Lauryn Gray | Oct. 14, 2010
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| Photo by Lauryn Gray |
| IU Foundation's Barbara Coffman, right, talked about managing media relations for a nonprofit as co-panelist Jim Parham of Hirons & Co. listened. They were two of the guests of PRSSA Wednesday night. |
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The panel featured Jim Parham of Hirons & Co., Melanie Schneider of Indiana University athletics media relations, Barbara Coffman of the Indiana University Foundation, and Jackie Gutmann of Raytheon Co.
Drawing on his 23 years of experience, Parham talked about working at an agency. As executive vice president and director of client services, Parham specializes in environmental communications work for a wide array of government clients.
Working in a public relations agency requires handling multiple clients, deadlines and pressures, he said.
“In an agency, intensity is there, deadlines are there, and creativity is there,” he said.
Parham outlined skills sets newcomers need when joining an agency. First on his list: strategic thinking. In a close second — and what Parham called “an absolute necessity” — are writing skills. Interpersonal skills, qualitative and quantitative analysis research skills, and knowing marketing inside and out round out the list.
“We don’t do guesswork,” he said.
Melanie Schneider came to IU four years ago and has 13 years of experience as an assistant athletics media relations director. She previously worked at Fresno State University and University of Akron.
Schneider said she entered the workforce as a sports writer for a newspaper, but soon decided print media was not the right job for her. In a desire to combine her passions for sports and communications, she found her place in athletics media relations.
Throughout her career she has worked in football, men’s and women’s basketball, swimming, golf, softball and track and field. Now, she works with the IU men’s soccer team.
Schneider described her responsibilities, such as writing press releases, updating statistics to the NCAA and sometimes running the scoreboard at games.
“It’s exciting. It’s never the same,” Schneider said.
She talked about the time and effort she puts into her career, noting that she has not spent Thanksgiving with her family since 1997.
“But if you love it, it’s worth it,” she said. “My job is to look out for the student athletes. I want to makes sure our student athletes are portrayed in a positive light.”
As IU Foundation’s executive director of strategic planning and communications, Barbara Coffman drew on her experience in managing media relations for a nonprofit. Her work includes writing press releases on topics such as fundraising successes and donations made to the university, as well as writing speeches and presentations for IU President Michael McRobbie.
“I’ve had a lot of fun working for the IU Foundation,” Coffman said. “Nonprofit is a great way to go.”
For the last presentation, the audience heard from Gutmann, BAJ’07, via speakerphone from Tucson, where she works in as senior public relations representative for Raytheon, a missile systems company. She talked about her experiences in corporate communications and the differences between her field and agencies.
“When you’re in an agency, you don’t really become an expert in any one field,” Gutmann said. “At Raytheon, I really am a subject matter expert when it comes to army missiles.”
Gutmann explained how at a corporate level, public relations officials are responsible for the company’s success and often work with other areas of the company, such as financial teams and sales teams.
When a student asked Gutmann how she found success so quickly after graduating, she explained that she took advantages of the opportunities around her while in school, such as attending resume workshops, taking PR and advertising courses, getting involved in PRSSA and completing several internships.
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| Photo by Lauryn Gray |
| Parham described his myriad responsibilities as director of client services at the ad agency. “In an agency, intensity is there, deadlines are there, and creativity is there,” he said. |
The PRSSA meeting ended with a question and answer segment between students and the panel of guests. Each speaker said public relations and communications are industries that will continue to evolve. Right now, social media is changing the industry.
Parham said viral marketing has reached every social media outlet and PR professionals must have multimedia skills.
“It’s a very creative environment and it’s all mixed together,” Parham said. “It’s all communications. It’s blurred and it’s exciting.”
Afterward, several students stayed to introduce themselves to the panel of guests.
Junior Rachel Krasnow said the panel discussion gave her a better understanding of the many opportunities in the PR field.
“I think PR is kind of a hard field to describe and put into words in one sentence, so to see all representatives of different sectors gave me a feel of what I can do in the field,” Krasnow said.
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