Comments on: Inside PR #27 – Tuesday, October 3, 2006

By: David

David — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:10:50 +0000

Omar,

Please don’t take our word for it. Terry and I are biased…clearly. When you finally make your decision, keep an open mind and find an opportunity that will let you learn, grow and develop new skills working with some great people. That’s as likely to be agency, corporate, or even the government.

By: Omar Ha-Redeye

Omar Ha-Redeye — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:31:07 +0000

As a PR student, I definately found this interesting.
But you guys made a much stronger case for agency work, and I will probably investigate this option further in a years time.

By: Canuckflack

Canuckflack — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:59:49 +0000

Government communications doesn’t suck. I mean it….

Agency vs. Corporate. One is more flexible. One is better paying. One offers a greater variety of projects for new associates. The other likely has a better health plan. I’m here, folks, to argue for another employer for young public relations…

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:26:01 +0000

Thanks, as always, for your comment Owen. I like the idea of a code of ethics or code of conduct that might be endorsed and honoured by PR professionals. In fact, the Canadian Public Relations Society does have a Code of Professional Standards (http://www.cprs.ca/AboutCPRS/e_code.htm) you might like to review.

By: David

David — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:05:53 +0000

Gary, thanks for checking out the ‘cast. I never meant to suggest that you were less likely to lose your job if you work agency-side. I believe it’s easier to find an agency job if you have past agency experience.

We’ll be watching and listening for your students comments on Inside PR.

By: Gary Schlee, ABC

Gary Schlee, ABC — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:22:16 +0000

Great conversation about agency vs. in-house! Students often agonize about which direction represents the ‘right’ decision. Ah, if it were only that simple.

Even with your declared bias upfront for out-house PR (wouldn’t that be the opposite of in-house?), you tackled the pros and cons of each environment realistically. Your thoughts on the subject were pragmatic and very welcome.

I did want to add that some the agency advantages cited would apply just as well to the corporate side. In-house practitioners who are unable to advance their careers in their organizations simply move to a new organization and a new challenge.

And I’m not so sure entry-level communicators at agencies have a greater degree of immunity from losing their jobs to a downturn (translation: ‘we just lost our biggest client’) — particularly in small agencies.

Again, great stuff. Thanks. I’ll be directing students to Inside PR to hear your thoughts.

P.S. Enjoyed meeting Shel Israel at Third Tuesdays — a great initiative.

By: Owen Lystrup

Owen Lystrup — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:59:05 +0000

That was really long, sorry.

By: Owen Lystrup

Owen Lystrup — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:58:49 +0000

Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture happened to come up on my playlist whilst listening to Findlater’s comment. It added a strange grandiose feel to it.

I guess it’s appropriate. Canadian podcast, visions of the White House burning while a westerner American listens.

Cliches aplenty. You say cliche, I say useful idiom. Potato, tomato.

And the rest is…as they say, when in Rome.

One of my favorite misused cliches is “behind the eight ball.” It’s, of course, a reference to billiards, a game I grew up with as my family had a pool table in the living room. Behind the eight ball never means “late,” as many like to use it. It means “stuck” or in a bad situation. Being behind the eight ball in billiards is a bad thing, but it has nothing to do with time.

Thank you for using the word malapropism. I feel less nerdy for knowing it myself. Another of my favorites is “solecism,” which is somewhat related.

Thanks for your comments on the agency/in-house debate. I lean more toward agency because I like the variety. I’m somewhat working part time for two agencies right now. Both have a variety of clients. One I get to work with a large team of PR students, the other has a PR team that comprises just me. It’s an interesting mix, but I think I would get bored working on the same product all the time.

I heard an interesting conversation from Alex Pullin over at “The Wages of Spin,” who is now working for Lewis PR in Great Britain. It was about whether or not PR professionals should write wiki entries or post entries to Digg and other open-source tools. Constantin Basturea made a point that he would like to see a code (like a code of ethics) for PR practitioners to follow.

Care to comment?