By Claire Ayles
Working for an agency which is always on the lookout for the best talent, it's depressing to see that Graduate Prospects, 'the UK's official graduate careers website', describes PR as a career not suited to women returning to work after maternity leave. As a new mother still working in PR, I also find this a bit perplexing.
Graduate Prospects reaches this conclusion because PRs are required to work 'long, unsociable hours'. This may or may not be true (for instance, at JK we focus on working hard rather than long, although extra hours are sometimes inevitable), but even when it is the case, why should this necessarily preclude mothers from working in the industry? It's not like lawyers, doctors, retailers - or indeed most other people - have it any easier.
PR isn't operating in the dark ages; it is possible to work part-time, either from home or via job sharing. Of course, having kids does change things. Childcare providers are expensive and tend to stick to rigid hours, which means working parents can't stay in the office 24/7 (not that they should have to anyway). But don't mobile phones and the internet allow us to work flexibly, from anywhere at anytime? It's not exactly rocket science these days.
With the PR industry predominantly staffed by women, it is in agencies' best interests to offer a career path to those returning to work, otherwise the talent they've worked so hard to train will be needlessly lost. Indeed, my experience (which I share with other mothers I know working in the industry) is one of agencies understanding and accommodating the needs of working parents.
Many graduates looking to get on the PR career ladder may not be considering starting a family anytime soon - but when we're interviewing, we'd expect the more savvy and committed (ie. sought after) candidates to ask us about their long-term career prospects. In an interview situation, we can explain that PR isn't just for the young, free and single, it can be a job for life - but unfortunately, this does little to reverse the decisions of all those top quality graduates who have already (wrongly) dismissed PR in favour of more 'family friendly' careers.
Goodness. I have to comment! I agree with you totally. I run a small PR agency where we are all mums. I switched from journalism into PR because it is so much more flexible - and here I am seven years on, somehow combining the two. All the best.
Posted by: Linda | 06 August 2006 at 20:47
Graduate Prospects aims to present a balanced overview of the graduate experience, presenting factual information, both positive and negative.
The quote on the Graduate Prospects website is from former president of the CIPD, who suggested that the PR industry needed to deal with a number of issues to address the changing needs of society. One of the issues was that, "Many capable women do not return to the industry after having a break for maternity leave. This is largely due to the fact that the industry has long, unsociable hours and can be very demanding."
It is good to see that the PR industry has taken the advice of the former CIPD president and are now offering career paths and more flexible working patterns to accommodate the needs of working mothers.
Posted by: Martin Gresty | 25 August 2006 at 15:43