"How to I get inside one of those big public relations agencies in Manhattan?"
That's what my $15.75 per hour Ivy League graduate who did light copy editing for me had asked me. She was too smart to go the intern route. After all, she has been savvy enough to land paid communications work here in Connecticut. She was even earning enough to move out of her childroom room in her parent's home in Hartford County.
"Go online and retrieve O'Dwyer's List of the top PR fims."
That's what I recommended. She was to go down the list and check out the websites of those Manhattan PR firms. After analyzing them, then she would create a pattern letter, no resume attached, to describe how she could create value for the firm, and then email a customized version of that to each firm she likely had a shot at. Where the firm listed multiple specializations, she could send multiple letters but with each aligned in tone and content to the specialty.
Her face said: Hey, that's a lot of work. I explained that's how I have scouted up assignments, in good times and bad. My return on investment (ROI) on time spent when I rely on O'Dwyer's lists significantly beats up using Mediabistro.com, Craigslist, and Journalismjobs.com.
She sucked it up and got busy with the O'Dwyer's list. Within five days she landed four interviews. She accepted the first offer. Later one other followed. Unfortunately, she's traveling too much on the job to get started on a documentary for "Insider's Guide to Paid Work."
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