PR: An Ideal Career For Military Spouses
By Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer
Summer 2007
Angela Toda is an Army spouse and public relations professional who has successfully moved her PR career during eight relocations in 13 years of being married to the military.
She shares the facts about this mobile career field – and, in fact, these details apply to many different mobile careers for military spouses.
“I have progressed, but not in the traditional trajectory,” Toda says. “I’d like to be more focused within my first love, high tech, versus being more of a generalist or jack-of-all-trades. That said, our travels have also brought me opportunities and valuable international experience. The world of business is undeniably global. Business people with proven international skills are very much in demand. Military spouses who can build a career that leverages their international experiences can make themselves very marketable.”
If you seek to make public relations your mobile career, you must open your eyes to the variety of work available to an individual with relevant education, skills and experience. Toda, for example, has worked for PR agencies, an overseas education association, a credit union, a business school within a major university and as a contractor for a communications firm.
Consider these resources as you keep your possibilities open:
- The Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, provided by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov. The Handbook shows the PR field is expected to grow at an 18-26 percent rate through 2014.
- Some of the top books about the PR field, including Career Opportunities in Advertising and Public Relations, fourth edition, by Shelly Field; What You Can Do with a Major in English, by Shelley O’Hara; and Great Jobs for English Majors, third edition, by Julie DeGalan.
- Job banks available to military spouses at www.military.com/spouse, www.militaryspousejobsearch.org and www.msccn.org. You may access different job openings at each of these sites, so it is worth your time to use all three.
- The new, free career counseling resource at www.military.com/spouse.
- Job banks available through the Public Relations Society of America (www.PRSA.org). You can review the job listings even if you are not yet a member.
Network With Other PR Pros
“Any military spouse who [works in a career with] a professional association, join it!” recommends public relations professional and Army spouse Rebecca Poynter. “If you are a PR person, join PRSA. When you hit a new location, attend meetings and ask for a mentor, find someone you like and ask to meet at lunch to get guidance and tips on your new geographic area.”
Toda echoes that thought. When asked to name the most useful resource for a spouse moving a PR career, her answer is “Networking, networking, networking!”
PRSA offers a substantial network of 28,000 members and 112 chapters nationwide. It provides ongoing learning and professional development through two publications, onsite seminars, teleseminars, e-learning and an international conference. In addition to the job bank, PRSA provides a structured mentor program, offering help online and in person from accredited professionals with 20 or more years of experience. Its New Professionals group serves the career development needs of individuals within their first three years of experience. You also enjoy access to the membership directory useful for networking, especially as you move with the military.
A new PRSA member benefit, Blue Chip Public Relations, connects organizations with PR consultants, contractors and interim executives for project work, and thus could prove especially helpful to military spouses who choose project work rather than full-time work due to moves and deployments.
Depending on your focus, you might also research the member benefits of the International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabc.org) or the National Press Club (www.npc.press.org).
Connect PR Skills, Military Experience
As with other mobile careers, military spouses in the public relations field have successfully continued their careers using a number of different approaches:
Taking on PR positions in a wide variety of industries, organizations and associations. Toda is a perfect example of this approach.
Using PR skills in a wide variety of opportunities in and out of the industry. Clare Morris, an Army wife, has used her skills working at the West Point public affairs office, as a freelancer selling articles, copywriting for corporate clients, as a press secretary and media relations director for a congressman, and as a technical writer/editor for a company in
Combining PR skills with the military spouse experience in work that utilizes both. Navy spouse Meredith Leyva is a prime example. During her career, she has worked as a public relations strategist and lobbyist for defense and technology companies such as Boeing, General Dynamics and CareerBuilder.com, and served as a legislative assistant to Sen. Jon Kyl. While employed at Fleishman Hillard, the huge public relations firm, Leyva founded CinCHouse.com (www.cinchouse.com), the online community for military wives, girlfriends and women in uniform. She has syndicated her commentaries to military base newspapers and wrote a book, Married to the Military. Many spouses have combined their public relations skills with their military experiences to work as writers for base newspapers or community and public relations positions in off-post agencies.
Choosing to start their own PR firm in order to move the business as they move. After working in various public relations positions with a number of firms, Poynter climbed the corporate communications ladder at AT&T Wireless, where she eventually directed public, media and employee communications for 10 states. In 2005, she began her own business, OnPoynt Communications (www.onpoynt.com), and has co-founded the Military Spouse Business Association (www.milspousebiz.org).
“I recommend that military spouses immediately introduce themselves to potential employers or companies who might hire them on a freelance or part-time basis as soon as they arrive at a new location,” Poynter says. “I went through the yellow pages and called every PR and marketing firm, graphic designer and web designer listed and asked them if I could come by and show them my portfolio. It led to my first freelance assignment.”
Working hard, staying proactive and creative to see new opportunities, and networking to discover the possibilities – that’s the path to pursuing a mobile career in public relations. And yes, it is the virtually identical path when pursuing any mobile career as a military spouse.
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Military spouses Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer are public speakers and co-authors of “Help! I’m a Military Spouse – I Want a Life Too: How to Craft a Life for YOU as You Move with the Military.” For more information or to request a presentation at your community, go to www.militaryspousehelp.com or send a message to kathie@militaryspousehelp.com
