So… what we’re providing below is insight into salary ranges for positions at top 20 agencies in the five major markets where we have dedicated recruiters… NY, Chicago, LA, SF, and London. (For now we are not listing corporate salaries since these vary widely by title… maybe next year.)  Although limited in scope we believe this provides a solid snapshot of what the major firms are paying without skewing that information by including lots of smaller firms — and smaller markets.

Here’s our first “subjective” salary survey for your consumption:

“Ms. Alexis is extremely talented and will help us quickly build our presence in this very vibrant and exciting PR market,” said PR Talent President Jim Delulio. “With offices in New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago and now London, we are uniquely positioned to tap talent on both sides of the Atlantic, giving clients fast access to the very deepest talent pool of public relations professionals.”

Prior to joining PR Talent, Ms. Alexis led recruitment efforts for Fortune 500 companies and executive search firms in the U.S. and Europe, including Lifetime Networks, MTV Networks, Pfizer, Mediaedge:cia, L’Oréal and others.

“I’m passionate about helping clients win the war for talent… finding the next rock star is my obsession,” said Ms. Alexis. “And there aren’t many bigger stages for that talent in Europe than London, which clearly offers an amazing variety of in-house and agency opportunities.”

PR Talent’s laser focus on public relations also means that it has established deep pools of talent across almost every industry and communications specialty like social media, crisis communications, CSR, and media relations. According to Mr. Delulio, the demand for PR talent continues to grow as corporations require more support to manage ever-evolving social media and digital tools – as well as the reputation management issues that result from their use.

“Smart companies know that talent wins. They pick their PR agencies based on talent and they staff their communications departments with the best and brightest,” noted Mr. Delulio. “Our firm’s goal is simple — make it easier for corporations and agencies to identify this winning talent around the world.”
PR Talent offers both full-time and freelance public relations talent across all areas of expertise and industries. The firm, headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., was founded by Mr. Delulio in 1998 after 17 years as a PR professional.

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He didn’t invent anything that really changed the way we live our lives.  He improved products and added great style and elegance to the design.  He was a master marketer who built a cool company but he didn’t invent the PC or the mobile phone.  Maybe our laptops wouldn’t be so colorful and our phones  so easy to use… or maybe 3D animation wouldn’t be quite so advanced but we’d still be have them.  Now listen… I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s funeral parade but this guy was no Einstein… or Edison… was he?

But life is hectic.  The work day is hectic.  It’s tough to sit back and put some serious thought into that next career move.  But are there really many things that are more important in terms of helping to ensure your professional and financial satisfaction?  If you spent an hour a month strategizing your career, you’d probably be spending more time on career planning than 90% of your peers and would have a better career trajectory and achieve faster financial rewards.  That’s especially true for professionals in the first 5 years of their career.  These  young professionals or YoPRo’s as many young PR professional organizations call them, are so caught up in their day to day  job responsibilities that they don’t take the opportunity to breathe, look up and try to envision where they want to be in 5, 10 or 20 years.  

And when they finally do get to the point of contemplating a move they typically chase the cheese instead of taking a longer term view that ultimately leads to even more cheese.  Chart out a rough career plan and then talk to an (external) industry recruiter and get in their talent pool, so you’re seeing as many opportunities as possible.   My point is simple.  Spend a little time to plan and to think and it will pay off in a more rewarding career.

With apologies to Bill Maher, here are a couple of other New Rules for today’s PR hiring market:

1) This is not the time to make a career transition.  As I mentioned in my blast email from today, companies want the “perfect beast” candidate not someone who can be the perfect candidate with some career training.  Delay your career transition attempts until the market picks up — or try to get some consulting gigs to build up the portfolio.

2) Be the Boy Scout.  Hiring managers expect candidates to be extremely well-prepared and excited about the opportunity.  Again, hiring managers are in the driver’s seat and can choose to be picky in this environment.  Dig deep to find out everything you can about the company, it’s history, it’s key execs, the hiring manager and competitor landscape.

3) Mirror the job description in your resume.  Companies are trying to be as objective as possible in selecting candidates… some even use sophisticated software programs to review resumes and rank candidates by how closely their resume matches key words or phrases in the job description.  Re-write your resume accordingly.  Don’t lie of course, but use key words and phrases from the job description in highlighting your relevent experience for the particular job.

4) Be the Rock Star.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard clients ask for ”rock star candidates.”   But what does that mean?  Typically it’s somewhat who has managed their career and progressively grown their skillset and responsibility with each move.  (Think 2-4 years per rung on the ladder.)   In PR that often means working with bigger and better client brands, companies or projects.  You can’t make yourself a rock star by re-writing your resume but you can emphasize how each move has been a step forward professionally that have molded your rock star personna.  You need to have a vision for where you want to take your career and what steps will lead to Rock Star status.

5) Strong Writing Rules.  More and more companies and agencies are putting together stringent writing tests to weed out weak candidates.  I’m not sure if this is driven by the market, the growth of social media or frustration at hiring PR staff that can’t write.  My guess it’s a combination of all three.  My point is… now more than ever, if you’re not a great writer you’re going to have a very limited PR career of smiling and dialing.  Work at it and grow your talent and boast about it on your resume and in your interviews.  It will pay off in a better and more satisfying career. 

6)  Social Media Swiss Army Knife.   The growth in PR agency revenues over the past 8 months can be directly attributed to the growing prominence of PR as the discipline leading the social media charge.  A lot of old guard PR pros (i.e. people my age) have been saying that Social Media is just another tool at our disposal.  Yes… BUT… social media is no ordinary tool.  It’s more like a Swiss Army Knife transformer with a whole bunch of tools that are quickly evolving and changing and being used with greater and greater sophistication.  This takes a concerted effort to stay up to speed on what the tools are, how to integrate them, and how to measure them.  You really don’t want to be the last in the neighborhood to discover the cool mini-scissors!!

So what’s up with the doom and gloom hiring forecast that we see in the media.  Most of the dismal projections are forecast in blue collar positions and not in white collar, service industry position.  At the moment, companies are ready to invest in marketing and PR and capture some of the market share they’ve lost over the past two years… even if it means diminishing profit margins, companies are recognizing the opportunity to generate sales, grap market share and position themselves as industry leaders when the economy does turn around.  The old adage ”where there’s chaos there’s opportunity” appears to be the catch phrase for risk-taking twenty ten entrepreneurs trying to kick start some sort of revenue generation in the face of a balky world economy.  Not sure if it’s risk-taking or just business people who are sick of sitting on their hands and just want to get back in the game.   Regardless… there’s action in the marketplace and PR people are getting hired again on a freelance and full-time basis.

This year there’s a palpable sense that people want to do business.  They want to quit wringing their hands and take some risks.  Make some decisions and actually get stuff done.  I think everyone’s tired of the woe is me, recession blues that have been the soundtrack of the last two years. 

And this new Patti LaBelle “New Attitude” soundtrack for business is also going to influence consumer buying behavior and in turn impact everything from the housing market to packaged goods to the stock market.  And that means more corporate spending on marketing and public relations — and more hiring by PR departments and PR agencies. 

So now’s the time to polish up the resume, check your target list of potential employers, and figure out Brand You.  It’s also a great time to get your new and improved resume to industry recruiters because we’ve already begun hunting heads for 2010.

1. Prioritize Skills.  Brand You is an overused term but it is a good descriptor in this context.  As a new brand, you need to consider all of your marketable attributes.  Create a list of the skills and attributes you can offer clients.  Then think about which of these skills are in greatest demand and put those at the top of your list.

2. Leverage & B’storm w/past Associates.  Reach out to everyone you’ve crossed paths with over your career.   In fact, you may find that many of your friends are in the same boat as you… and together you can brainstorm some great strategies or approaches that can lead to new opportunities.

3.  Social Networking… not Social Notworking.  Leverage every social marketing tool from LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook to Classmates.com to tap into old friends and associates.  Be direct about your search for a new opportunity and ask for referrals or other networking leads.  Also use Yahoo and LinkedIn Groups to reach out to potential clients and associates.  Just don’t get too caught up in the social aspects of it… as an entrepreneur your time is literally money. 

4. Friends & Family.  Reach beyond your own network to those of your friends and family.  You never know who your Uncle Ned knows at IBM.   

5. Pride.  You gotta do what you gotta do.  Some clients may just want basic media relations or a couple of press releases written.  If the last time you pitched media was as a Sr. AE in the ’90′s, you may have to swallow a little pride and dive in.  Think of it as an opportunity to build a relationship with a client… the strategic, higher level stuff may come down the road, but in the meantime you’re billing hours and making money!  

6.  Make the most of your time.  You’re not generating income when you spend your time doing accounting, filing or shopping for supplies.  Hire a reasonable and trustworthy bookkeeper and use an intern or family members to do some of the time consuming office tasks.

7.  Online Presence.  Create an online presence (website, blog etc.) and brand it in a way that is true to you and your service offerings.  Don’t just throw up clip art, make it reinforce your brand.  Being online also makes it very easy to share your work samples, past successes and services all in one place.   

8.  Team Up.  You can also appear larger with a wider range of services if you team up with other freelancers with complimentary capabilities.   This will also amplifies your marketing efforts.  

9.  Create a Legal Entity.  Do some research on what type of company you want to establish.  Personally, I like LLC’s because they’re easy to set up and don’t require the paperwork of a C or S Corp while still offering legal protections.  Companies also prefer working with freelancers who are incorporated because it’s less likely they’ll have issues with government agencies who want to classify you as an employee.

10. Cobbler Kiddy.  Don’t be one…. make the shoes.  PR freelancer should know how to promote themselves… just take the time to do it.  This is one area where you need to spend the time and make sure you’re active and visible in the communities where you’re most likely to generate new business.

Candidates are looking for allies and are reaching out to recruiters like never before.  But recruiters are not easy to reach.  Why?  They’ve got lots of candidates but few jobs.  The pendulum has swung and recruiters need to focus most of their time finding new positions to fill.   So how can you get a recruiter’s attention when they’re down a worm-hole looking for fee-paying clients?  

Demonstrate how you can help them… not just how they can help you.  

Here are a few examples.

1. Alert the recruiter to new relevant openings.  These could be openings that you’re interested in pursuing or ones you just happen to run across.   If the recruiter’s interested in pursuing the search, they’ll contact the company and see if they can get the assignment.  If they do, you’ll likely be at the head of the line.  If they don’t get the search, or aren’t interested in pursuing  it, you can then submit directly to the company.  However, remember that you should always contact the recruiter and have them submit your resume.  If you submit it to the company first, the recruiter won’t be able to help you since companies only pay a fee for candidates they don’t already know about.

2.  Refer a candidate for an existing search.  Take a peek at the recruiter’s website to find out what searches they’re  handling and, if you aren’t the perfect candidate, see if you can refer someone who is!  Even if the candidate isn’t an exact fit, as long as they’re a talented professional, the recruiter will be appreciative.  And, if they do land the job, you may even get paid a referral fee.

3.  Introduce a Prospective Client.  Introduce your targeted recruiter to a hiring manager or senior executive who makes frequent hiring decisions.  Recruiters love handling searches where they can work directly with the hiring manager because the process is more transparent and efficient.   The “hiring manager” is not the HR contact or an internal recruiter, but typically the person who oversees the new hire… aka the boss.  Even if the hiring manager is not hiring…  you’ve just given the recruiter an ongoing prospect for future interactions — and even other networking opportunities.  

4.  Latest & Greatest Networking Opp’s.  Recruiters are getting pretty savvy with social media tools but they are still very open to suggestions on new online search techniques, networking groups, or even events that are related to their recruiting specialty.  Whether it’s the latest LinkedIn Group or the newest tip to optimize a recruiter’s website, recruiters are eager to learn how to gain an edge in today’s market.  

Remember… greater opportunity for the recruiter will almost always lead to greater opportunity for the helpful candidate.

Over the past few years PR has done a good job at grabbing a significant share of the social media pie, handling ongoing crises counsel, playing a key role in product launches and so on. But the ever-increasing size of the PR department’s role and responsibilities, has not led to an equal or even pro rata share of the marketing budget pie.

As a result, today’s in-house PR staff is being asked to do much more with much less and burnout is just around the corner.

Here are 5 Things that an astute PR department head can do:

1. Go “flex-staff.” Bring in freelance support that will not add head count but has deep experience and appropriate experience for your immediate needs. Today there are freelance matchmakers, ala PR Talent, that can match talent to task.

2. “Trade Up.” You may not be able to add headcount but you might be able to replace headcount. Assuming the poor performers have already been let go, now is the time to replace the mediocre or fair performers. Start a search for that rock star that can upgrade your staff and replace “water-treaders.”

3. “Get Efficient.” You may have to spend a little to save a lot, but management consultants can evaluate your staffing, your agency contracts, your costs, and your processes. All in an effort to streamline your organization and help you do more with less.

4. “Over communicate.” When times are tough, it’s harder to be a cheerleader. Resist the urge to spend more time with the door shut and run a more transparent and engaging operation that keeps your people informed. People who feel like they’re being treated like adults and kept in the loop, are more likely to stick around through the tough times.

5. “Plan for the Good Times.” Even though budgets may be tight and hiring curtailed, you can lay out a plan with a timeline that shows your staff where you want to take them once things turn around. By giving them something to look forward to, you may be able to get them to dwell less on their present circumstances.