Tag: career

Where did all the men go?

Posted on | by Ketner Group

Some questions have no easy answer. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?

Add another question to that list: What happened to all of the men in PR?

It wasn’t all that long ago that a bunch of men established the public relations industry as we know it today. Innovative businessmen like P.T. Barnum first pushed the limits of publicity, and were followed by enterprising young men like Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee, who met a need that executives all over the world didn’t know they had yet.

The world’s largest and most successful PR agencies were, not surprisingly, founded by men. Still today, the executive leadership of global media conglomerates and smaller, privately held PR firms alike is largely male. But one look around the office, and it’s obvious things have changed in the last fifty years. Our own Ketner Group office is a microcosm of this gender imbalance, with our lone male, our agency principal, outnumbered five to one. Continue reading →

A word from our newest!

Posted on | by Ketner Group | 1 Comment on A word from our newest!

Brittany graduateI’m Ketner Group’s resident rookie. I graduated with my bachelor’s of public relations way, way back in May 2009, and promptly joined the Ketner Group family.

I’ve known from the beginning that I liked my job. We have awesome clients. I have a super cute desk (let’s be honest, what PR girl does not like cute office furniture from IKEA?) and post-it notes that bear my initials (again, PR ladies, do not act like you aren’t jealous). I even have my own extension and business cards (I know you are impressed!). Our team really is like a family, which I proudly admit even though I fall squarely in the “cliché” camp with that admission.

I knew I liked my job, but when friends, family and really anyone else asked me how I liked it, I would quickly give a thoughtless answer, something like, “It’s OK,” and change the subject.
Really? It’s just OK?

I blame my wishy-washy feelings on the transition from full-time student to full-time employee. Let’s examine.

Maybe it was my deep-seated fear that I chose the wrong major. I mean, there was that existential meltdown of 2007 when I applied for and was accepted to become an advertising major, only to jump right back into the PR camp after deciding my professors were biased and made advertising appear overly sexy and glamorous. For shame, professors! But I never did feel confident in my decision again.

Maybe it was how I didn’t know how I truly felt about the cold, hard fact that I will never again have a summer vacation or a whole month off for winter break. Truthfully, it was a little difficult to pick and choose which family holiday obligations I was actually obliged to attend, and then to carefully ration my vacation days so as to make the most people happy while saving enough days for the rest of the year. Continue reading →