Hemeyer Roundtable

On the value of a master's degree:

I'm an example of someone who does not have a bachelor's in PR. I have a music degree, which I value greatly. But I was in my field for seven years and then I went back to get my master's in communication.

Public relations is a tough term. How do you define it? As we've discussed, it's a discipline and a broad one -- IR, litigation, government, crisis, social media, and so on. A lot of people don't understand that.

Going back for your master's, as long as it includes management, economics, some business courses -- that's what employers value. They want a PR person to understand their business. You would get that knowledge in a good master's program

Online distance learning is a huge debate right now. I would maintain that in our business the communications message is still the same no matter what channel you use. It's timing. It's what you say and when you say it. A lot of that is very difficult to get in distance learning.

On getting a job:

We have a very aggressive program in career services at our school. We do two job fairs a year. We have more than 90 agencies and companies come to look at our students, we have a website for our advertising and PR program that lists jobs, we give them career data, we have a website that lists more than 200 jobs a week, and we do a weekly e-mail to all of our students that tell them where other job fairs are taking place.

On the evolving student:

How can you be analytical if you can't write? We will not let our students not write. Writing is a major part of being able to sell your ideas. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be in this field. I've even told my students that I'm not a natural writer, but I've taught myself to write. I actually start each class of mine by giving students a 5-inch by 8-inch card. I give them the crisis of the day and ask them to write down what they would do as a communicator. What ideas would you have? I give them 10 minutes. At this point, I'm not grading their ideas. I'm looking at grammar and how well they put their ideas together. After that, we talk about the tactics.

[Students] like their privacy. We have many heated discussions about Facebook and they just don't understand why they can't have privacy. We have kids in out class who won't let their mothers go on their Facebook pages, yet social media, by definition, is public. In our business, we have to be careful what we say or post because once we do, it's there forever. Some students have trouble understanding that.

Lack of good writing skills is still the number-one criticism I hear from professional companies. They tell me that these kids can't write, they lack practical experience, they aren't analytical. I tell them they're looking at the wrong programs and that their interviewing skills are lacking. If you don't give a writing test that had four or five components, if you don't give them face-to-face issues to solve right there on the spot to see how they think, and then have them interview four or five people, you're not doing your job. When I was at Pennzoil, I'd go through 100 resumes when looking to fill a job. HR would give me 20 and I would go through the others and find 10 more that were better. I simply don't agree with the perception that we're not turning out good students.

Right now we're doing more work on social media policies in companies because many don't have them. But even without social media, business writing has become briefer. I wouldn't give a four-page white paper to my chairman. I give a one-page point paper that gets the message through quickly.

On keeping up with social media:

We now have three courses in 'digital interactive.' It includes media strategies, building, navigating, content management on websites, web PR, metrics measurement, how to analyze consumer behavior. That's all part of these three courses. The kids that take them, they get jobs just like that (snaps fingers).

Consumer social media is much different that b-to-b social media. I have one former student who graduated six years ago who does all the social media for National Instruments. She has 1,200 engineers tweeting with customers with their products. It's the ultimate application of social media. She tells me the hardest part of her job is getting all the policies and procedures in place and getting everything monitored. There's a lot of manpower and hours that go into social media. People think it's quicker, but it isn't. That's why a lot of clients don't buy social media programs. It's too labor-intensive.

One of the major [PR] agencies, as of four years ago, only hired liberal arts majors until the principal of that firm came to my school and we showed them what we provide our students. They changed their policies. He thought, 'Why do I need a mechanical, tactical, trade-school person to write news releases?' And while a lot of what we teach is still 'trade school,' we go way beyond that. He was amazed. He even told me, 'The questions I got from your [students] were the most intelligent I've ever heard.'

It's our challenge to present [our students] with tough topics to take on as presentations or campaigns. For example, I'll give them 'Muslims in America.' I'll give them a scenario where they've been hired by a Muslim-American group to come up with a plan that helps with their identification to the American public. It's a whole new world to these kids and you should see what they come back with. It's incredibly refreshing. If you challenge them with these kinds of subjects, it forces them into another world.

My big deal is motivating [students] and getting them to think. I have never given an assignment in writing in my life. When I give an assignment, I want them to listen and take notes because listening is so important in PR. I give everything verbally, even the final. If they're not smart enough to write it down and ask questions, it's their fault. Think about it. When is the last time your boss gave you something in writing?

On working with the industry:

We graduate about 200 PR majors in any given year. And we've found that there are 200 of them out in companies and organizations as interns. A lot of them get hired. That's a very positive interface with companies.

Much like many other schools, we have a campaigns course that puts us into anywhere from 20 to 50 agencies or companies a year doing campaigns for them. We've had organizations hire some kids out of the campaigns course

On joining the academic world:

The value of a professional person in an academic program is that they stay active in the field. That's why I still work a day-and-a-half a week. I want to stay up-to-date on what's going on. Frankly, I learn more from my students than what I teach them.

How do you teach students when to be silent? I spend a lot of time with clients telling them not to say anything. You also need to prepare them for rejection of their ideas.