Young people who are just starting out in their careers often ask me what it’s like to be in public relations. Like so many things in life, the answer depends on the specifics — of the client or employer, and of you, the PR practitioner.

In the fictional example of Aaron Eckhart’s character in Thank You for Smoking, for example, you pair a man without principles with an industry that no principled person can defend. Everybody’s happy.

For someone with a conscience doing Big Tobacco PR, however, public relations is undoubtedly a miserable occupation. You do it to pay the bills; there’s no higher purpose. Not only that, but since you do have a conscience and presumably care about the well-being of others, you are a hypocrite every time you open your mouth on the job.

The person with a conscience, believe it or not, does have many great career options in PR — despite the ethical failings of many PR practitioners.

You can represent a non-profit whose cause you believe in, for example. In my case, I prefer to work with startups that challenge the status quo — particularly those I consider to be disruptive innovators. I like to help them get their messages heard over the loud, relentless drone of Fortune 500 PR departments.

There are quite a few companies and industries I choose not to work for, because I disagree with what they do and/or how they do it. These include:

• tobacco companies;
• companies that make firearms;
• energy companies that deny man-made global warming;
• fast-food restaurateurs with unhealthy menus;
• Big Pharma; and
• companies or organizations that support any number of political viewpoints or causes I disagree with.

That doesn’t mean you have to agree with your client or employer in every instance; you’re representing them, not you, after all. (I discuss the importance of distinguishing our opinions from those of our PR clients here.)

I’ve occasionally called out people who I suspect are hypocrites, sellouts or real-life Aaron Eckharts on this blog. For example:

• Jody Clarke of the Competitive Enterprise Institute;
• the former PR team at FEMA;
• virtually every Hollywood publicist; and even
• a young healthcare ad rep for Google.

In fact, I offered that young ad rep, who had gratuitously bashed Michael Moore’s Sicko in a transparent bid to please her client base, the same advice I offer to those entering the PR profession: Be true to yourself — whoever you might be.

To paraphrase how I asked the ad rep to think about this issue:

If you were assigned by Google to build an ad campaign for Michael Moore’s movie distributor rather than the big pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, would you be willing to write the same blog post criticizing Sicko?

Would you refuse the Moore account because of your principled viewpoint that his film is unfair? Or would your personal convictions “adapt” to the client?

Even if you don’t have a strong opinion on the issue, don’t personally take your employer or client’s side simply because it’s convenient or in your financial interests to do so. This way, you retain who you are — your personal moral autonomy.

You don’t have to sell your principles to anyone to succeed in your career. Don’t listen to anybody who tells you that you do.

When I was younger and feeling my way in my career, I made plenty of mistakes — including many worse than the one I suspect you might have made here. It’s only by screwing up again and again that I’ve come to be able to offer whatever insight I have.

And if in your heart of hearts you truly believe that Michael Moore is being unfair to U.S healthcare companies, and that your advertising clients have the moral high ground, I’m sorry I used your post in my example.

[This post is a Media Orchard Classic.]

We saw an article on “happiness lessons” being offered to schoolchildren in the U.K. and thought it was a pretty good idea. We all need lessons in happiness from time to time — even PR people. So here are eight lessons in how to be happy as a PR person, courtesy of Media Orchard:

1. Always tell the truth — especially to yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t represent a client that holds an opinion different from yours; it just means that you must present it as the client’s viewpoint, not your own. Too many PR practitioners cross this line without thinking about it.

2. Don’t work for companies or clients whose products or lobbying stances you detest. For example, we won’t work for a tobacco company, or a company that makes firearms, or any oil company that commissions pseudo-scientific studies to muddle the global warming issue. It’s not worth the ulcer to us.

3. Don’t overpromise. It’s worth investing the time with prospective clients to make sure they have reasonable expectations, rather than promising them the moon to get them to sign a contract. You’ll only disappoint them, and yourself, later.

4. Believe in what you do. We love helping clients define themselves for their customers, investors, the media and others. So many companies have great ideas and great people; they just don’t know how to get the word out effectively in a market full of noise. When we help a client do that, we feel like Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. If you don’t get a similar feeling, you may be at the wrong agency — or in the wrong profession.

5. Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you wanted to take your job that seriously, you should have become a journalist.

6. Stand up for what you know. When people of like abilities compete for the same goal, it is usually the confident one — not the “lucky” one — who succeeds.

7. Learn what you don’t know. Opening your mind to the ideas of others isn’t an indication of weakness; it is a sign of intellectual growth. Listening is learning.

8. Don’t talk badly about other people. It’s a quick-fix way to feel better about yourself; the more lasting way is through your own hard work. When you find yourself going ad hominem, think of your mind as being equipped with a pop-up blocker — and flick those negative thoughts away.

[This post is a Media Orchard Classic.]

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