Just what DO you do for a living?

I love my job, but at times I am a little jealous of friends who are doctors, engineers, accountants – traditional professions that you can explain easily to small people.

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My son recently mentioned that one of his friend’s dads had asked what I did for a job, and he’d had to admit he wasn’t entirely sure.

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He and his sister know that every now and then I go to London for trade shows and come back with branded pens, pads and the odd cuddly toy; I have meetings in Manchester which usually entail lunch at the Hard Rock Café (one of the ‘perks’ of the job); I occasionally meet the odd famous face (Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, Sara Davies from Dragons’ Den and King Charles to name but three from the last couple of years). 

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That’s about the extent of it; when I was a journalist it was far easier – ‘I interview people and write stories which appear in print or online’ is pretty much the elevator pitch for that profession. 

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But PR? Where do you start? ‘I help raise awareness’ sounds as flaky as a Greggs sausage roll – and you can’t pin it down to one thing like ‘I build things’ or ‘I help heal sick people’. 

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Explaining what PR is isn’t a good starting point to be honest: ‘What I do is the managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organisation to the public in order to influence their perception’. Catchy, eh? 

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I tend to say it’s like journalism, but from the other side of the fence. And then some.

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There are so many facets to the job – writing, planning, liaising with clients and journalists, brainstorming, product testing, handling crises at unsociable hours, attending networking events, trade shows, monitoring news and social media channels… and that’s just for starters.

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Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my job, and it’s the variety of client work and each working week that get me up in the morning; I just wish it was easier to explain to a 13-year-old. 

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