Public Relations versus the World

Going Up in the World....

I never pictured my life being a public relations practitioner one day, I don't really know what I wanted to become. There is always the basics: a vet, a doctor, a fire fighter? No one really says, "I want to be a public relations practitioner when I grow up" or a publicist do they? 

I wonder why we have such a broad industry, however we never get the credit we deserve. In school you never get taught about public relations? Marketing yes, but never public relations. The only time you see it is in the movies when its glitz and glam, but not the hard working industry that we are, well at least that's how I feel. 

Public Relations was given to me as a gift one could say, I was given a bursary to study anything I wanted and wham! Public Relations it was. It's funny I was never an A student in high school, but as soon as I got into this field it was as if I wanted to achieve everything and gain all the knowledge I could about this 'life' I would move on to one day.

Public Relations is so much more than what movies portray, it's about making the 'people' feel better, more important - not us, the workers! We here to make you look good, and yet our name goes to shame! It annoys me when teenagers chose this field to make a career on without thinking, who thought law, social psychology and film where involved in this - not many, not me! 

What I am trying to get at, without babbling, is that our industry is not at the level it should be. We work so hard and try to make it 'ours' however we never really get the attention we deserve. Schools should be advertising it when you have career day, more colleges should offer it and lastly companies should be more open about public relations. 

Well that's how I feel about it at least. Public Relations is a talent that one has, a people's person job that does not make things sparkle but stand out to the world. Yes overseas public relations is huge but in Cape Town it can be just as big as overseas, if not bigger!