When the novelty wears off

In the last weeks, I was asked a few times whether I’m still so excited to be working in public relations and whether I’m still loving it as much as I did at the beginning. After careful consideration, my answer would be ‘no.’ But let me explain.

Some might remember me documenting smaller and bigger milestones of my very early public relations days. I’ve made it! I’m now a practitioner! I’ve a company email, business cards, my own Gorkana account, and a corporate membership to the industry body. But then, just like with everything else in life, the harsh reality hits. There are looming deadlines, shedload of pieces of coverage to clip into a report. There might be weeks when you’re the first one in and the last one out of the office.

It’s not the case of having high expectations — I’ve never had them. I just wanted to do something in PR. Shape the news, make an impact. Change the world even!

Being jaded fuelling scepticism

I recently caught up with Max Tatton-Brown. I always enjoy talking with Max, because of his fresh perspective. He has this ability to open one's mind to new ideas. Thanks to an hour of our chat, I realised that my minor symptom of getting jaded isn’t all that bad.

Because I became a bit sceptical, I now question more things. I’m helping the teams I work across to take different perspective and deliver the best work for our clients. Why on earth would I pitch the story to this journo that I know is irrelevant? Won't putting this piece of work in the body of an email, rather than PowerPoint deck, be so much more time-effective way of presenting to the client? I need more help here — I’ve spent too much time writing this announcement!

Critical thinking and self-awareness

I feel that my work is more thoughtful and more mature. My self-awareness has seemingly increased. My thinking is also more critical now -- something Judy Gombita and I exchanged a lot of tweets about.

I know this headline is slightly different from what I’d usually write. I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way. I’m incredibly privileged to be working within one of the most exciting industries there are and to be surrounded by some of the best people. And at the end of the day, I read news for a living. Can you think of any more groovier job description than this?

Without getting into too much detail, PR can sometimes be annoying, stressful, even dull. But oh boy, if you get some things right, it can be such a rewarding career.

— Marcel Klebba (@marcelkl) July 19, 2018

PR is an amazing and rewarding career. I’m only at the very beginning of my journey. I’ve so much to learn! But I can definitely see myself in this career for a long time — maybe lifetime. But this ecstatic, and a bit naïve, Marcel is gone. Now it’s time to focus, grow, surround myself with great people and carry on listening to Today programme.

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If you have any suggestions, would like to guest post or give me a feedback, feel free to email me at kl.marcel [at] gmail.com, tweet me @marcelkl or connect with me on LinkedIn. Thanks for stopping by, have a splendid day!

A photo in the header is from my own collection. For more, see my Instagram here.