What is it about professional stereotypes? Take public relations, for example: are certain people innately attracted to it, or do we adopt habits and personality traits over time? When an entry-level staffer asked me how to “think like a PR person,” it actually got me thinking…about PR. What differentiates someone in our business? Here’s my list.
You naturally think in sound bites. (But why do the cleverest ones come when no one’s around?)
You work best against a deadline, – the more brutal, the better.
You want to media train everyone you meet, and you sometimes have to hold yourself back from suggesting that strangers “headline” their answers to questions.
You’re a voracious consumer of media and content, from specialized blogs to slideshare powerpoints. You love to compare different media takes on a breaking news event.
You edit everything. Then you edit your edits.
You cringe when someone says “hone in” instead of “home in.” Yet you regularly talk about “key learnings” and “deliverables.”
When a friend or spouse asks for advice on a personal issue you give them a recommendation and immediately outline next steps in verbal bullet points.
You’re always looking for trends.
You’re always looking for things that buck the trends.
You experience a visceral response when you happen to spot a TV news van on the street and have to restrain yourself from running after it.
You instantly connect the dots from one meeting to the next, and all clients programs, even seemingly disparate ones, are relevant to one another!