Job Responsibilities
All internal and exernal communications; government and public relations;
internal
and external events; marketing and promotional activities.
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Job Requirements
I do not believe that an academic degree prepares you for a career in this area.
The
basic skills you need to develop in addition to being able to think and write
clearly,
are a good brain, a strong streak of common sense and a lot of creativity. The
rest
you learn on the job. No one I hired in my 20+ years in this area with an
academic
degree in PR or Marketing performed any better than someone who had the above
thinking/writing/creativity skill set. In fact, little is taught in academia of
marketing
in financial services and that neglect shows up in its new graduates.
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Uppers
Wide network of contacts, ability to influence decision-making, opportunities to
see programs and initiatives you create succeed (or fail).
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Downers
Working with bankers and other financial professionals who don't understand what
PR and marketing is and can do, thereby not allowing one to perform to the best
of
one's abilities. You spend a lot of time in this field having to tear down the
public's
and your colleagues' perception that PR is a field for "weaklings and softies
who can't
deliver a bottom line". Amazingly, the TV program "West Wing" has done a lot to
teach the public the
importance of the function and all of us in this area have noted the positive
change in
attitude. However, it's a tough uphill slog most of the time proving yourself.
One has
to constantly add real value (e.g. trackable, revenue-generating or
public-opinion-
positive) value.
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Lifestyle
Tough. If you're good, you are on constant demand. When the going gets tough,
guess who is there? When the camera and TV lights are on because something goes
wrong, it's you standing in front off them. It's the 24/7 lifestyle of an intern
or doctor (but without the life-or-death responsibilities, of couse) without the
pay.
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Compensation
Best year I had I earned $400,000 (base salary, bonuses, benefits). Ten years
before,
in a non-profit, I earned $40,000. Depends where and in which industry you work.
Stock options are rare for support functions; these are kept for the revenue-
generators and rarely is PR and Marketing given its due in this area. But if you
negotiate your bonus properly, it's not a problem.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Never stop learning; use the news and watch how the media handles events to
create
your own learning take-aways. Keep files and clippings of the mistakes and
successes made in this area (you'll find them amazingly useful when arguing a
strategy with a non-believer later on).
Job outlook is always fairly good, although your budgets and staff sizes are
amongst
the first cuts when the going gets tough for companies.
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