What are reporters good for?

I bet all of us who make the jump from newspapers to PR ask, just before making the plunge: “When will they figure out I don’t know what I’m doing?”

And I bet all of us quickly discover that we had severely underestimated the skills we developed in journalism. The realization may come when the CEO looks at the talking points you put together an hour after the meeting and says, “you’re a quick study. How did you get to the heart of it so quickly?” There are not many people in the corporate world who can drop into a discussion, tease out the essence, fill in knowledge gaps with further interviews and research, and then write it all in a way that a broad audience can understand. And those are just the basic skills a journalist brings into the corporate world. They also bring a different (if sometimes warped) perception and unconventional thinking.

Reformed journalists in the corporate world stand out in many ways. The first one I notice:

Knowing What To Do When You Don’t Get A Call-Back

That’s a stumper for so many who haven’t built their careers on getting around roadblocks.

Some other ways journalists stand out in the corporate environment:

• They say the crudest things at the oddest times.
• They maintain cool in the presence of VIPs.
• They keep asking “why is it so quiet around here?”
• Ex-reporters think bosses’ orders are suggestions; ex-editors are surprised when an utternace launches a thousand ships.
• They tap their toes a lot.
• They keep phoning in updates.
• They run to the scene of trouble.
• Snow closures throw them for a loop.

Feel free to add to the list.