There’s been much buzz and many tweets about an article today in Ragan’s PR Daily. It references a study by CareerCast that says that PR is the second most stressful field – ranking after commercial airline pilot (the most stressful), but ahead of others including emergency room workers.
This is not terribly surprising to me. I find PR to be a rewarding profession, and I enjoy the fast pace. However, it is a service business, assuming that you work for an agency. You have multiple bosses and many people to please: clients, agency management, team members, and of course the infuencers and media that you do your best to get attention from every day.
The story kind of reminded me of a post that I wrote for Fusion PR forum awhile back. Here is an excerpt:
The reputation of PR is not helped by the fact that many people outside the profession simply do not understand what it is about.
When you think about it, it is simply amazing that we go out there and get the job done every day, considering the many skills that the average PR person who manages accounts is expected to master. He or she must be a word smith; a storyteller; a good conversationalist; a salesperson; a customer support person; a marketing strategist; a manager and resource coordinator; an MC of sorts, to facilitate interviews and press events; and a media specialist.
Honestly I don’t have any idea about what does a PR do but when I read this article I agree that this is one of the most stressful job but as you said, nothing can stress you if you love what you’re doing. Good luck my friend.