all pros so they can participate with the Edelman community.
Third, language skills and desire to work abroad is essential. Our goal over the long run is to have all of our operations managed by country nationals. But the connective tissue in PR firms is often the expatriate talent who have come from the larger offices and bring the culture with them.
Fourth, offer a connection to good causes. The tenor of the times is community benefit and shared sacrifice. Companies are expected to operate in a stakeholder society. If you have personal experience in volunteering for civil society, then you have a special advantage. By the way, you should continue to work as a volunteer even after you are employed.
Fifth, real capability in economics/business, science, engineering/technology is extremely helpful. We are called upon to explain new products or justify corporate decisions. If you have enough background to ask tough questions of the technologists, it makes the communications job that much easier.
Sixth, attitude and professional demeanor matter. Just as in any new relationship, every interaction is important, from the first letter asking for an interview through to the thank you note after the visit to the firm. You must be well informed on the firm’s culture, work for its top clients and on recent wins.
Seventh, use whatever connections you might have to jump ahead in the queue. A professor could call one of his former students employed at the firm to rave about your capabilities. A boss from a summer job could write a supporting letter. There is a formal process (registering at the firm’s web site, doing the writing test) and the informal process (what do you know about this person).
My wife correctly points out that I never had to apply for a “real job” because I have worked at a family company. I understand that my advice must be taken, therefore, with a grain of salt. But I have hired hundreds of people in my 31 years in the business, many of whom I took straight from college (examples: Matt Harrington, now President of Edelman US and Russ Dubner, now manager of Edelman’s 500 person NY office). Hopefully this list is of some use to you new college graduates.
Posted by Edelman at 2:49 PM |
Comments
Great advice. Especially like your point on having some real business acumen. Too many PR-focused majors don't spend enough time learning basic business skills.
Posted by: Adam Silverstein at May 29, 2009 4:52 PM
Great advice for an upcoming graduate in the PR industry like myself! It gives me confidence as I continue my job search.
Posted by: Meredith Cook at May 29, 2009 6:46 PM
Thanks for the tips. This is something I can use even as a young professional looking to move forward with my career.
Posted by: Lila at May 29, 2009 9:35 PM
This is an incredibly helpful post. Being a recent college graduate, this answered some questions I had about the best approach to take when conducting an effective and efficient job search. All of the suggestions are realistic and reflect the type of self-improvement practices which a lot of my peers are working to master.
Posted by: Candace Greene at May 29, 2009 11:00 PM
I think your advice is quite useful. Being techno-savvy is a real competitive advantage in the PR field. How else would one be able to manage these emerging social media if they are not using them? Let them blog, let them tweet, let them participate and show the world what stuff they are made of!
Posted by: Justa Wawira at May 31, 2009 11:27 AM
How thoughtful and candid. More kids needs to read this as they plan their job search and get into a mindset for their first job.
Posted by: Lynn (www.mamasays.us) at May 31, 2009 7:57 PM
Thanks for the advice Richard -
I think another piece of advice would be to actively participate in online conversation regarding the industry of one's specific interest. Platforms such as LinkedIn allow users to join groups, such as 'Innovators in PR', and discuss industry trends, thoughts, questions or to simply share articles relating to the topic.
I am a senior at Michigan State University, soon to enter this crazed industry we all love. Although I am still a student, I have been able to translate my ideas for the university's communication platform into tangible results for a school with more than 50k students. I mention this because we, as young professionals/students, must offer our advice about topics such as social media since after all, we are the experts!
Best of luck with the job hunt to everybody else, I feel the weight of the hunt right now as well.
Posted by: Steve Mnich at June 4, 2009 9:16 AM
Thank you so much for this insightful advice. As a recent college PR graduate I am always trying to find ways to keep myself cutting edge and hopefully being a step ahead. I felt like this was a great checklist of what I should be doing. I recently made a decision about wether or not I should go abroad with an internship I am involved in currently to work with a client. Seeing that I recently graduated college, money is always and issue so I was weary to jumping on board wondering if this would pay off in the end for when I need to get a job. Your post made me feel like I made the right choice, plus there are other things I can check off my list that you mentioned. Thanks!
Posted by: Brooke Winebrenner at June 4, 2009 2:03 PM
Thank you for your tips,espically for me planing my job search on PR.
谢谢您的建议，我正在北京寻找PR方面的合适工作机会！
Posted by: Bassie Jia at June 5, 2009 1:27 AM
Your list is definitely a must read for all current and potential PR grads. As a current student coming to the end of my program I’m always looking for ways to get an edge on all the other new grads.
My program has touched on all of the things you mentioned, and it's great to hear it coming from someone out in the field.
I will be doing a two-month co-op in September and I think that interning is one of the best ways to really get a feel for the field and figure out what sector of PR one wants to focus on.
Great advice!
Posted by: Christina Petovello at June 9, 2009 10:55 AM
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| TrackBackMay 21, 2009
Dull Advice
David Brooks’ column in Tuesday’s New York Times, titled In Praise of Dullness, posits that the best chief executives are “organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people.” He cites several academic works that commend conscientiousness and emotional stability and “mind-numbing commitment to incremental efficiency gains.” He goes on to suggest that the increasing involvement of government in the private sector will lead to a culture clash of the “charismatic and charming” politicians versus the “humble and diffident” business people, ending in a “revolution in values where CEOs are forced to adopt the traits of politicians.”
It is smart to be concerned about the new shotgun marriage of business and government. The rules of engagement are still being written as legislation is enacted to regulate environment, financial markets and credit cards. Brooks is right to point out the corporate culture thrived in places far from Washington, DC, including Redmond, Bentonville and Omaha. But in each of those cases, entrepreneurs founded companies that disrupted business as usual, provided completely new value to consumers and created jobs with rapid advancement potential. These successful CEOs did not simply “make the same old four-door sedan…. better and better.”
So, I reached out to two friends who have studied and, like Edelman, consulted for CEOs: Kevin Kelly, who runs Heidrick & Struggles, and Professor Jeff Sonnenfeld, who is the Founder and CEO of The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Here are highlights of my discussions with them:
1) Making meaning of disruption—“There are so many tectonic plates moving, from rise of emerging markets to technology shifts to financial market meltdown. The CEO has constituent responsibility at a time of disruption, to explain the mission and the future trajectory,” said Sonnenfeld.
2) Give purpose and excitement—“The CEO has to communicate, to his board and to his people, to frame the issue. To say that the job is simply execution is to suggest that you can build a great building only with plumbers and masons. The CEO is the equivalent of the architect, who has the vision to create a motivating plan,” said Sonnenfeld.
3) Leadership crisis on top of the financial crisis—“We need CEOs to make decisions, not to be paralyzed by the options. In so doing, they must demonstrate courage, adaptability and humility,” said Kelly.
4) Public leadership and private sector achievement are not incompatible—“The founding generation of the Business Roundtable, leaders such as Thomas Watson Jr. of IBM or Irving Shapiro of DuPont or David Rockefeller of Chase Bank recognized the importance of doing both the external and internal aspects well,” Sonnenfeld said.
5) Interpersonal skills matter—“Charm and charisma are necessary,” said Kelly. “This is not about egomaniacal bosses; nor can it simply come down to execution,” said Sonnenfeld.
6) Dictatorial CEO style is dead—“Brooks is referring to historic traits of CEOs. The best leaders create followers who want to carry out the strategy,” said Kelly.
CEOs should not retreat to their offices in search solely of incremental savings and inefficiencies; that is the task of the chief operating officer or chief financial officer. The best leaders are out in front, unafraid of risk, changing strategy ahead of the crowd and relentlessly communicating so that the team follows and new markets are created. I would appreciate your views as always.
Posted by Edelman at 10:45 AM |
Comments
You've summed up Kevin Kelly and Professor Jeff Sonnenfeld's comments effectively. Along with that great quote by Kelly on CEOs and their decision making, I have to give a special two thumbs up to highlights 1, 2 and 6, which all seem to conveniently focus on leadership style on levels of employee relations, dealing with stakeholders and strategic planning. These are all key components to sustaining a business, satisfying audience needs and moving ahead of competition. In speaking to highlight #1, As problems arise in business and the economy, an attitude of understanding, not panic, creates opportunity for advancement when others are wallowing in distress. A leader has to lead and can't do that if he or she is too concerned with how to follow everyone else out of the cave. On # 2) When you are inclusive and communicate transparently with employees happy, they are motivated to contribute to their business (instead of required) and will continue to stay the course and support you. And last, on point #6) This is a given, but is far too often overlooked by many leaders in all industries. The best leaders know how to use the abilities of others coherently with their vision and strategies (in non-manipulative ways) to achieve stellar results and foster a strong sense of self-worth for all who contribute to the mission and goals. Richard, thanks for your humble attitude and thirst for knowledge ... it seems your "greed" makes me hungry to continually read 6 A.M.
Posted by: Mark Taylor II at May 27, 2009 2:51 PM
David Brooks's observations have led him in a viable direction, but have carried him too far. Perhaps some of today's CEOs are, in fact, under-concerned with execution. But it's preposterous to suggest they should only be concerned with execution.
Excellence often comes in the skillful combination of traits that seem mutually exclusive: Like a star running back with immense strength and blazing speed, a successful CEO demonstrates technical expertise and communication skills.
The interesting questions (the ones that I'm humbly unprepared to fully answer) arise in the proportions of this combination. The combination itself is, to me, a baseline requirement for any leader -- businessman or politico.
Posted by: Adam Tiouririne at May 28, 2009 11:12 PM
Richard,
The Steven Kaplan, Mark Klebanov, Morten Sorensen study: “Which C.E.O. Characteristics and Abilities Matter?” on which David Brooks based much of his article, dealt with characteristics and abilities of CEO candidates for companies involved in buyout (LBO) and venture capital (VC) transactions. To the degree that those operating in the LBO and VC arenas have a shorter term time horizon than the Warren Buffets of the world, the study Brooks used is from a biased subset of investors, namely: paper entrepreneurs.
Russell L. Ackoff, Professor Emeritus of The Wharton School and renowned expert on operations management said, “To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.”
Your post reflects the understanding that 21st century executives are no longer providing leadership for mechanical systems but social systems.
Posted by: Hugh Campbell at May 31, 2009 8:03 PM
One quick point: the authors and researchers mentioned in Brooks' column have all made important contributions but he failed to pay appropriate homage to Peter Drucker. In Management: Tasks, Responsibility, Practices, published in 1973, Drucker pointed out that success is found with "the much more modest yet more enduring leadership of dedication, determination, and serious purpose."
Posted by: Paul Oestreicher at June 4, 2009 6:02 PM
Dictatorial CEO style is dead—“Brooks is referring to historic traits of CEOs. The best leaders create followers who want to carry out the strategy,” said Kelly.
This is nonsense!
This on Rupert Murdoch:
http://www.jeffschubert.com/index.php?id=54
The truth is that successful long-lived dictators survive because they DO create follows who want to carry out the strategy:
http://www.jeffschubert.com/?s=bookchapters
Jeff Schubert
http://www.jeffschubert.com/
Posted by: Jeff Schubert at July 16, 2009 9:14 PM
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| TrackBackMay 13, 2009
Bloomberg: Content Customers Want
With the carnage in mainstream media, those of us in public relations worry constantly about the shrinking news hole. Bloomberg is defying the trend by hiring 75 new reporters for the news service, a five percent growth in its 1,500 person, 142 bureau editorial operation. I spoke on Saturday with Norman Pearlstine, the chief content officer of Bloomberg LP, and a veteran of the Wall Street Journal and Time Inc., who is working with Matt Winkler, editor-in-chief, on the company’s strategy for the next five years.
Here are the key points:
1. News key to Bloomberg terminal users - "Our customers want specific information on emerging markets, foreign exchange, new government regulation. Those of us in the news division get direct feedback from these users on stories they need to have covered. Our goal is to be the most trusted source of news."
2. Consumer media customers now a priority - "We intend to treat customers for consumer media as well as we treat the professional customers who use the Bloomberg terminal. These consumers will be interested in media products from Bloomberg, on subjects that are closely related to business, such as environment, law and real estate." As an example, Pearlstine says he sees increased interest in syndicated Bloomberg radio interstitials in local radio news in many markets.
3. Impressive senior hires - Bloomberg is not just adding junior staffers in business news. Among the important journalists who have joined in recent years are Jim Aley and Robert Friedman from Fortune, Flynn McRoberts, Mike Tackett and Jim Kirk from the Chicago Tribune, Al Hunt, Rich Jaroslovsky, Michael Waldholz and many others from the Wall Street Journal, noted columnists Jane Bryant Quinn, Amity Shlaes and Michael Lewis. Last fall, editor-in-chief Winkler convinced Laurie Hays, one of the WSJ’s most senior editors, to join Bloomberg as company editor, directly supervising 300 reporters.
4. Content aggregator and news reporter - "The Bloomberg terminal delivers content from thousands of different news sources," including global mainstream media (Sydney Morning Herald, Toronto Globe and Mail) and blogs (DealBook). "These sources serve as an important supplement to the Bloomberg news service, which delivers more than 2,000 staff-written stories a day to our subscribers."
5. Magazine – To date, this has been primarily a controlled circulation product, delivered to the terminal subscribers, with limited newsstand distribution and some paid subscribers. “The magazine is good and getting better -- last year it was nominated for a national magazine award -- and we are considering different ways to broaden its distribution. We have to get into the CEO suite; we have the iconic brand.”
6. Website - Bloomberg.com recently named Yahoo executive Kevin Krim as its head. Krim ran HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business. The website will benefit from the terminal's use of noted columnists such as Michael Lewis, Roger Lowenstein, Alice Schroeder and Eric Pooley.
7. Television - Andy Lack has joined from NBC to reintroduce Bloomberg TV in the fall. "All our journalists are being trained on seven ounce Sony cameras so that print stories can have adjacent video content. We are using our global reach to advantage; if you are in New York or London and want the Asian morning market results, we are the only place to go. We aim to have a truly multi-media product set."
If one were to hypothesize about the media business of the future, it would look a lot like Bloomberg. It is a company premised on subscription for their terminals-- where each incremental element adds value to the relationship with the customer. While top customers give feedback on stories they want on the terminals, they are also sources for news; it is a true community. It is also a horizontal medium that provides vertical depth of coverage by industry, geography, and subject (politics, science, arts and sports). News coverage and analytics are provided together. PR people need to reconsider the presumption that Bloomberg is only for breaking financial news that impacts the market, in favor of a more nuanced view which considers Bloomberg Magazine, influential columnists, or Bloomberg TV. Bloomberg’s content will also continue to be repurposed by an increasing number of online channels. I would appreciate your views as always.
Posted by Edelman at 7:07 PM |
Comments
Great post. We have to stay on top of and ahead of these trends to continue to imagine the media landscape 5, 10, 20 years from now. The wave is breaking and their business model is changed forever, ergo, ours must continue to do the same. The critical question is, how do we become content partners and trusted counsellors to make sense of the speed and diaspora of information that all clients will be grappling with? Thankfully, it's a question you've been asking for a while and I believe we are on the path to answering.
Posted by: Paul Welsh at May 20, 2009 4:16 PM
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A Missed Opportunity
I attended the annual dinner of the Atlantic Council on Wednesday night in Washington, DC, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The honorees included former President George H.W. Bush, Chancellor Helmut Kohl (unfortunately, too ill to attend) and IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. Tributes were made to the former President, including speeches by Defense Secretary Gates (“I love this man”) and former German national security advisor Teltschik (“I will never forget what you did to reunite my country”).
Palmisano’s speech began with refreshingly self-deprecating remarks, about feeling unworthy in such august company. He spoke of the promise of technology in restoring economic growth. He said that his company intended to be a leader in bettering the urban environment, through changes in transportation, commercial and residential property. But did Palmisano miss an opportunity to make a broader statement about the evolving relationship between business and government?
The bankruptcy of Chrysler, following on the heels of US Government bailouts of such center of the economy companies as AIG, Bank of America (twice), Citigroup, GM, while the UK Government intervenes to save Northern Rock and refinance RBS, calls into question the Anglo-Saxon model of unbridled capitalism as the source of economic prosperity. Government is intervening in the private sector in ways has not seen since the Great Depression. Senator Jack Reed, who runs the Senate Finance Committee, said that populist anger at outsized Wall Street compensation in the face of growing unemployment had led him to implement low ceilings on bonuses for companies accepting the TALF funds. President Obama is insisting that GM build more fuel-efficient vehicles as a condition of further funding. How will business respond to this new, rather aggressive bed-fellow?
Here’s what I would have urged Mr. Palmisano to say to the 1,000 policy leaders in the room on Wednesday night:
First, business is the most successful change agent in society. Look at the evolution of countries such as Brazil, Mexico, India or Indonesia, where the average person’s income has gone up by 20 times in the past decade. But CEO’s must now recognize the responsibility of business to go beyond that described by Milton Friedman, who said, “So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no they do not”. We’re entering a new era of Mutual Social Responsibility, a virtuous circle in which people consume what they need (not what they want) while companies agree to achieve financial AND societal objectives.
Second, those of us in leadership roles in the business community acknowledge the violation of people’s trust and are committed to fixing the problem. We will be more transparent about our corporate strategy and risks associated with our plans. We realize that pay levels for top executives have escalated while the average wage-earner has had no increase. Bonuses for short term performance have led to unacceptable risk-taking. This system will be changed, to one which embraces shared sacrifice.
Third, there are new voices whose views must be incorporated into a global governance model based on a stakeholder society. Non-governmental organizations, communities as well as employees and consumers are entitled to a hearing. This is an evolution from the shareholder society which concentrates only on investors and is regulated by government. It calls for an outside in, listening approach by business and government because both of these traditional institutions have lost the mandate to lead unilaterally.
This is not a time for business as usual. The collateral damage of the crisis goes beyond those sectors requiring government bail-outs, namely autos and finance. The way forward is Private Sector Diplomacy, in which business shares the stage with government and NGOs to find solutions. Mr. Palmisano went part way along the path, committing to work on a major global issue, the consequences of urbanization. It is important that CEO’s use future public speaking opportunities to move from company stewards to private sector statesmen.
PS. Here are my thoughts at the recent Georgetown Summit on the new role of business in society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vkAODxM5QY&feature=channel_page
Posted by Edelman at 2:09 PM |
Comments
Great post, Richard.
But how do we get corporations to embrace the "virtuous circle" given that most of the metrics reward financial performance regardless of broader responsibilities? Is there something special that organizations' PR advisers can do to nudge them in the right direction?
Posted by: David Weinberger at May 4, 2009 4:58 PM
Hey, No fair writing speeches for CEOs for free...
Especially such a good one...Excellent advice, Richard. Executives trying to cope with the day-to-day challenges of surviving this recession should not forget that the key to long-term growth in the 21st Century is combining business expansion with social responsibility.
Posted by: Jeffrey Porro at May 5, 2009 10:51 AM
Good call Richard. Friedman's quote was made much before my time, but I'm still suprised that anyone would dare imply that corporate executives, don't have responsibilities in their business activities besides making money. A company with that model would not survive, and perhaps, that's partially why the economy is in the state it is now. One thing I've always learned, in one way or another, is that "the customer is always right." And in today's society, consumers are more right than ever before. For those businesses who don't wake up, consumers will not purchase their products and stray away investing in their business, regardless of their need (or want) for them. As a millenial, I'm proud of the transparency the Internet has forced business leaders to accept and adopt. Too many unethical, under-the-table decisions have been made for far too long without regard to their affect on consumers and the community. The whole idea of American business is to make money, but it's also to drive the country's economy and serve its consumers (who are are citizens of this country). When business leaders are greedy and don't feed some profits, if not philanthropic efforts, into the American economy, widespread problems occur and money dries up everywhere.
Posted by: Mark Taylor II at May 5, 2009 3:10 PM
This is pretty presumptuous. You mean a world business leader who speaks about the challenges of globalization on urban settings -- where the majority of the world actually lives -- and who speaks about how his company will help address those challenges is not enough for you? IBM talks about making the world's systems work smarter, and promises improvements in health care, transportation, and many other areas. That doesn't seem like a missed opportunity to me.
Posted by: allyb at May 5, 2009 3:34 PM
Ally,
I liked Palmisano’s commitment to cities. But I did not think it was framed in the context of a broader commitment by IBM to society. Thanks for your comment.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at May 5, 2009 4:16 PM
Richard,
Acute crises tend to be game-changers for many industries, making your message very relevant. With the collateral damage of this crisis going beyond the autos and finance sectors preparation for the worse while hoping for the best is highly warranted. The degree to which the unbridled capitalism model is ingrained in America will produce intense pushback from the business community to stakeholder engagement. System thinking and the stakeholder engagement model helped transform Japan after WWI.
You and/or your staff should find the following documentaries helpful in pioneering stakeholder engagement:
If Japan can why can't we?
How Everyone Wins: Finding Joy, Meaning and Profit in the Workplace.
I welcome the opportunity to share my extra copies with a Time Square neighbor.
Posted by: Hugh Campbell at May 5, 2009 9:39 PM
Richard,
As always you have managed to hit the nail right on the head. The current economic woes of the world go much deeper than being a simple "correction." We are entering a new era where each organization's, and each individual's contribution to society as a whole is becoming increasingly important. The adjustment to the "stakeholder society" will not be easy for many business leaders so it is up the those who are leading the large corporations to articulate the new paradigm and show the way
Posted by: Ross Rowbury at May 6, 2009 8:54 PM