I promised myself I would never think these thoughts, but they keep recurring so I have to own up.
I realize I will sound like one someone’s grandparent, but here we go anyway.
Is it me or are people becoming afraid of a bit of hard graft? Public Relations is a business where experience and knowledge are the cornerstones of your professional offering. You can’t purchase either of these items, you have to accumulate them.
What is this new thinking that says “hey I am too good to do this basic stuff, I want to be a consultant, I want to be leading people, I want to be the big earner, I am not happy with mundane rubbish.”
My take on this is as follows. The PR apprenticeship, while not flawless in any respect, teaches you the basics, provides experience and takes you through a process of learning which, although it may not be sexy, provides you with the skills that will make you a good practitioner.
There’s nothing wrong with always striving to grow and get more responsibility, but a strong grasp of the basics must be a given. And guess what? You have to graft for the basics. As the old saying goes, what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.
Of course the dot com boom accentuated this process because some people jumped jobs for better positions rather than doing it the hard way. They still don’t have the basics.
This opinion piece was prompted by a new book, called “The Devil Wears Prada”. Author Lauren Weiberger has written a fictional novel based on her year as assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The book pulls no fictional punches and attempts to skewer the fictional editor.
Kate Betts, who herself worked at Vogue, reviews the book in the New York Times and I can’t help but agree with her opinion on the book:
“Having worked at Vogue myself for eight years and having been mentored by Anna Wintour, I have to say Weisberger could have learned a few things in the year she sold her soul to the devil of fashion for $32,500. She had a ringside seat at one of the great editorial franchises in a business that exerts an enormous influence over women, but she seems to have understood almost nothing about the isolation and pressure of the job her boss was doing.”
You can’t barter, buy or take a loan of experience. You can only live it. What you might consider a pain in the butt, might actually stand to you in a difficult situation at a later date. We all want to grow up fast, but make sure you are taking the right short cuts. That’s all.
Link provided by the ever excellent AdRants. Does this make sense to anyone or am I being an old-fogey (before my time)?
Murphy's Law 