It’s time for the final part of our series on
picking up PR skills from jobs outside the industry. In part one we covered lessons
learned from broadcast journalism, politics, music and teaching, and for part
two we covered sales, Greek life, psychology and theater. Today we take a look
at another set of skills that a few more of our BOCAteers found helpful in
jumpstarting their PR career.
Art History
Lucas Mayer, one of our senior account
executives, spent a year in Paris and studied art history at Wheaton College in
Maine before starting in PR. Both experiences helped him make a smooth
transition after he moved to San Francisco and started working at BOCA in the Fall
of 2012.
“Working at TAJAN, the leading French auction house in Paris for
fine arts, antiques and collectibles, I had to speak regularly in English,
French and German. There were very high standards for client service as you can
imagine, and I learned a lot about providing a stellar client experience,
translating across languages and cultural barriers.”-Lucas Mayer
Travel Writing
Like former reporter Becky Quinlan, who we
highlighted on the BOCA blog earlier, Ashley Breinlinger, one of our
vice presidents, found her experience as a travel writer for MSNBC to be an invaluable
asset in her PR career. Traveling to exotic places like Italy, Greece and other
Western European countries and interacting with heads of tourism, authors and
professional athletes exposed Breinlinger to a wide range of cultural
experiences she could apply to tech PR.
“Being a reporter and travel writer taught me the value of doing
your research and knowing how to ask smart questions. Bringing ideas to the
table for reporters and making recommendations to clients is half of our job as
PR professionals. However, to do that effectively we must also know how to ask
the right questions to bring new ideas to light and build a compelling story.”
“What makes a founder a visionary? What is their approach to
leadership? What aspect of the market is their company or product truly
revolutionizing? These are the questions we should be asking and helping our
clients to answer.”
“What I love most about PR is what also drew me to reporting --
getting to speak with people at the top of their field to learn about their
areas of expertise, what they have achieved, and what drives them to succeed.”-Ashley Breinlinger
Sports Management
Account Executive Shauna Roberts, the most
recent staff member profiled on the BOCA blog, studied
communication and sports management before making her mark in tech PR.
“During my sports management internship at Santa Barbara, I worked
closely with MLB players and the people behind the scenes running the
organization. I learned a lot about how businesses are run, working with
leaders in an industry and client service. In addition, being a teaching
assistant taught me how to present information in a compelling way to my
students (similar to crafting stories for PR). Balancing work and school really
helped me develop the time management skills necessary for PR.” - Shauna Roberts
We hope you enjoyed this blogs series and
that it helped inspire you to consider what makes for great PR people in a
different way. Do you have a skill from another job that helped you with PR? Tell
us more in the comments section.
