Planning your career in communication

We have personal fitness trainers, tennis coaches, dance teachers and golf instructors – yet many of us leave our careers, a central pillar of our lives, entirely to chance. We hope, we wish, we sometimes pray but we rarely plan. How many of us finally leave a job because we’re frustrated, bored or lost? How many of us make that huge life-changing decision with real purpose? How many of us treat the next job like a lottery, putting our career out to chance?

It’s extraordinary when you think about it. We spend 75 per cent of our week at work, we see our colleagues more than our loved ones and it’s the main source of our income. We talk to friends about work; we moan, complain and celebrate but do any of us really know where we’re going with it?

When I ask people how they got into public relations and communication the most common answer is: ‘I fell into it’. Of course the same can be said of many industries but I would suggest that in public relations we’ve had a lucky fall. Imagine falling into accountancy – useful yes but where’s the variety? Where is the daily challenge, the creativity, the fresh opportunity and the new media channels? Has the digital revolution changed the daily life of an accountant as it has with public relations experts? Reputations can now be destroyed in an ill-advised Tweet. The voracity of social media – its incredible speed and intense impact – means that CEO’s now have public relations at their right hand. The accountant, the lawyer and the ad man have all been demoted. Reputation trumps everything.

But with such opportunity comes the danger of being lost. In an industry that is fast-moving and forever evolving, will you end up being a jack of all trades and master of none? Will you find yourself being pushed into a specialty that you might be good at but have no real passion or even interest in, just because the client or director wants you to do it? If you see the vast potential of the public relations and communication industry as I do then I think it’s time to steer your career strategically, in the direction that meets your personal needs and aspirations.

Planning isn’t easy, you need to be fluid and be able to adapt – but you should try and establish a framework that allows you to have that flexibility. That means learning to understand what it is that really makes you happy at work and then taking charge of it. It’s obvious perhaps but the first thing to ensure is that you’re happy. To be happy you need to establish, recognize and stick to what motivates you. Have a look at the list of values below and try and pick your top three:

• Financial
• Influence
• Expert
• Independence
• Relationships
• Security
• Status
• Meaning & fulfillment
• Imagination

You may not be surprised to learn that financial isn’t many people’s no.1 – but it can cloud the mind and judgment, be wary of it. Once you have your values or motivators try and transpose them onto your current role and the future that the role has in store for you. Hopefully you will start to see a fit and have some clarity over you career. You could of course be in the wrong career entirely!

Business schools look at a careers in another way, they use three career influences:

• Geography
• Industry
• Title

They say changing one is straight forward, two is difficult and three is extremely hard and high risk. It’s recommended that the three are looked at as a long-term project to be completed over time. For example: change your geography but take time to settle into the role. Then, after time, consider moving to the industry you want to work in, prove yourself in that new industry and then over time, the change in job title will come. Good things come to those who wait – and those seeking dramatic change need to accept that patience really is a virtue. The benefit of taking it slowly is that it minimizes risk. It also gives your heart and your head time to adjust to the new reality – helping you to evolve slowly and make the right decisions knowing what it is that is really making you happy.

Communication and public relations offer a fantastic variety of channels for you to explore and match your key motivators, you just need to commit the time to think about it properly, be true to yourself and don’t be swayed. If you do it, you will be on the road to a truly rewarding career, you will feel refreshed, happy, motivated – a different person at home maybe. Maslo termed it ‘Self Actualization’. It’s what every human being strives for even if they don’t know it. Good on you if you reach it.