So you want to work in public affairs...

The communications industry is booming. It is an area in which the UK leads the world – whether we are talking about PR, advertising, marketing, broadcasting or the host of new online media. There can be few more exciting fields in which to be contemplating building a career.

Public affairs is a specialisation within public relations. The basic skills are the same – encapsulating an argument and communicating it effectively – but the audience is different. Both public affairs and public relations practitioners rely heavily on the press. However, in public affairs the ultimate targets are ministers, MPs and civil servants. The job of a public affairs practitioner is to make sure that this target audience is aware of your argument – and hopefully comes to accept its validity. It is the way in which the message is formulated and communicated to this highly specialised target audience which makes public affairs so distinct from mainstream public relations.

In the past public affairs was all about who you knew, not what you knew. Now it is all about qualifications and experience, attitude and aptitude.

So how do you break in to public affairs? Here are a few practical steps:

• Get yourself a really good grounding in politics and procedure. It doesn’t matter whether you gain that knowledge from university, from books or from practical experience – as long as you have it and can demonstrate it.
  
• Try and get yourself some work experience in the political arena. That experience can be gained working for a public affairs consultancy, or working for a politician – at Westminster or one of the devolved Parliaments or Assemblies.
  
• Join a political party, and help with campaigning. It is pretty irrelevant which party it is. It is more important that you should feel comfortable with a particular party than that it should be about to romp to power at the next general election. Saying that you are really in to politics but not supporting a political party is like saying you are a massive football fan – but don’t support a team!
  
• Join all the professional bodies, and attend the meetings. Groups to join include the CIPR, Government Affairs Group, and Pub Affairs. It will cost you a bit in subs, but if you are any good at all, and you attend meetings, people will get to know you and the job offers will follow.
  
• Sign up with the specialist recruitment agencies – Electus, Steve Atack, Peter Childs, Ellwood and Atfield. Also the online recruitment sites such as www.w4mp.org

It is often said that the only qualification for being an MP is to really, really want to be an MP. The same used to be true of being a public affairs consultant. This is no longer the case, as there are now a host of routes – academic and practical – which can equip you for the job. Find a route which works for you – and go for it!

Lionel Zetter FCIPR FRSA
Vice Chairman, Government Affairs Group
President Elect, Chartered Institute of Public Relations