Interviewed by: Elina Ketikidi
Tatjana Loparksi studied at the St. Cyril and Methodius University in Interdisciplinary Journalism and she did her post-graduate studies at the Department of International Law and Politics at the faculty of Law. Currently Tatjana is in the final stage of acquiring her Master's degree in Marketing Advertising and Public Relations from The University of Sheffield International Faculty, City College. For 13 years she was working as a journalist for various national television channels in Skopje, as well as radio stations, daily newspapers and magazines. She served as the Spokeswoman to the President of the country (2005 – 2006 ). Tatjana has also a great experience in the field of Public Relations. She was a PR Manager at Image PR Agency, a Managing Partner of Omega PR Agency and now she is the executive director of her own PR company "Element PR & Corporate Communications. In early December Tatjana delivered an interesting seminar to the postgraduate students in Thessaloniki on PR Evaluation and Metrics.
Tatjana Loparksi studied at the St. Cyril and Methodius University in Interdisciplinary Journalism and she did her post-graduate studies at the Department of International Law and Politics at the faculty of Law. Currently Tatjana is in the final stage of acquiring her Master's degree in Marketing Advertising and Public Relations from The University of Sheffield International Faculty, City College. For 13 years she was working as a journalist for various national television channels in Skopje, as well as radio stations, daily newspapers and magazines. She served as the Spokeswoman to the President of the country (2005 – 2006 ). Tatjana has also a great experience in the field of Public Relations. She was a PR Manager at Image PR Agency, a Managing Partner of Omega PR Agency and now she is the executive director of her own PR company "Element PR & Corporate Communications. In early December Tatjana delivered an interesting seminar to the postgraduate students in Thessaloniki on PR Evaluation and Metrics.
As a Director for Public Relation at Element PR it would be great if you shared with us the worst and the best (most exciting) time you had in your career path.
When you choose a profession and you find yourself after several years working in another sector, you can only see this whole experience under a different prism. Every experience bad or good, it is something from which you can learn much. You learn from your failures, otherwise it is wasted time and you will repeat all your mistakes. The most difficult time for me was opening my own PR Agency. When you have zero money it is hard to manage the stress and the lack of financial means. But, with hard work I made my best of it and I have managed to get big clients that showed trust to the company. The best moment is right now, when we as an Agency working for a client received international award for best CSR campaign in the country and that is an acknowledgment that you did something good and big putting your mark on society. I have a client that always says to me: dream big to make big moves, but do it with small steps, not to fall down trying to cross obstacles. I am doing that every day in my job, going forward with small steps.
In your opinion which are the 3 things that a PR person has to be careful in his/her career?
In your opinion which are the 3 things that a PR person has to be careful in his/her career?
First of all, never forget that you have to learn constantly. Don't you ever think that you know everything. You have to constantly learn and implement what you have managed to pull out as a new experience. Catch everything that you can from everyone as knowledge. People are the richest field of knowledge that you can explore. A PR person is all in one – communication wizard, psychiatrist, lawyer and friend to client, so do not think that you will know just communication. When working in PR industry you have to know almost everything and to be in the line with latest news. Every industry that you will work with is a new challenge for you. You have to learn everything about this industry, learn for competition, try to understand as much as you can, because the PR profession is not just media relations; it is keeping relation channels with all targeted audiences. Make your own network, make your own rules of working, and of course remember - the client is always right, even when he is not. However, your job is to say what you think no matter of the consequences and product your client from a likely wrong decision.
When your company is hiring for an entry-level PR position, what makes a candidate stand out?
The starting point is if he has a will to work and to learn. The second thing is if he/she is aware that this is job without working hours and that you work 24/7 when necessary. There are no secrets on predicting who is good and who is not. Of course, we are always looking for people with passion, eagerness to progress and develop, dedication and creativity. We are looking for people they can fit with the company's culture and vision.
If you were entering this career path today, what do you think you would do differently?
I am not person that regrets for things. So, I wouldn't change anything. I will change my way of doing business in the future. When the company is small there are advantages and disadvantages. So you just cannot afford to lose focus on your work and on the things that you're dealing with. And yes, it is a multitasking job, so get used to it and make list of prioritization so you can make it in this profession. If you cannot handle several things at the same time, try to find something more relaxing as job description.
No comments:
Post a Comment