Public relations? (letters, employee, average, bankruptcy)

[UntamedOhioan]

I am thinking of majoring in PR, however, I only have a very general idea of it. I heard that the job market is excellent for good PR people, and from looking at random firms' websites, this also seems to be the case as they almost always seem to be recruiting new people for internships or whatever.

So now a few questions-
-What are the work hours like? Are they ridiculous or reasonable?
-What days do PR people typically get off?
-How much would an entry-level PR person make?
-What would a PR person do in an "average" work day?

I realize this depends on the industry, like whether it is entertainment, fashion, a normal PR firm, but I am talking about just general PR work.


Thanks!

[FarNorthDallas]

I have a PR degree. My first job in a large agency paid $3.35/hour. Hours were 40+. We had big name clients. We sent out press releases about our clients in the hopes of getting good editorial press. If one of our clients was having some bad press or bad rumors were going around we sent out press releases denying - even if the rumors were true, but we didn't want anyone to know yet. Examples of this - a business was about to go into bankruptcy, about to have layoffs, or some other item that had leaked out too early.

We also had crisis plans in place for companies should something bad happen (best practices - Tylenol). We arranged sponsorship of events to get our clients publicity. Public relations is getting publicity without directly paying for it, you know, which separates it from advertising.

Corporate PR is similar, but you have just yourself to worry about and promote. Plus you might do some other things like newsletters, keeping track of company history, employee recognition.

I'm obviously old school Public Relations. Nowadays, I think you would have to add monitoring and utilizing social networking sites, managing internet rumors, a lot more crisis preparation.

The problem with public relations is it's hard to explain what you bring to the bottom line. You are all expense. It's a hard field to get into, doesn't pay well except for the tippy top people. It's a woman dominated field. If layoffs come, PR is the first to go. I came away from the field thinking they should call it legalized lying. It's hard writing and speaking things you know not to be true, but you have to protect your client/company's reputation. I was young when I did it and a bit too much of an idealist. I could probably do it better now.

I really don't know what the PR curriculum is like now. I'll have to check out my college's website and see how it has changed. Back when I got my degree in PR, I had to actually get a degree in Journalism. Maybe today it is in with marketing? I don't know.