PR careers are charged with managing an organization's communication and relations with external parties. No institution exists in a vacuum - there are external stakeholders that are crucial to its success. Organizations must ensure that it maintains a positive image and working relationship with these stakeholders chief of whom are their clients and shareholders. Other key stakeholders include its employees, the general public, the government, regulators, industry associations and suppliers.
Public relations is a broad industry and there are a number of specialist careers that one can go for. The more common niches of public relations that one may work in include media relations, employee relations, community relations, special events and reputation or brand management. In addition, with the ever growing role of the Internet on the work environment, a new area of public relations has emerged known as online communications. A PR professional may work either for a PR firm where they get to handle the public relations concerns of several clients, or they may be employed to work in a non-PR firm where they will only focus on their own organization's public relations.
To discharge their responsibilities effectively, persons in public relations careers must continuously gather information that will give them an accurate picture of how the organization and its products are viewed by its stakeholders. A PR professional is involved in planning and managing promotional events and any other company organized events that are likely to generate awareness on the organization and its products. A public relations expert will develop press releases that will be read out to or distributed to journalists all aimed at positioning the organization in positive light in the eyes of its stakeholders.
No two days are similar in PR careers. One must deal with different situations with each requiring careful analysis before structuring a response. The job sometimes demands long hours for research, planning and implementation of the PR program. Given the damage to the reputation and brands of the organization that an incident has the possibility of causing, PR professionals must be ready to work under a lot of pressure and to respond to urgent matters on short notice. Many PR jobs are also characterized by a lot of travel. Such last minute disruptions to one's schedule mean that any person venturing into this career must be committed to it.
In fact, the ability to deal with crisis situations is a skill that every public relations professional must possess. Crisis situations are unavoidable. But it is not crisis events that break an organization - it is how the institution responds to the crisis. Persons in PR careers are often the brains, the face or both of any such a response. Their communication to all stakeholders must inspire confidence and demonstrate knowledge of the problem at hand and how the institution intends to manage it. This is why good written and oral communication skills are critical for this job. Strong social skills are required including the ability to comfortably interact with persons of all backgrounds and social status.