Recently while looking over resumes of entry-level candidates, I began to think about how much has changed in the PR industry just since I started working. I realized that you could probably date yourself and other people pretty easily just by figuring out what they’ve been around to see and do. You can figure out your age in work years based on the different things you’ve seen come and go. For example:
- I’m old enough to have used Cision when it was called Bacon’s, but young enough to never have used Bacon’s in book form.
- I’m old enough to have mailed out hard copies of press releases but young enough to never have needed to fax my pitches.
- I’m old enough to have used the phone as my primary means of pitching for all media, but young enough that very few reporters have ever really welcomed a call over email.
- I’m old enough to have sent hi-res images through the mail on a CD but not so old that I’ve ever had a strip of film paper-clipped to my press kit.
- I’m old enough to remember a time before bloggers were part of a media outreach strategy but young enough to appreciate a hit on Huffington Post almost as much as one in USA Today.
I’m sure this same principle could apply to many different industries and practice areas. Perhaps someone in advertising would be old enough to remember when ad concepts were always sketched by hand for presentations, but not old enough to have experienced martini-based lunches following those presentations.
There are probably plenty more examples – comment below with some ways you can gauge your age in work years!
~ Ali Gogarty, Account Supervisor, The S3 Agency
