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PR Fuel: Can Public Relations People Advance Their Careers?I had hoped that it would be a celebratory dinner for two reasons, but it didn't turn out that way.A good friend of mine was turning forty and, unbeknownst to all the other dinner guests, he was also about to hear whether he had been promoted to a C-level job within his relatively large company. We had kept in close contact during the interview process and I was excited for my friend, hoping that his dream was about to come true. "Didn't get the job. Don't mention it at dinner please," my friend texted me. The birthday celebration was nice, but my friend was obviously upset and disappointed. He has been with his company for more than fifteen years and he has performed exceptionally, starting as a public relations assistant and rising to the level of Vice President of Corporate Communications. The person who got the job he interviewed for came from outside of the company, which disappointed my friend further. "[The board] said that I did not have the operational experience for the job," my friend said a few days later, reflecting on the interview. What my friend was told when he was rejected for the promotion may very well be true - that he doesn't have the operational experience. He has spent 15 years managing the company's brand, image, media and corporate communications. The company is a manufacturer and my friend admitted that he "doesn't know very many people who get their hands dirty." One of the fascinating aspects of my job is researching the backgrounds of corporate executives and board members. I enjoy finding out about people who have risen to professional heights and seeing what their progression was: for example, the salesperson who eventually becomes chief executive officer or the factory worker who one day becomes chief operating officer. Unfortunately, what I rarely see is the public relations person who moves beyond his or her role. Ursula Burns is one of my favorite examples of someone with an amazing career trajectory. Burns began working at Xerox in the summer of 1980 as a mechanical engineering intern after receiving a bachelor of science degree from Polytechnic Institute of New York. She completed a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University a year later and then began working full-time for the copier maker. Today, she is the President and a director of Xerox, and a member of the board of directors of American Express and Boston Scientific. The three companies have a combined market capitalization of more than $85 billion. What makes Burns' story more interesting is that her boss is Chairwoman and CEO Anne Mulcahy. She started her career selling copiers in the field and is now also a director of Citigroup, Target and The Washington Post Company. Also intriguing is the fact that Mulcahy has a bachelor of arts degree in English/journalism from Marymount College, a tiny school that has since been absorbed by Fordham University. There has been no MBA or post-graduate degree for Mulcahy; she learned in the field. I certainly don't know the background of every corporate executive or board member in America. However, I've researched over 5,000 such individuals during the past three years and I cannot recall one person who moved from public relations into a high-level operational or management role (unless you consider investor relations a radical departure from public relations). Such people certainly exist, but their numbers appear to be dwarfed by those who have climbed up the ladder from sales, marketing, manufacturing, operations and administrative positions. In response to his rejection, my friend decided to enroll in some finance and business administration classes. He already has a bachelor's degree and he went to journalism school. He also said that he's going to "increase my visibility within the company." Next week, he's travelling to the company's main manufacturing facility to speak with workers and managers. "[The person who got the job I interviewed for] is being very supportive and understanding," my friend told me. "He understands that I want to move up in the organization and he's trying to put me on a path that allows me to do that." One avenue that was offered to my friend is for him actually to switch jobs within the company. The job change would be a demotion in terms of title, but his pay would remain the same. He's considering it and says he's more likely to change jobs if it means that he could gain the necessary experience to be considered for non-PR job openings at higher levels. "I'm a Vice President but there's no room for upward movement unless I change career paths," he said matter-of-factly. Public relations is a great field, of course, but I find myself concerned that PR people are prone to hit a glass ceiling, as my friend has. The specialization of the job lends itself to being pigeonholed as someone in a support role instead of a leadership one, and this hinders career advancement. In addition, PR people are not always welcome in the C-level suite, often being dictated to instead of listened to (a huge mistake that C-level executives often make). If your ambition is to move beyond PR I would seriously advise putting yourself on a path to do so. A good start includes learning about the company beyond what you need to communicate, forging professional relationships with managers in other departments, making yourself visible outside of your job function and reminding people through your work of the necessity and importance of public relations. The most important observation I offered my friend was to remind him that Phase I of his career may very well be over - but what a great phase it was. He went from making $20,000 a year to making well over $200,000 per year and having dozens of people report to him. He should not ignore his accomplishments or believe he is any less valuable than anyone else at the company. A new challenge awaits and it will allow him not only to utilize the skills and knowledge that brought him to where he is now, but also to broaden his professional experience and prepare him for the next level.
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