Tesar-Reynes

Flipping through the Chicago Tribune this week, I stumbled on a headline that immediately caught my attention. “Chicago lawyer with $225,000 in debt has reason to hope.”

Hope eludes most of us these days. As part of my daily intern duties, I flip through the headlines of the Trib and Journal every morning. News of a stumbling economy and growing unemployment dominate headlines. The cycle overwhelms this green-behind the ears PR wannabe who thought he’d have the world at his fingertips, newly armed with his Bachelors degree.

How naïve I must seem. The 29 year-old lawyer mentioned in the article, Aukse Rimas, owns more debt then I can imagine and makes twice as much as me. The piece presents a simple point – Though she’s deep in debt, …

In every recession an old word reappears in corporate lexicon: “headcount.” I have heard that word ten times in the last two weeks. The rationale seems the same, whether it was the 80’s, 90’s or the 21st Century:

The way around these rules remain the same also:

I visited my PRSSA chapter for my last official meeting Monday. Afterwards, me and other members of the executive board went out to grab a bite. We chatted about how our marketing and public relations internships were going.

As we opened up, we got into an interesting conversation about our fears. The added pressure of hiring freezes and the competition that brings for jobs can make the workday stressful.

We of course would always perform our duties to the best of our abilities. We had to admit, however, lurking deep in the back of our heads existed legitimate, insecurity driven fears. Here are four of the fears we discussed. I hope this post helps our readers better …

Six weeks into my first position at a marketing/PR agency, I find myself working with clients more often. The task can seem intimidating at times. For a rookie, managing the client relationship can be like sitting at the dinner table with your rich uncle you only see a few times a year. You’re eager to impress, but don’t want to seem overly try-hard.

Last week, Kevin Donnellon, a friend and former VP at PR agency giant Golin-Harris, sent me this newsletter on client relationships. It was a welcome read. I mentioned the important lesson Kevin taught me on handshakes in a previous comment on one of Tony’s posts.

If you’re new to the industry like me, you probably don’t have much client relationship experience to draw …

Today, my student organization, the Public Relations Student Society of America, had the distinct pleasure of visiting Ketchum’s Chicago office.

Holy cow, am I impressed with the people that work there. What struck me the most was their age and character. The guest speakers we talked to were barely out of college. Every one of them was memorable in some way. Maybe they were funny, or intelligent, or had some great advice or insight for us, but they were all the kind of people you don’t forget about meeting.

At the end of the tour we met a senior partner and Ketchum’s editorial director. They talked about the changing workforce, how the baby boomers were retiring soon, and that as long as you had the drive and …

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My sister, who interns at GolinHarris, sent me this blog entry from the NY Times.

In it, the journalist outs a public relations VP for sending him a bad pitch. He even names her, her company, and posts her entire pitch letter. The comments board alone on the entry is worth the read for any PR professional. Let it be a constant reminder to us.

In this day and age, nothing you do is private.

Sure I feel terrible for the poor lady. Even though her pitch was poorly targeted, no one deserves to be publicly humiliated for making a mistake.

Am I mad at the journalist? No. If you consider his blog, …

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I’m sure you’ve seen the latest debacle for JetBlue:

JetBlue Seeks PR Shop to Help It Out of Toilet

Last year, in my PR Cases and Crises class at Columbia, we talked extensively about JetBlue’s PR problems during the famed ice storm of Feb. ’07. Back then everyone loved JetBlue. BusinessWeek listed them as one of the country’s top 25 customer service …