Business knowledge important for a successful career in P.R.

So you're a fresh-faced college graduate who majored in communications, ready to dive into the glamorous and lucrative world of big-time public relations, with a firm handshake and a crisp new resume. What's the first thing you need to know?

You should have majored in economics.

If there is one thing experts in the communications job-hunting trenches agree on, it is that people who succeed in public relations are not necessarily experts on public relations. They are students of business first and P.R. second, generalists who understand how to read a balance sheet as well as they can read a menu at The Ivy.

"The most important thing to have to advance your public relations career is knowledge about business," says Neil Frank, principal of one-man communications industry recruiting firm Neil Frank & Co. in Culver City. "You've got to understand the big picture, where your company fits in with the rest of the industry, how it fits in with the world."

There are a variety of ways to acquire this all-important knowledge. One of them is to read the business press religiously, Frank says, including not only this publication but lesser-known entities such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week.

More important - because it shows up on your resume - is movement. Smooch Reynolds, president of Pasadena-based executive recruiting firm the Repovich/Reynolds Group, says P.R. firms and corporate communications departments are looking for top executives with a broad background in all the various communications segments, people who have studied the business from a variety of different angles.

Large companies often have a corporate communications staff at headquarters and separate P.R. divisions at their various operating units. These groups seldom "cross-pollinate," as Reynolds puts it, meaning they tend to move up within their own divisions without switching around much between units.

Thus, the people who market widgets are experts on widgets, but they don't know much about doohickeys. And the people at corporate headquarters have no idea what life is like down in the trenches. The idea is not to get too comfortable in any one place within an organization.

"By kind of creeping over into other segments of the business, you become more valuable," Reynolds says.

Executive recruiters also look for people with a broad marketing background. For example, having worked for a government entity, a non-profit group, a corporation and a P.R. agency gives one a general perspective that employers consider important.

Of course, job-hopping can also be seen as a drawback.

"Just moving around for the sake of moving around is not a good idea," says Frank. "If you're over 30, you don't want to have a string of one- or two-year jobs on your resume. If I'm an employer, the first thing I'm going to do if I see that is say, 'How long is this person going to stick around?'"

Perhaps the most surprising thing gleaned from interviews with executive recruiters is that P.R. people are nowhere near as good at marketing themselves as they are at marketing their clients or employers. Reynolds says communications professionals tend to get comfortable in a job and then drop out of sight.

Visibility is important because even the best of jobs can evaporate as a result of downsizing, mergers, upper-level executive shifts and other changes. Reynolds says she knows plenty of P.R. people who have suddenly found themselves out on the street with few contacts, because they failed to continually market themselves.

"People still don't understand the importance of visibility and relationship-building," Reynolds says. "I'm always telling communications people to use the same advice for themselves that they give to CEOs."

Reynolds suggests volunteering to work for a non-profit organization or serving on its board of directors as good ways to maintain visibility. Another is to write a by-lined article for a business publication, she says.

Finally, Frank has a compelling piece of career advice for anyone who wants to succeed in the marketing business, or any other business, for that matter:

"Be nice to people," he says. "The public relations world is a very, very tiny world. If you're unethical, if you're a back-stabber or a climber, you're going to get tagged, and it will hurt you later on."

And the winner is ...

The Infomercial Oscars, better known as the NIMA Awards (NIMA stands for National Infomercial Marketing Association), will take place Oct. 16 at the Las Vegas Hilton, and the list of award finalists released last week shows just how much this young industry is concentrated in L.A. County.

More of the nominees, whether infomercial producers or distributors, are located here than any other region in the country.

Santa Monica-based In-Finn-Ity Direct led the pack in nominations, with five for its program on the James Bond video series on behalf of MGM/UA Home Entertainment and four for its infomercial on Royal Caribbean Cruises. Seven-year-old In-Finn-Ity is headed by Pat Finn, former host of the '70s-era game show "The Joker's Wild."

Also getting a batch of nominations was Guthy-Renker, which is officially headquartered in Palm Desert even though most of its operations are handled out of its Santa Monica office (go figure). Guthy-Renker received six nominations.