In the past
couple of years, I’ve consulted dozens of journalists who were trying to
transition into public relations, marketing or communications jobs.
Are they
capable? Slam dunk! The trick is getting
the hiring managers to understand how the candidate’s experience applies to the
open position. There’s a science to it, and it took me months to figure it out.
Use their buzz words, not yours.
If you were
writing a news story about an accident, you would not use the language from the
police report –“motor vehicle accident,” “failed to negotiate a curve,”
“careened” –you would likely use terms such as “wreck,” “car,” or “lost
control.” You do this to connect with your audience.
When you’re
looking for a job, connect with the audience at the company (Human Relations) by
using the terms from the job description to describe your experience. In many cases, your initial application is
being reviewed by software. If it doesn’t pick up key words and phrases from
the job description, you’re deleted.
Early applications are usually also reviewed by human resources
personnel. They need help understanding how your years of experience covering
news or managing newsrooms will make you a good public relations officer,
communicator or marketer.
Your resume needs a makeover.
Start by
re-imagining your title. It’s not
“reporter.” It’s “communicator.” Next,
re-imagine your duties and accomplishments.
You didn’t
“increase ratings,” you “developed and executed strategy resulting in increased
market share.” The advertiser-sponsored
food drive you produced translates to experience as a “collaborator” with
ability to “establish community partnerships.” If those partnerships resulted
in increased revenue or positive
community impact, that’s even better. If
you have a knack for convincing people to grant you an interview, and for
making sure what they say is compelling, you have skills to become a solid
“media trainer.” You don’t know all you need to know yet, but you’ve had some
experience. You likely collaborated
with or managed graphics artists in your news career. Graphics and design are
huge in PR and communications positions. Make sure you communicate your
considerable experience working with designers.
You also have
ability to manage sensitive messaging. Think about the stories where you showed
compassion. Think about the difficult conversations you had if you were a news
manager. Understanding and managing
messages to sensitive audiences is another requirement of a public relations
position.
Crisis
management? Check that box if you were
in management. Think about the times your company had a negative situation –
internal, external or both—how you managed it and what the outcome was. Write that down and practice talking about it
in a minute or less. It will be top of mind if you are fortunate enough to be
interviewed, or if you make the first cut and they give you some essay
questions.
Leverage LinkedIn.
If you don’t
have a profile, build one. If yours is news oriented, re-imagine your title,
duties and accomplishments as we just described. Even if you submit a resume, essay, cover
letter and more for an open position, employers will also look at your profile.
If it is still positioning you as a news person, they will pass you over, or
assume you’ll stay only long enough to land another news gig.
You will find
LinkedIn valuable long after your job search is over. I’ve used it to get
recommendations for products, services, freelancers and more.
It’s never too late to network.
When you’re
unemployed or under-employed, you’ll often hear, “It’s who you know.” If your news career had you out in the field,
you are probably well networked. Reach
back to every PIO you had a relationship with, key policymakers and newsmakers
you interviewed. They can be references, share insight about open positions, or
maybe even have a position for you.
If you
managed or worked behind the scenes, you were probably chained to your desk and
never had time to network. I can relate. The final three years of my news
career, I worked two stories underground. It was dark when I drove in every
morning and dark when I drove home at night.
It’s not too
late. Build your LinkedIn profile and
make connections. Attend the lunches your local Business Journal sponsors. Not only are the speakers great, you’ll
sit next to someone interesting. You
might make another connection or learn about another lead.
Do some
freelance or even free public relations. If you are passionate about curing
cancer, cleaning up parks, or finding missing people, for example, these
organizations have events. They need press coverage, they need blog articles
written before and after, they need messaging to help them raise funds. They
may have a small freelance budget. Even
if they can’t pay you, help them. Not
only will it give you some new connections, it will give you some real
experience. You’ll have links to news
coverage, writing samples and outcome.
I found my job online.
At the end of
the process, by the time I learned the science of translating my news skills to
PR, I was very lucky to be a top candidate for four positions. Three were leads
I found out about through networking, but the position I liked best was one I’d
found online.
The point
here is you have to network and find
your own leads. Unless you were a
tremendously popular news anchor or columnist, it’s unlikely jobs will come
looking for you. For online searches, I recommend two excellent sources for
candidates in the northwest: Simply Hired and Mac’s
List. You can sign up to receive mission-aligned
job leads on a regular basis. Mac’s List also has terrific articles.
Good luck! If
you find this useful, share it with friends. If you have any feedback, I’d love
to hear it, and thank you.
