Hi there, I’m Emily! 👋 Welcome to Hired Humanities, a biweekly newsletter devoted to helping humanities students build careers on their own terms.
Hey, readers. How’s it going? I hope you and your loved ones have been staying safe and warm.
Over the next few issues of Hired Humanities, I thought I’d take you through a tour of the jobs I’ve held after leaving academia. You’ll find references to these positions sprinkled throughout previous issues of Hired Humanities, but I haven’t yet gone into detail about any particular position. By sharing my experience, I hope to introduce you to a few of the possibilities that exist for those of us with a humanities background.
This week we’re taking a closer look at public relations. Read on to learn more about the field and how you can break into it.
Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash
What is public relations?
If hearing the words “public relations” conjures images of Samantha Jones or Olivia Pope for you, you’re not alone. Public relations is a wide-ranging field, and as such its portrayal in movies and television has shaped the way many of us think about it. However, public relations has a lot more to it than party planning and crisis management.
Wikipedia defines public relations as the “the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public in order to affect the public perception.” There are many disciplines within PR, and each has its own norms and specializations. It’s important to keep this in mind because I can only speak to my own experience. The day-to-day can look very different depending on the discipline, but I’ll do my best to speak broadly about the field.
I worked in consumer/lifestyle PR, which focuses on managing information about products or services. The boutique agency I joined represented companies in fashion, beauty, food and beverage, among other industries. During my time in the field, I came to understand that consumer/lifestyle PR is an integral part of the modern media ecosystem; if you’ve ever read about a product in a magazine or web article, that product got coverage thanks to the hard work of a publicist.
How I got there
When I began thinking about pivoting out of academia, I figured jobs that leveraged my writing and communication skills were going to be the most accessible to me. Additionally, I had always loved magazines and had even toyed with the idea of going into journalism while I was in undergrad, so it felt like a natural choice for me to turn to a field I had long admired from afar.
Since I was starting from zero, I took a part-time internship at an online jewelry retailer in Chicago. Eventually I moved out to California with my partner, and I secured my first full-time role as a PR coordinator at a boutique lifestyle agency in Oakland, CA. By the time I exited the agency, I had worked my way up to become a publicist.
What was the day-to-day like?
The overarching goal of a lifestyle publicist is to help clients build and shape brand awareness through media coverage. On any given day, I would ideate client stories and pitch them to a variety of media outlets, field incoming inquiries about clients, and coordinate live events. I’d also make semi-annual trips to New York for “desk-side” meetings with editors at major national magazines like Elle and InStyle. (I definitely had a “pinch me” moment the first time I visited Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan!)
One of the key factors for shaping my PR experience was the fact that I was at an agency. Agency life is fast-paced and great for getting a variety of experience in a short amount of time because you often work across multiple clients at once as opposed to in-house roles where you represent a single company or organization. It’s a fantastic way to learn the ropes, but it requires a lot of context switching and the ability to juggle competing priorities.
How to get started
Do your research
As I mentioned, there are a lot of disciplines with PR and communications more broadly, so it’s important to determine what types of roles you want to go after and what industry you want to be in. Even if lifestyle/consumer PR doesn’t sound like it’ll be your jam (no offense taken!), I encourage you to explore job postings at agencies and companies in your area. You’d be surprised at the variety even within a single discipline depending on the industry, company, or agency. PR adjacent fields like marketing can also be a good fit for humanists with strong writing skills.
Another thing to consider is that some industries and disciplines can command higher salaries than others. It’s likely that you’ll need to start in an entry-level role at the outset even if you have an advanced degree, but be sure to investigate salary bands so you can be prepared to negotiate.
Prioritize getting practical experience
If you’re still in school, it’s never too early to start making time for an internship or part-time job in the field. Having internship experience will not only help you test the waters of a new field, but it will also give you a leg up in applying to full-time roles once you exit your academic program.
There are lots of different options for finding internships and, eventually, full-time roles. I discovered my first full-time role on Twitter after researching local agencies, but a great place to start is with websites like Indeed and LinkedIn. You may also be able to find internships on campus. Most universities will have a communications office, and often museums or other organizations associated with the university will likely have their own communications arm. Keep in mind off-campus internships will offer more variety and exposure to new industries.
A Parting Note
Thanks for tuning in this week! Please don't hesitate to drop a line if you have any feedback. And, if you think someone else in your life would love to receive this newsletter in their inbox, feel free to spread the word.
As ever,
Emily
P.S. Have a burning career question you’d like to see covered in a future issue of Hired Humanities? Submit it here.✨
Reading List
A few of my favorite links
💻 I’m revisiting tips from this great piece about creating boundaries between work and home life from NYT.
🏠 Speaking of working from home, I’m looking forward to reading more on the subject from Anne Helen Petersen.
🤖 It had been awhile since I felt any emotion at the news of a band breakup until Daft Punk announced its retirement. This piece from the New Yorker says it all.