CareerCast.com recently released its 2010 Jobs Rated Report, which ranked 200 jobs from best to worst. If you’re curious, the “best” is actuary and the “worst” is roustabout (a job that requires physical labor and maintenance on oil rigs and pipelines – certainly something that I am not suited for).
Public relations (PR) executive made the ranks at 79 (beating out my boyfriend’s profession though – architects were rated at 86). CareerCast explains that the rankings are given based on factual analysis and hard data, not guesswork. According to CareerCast’s data, while PR ranks very low in physical demands (7.24 on a 3.95 to 43.23 scale), we rank pretty high in the stress department (78.523 on an 18.776 to 110.936 scale).
This made me think – as a PR professional, am I really as stressed as this ranking says I should be? I consider it not as much stress as a desire to succeed. We juggle multiple clients, working to perform at our best for each one. We take on as many opportunities as possible, and work to see each through to the end. At the end of the day, the reward is the great coverage we achieve, our happy clients and understanding that we are helping to grow and enhance the reputation of our agency.
In reviewing CareerCast’s rankings, I have to take them with a grain of salt. Rating a job can’t be done on a profession-wide scale, but can only be understood office-by-office. At Articulate we work hard, but the rewards and work environment are the returns for our hard work.
Perhaps it’s this desire for feedback and reward that drove me to PR. If I performed the same exact job, month after month, year after year, I’d quickly tire of it. PR is an ever-changing world, and our multiple clients and tasks keep us on our toes, growing and adapting to become the best that we can be.
By Ashleigh Egan