For the past month, President and CEO of PAN Communications, Phil Nardone, has taken time out of his busy work life in Boston and flown to blustery Syracuse New York, where he has been giving us the inside scoop on life at a public relations agency. Our class, which is made up of half graduate students and half undergrads at the Newhouse School of Communications, has been learning from Professor Nardone about the internal network of people that make up a PR firm and the specific functions an account manager performs day-to-day. Each Tuesday night, Professor Nardone conducts a 3-hour discussion and informational session about current trends in the PR world and what to expect from this scary thing call the “real-world”. Scary indeed, but Professor Nardone, while not sugar coating the business, gets us excited about life at an agency. Every class he gives us anecdotes of real work experience and special occasions that his PR firm, PAN Communications, Inc, does to keep up the morale and upkeep the work-life balance.

Our class was recently assigned the task of creating an RFQ for a potential client. We’ve been divided into three groups, each typifying one type of PR firm (small, medium, or large). Each of the three groups will need to eventually pitch to the client prospect reasons why our firm is the best. This is an excellent example of what real firms do to win accounts. It’s especially exciting because Professor Nardone has asked Maui Beverages, an actual client of PAN Communications, to work with us as the account the three groups will pitch. This is just another element Professor Nardone has included in the curriculum to prepare us for the life in the PR agency.