Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Perspiration Moment. "I apologize for my brusqueness...we've been under a lot of pressure lately...[long pause] I like the way you stood up to me..." Those more or less the sign-off words from my second interview with honcho numero 2 at the boutique PR agency I'm trying to get into. Good thing it was a phone interview. Otherwise she would have seen the sweat spreading a stain on the underarms of my pink blouse and known that my standing up to her wasn't standing up all that well other than the fact that I managed to keep my voice calm and collected. She caught me up on three points. One was the notion that in spite of my qualifications, I am green behind the ears as far as PR skills go. OK... Notion two was that my 'people skills' are not an asset in PR. Said she, "If you think people skills count then I don't think you understand what PR is all about. These clients want deliverables and then they want you to go away. They don't have time to chat." OK... Then she nixed my enthusiasm that I would be writing copy for a company like Gore-tex that makes cool sports clothing. Her point being that I shouldn't delude myself that they are not as viscously profit-motivated as an oil refinery or chemical plant and btw their petroleum-based products are probably as environmentally unfriendly as both. Well I pushed back on that a little. The jist of my point was that unfortunately not everyone can help build villages in Africa nor volunteer for Greenpeace. So for the rest of us poor schmucks who must sell their souls to the devil pushing product, then at least we should have fun doing it! Said she, "We can start you on a project basis but at a low pay scale. After all you haven't ever worked directly for a PR agency and we don't have time to train you." Said I, "That sounds great! I'm really looking forward to it," and I actually kind of meant it. Just get me out of the State House and into my home office. Truth be told, I think I could learn a lot from these veteran PR bull dogs. Just as long as I don't turn into a bitchy bull dog...
Comments:
Post a Comment
