“It is wild that we expect 21-year-olds to know how they will spend the rest of their lives,” says PR professional Erica Cooke. “You are allowed to change your mind.”
Public relations is a career designed to be fast-paced, ever-changing, and full of opportunities from the beginning. For public relations students, the pressure to “figure it out” can feel immediate and overwhelming. Agency or in-house? Corporate or nonprofit? Social media or crisis communications? Specialize now or stay broad?
Learning in “Dog Years”
Erica Cooke has seized opportunities to find her niche in the industry. Cooke began and continues her career at Burson, but her role has evolved: starting as an intern in public affairs and crisis practice in Washington, D.C. in 2018, she is now vice president of the corporate and public affairs practice.
Cooke speaks highly of agency life, which has enabled her to move freely between job titles and industries. “At an agency, you learn in dog years. You get to try different industries, clients, and types of work without being tied to one path.” Hence, Cooke advocates working at an agency before pursuing an in-house job. “I fully endorse starting your career at an agency. You get to try everything — and if something isn’t right, you can pivot without starting over.”
“Public relations is a problem-solving industry,” Cook explained. “When I was a kid, I would solve mazes by starting at the end and working backward. That’s how a crisis works — you define the end goal and build back toward where you are.” That instinct for strategic problem-solving led her to crises and issues early in her career, including reputation-management efforts following a gas explosion. But while she excelled in high-pressure environments, she eventually realized that being good at something does not always make it the right long-term fit. “I’m really good at crisis work,” she said. “But just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it’s sustainable long term. I had to ask myself what I wanted my day-to-day life to feel like.”
The Four Questions That Define Your Niche
One of Cooke’s impactful exercises for finding your PR niche is her four-question framework:
1. What are you naturally good at?
Find how you instinctively think and work. Do you enjoy strategic planning, writing, crisis response, relationship-building, or creative brainstorming? Your niche often aligns with the way your brain naturally solves problems.
2. What do people start trusting you with?
Pay attention to patterns. Early in your career, supervisors assign projects based on observed strengths. If you’re repeatedly trusted with executive messaging, media pitching, or internal communications, that may show where you add the most value.
3. What don’t you dread at 10 p.m.?
PR can involve long hours. When you must work late, what tasks still feel manageable — or even satisfying? Sustainability matters as much as skill.
4. What leaves you thinking, “That was a lot — but I’d do it again”?
Growth often comes with discomfort. The key is to distinguish draining work from challenging but rewarding work. If a project pushes you but still excites you afterward, it may point toward your niche.
The answers to these questions may take some time to think through, but typically, PR professionals already have them embedded. For Cooke, she knew where she wanted to work since she was sixteen. For others, “the strongest decision indicator is your gut feeling.”
When the Profession Picks You
That was how Christina Frantom, senior manager in communications at Mercedes-Benz, found her way to the communications business. Because of her love for philosophy, she graduated from college with a degree in the field. However, when she was preparing for her first job after graduation, she was left with two options: a director of Greek life position or a communications specialist role in the Office of the Vice President for Research.
She admits there wasn’t some grand strategic calculation behind her decision. “I wish I could say there was some reason why I picked one and not the other,” she said. “But the communications and PR profession picked me.”
She got the call back for the communications job first — and she followed her instinct. “I just had a gut feeling that this was going to be a great job.”
That role launched her into high-level communications almost at once. Working at Texas A&M University, home to the George Bush Presidential Library, she found herself in rooms with global leaders and exposed to major institutional initiatives.
“It was very exciting and sort of fast-paced, but also a very in-depth introduction to the profession,” she said.
Her early lesson for students: you cannot always predict your niche — but you can prepare yourself to recognize opportunities when they arise.
“You never know what opportunities are going to come up,” she said. “But it’s really important to be ready for them.”
Start With What You’re Naturally Good At
When students ask her how to find their PR niche, she often pushes back against two common narratives: hyper-specializing too early or unthinkingly chasing a passion.
“I would say that it’s neither one of those things,” she explained.
Instead, she encourages students to begin with a more grounded question: What are you naturally good at?
“All of us are born and develop these particular gifts,” she said. “Whether you’re a communicator and you have the gift of gab, whether you’re great at connecting people, whether you’re really strong with hyper-details and numbers — you should start your professional career doing what you’re good at.”
Rather than obsessing over weaknesses, she argues that students waste energy trying to fix areas that don’t come naturally to them.
“You’re going to spend so much time and energy trying to get good at something you’re not naturally good at — and that’s wasted time and effort.”
Her advice? Lean into your strengths and find collaborators who complement your weaknesses. Invest in finding a niche you excel in; everyone has an area in which they can excel, which is the beauty of the team setting in PR.
“Partner with someone whose strength is your weakness,” she said. “That’s the perfect work bestie.”
Experience Is the Best Teacher
Perhaps the strongest theme in her advice is the value of experiential learning.
“Words don’t teach. Experience teaches.”
She recalls once believing she wanted to become a television news anchor. The role looked exciting — the on-camera presence, the storytelling, the adrenaline. But when she secured an internship at an ABC affiliate running teleprompters and cameras, her perspective shifted dramatically.
“I learned in one semester that being an anchor is not what I wanted to do,” she said. “I would never have known that if I didn’t have that internship experience.”
For PR students, this means trying different sectors and environments before committing to a niche. Agency, corporate, nonprofit, government, and higher education — each offers a different rhythm and skill set.
Your Network Is Part of Your Niche
While technical skills and internships matter, relationships ultimately shape career trajectories.
“It’s really, really important to build your network,” Frantom emphasized.
She recently helped a former co-op student land a full-time agency position after a principal called to request recommendations.
“When the agency called and said, ‘Do you know anybody good?’ I said, ‘I know exactly who to send you.”
That referral turned into a job offer.
In public relations — a field built on communication and connection — your network is not separate from your niche. It is part of it.
Readiness Over Certainty
For students worried about mapping out every step, these women’s careers serve as reassurance.
Finding your PR niche, she suggests, is less about locking yourself into a specialization at 21— and more about discovering where your strengths, experience, technology, and network intersect.
“You never know what opportunities are going to come up,” she said. “But if you’re ready — and you know what you’re good at — you’ll recognize them when they do.”
