In the PR Biz? Maybe a Start-up is Best for Recent Grads

Check out this article from Searching for Savvy on the public relations field and new graduates. I love finding industry-specific content to help new grads. This is certainly worth the read if you are in the communications field!

Why Startup PR Is Great for Recent Grads

The answer is simply – that they’re so much alike. Startups (the term chiefly pertains to the technology industry) and new companies, like recent PR grads and even nearly-finished students, are bright-eyed and optimistic – no matter the economic climate. Here are a few reasons why those of you who are looking for jobs, may want to rethink the big names (ie: Edleman, Hill & Knowlton, Fleishman Hillard) and put your name and interest out to the small or, er – no names.

• Agility: Like you, small companies don’t have a ton to lose. They don’t have families (long-standing business partners) yet, they’re not bound to a location or direction. They can bob and weave through sticky situations and can focus more on innovation than stabilizing a large company. While large companies tend to drag their feet with announcements, small companies have the advantage of churning out huge updates to their products and services on a regular basis.

• Experience over Security: This is my promise: The experience and knowledge you’ll garner in one month will be equal to that of 6 months at one of the big firms. While with big firms, you’re pretty sure of your job ( bonuses, raises), you will likely be doing grunt work for a while, no one-on-one work with clients and no significant media outreach for months. With a startup, you’ll likely be pitching the Washington Post right off the bat.

• Fresh meat: For one, it gives you the chance to take “no-name” companies and build their awareness from scratch, no bad blood, no skeletons. Just your strategy, guts and fresh approach. Same idea with the next…

• Story: Like your resume, they’re still developing their story – very much your job to help with that. But because they’re small, they’re able to adapt and mold their story – or even completely switch gears, without killing it. They don’t have a ton of history to hold them down or to overcome.

• Startup community: One of the coolest things about the startup culture is how tight-knit it is. Take events like Ignite, Startup Weekend, and SF Beta. They bring together and showcase some of the newest and breaking technologies as well as the companies that are about to explode (in a good way) within their veins of technology. Cool stuff, and while they don’t always center around technology, they provide a wonderful support system and network for new companies. Some cool emerging startup communities are...

Read the rest here.