So during my first couple of years as a PR professional I worked on a Fortune 500 company…a very big and high profile one. It shall remain nameless for legal reasons…hehe!
Anyway, I worked on the healthcare side of this company, which was funny because barely anyone knew they were in the healthcare field (guess that is why they needed PR). The cool thing with this company is that I got to call and work with top tier media and reporters. It was thrilling and very fast paced.
The downside of the company was the actual client…the human being who I dealt with on a daily even hourly basis. He was not patient and insanely needy. If you had to go the bathroom and weren’t there to answer your phone, he pressed 0 and had the operator page you. No joke…god forbid I had to pee. He would also hang up and call you right back multiple times a day.
I would hear the page and run back to my desk only to hear the client’s voice and realize he wasn’t paging for a breaking news emergency but for personal reasons. You see this client was getting divorced and had just recently moved to a new state. Not only was I this client’s agency, I was this client’s therapist. Two in one…quite the bang for your buck considering I was billing at a low rate since this was at the beginning of my career.
I could tell a business call vs. a therapist call by the first words out of his mouth, “Soooo listen to this…” I mean it would crack me up? What 35 year old male calls his agency to gossip about his ex? Seriously? I mean I had to take it – after all he was the client and always paid the bills on time. His “therapy sessions” single handedly helped me meet my billability each and every month.
His woes varied from the alimony to who she was dating, running into her when he was in town and how lonely he was in his new town. With every story I would reply, “awwwwwwwwwwwww, poor guy.”
I am often reminded of the sessions when I comfort the small children I take care of. Their woes are of a little bit different nature. They vary from booboos, not getting a popsicle, being pushed and tortured by a friend, sibling or cousin. They all come running needing to tell me everything. I immediately reply with a “awwwwwwwwwwww poor baby.” They seem to cheer right up and get right back out there.
Isn’t it amazing how similarly clients aka adults are to small children? It never ceases to amaze me.
August 24, 2009
August 20, 2009
The bottom line
A lot of people ask me about the pay decrease I am supposedly receiving from “switching careers.” I quickly reply that one of the best things about working in PR right of school is that I didn’t make a lot of money, so I don’t have much lower I can go on the pay scale. I also let them know that my friend who is a full-time nanny makes as much as I did when I moved to New York City. Surprised? Yea, I know, it is crazy.
The whole low pay thing is ironic considering that my clients were billed close to $200 an hour for my time. However, even though I wasn’t making six figures like my friends who graduated with engineering degrees from Georgia Tech, I did have a lot of perks.
1) Meeting celebrities – I definitely worked with and met my fair share of celebrities, such as Elizabeth Moss, Marlo Thomas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennie Garth, Michael Phelps and the Duchess of York - Sarah Ferguson.
2) I definitely acquired quite a lot of free stuff – the newest Kodak camera, Trident gum, Swedish Fish and pretty much any new and current Frito-Lay product.
3) Working in PR definitely requires that you are up on all the news and trends.
4) Traveling for work definitely allowed me to acquire a hefty sum of frequent fliers miles and hotel points. Those definitely came in handy during our recent travels to California, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
5) The dress code at agencies are definitely not near as strict as at most other companies or corporations in “Corporate America.” Going to work was like a fashion show everyday…everyone (well almost everyone) always looked cute, and the “loose” code came in handy when it was summer and you wanted to wear the cute sundress to work since you were going out right after work.
It wasn’t all perks, there was some bad stuff, too – constant 100% stress, clients own you and your time, insanely fast pace and my development of ADD. Working on ten different clients, having voicemail, email and IM constantly caused my attention to switch…not to mention the insanely fast pace made so you never had free time. I can barely sit still and focus on one thing nowadays.
Like PR, nannying has some serious perks and some serious downs.
Perks:
1) A nap every single day. When you come back to the office after lunch with friends, there is always a drop in that blood sugar and you would kill for a nap. Well, in nannying, there is almost always time for a short nap when the kiddos are napping. It is amazing!
2) Nannying is a pretty stressless job…or at least it doesn’t have the same kind of stress as other jobs.
3) During the summer you pretty much get to be outside and at the pool all the time. I have an amazing tan this season thanks to taking my nephews to the pool almost every day.
4) In nannying, you are in charge and get to make the schedule. It rules so much!
5) Another big perk to nannying is hanging out with friends. One of my good friends is a nanny, and we get together weekly with the kids. It is great, we get to catch up and the kids get to play with each other. Also, sometimes we have other friends who are jobless come meet us, and they help with the kids and we all get to catch up. SO AWESOME!
6) Dress code…what dress code…in nannying you pretty much just dress for the activity, so it can mean cute sundress or shorts and a t-shirt.
7) The kids...they are just so darn cute and fun!
Downs:
1) In PR you definitely started out making nothing, but your raises came regularly and were often quite hefty. In nannying…not so much.
2) No insurance or 401(k)
I think that is it. I will let you know when I think of others.
Well, as you can see, nannying and PR pretty much equal the same in pay, and there are perks and downsides to both.
Stay tuned for the next topic…managing expectations. It is going to be a good one!
The whole low pay thing is ironic considering that my clients were billed close to $200 an hour for my time. However, even though I wasn’t making six figures like my friends who graduated with engineering degrees from Georgia Tech, I did have a lot of perks.
1) Meeting celebrities – I definitely worked with and met my fair share of celebrities, such as Elizabeth Moss, Marlo Thomas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennie Garth, Michael Phelps and the Duchess of York - Sarah Ferguson.
2) I definitely acquired quite a lot of free stuff – the newest Kodak camera, Trident gum, Swedish Fish and pretty much any new and current Frito-Lay product.
3) Working in PR definitely requires that you are up on all the news and trends.
4) Traveling for work definitely allowed me to acquire a hefty sum of frequent fliers miles and hotel points. Those definitely came in handy during our recent travels to California, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
5) The dress code at agencies are definitely not near as strict as at most other companies or corporations in “Corporate America.” Going to work was like a fashion show everyday…everyone (well almost everyone) always looked cute, and the “loose” code came in handy when it was summer and you wanted to wear the cute sundress to work since you were going out right after work.
It wasn’t all perks, there was some bad stuff, too – constant 100% stress, clients own you and your time, insanely fast pace and my development of ADD. Working on ten different clients, having voicemail, email and IM constantly caused my attention to switch…not to mention the insanely fast pace made so you never had free time. I can barely sit still and focus on one thing nowadays.
Like PR, nannying has some serious perks and some serious downs.
Perks:
1) A nap every single day. When you come back to the office after lunch with friends, there is always a drop in that blood sugar and you would kill for a nap. Well, in nannying, there is almost always time for a short nap when the kiddos are napping. It is amazing!
2) Nannying is a pretty stressless job…or at least it doesn’t have the same kind of stress as other jobs.
3) During the summer you pretty much get to be outside and at the pool all the time. I have an amazing tan this season thanks to taking my nephews to the pool almost every day.
4) In nannying, you are in charge and get to make the schedule. It rules so much!
5) Another big perk to nannying is hanging out with friends. One of my good friends is a nanny, and we get together weekly with the kids. It is great, we get to catch up and the kids get to play with each other. Also, sometimes we have other friends who are jobless come meet us, and they help with the kids and we all get to catch up. SO AWESOME!
6) Dress code…what dress code…in nannying you pretty much just dress for the activity, so it can mean cute sundress or shorts and a t-shirt.
7) The kids...they are just so darn cute and fun!
Downs:
1) In PR you definitely started out making nothing, but your raises came regularly and were often quite hefty. In nannying…not so much.
2) No insurance or 401(k)
I think that is it. I will let you know when I think of others.
Well, as you can see, nannying and PR pretty much equal the same in pay, and there are perks and downsides to both.
Stay tuned for the next topic…managing expectations. It is going to be a good one!
Well, hello there!
Well, here I am a nanny. Five years ago when I started at one of the top PR agencies in the world, I would have never believed you if I said I was going to be a nanny back here in the A-T-L.
You see, I majored in PR, had three PR internships and was a PR girl in every stretch of the word. I wanted to live and breathe PR. When I got my job at the above mentioned agency I went crazy with excitement. It was like being handed the golden ticket for the Willy Wonka Factory Tour in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I thought I was set for life and focused on working.
In five years, I slowly moved up the ladder, made great friends, got married, moved to New York City with said agency and learned a ton about corporate America, business, budgets and people. It was a hell of a ride. However, during the five years at said agency, I always wondered what else was out there. I would try to leave, but I always got pulled back with the lure of fun consumer clients and cool PR perks.
Well, when my husband and I decided to move back to HOTLANTA, I decided I would quit said agency and get a new job (after traveling the world for five weeks, of course). Who knew when we made this plan the economy would hit rock bottom and allow me to do something completely different. I wanted to try to something different like marketing or accounting…didn’t think nannying would be it. However, over the course of the past six months, I have baby-sat for numerous families and have been taking care of nephews. I never knew I would love it so much. Perhaps this is where I belong.
Also, apparently I am a little too good at PR. Every time I would interview for a job outside of PR or even outside of agency life, people would ask me why I wanted to leave because my life sounded glamorous. Apparently, I was a little too good at making the past five years look like the “chocolate factory.”
Anyway, so here I am nannying. Loving it…never knew working wouldn’t feel like working.
After a few months of nannying, I now know that PR was preparing me for it. I mean clients and co-workers really are like kids. You have to manage up and down the ladder and manage expectations. Never promise something you don’t end up keeping. You constantly explain to both kids and clients that sometimes things really are out of your control. You also end up finding yourself doing things and saying things you never would.
As I find these comparisons, I hope to recount them here. So stay tuned for lots of fun and excitement. Hey, maybe you will even learn something.
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