Today’s TDMJ profiles James Walker, an incredible social media specialist who is just starting his career in PR. James is a junior project manager for APCO Online , a division of the global agency APCO Worldwide. James works in Washington, DC and I discovered him through his insightful tweets about PR and his informative blog Gen Y PR Prescriptions.

When he met me recently at a DC Starbucks, James told me how important it is to claim a piece of the social media pie for yourself if you’re a PR person calling yourself a social media strategist/expert (read: start your blog!) Hopefully I’ll be able to get the video footage of that timely interview up this weekend, pending tech support. For now, here’s James:

James S. Walker
Washington, DC
Age: 22
APCO Worldwide
Junior Project Manager, APCO Online
length of time in role: 6 months

Blog: Gen Y PR Prescriptions
Twitter: @Jaywalk1
Linkedin: in/jswalker

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. What made you want to get into the field?

JW: I discovered PR right around the time I decided to declare a major at George Washington University. I made a call home to check in and mentioned that I was planning to major in Communication. My mother replied: “What kind of job can you get with that major?” I said: “Umm…(scratching head) you know…Communications positions.” At that point, Communication just seemed interesting, but I knew that I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t come up with a good answer, so I went to work.

After reading books, taking career assessments and browsing hundreds of sites, I decided that PR was it. Glad that I figured it out, I called back home and made a compelling case showing how I would get a job in PR. Her response: “So… what exactly will you do?”

Reflecting back on my answer to her then reminds me of the opening for MTV’s The Real World – “You think you know, but you have no idea.” I have worked (internships and full-time) in a number of Communications roles since then, from university relations and special events to CNN’s Crossfire at GW to public affairs and crisis comms shops to a health care communications firm and now a global communications agency.

In my short time in the industry, I’ve worked steps away from James Carville and Donna Brazile, helped prepare for prescription medication product launches, developed materials for patients with chronic pain and diabetes, and proposed social media strategies for tech giants. Each position taught me something new about the industry and myself, allowing me to grow both personally and professionally.

Mopwater: What aspects of the industry are you most excited about?

JW: I am most excited about the role the PR industry already is and will continue to play in the development, promotion and adoption of social media among businesses and other organizations.

I think the industry is well positioned to not only teach groups how to engage in social media but also to provide communications counsel on how to engage in a way that benefits them and their audiences, the people they serve. Read the full story

Welcome to the first Test Drive My Job-a column that will profile marketing, public relations and social media professionals at various stages of their careers. Test Drive My Job is meant to do just that-allow you to test drive a job before embarking on a new career or industry change. Use the experiences of your colleagues to find out what careers may be a good fit for you. Feel free to connect on Twitter to learn more about each of their experiences.

I recently caught up with Peter Corbett aka “Mr. Social Media DC,” whom I met at the One party a few weeks ago.

Name: Peter Corbett,28

Twitter: @corbett3000

Current City: Washington, DC

Company: iStrategyLabs

Company Size: 2 employees + 20 something contractors

Job Title: CEO

Time @ Job: 17 months

Mopwater: What are your typical work hours? PC: 7am – 2am (yes…i average about 19 hours a day)

Mopwater: What’s your typical workday like? PC: I move client’s business forward with smart marketing programs that deliver results. Tactically speaking that means I spend a lot of time thinking about their brands and customers and then provide creative ways to deliver value to that audience. Once ideas are on paper, I usually get involved in executing digital builds or physical programs of some kind.

Mopwater: Where and how do you work? PC: I work everywhere. I have an awesome LAB in Dupont Circle and a home office. I travel a lot so I do a lot of work in hotels, coffee shops, book stores. I love this way of working – I’m a digital nomad!

Mopwater: What type of clients do you take on and what do you do for them? PC: We work mostly with consumer brands but also work with some non-profits and the government. We provide interactive strategy, experiential marketing and content creation services. Here’s our capabilities deck. We recently did this project. And this project and this one, too.

Mopwater: How many co-workers/employees do you have? How do you best collaborate with your team? PC: I have 1 employee, my COO. We have 20+ contracts that work with us both in person and virtually. We use wikis, blogs, twitter, facebook, Basecamp, conference calls and all manner of collaboration tools to do our work.

Mopwater: What are your favorite things about working at iStrategyLabs? PC: The most exciting thing is that iStrategyLabs is not definable and ever changing. We’re morphing with the market as we go and are batting a thousand with regard to delivering results for clients. Providing marketing services for clients is what we’re known for, but increasingly we’re an incubator/community developer/innovation company. It will be an exciting year in 2009!

Mopwater: What do you wish was different about your job? PC: I wish I didn’t have to think about internal operations at all – my COO came on board 3 months ago and soon that part of the puzzle will be completely off my plate.

Mopwater: Do you see yourself in this job in 5 years? If not, where do you see yourself? PC: Yes. This is a company I plan to run and keep for the rest of my life. There is no exit strategy. Being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding and challenging path in the world. If you plan to start you own thing remember this – it’s all or nothing. You’ll either be success or you’ll crash and burn. Be prepared for both!