Our own Richard Bailey published an interesting post to his blog, PR Studies, on Friday. (I encourage you to check out the original post to understand the context of what I’m pulling from it.) In that post, he gives an outstanding outline for a “PR graduate 2.0,” to use his term. He describes the following as “an impossible job description for the ‘perfect PR graduate.’”

PR graduate 2.0

A Brilliant Consultancy (ABC) seeks an ambitious self-starter to work with a great and growing list of clients.

You will be:

• A sociable individualist. You have a strong network of friends, colleagues and contacts and can talk to anyone. Yet you know your own mind, have strong principles, and don’t mind going out on a limb or causing offence when necessary.
• Forward-looking, yet analytical. You understand where we’ve come from: business, media, politics, society. But you have a view on where we’re going and what’s needed to get there.
• An argumentative peacemaker. You can engage in debate, and see both sides quickly. Yet you know how to achieve consensus.
• A reflective activist. You love thinking. And you love doing.
• Flexible. You’re equally at home working in London, New York or Hong Kong.

You will have:

• A good degree in any discipline. I’m more interested in your ability to continue learning than in what you’ve already learnt.
• A demonstrable passion for success. This can be sporting, volunteering, commercial. (It doesn’t count that you love clubbing and going to the gym.)
• Skills, knowledge, enthusiasm. For technology, food, cars, fashion, languages. Do you love life and do you live it to the full?

You will get:

• Hard work, long hours, poor pay
• Great colleagues and great prospects
• The best training programme in the world

Still interested? Tell me in 500 words why you think your face fits. No, don’t bother. I already know about you from Google and Technorati. I’m impressed.

I thought this was valuable to share with our Forward readers. As Richard noted, this is an “impossible” description. But if you ask me, it’s good to look over and be aware of what employers might be looking for from PR grads now and in the future.

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The New York Times broke this.

I don’t even think I need to comment. Just one more reason why Gallup polls rank public relations specialists as trustworthy as telemarketers and car salesmen. A few bad apples as they say…

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On May 19, Fleishman-Hilliard is sponsoring a breakfast seminar in Washington, D.C. entitled “Beyond Blogging 2006: The Future of Communications.” If you are in this area, it is especially enticing because it’s free. And they throw in a continental breakfast.

Shel Holtz will be moderating.

See more here.

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Shel Holtz (a very good caricature to the left) is working on a new campaign for Click.TV. Click.TV is a new and very intriguing gadget that,

“puts an end to the pause/play nature of video. Producers create comments in the video that function like bookmarks so viewers can hop around a video as they wish. Second, on sites that integrate Click.TV code into their web pages, viewers can add their own comments, making online video a community experience.”

Sounds cool doesn’t it! People like our very own Erin Caldwell will have a field day with this thing.

To promote Click.TV, Shel has embarked on the always treacherous mission of doing a blogger relations campaign. I compare this to walking over half-inch think piece of ice above Niagara Falls. One crack and down you goooooo…

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We’re back with another episode of the Forward Podcast! We haven’t really settled into a regular gig with this, but material ideas are pouring in … so we just might be headed that way.

For show #2, we have another interview, this one coming from principal contributor, Ashley Imsand. She had a nice chat (twice!) with Jan Ohman of Intel, and came away with some good insight into internal communications on a global scale and how Intel is using a variety of tools to aid in that process.

Show notes:

00:13 Intro by Erin
01:03 Ashley introduces Jan Ohman
01:30 Jan gives her professional background
01:50 Communications strategies, planning
03:50 Challenges in communicating (and how to address them)
04:47 Communications tools
06:15 Advice to those starting out
07:00 Ashley wraps up

Thanks again to Jan for taking the time to share her experience and advice with Forward!

(As a side note, the Forward Podcast feed is now working properly — so you can subscribe via iTunes.)

Listen Now:

 Forward #2 - Interview with Jan Ohman [7:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (687)

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I have been working on my thesis this semester as the last major hurdle between me and my little piece of paper declaring me a master of public communication. It has been the bain of my existence. But it has also allowed me to connect with industry professionals and brand myself through the knowledge I have soaked up on the subject of public relations ethics, the topic of my thesis.

At the beginning of this semester, the thought did not occur to me that I could use this assignment to my professional advantage. I should be using it as part of my own promotional pitch while vying for jobs against other qualified candidates. I should let anyone and everyone read this bad boy. This work can help me brand myself as a guy who understands our ethical obligations and holds them in high esteem. It lets me show that I can translate classroom stuff to practical issues that we face every day. And I’d like to think people might want me on their team (fingers crossed as I search for jobs in Minneapolis).

What are you interested in pursuing in your PR career? Use your school work to establish yourself as a resource in that specific area, whether it’s healthcare or entertainment to whatever you want. Become the expert. Become the resource. If you are looking at an assignment for class as a pain, something to get through just to get through, take a step back. Figure out how you can use your work to make statements of value.

That being said, please enjoy my shameless and self-serving plug: “Shrinking the Gray Area: A Discussion of Conteporary Ethics in Public Relations” by Michael Sacks, Master of Arts Candidate, Public Communication, American University. Coming in May 2006 to theaters near you.

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“Why, she’s inside, bakin’ some cookies.”

And while that old joke might be hilarious (har har har), making crucial mistakes on news releases isn’t so funny. It’s not funny to you. It’s not funny to those who receive it (well, I guess it could be. Right, Kevin Dugan?) But it certainly won’t be funny to your boss.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the bad and good ideas posted at The Bad Pitch Blog and The Good Pitch Blog, you should. But besides having great ideas that grab attention and result in “open” vs. “delete” in the old email box, maintaining excellent writing skills is essential once you’ve garnered that attention.

Phil Gomes said cited John Beck in a podcast on Feb. 27, 2006, with Eric Schwartzman during On The Record…Online, “Forget oil, forget diamonds, the scarcest resource is attention.” If you manage to mine that resource, don’t waste it. Don’t let journalists see you as an idiot or a vapor merchant.

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The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting editorial last week by Rick Maese, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun. It got me thinking about the way the attorneys on both sides of the Duke lacrosse rape case are handling the media, as well as how the media is covering the story. This has been the best example I can think of, in recent memory, of a trial being played out in the news media - in the court of public opinion. Not the Michael Jackson case, the Laci Peterson case or the Natalie Holloway case has played out in the public in quite the way this current trial has.

It seems as though every shred of evidence is brought to the public via a slick press conference, as though we were all assigned to be judge, and the media eats it up. Hearing the defense attorneys make their case, I can’t help but think it sounds like opening arguments. Maybe I don’t watch enough court TV, or maybe this really is a different kind of case. Each side is jumping at the opportunity to get their story out first. In the beginning, the prosecution was more reluctant, but with the increasing visibility of the defense and its media-intelligent attorneys, the prosecution is more often looking like it is on the defensive. Maese said it best:

Taken singularly, every day has brought a different knee-jerk judgment. The evidence-of-the-day always is compelling and, lacking context, always damning.How many of us rushed to verdict after the initial allegation? Did your opinion change when defense attorneys began poking holes? Change again when the e-mail was released last week? (There was mention of hiring strippers again. “I plan on killing [them] as soon as the[y] walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off,” the e-mail read. Amazingly, it became even more depraved from there.)And did your opinion change again this week when authorities revealed DNA tests didn’t implicate a single one of the 46 players who were tested?Or when the prosecutor vowed that the “case is not going away.”

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Who was it that said, “Finding a job is like eating a box of chocolates. If you’re good enough, the job will find you”?

Oh, right, that was me…and to this day I’m not sure what I meant by it.

What I do know is playing your cards right on the job search will result in a big payoff. I would like to be the first to congratulate our Founder, Managing Editor, and community leader, Erin Caldwell, for allowing Edelman PR (DC) to hire her. Excellent work, Erin. As Pepper said in your blog post, they are “lucky to have you.” A few details:

• Title: Assistant Account Executive
• Joining: The team with Mike Krempasky, Marshall Manson (the Wal-Mart blogger relations campaign), and others
• Relocating: To the Edelman office in Washington, D.C.

So let’s review this success story and let it be a lesson for many of us. There’s no doubt that hard work, determination, and some creative smarts lead to job offers. But what else? I asked Erin a few questions about all this so we could understand how it worked for her. Surely Forward had something to do with it as well as her insatiable thirst for knowledge. Also, like many of us, Erin is geek in all the best ways. Could that be it?

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When I first became involved with the blogging PR Tigers at Auburn, it was happenstance - but it did fit into my overall philosophy of working with future practitioners to help push forward the industry as a whole. And, I have met some wonderful students and PR practitioners because of my stance on mentoring, and my blogging. So much so, that I do put my contact information on my blog, including email and all various IM services.

About once a week, I will receive an email or IM from a student from around the world, let alone the US, asking for help or advice. Most of the time, I have no problem shooting off a quick email, or IM or even taking a call to help out students. And, when a dialogue builds, that is also fine, because that is part of the blogosphere - offline conversations that continue what was started online, in a public forum.

Why? Because it is all of our responsibilities to be a mentor. Really. Yes, I believe that and wish (hope?) more people do as well.

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