CareerCast, an online jobs network, ranks the most stressful jobs based on 11 factors such as travel required, growth potential, working in the public eye, deadlines, hazards, meeting the public and so on.  It its recently released “most stressful jobs” list, PR made the top 10 again.  PR Executives came in at Number 5, behind enlisted military personnel, military generals, firefighters and commercial airline pilots.

The report says that it’s the third straight year PR jobs made the top 10. Why?  According to their study, “Public relations executives are masters of damage control, thus need to be able to think and act quickly under stress.  The profession lives in the public eye and it’s also one of the professions attracting the most college students, which makes landing and keeping a good job in PR, that much more difficult. “

Since we rarely read about PR executives drinking too much and getting lost on the way to the next airport, I thought this was somewhat surprising.   And, CareerCast went on to say that newspaper reporters (a job title that seems to be running toward extinction) have stressful jobs because the job “carries the responsibility of working under the strictest of deadlines as well as a high public profile.”

What’s the least stressful job?  This year’s report says it’s a university professor.  Really?  If this is true, why did most of my college professors seem extremely stressed out?  The one thing I always thought they had going for them is imposing deadlines, vs being on deadline.  Perhaps that feeling of power for imposing deadlines and grading those papers also helps.

Some PR people teach.  Does this make them less stressed?  Or, do the deadlines required to prepare for a class and teach it just add more stress?  We have a number of PR people who teach.  Stay tuned for more from them on teaching vs practicing PR.