Public Relations

She liked to write, was comfortable speaking to groups and was willing to learn whatever she needed to know. As her father said: “Work hard, someone will notice, and opportunities will come your way.” She did and they did. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND AND THEIR CAREER INFLUENCE

HJ is the youngest of two children; a brother is four years older. Her father was a high school graduate who started as a ‘messenger boy’ with a financial investment company. Through hard work, learning ‘on the job’ and applying his native common sense at each employment level, her father rose through many promotions to a Senior Vice President and on the Board of Directors, supervising others with college and graduate degrees, which occasionally led him to believe he was not adequately qualified to be their leader.  

As a result of his career experience, HJ’s father told his children that they “should each attend and graduate from college, which would provide not only broad-based knowledge but also an experience interacting with others so that someday you might be a leader if the opportunity presented itself.”

HJ’s mother had attended a nine-month secretarial school following her high school graduation but after marriage and becoming a mother, she didn’t work outside the home until the children were in school and less dependent, when she could return to the working world as a secretary. While HJ’s mother concurred with her husband’s college recommendation for their children, she also encouraged HJ to learn typewriting and later, ‘speedwriting’ (requiring about 6 weeks of training and thus different than ‘shorthand’ which requires about 6 months training), as basic skills then thought to be useful within the apparently limited career paths then (1960s) open to women: nurse, secretary or teacher.

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

When non-family adults would ask young HJ what she wanted to do when she grew up, HJ was non-committal because she truly didn’t know. When the adult would then ask about HJ becoming a nurse or teacher, HJ just said “no” without offering an alternative.

SCHOOL DAYS

HJ was always a serious student from her elementary through high school days. A guidance counselor invited her to work in his office rather than sit through study halls. As college application time approached, the counselor told HJ that “you look like a student who would fit in well at (a certain) liberal arts college” – presumably basing his recommendation on knowing other female students who had attended and enjoyed their experiences at that college.

COLLEGE

By coincidence, a long-time friend of HJ had moved away during their high school days, but she and HJ had stayed in touch and the friend was interested in attending the same school recommended by HJ’s guidance counselor. So, they each applied and were accepted. HJ was able to persuade the college Dean to let them room together despite the college policy against permitting friends to room together (in order to increase opportunities to make new friends) because they hadn’t graduated from the same high school. Thus, an early preview of HJ’s self-confidence to present her proposals in a creative and persuasive way.

While having to take certain required courses as a freshman, eventually HJ was able to choose her own academic focus: political science courses as a ‘major’ with writing courses as a ‘minor’ while avoiding math, which required precise answers rather than allowing paragraphs to explain your reasoning. HJ’s typewriting skills were put to good use within her college classes.

HJ’s classroom education was supplemented during one semester spent in Washington, D.C. which provided opportunities to meet members of Congress, their staffs and observe various governmental entities. During one session, she watched as a famous labor leader with rumored, criminal ‘mob’ connections – Jimmy Hoffa – presented his defense of special interest groups. (The bodily remains of Mr. Hoffa have never been found despite much speculation about his death within the law enforcement and mob communities.) Decades later, HJ would be introduced to someone who had concurrently attended the same semester course from a different college, but they hadn’t met at the time. (Editor’s note – While such a random encounter played no role in HJ’s career path, the Editor is aware – from other career story participants – that a shared experience earlier in life can establish a bond among two individuals, leading them to understand other common interests, including career opportunities.)

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS – TIME TO LIKE OR AVOID A CAREER PATH

During one college summer, HJ worked for an insurance company, matching an insurance policy number to a policy amendment, stapling the two together and then filing it. Boring! During another summer, HJ was a children’s summer camp counselor. Not boring but also not related to a potential career path of interest to HJ.

(Editor’s note – The values of summer work experiences are several: (1) learn about the real world of adult work: having tasks due within a certain time and interacting with co-workers and supervisors; (2) possibly discovering interesting work which might develop into an adult career after further education and training; (3) realizing that this work was a negative experience for any number of possible reasons (e.g. boring, dangerous, overly stressful, uninteresting, not useful, etc.) and therefore not a career path worth pursuing.)

TEMPORARY JOBS CAN PROVIDE A VALUABLE WORKING EXPERIENCE

Soon after her college graduation, HJ was married to a man she had met while they were both students at the same college (thereby obtaining her “Mrs.” degree, as some friends had jokingly observed). Her husband was already stationed in The Philippines, and they didn’t yet have children so HJ knew she would want to find a temporary job on the military base – rather than play cards all day with other military spouses – but it was unlikely there would a job especially designed for a recent college graduate with a liberal arts degree who had majored in political science. HJ’s mother suggested that HJ learn to ‘take dictation’ so she could apply for a more interesting job than merely typing for 8 hours each day. HJ accepted her mother’s advice to learn speedwriting but after being hired as an entry level ‘clerk / typist’ found that her dictation skills were still not fast enough, so she went to the library at the military base, checked out some vinyl records to listen to while transcribing their words into speedwriting and eventually earned promotion to a more interesting job as a ‘clerk / stenographer’.

(Editor’s note – This part of HJ’s story demonstrates her self-motivation to use her time productively – working and earning even minimal pay – plus challenging herself to learn a skill to make her job more interesting and better compensated. Such innate energy is always helpful to make a temporary job more interesting and will eventually help to build a successful, long term career path.)

Following the completion of her husband’s military service, the couple returned to the U.S., where he enrolled in graduate school. They knew that they would soon want to start a family so rather than pursuing a long-term career path, HJ used her typing and speedwriting skills to easily find secretarial work at minimal pay.

CARING MENTOR SUGGESTS A CAREER PATH

While HJ was employed at one of her secretarial jobs after the birth of their two daughters, a supervisor said to her: “I know you have a college degree; what do you really want to do?” HJ replied: “I like to write, and I don’t mind public speaking, but I don’t know exactly what I want to do.” The supervisor said: “Actually, your interests align perfectly with a career involving ‘Public Relations’! I suggest that you volunteer with some local organization as their ‘Public Relations Chairman” to write things as a way of telling the story of your organization. Keep a folder of the things you write and use them in eventually obtaining a job in public relations.”

HJ appreciated her supervisor’s advice, contacted her local League of Women Voters, volunteered to serve as their ‘P.R. Chairperson” and commenced telling the League’s story through writing Letters to the Editor of local newspapers. Thus, HJ was creating positive publicity for herself and coincidentally, also getting her own name out into the public realm. So, it should not have been (though it was) surprising to HJ when she one day received a call ‘out of the blue’ from an employment agency, asking whether she would be interested in applying for a job as an administrative assistant for a local chemical company.

CAREER CHALLENGE – AN EMPLOYER’S REPUTATION BECOMES YOUR OWN

The reputation of the chemical company within the local community was essentially negative due to the unpleasant smells which occasionally emitted from its smokestacks. An outside monitoring agency rated the chemical company’s product as “the second smelliest” among those observed. But was it truly a health hazard? HJ decided that she would keep an open mind about the public health safety issue and try to determine for herself whether she could determine it would be morally acceptable to work for the chemical company. 

During her job application interview, HJ discussed her background experiences, which included both her manual secretarial skills (typewriting and speedwriting) but also that she had lived for a summer in Germany (while she was a ‘foreign exchange student’ in high school) and that she liked to write and was comfortable as a public speaker. The company President, in explaining the differences between steam (good) and smoke and pollution (bad) seemed honest and sincerely concerned that the company not adversely affect anyone’s health. HJ was shown multiple studies of the company’s air emissions, which confirmed the company’s safe practices. 

EXPERIENCE MEETS OPPORTUNITY – SOME CALL THAT “LUCK”

By coincidence, the chemical company’s international headquarters were in Germany so the President of the local production facility often received communications in German and was hopeful that HJ, if employed, could review them and decide which were ‘junk’ (not necessary for him to read) and which required his close attention. HJ thought it best that she provide an honest self-assessment of her fluency in the German language: ‘basic’ or ‘C level.’ When the President asked, “Would you be willing to brush up on your German?” HJ had already decided that she found the prospect of working for this company and specifically with this President to be interesting, so she replied “Yes, absolutely.” The President nodded his head, seemingly approvingly.

The President, apparently and wisely looking further ahead for the benefit of both his new administrative assistant and the company, then inquired about HJ’s thoughts about her possible, future career path. 

He said “I see from your resume that you have a college degree. You will come aboard here as an administrative assistant but what would you like to be doing 5 years from now? 

“Public relations!” replied HJ. 

President: “Well, as a matter of fact, we could probably put your interest to use sooner than that. I know you live in this area so you could explain to your neighbors that we will always be committed to not harming their health.”

HJ: “I would need to know more but I think I could be helpful. To start with, the company should develop a brochure to distribute at least locally, explaining what you just told me.”

President: “I have a better idea – that will be one of your first jobs on behalf of the company.”

(Editor’s note – Within the ‘Introduction to this Career Stories Project’ is this project’s definition of “Luck = preparation meets opportunity.” This is a perfect example: HJ’s preparation (determination to improve her manual skills and learn the local language where she had been living, though only temporarily) met opportunity (an employer’s need for an admin assistant with specific foreign language experience who was willing to increase her proficiency.) 

The President arranged for HJ to travel to Berlin, where she lived for 8 weeks (while her husband and mother-in-law took care of the children), attending German language school in the morning and then in the afternoon, working and meeting company personnel within the company’s headquarters complex, to learn more about the company, including their public relations procedures. 

After HJ returned home, the President continued his interest in her career development, seeking suggestions about public relations strategies. HJ suggested developing a slide show to take into the community, which the President authorized. Later, when the President asked HJ to come into his office to ‘take a letter’ (meaning speedwriting his words and then drafting a letter for his signature), HJ had to politely decline due to her schedule conflict: she had already committed to speak on behalf of the company at the local high school. Instead of being mad or flustered, the President said: “I think you are telling me that I should hire a new administrative assistant and appoint you to be our company’s full-time Public Relations officer.”

Thus began HJ’s career in Public Relations, as she had to respond on behalf of the company to residents’ complaints whenever the wind blew foul odors in their direction, plus she presented the company’s story to newspapers and television reporters, sometimes on camera. 

SEEKING TO IMPROVE JOB SKILLS LEADS TO EMPLOYER’S APPRECIATION AND INCREASED RESPONSIBILITIES

The wise President, who had early sensed HJ’s potential for an expanded role within the company and watched as she succeeded in presenting the company’s story locally, next suggested that HJ use her expertise to teach other company managers how to handle the media (newspapers and tv) in a crisis. Visiting corporate officers (by now from NJ rather than Berlin) who attended a seminar HJ taught on this topic asked her to travel to all the other company subsidiaries to teach the same media training workshop to them.  

CAREER CHALLENGE – INCREASED RESPONSIBILITIES MAY INCREASE JOB STRESS

Just because chemical production events could be explained did not mean they could be perfectly controlled or stopped. On one occasion, an unusually foul odor emitted from the company’s facility, causing 3000 children to be evacuated from their schools and sent home. Such a random happening, combined with HJ’s frequent travel schedule keeping her away from home, coincided with her losing sleep and feeling constantly ‘on edge’, unable to relax. Wisely, HJ arranged to see her family physician, who noted her high blood pressure and asked about her current lifestyle. The doctor listened and then issued a mandate: “You shall not return to work until your physical symptoms calm down and I give you the clearance.” Then he posed a key question: “Isn’t there another way you could earn a living?”

USING EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS

HJ took the doctor’s advice seriously and informed the President that she had to take a leave of absence. In the meantime, she had to prioritize her own health. The President understood.  While pondering what  changes she could make in her life going forward to avoid the same stress reoccurring, HJ decided: “I am tired of being the javelin catcher so maybe I can start my own business to teach other companies about how to deal with crises affecting the public.” 

HJ developed a potential business plan which she discussed with her husband: she would develop general strategies to assist different kinds of businesses deal with different types of business crisis, not just within the chemical industry. Then she would advertise her services with a low-cost brochure plus speak at a few trade association meetings and write articles for a few trade publications. She hoped to be hired to offer advice – either in advance of a crisis to plan future responses – or following a crisis, when the company’s story needed to be presented quickly and hopefully persuasively. 

HJ’s new business took about 3 years to develop enough clients for her to reasonably conclude that such a business could soon be worth her time and efforts (i.e., become profitable). Meanwhile, having informed her chemical company employer of her intention to resign in the interests of her own health but at the same time, trying to launch a public relations consulting business, the President graciously kept her on half salary for two years so she could serve as a resource to the company, all from her home base. 

When one of HJ’s consulting clients asked whether she had ever transferred her oral suggestions regarding public relations crisis management into writing, HJ thought such a suggestion demonstrated a realistic possibility that a book on crisis management could be written and sold to enough customers to pay for its publication and beyond that, possibly produce a profit. Thus, HJ proposed to her husband that they withdraw $12,000 from their family savings, to cover the cost of publication. She said that, if her book brought in four clients for her workshops, it would cover the costs. Her husband stayed (outwardly) calm, was quiet for a few moments and then said: “Ok, let’s do this!” 

The rest is (happy) history: many existing and new clients eagerly bought the book. Then HJ thought that college students should be able to study a course in public relations / business crisis management. Her idea proved both correct and profitable, as colleges and graduate schools purchased many copies of the book. Meanwhile, HJ stayed aware of crises that were occurring in the news so that each time she published a new edition, she could include new chapters with her insights into what organizations did well or poorly. When she retired, at age 70, from teaching her workshops, she decided it did not make sense to continue to pay the costs for self-publishing. Eventually a large state university bought the rights to publish and sell the book to students on its campus and everywhere else, and the e-book is still available on Amazon. 

CAREER SATISFACTION

Despite never taking college courses in chemistry or public relations, HJ studied the technical aspects of her chemical company’s operations just enough to know the basics yet remained wise enough to know ‘what she didn’t know’. So, she was able to talk to technical personnel (e.g., chemists) and coach them how to present their expertise in language which the public could understand. 

Eventually HJ had the self-confidence to transfer her skills and judgment from one industry, to assist other businesses to present their stories to the public. 

The transition from employee to business owner was not always easy. A corporate business employs many individuals to assist managing business income and expenses. A start-up business must essentially figure out how to cover every issue (e.g., working space, equipment, advertising, travel, insurance, customer billing and collections, banking, etc.) while concurrently providing the product or service to be sold. But correctly assume that HJ, who had long demonstrated her general persistence and willingness to learn, would successfully cope with all challenges. 

HJ found her career very satisfying, as customers would tell her repeatedly that they felt much more confident that they could deal with challenges in their careers in various organizations due to what they had learned from her. That sort of feedback was especially rewarding.