The first steps in PR´s world are the most difficult

When I finished my first degree in Advertisement and Public Relations, I did my work experience in a communication agency. I remember when I did the interview, and when they asked me about what I wanted to do in the job, I asked: "relations with the media and news releases". I think that I will remember this day and this summer all my life.

My first day was fantastic, I could believe that I was going to write news releases and talk with the media, but this feeling started to go down when I saw the reality of the PR´s world: news releases that nobody publishes, bad modals when you call the media, I had an agenda without contacts,…

After three months, my boss spoke with me because I thought that I had been wasting my time in the agency and he told me: "What do you learn in these months?", I asked: "That if you work for a big client everything is easier for you in the media, because everyone wants to publish something of you, but if you are a little client you need to win a battle everyday for a little space in the media". Anything else, he told me; "the most important for a PR practitioner is to have an agenda with a lot of contacts because sometimes I called to the media and they didn’t publish me anything, but one of my workmate called to one of his friends, and the news was in the media". After that conversation my boss told me: "You have learnt the most important thing: working in PR is not easy and less if you don’t know anyone in this field. For become a good PR´s practitioner you need to work a lot of years in this field, because the most important thing is to have good friends in your agenda".

When I finished my second degree in Journalism I did my work experience in a newspaper, because I wanted to see the other side of the profession, the work in the media. My two months in the newspaper were very helpful because it helped me to understand the last words of my boss. Sometimes when we received two news release with more or less the same importance, but we only had space for one, we always published the news release of the editor’s friend.

So, it is very important the relations of the company with its stakeholders and publics, but we don’t have to forget that PR´s practitioner in this sense is like the company, he needs to take care his own contacts, because with them, he can help his own clients.