culpwrit » Ward White’s Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job

8/3/2019 culpwrit Ward Whites Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job

1/3

10/20/11 10:57 AMculpwrit Ward Whites Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job

Page 1 of 3http://www.culpwrit.com/2011/01/30/ward-whites-career-path-provides-tips-for-landing-your-first-job/

2

Home ABOUT Blogs CAREER CAPSULES CONTACT SITEMAP

culpwrit

guiding the career in public relations

Categories

Advice from a Pro

CareersDay in the LifeFirst Day on the JobFuture LeadersGuest PostJob SearchMentorshipNew LinksOff-the-WallQ&AsUncategorizedVolunteerism

Recent Entries

Joe Clarkson Wins Culpwrit ScholarshipA Woman to Watch Offers Tips to Career SuccessIntroverts Welcome in Public RelationsDid Boomer Parents Prepare You For A Boomer Boss? These 7 Tips Will HelpStudent-Run Agency Lands Big Client and Creates Relevant Career Experience

Recent Comments

Madison Hrdlicka on Introverts Welcome in Public RelationsCaleb on Did Boomer Parents Prepare You For A Boomer Boss? These 7 Tips Will HelpBob "Pritch" Pritchard on Student-Run Agency Lands Big Client and Creates Relevant Career ExperienceKevin on Introverts Welcome in Public Relations

Culpwrit on Introverts Welcome in Public Relations

!New Expectations of College Students (And The Secret to Meeting Them)New Job? Definitely Sign Up for 401K"

Ward Whites Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job

January 30th, 2011 2 Comments

Like Be the first of your friends to like this.

Ward White

The employer says, You have no experience, how can I hire you? You say, How can I get experience if no one will hire me? This chicken-and-egg dilemma makes landing your first job one of lifes toughest challenges.

Heres my story of landing that first job.

Im a career changer. Seriously overeducated after advanced degrees in two fields, I started out teaching college in Houston. Before long, it

became obvious to me that I needed a lot more action and adrenaline than the classroom could provide.


2/3



The how-to-get-a-job classic, What Color Is Your Parachute?, pointed me to public relations as the best field for me. Boy, was I lucky! Almost 40years later, I can tell you that its been absolutely the right career for me challenging, endlessly fascinating and richly rewarding in every way.

But I didnt know that in 1973. I was living alone in Houston, unemployed and searching for that first PR job. Faithful to Parachutes counsel, I wasnetworking like crazy. Late one afternoon, working out of the Main Reading Room of the Houston Public Library, I returned a phone call to anetworking contact.

Standco wants to interview you at 9 tomorrow morning. They want a corporate communications person. Can you be there?

Be there? You betcha!

I at once jumped into doing what I knew best fast, down-and-dirty research, a side-benefit of all those burn-the midnight-oil term papers. My bestcredential for landing this job was labeled Being a Versatile Writer, but I had no work samples to show, beyond academic stuff.

Trying to turn that weakness into a strength, I set out to cobble together a profile article on Standco Industries, some proof that would show I couldwrite. There were hurdles. I knew next to nothing about the industry, oilfield manufacturing. I had never heard of the company. It was privatelyowned, which meant that information on the company would be scarce. No Google in those days, remember. And no personal computers yet. Theonly computers in that era were a few monster-size mainframes at big companies.

I dug and dug, all manually Houston Post, Chronicle and Business Journal, Hoovers Directory, Thomas Register, trade journals, following everylead and taking notes feverishly until closing time at 9 p.m.

Next, a drive on dark streets to Standcos main plant produced only an uncooperative nightwatchman. I had wasted a precious hour. It was after 10when I reached my $125-a-month single-room apartment and started putting words onto paper on my clunky Smith-Corona typewriter. By 3 a.m., Ihad a 750-words article and called it a night.

Promptly at 9:00 the next morning, in my best plaid polyester suit, I was ushered in to see the Senior VP of HR. He read my article first thing, thenstood up and abruptly left the room. My heart was pounding. Finally returning, he asked me to join him in the CEOs office. That proved to be thefirst of back-to-back-to-back interviews with a string of Standco executives, that whole day. Before I left at nightfall, I had a job offer.

Since then, Ive been lucky enough to work for five top agencies (RuderFinn, Bozell, GolinHarris, Vollmer and now Edelman) and one truly greatcorporation (Northwestern Mutual). I especially loved being part of the crew that built Bozell PR into what is today the backbone ofWeberShandwick. Over those 15 years, I served in Bozell offices in six cities, moving eventually to New York and becoming CEO of Bozell PRWorldwide. It was a great run with wonderful, talented colleagues who remain friends to this day.

Even more I treasured 15 years (1990-2005) as chief communications officer for one of Americas most respected companies, Northwestern Mutual.It was a privilege to be part of that extraordinary institution.

And the saga continues. Ive been blessed with the opportunity to give something back to the profession through the Institute for Public Relations, theAccrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and a couple other industry-leadership groups.

And just weeks ago, I started a grand new adventure as Chief Strategy Officer for Edelmans Southwest region. What a ride it continues to be!

A career is always changing, and you never know what is around the corner. I could retire, but when its this much fun, why stop now?

What to make of all this?

1. The first job can be really tough to land. How can you make your uniqueness stand out?

2. Simply showing up for the interview is not enough. Merely talking about your strengths may not be enough. It may take research, listening,digging, doing not just talking. The challenge is to figure a way to demonstrate concretely your unique assets. A good portfolio helps, but ithas the drawback of being about you. You want something about them.

3. As my article did, focus attention on the potential employer. Relate your strengths to their challenges. Your edge may be in the questions youask, intelligent questions that show your research on the company. Sometimes an internship is the way to demonstrate what you bring to the table.

Sometimes its a freelance project or assignment. Sometimes its pro bono or political work. Think what can I do for them? and not just what canI say to them?

I see this field, not as public relations, but as public relationships. As Arthur Page taught us, any organization or business exists based on thepublics trust and the publics permission. From that first day in Houston till today, creating public relationships, public engagement, has beenimmensely satisfying for me. I find in my work a sense of purpose, a feeling that Im helping make our economy and our society function better. Ihope you land that first job soon, and find this field every bit as stimulating and rewarding as I have. Good luck to you.

As the Chief Strategy Officer ofEdelman Southwest, Ward White counsels clients and agency executives regarding organizational direction,

priorities, corporate culture and strategic account planning.

Like Be the first of your friends to like this.

Tags:Advice from a Pro Guest Post Job Search

2 responses so far ##

1Samuel Sunmonu// Jan 30, 2011 at 3:25 pm

Interesting post. As Im applying for jobs, Im looking constantly looking for ways that I can provide value to an employer.

Instead of talking about myself, Im trying to find ways to say things like, I can increase your Facebook page followers from 100 to 200.

But that is not always easy, especially when I dont have that broad of a skill-set yet.

2Whitney Gonzalez// Feb 1, 2011 at 1:40 pm

This is an excellent post. I have been studying job hunting and interviewing tips since I will be a college graduate in May 2011. It can beextremely intimidating when trying to land that first job and Im feeling the pressure already. Some of the questions that arise within me are:


3/3



How early should I start applying for jobs? How do I know who the right people to meet are?, etc.

I always try to do my homework on employers that Im trying to work for by researching their mission statement, company values, etc. inorder to be able to assure them, and myself, that I am the candidate that they are in search for.

I love the phrase that says that we are not in the public relations field but we are in the public relationships field and that is extremely true. Imtrying my best to meet people that can not only teach me a lot about the field, but even be my potential employer.

Thanks for sharing this!

Leave a Comment

Name

Mail

Website

Submit

Search

To search, type and hi

Important Links

Arthur W. Page SocietyCenter for Global Public RelationsCouncil of Public Relations FirmsHispanic Public Relations Association

Institute for Public RelationsInternational Association of Business CommunicatorsJob CenterNational Black Public Relations SocietyPlank Center for Leadership in Public RelationsPlatform Online MagazinePR Quick StartPublic Relations Consultants Association (UK)Public Relations Society of AmericaPublic Relations Student Society of AmericaThe Lagrant Foundation

20062007 culpwrit Sitemap Cutline by Chris Pearson | SEO By Court's Internet Marketing School. Get Cutline 3 Column Split

Switch to our mobile site

culpwrit » Ward White’s Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job

Documents

Transcript of culpwrit » Ward White’s Career Path Provides Tips For Landing Your First Job