Luc

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InfoCom

Interview Project

Job interview : Communications Manager

Presentation of the interviewee

All right, then. My name is Raphaël Gauthier. I'm delighted to be giving this interview.
I'm going to be 38 at the end of October and I'm in charge of communications for the
town of Vif, in Isère , a town of 8,706 inhabitants.

Presentation of the job

My job, as I told you, I'm in charge of communication within a local community, in the
public. So public communication will consist of promoting all the actions carried out
by the municipality, by our local elected representatives, and the objective will really
be to promote these different actions to different targets. This could be residents, the
general public, businesses, associations, a whole environment, a whole network, a
whole local network with a view to changing behaviour, getting people to support
ideas, and also communicating in times of crisis, in the event of an incident, major
risks, unforeseeable events. All of this in a selfless way. This is where a distinction is
made between public communication, where the objective is to serve the general
interest, and the more corporate communication of a company, where it will serve
private and private interests with, of course, the financial asset objective.
Do you work in a hierarchy that demands results?

The hierarchy, of course, like any hierarchy, has its expectations. In this case, the
hierarchy will expect qualitative results. For example, they want to see a project
through to a successful conclusion. Last year, we launched a project for a new
mobile application.

This means that users will be able to use a free mobile application to check the
news, report incidents on the public highway or complete their school procedures. It
was necessary to set up a project with all these different stages in order to choose
and implement the best possible solution.

Do you ever travel on business?

Yes, of course, business travel. They're very local, of course, as we work for the local
council. It's very much in the Vifois area (it means the territory of Vif). We are going to meet
the companies and professionals that we promote in the magazin. We may also meet
associations and we will also cover the various municipal events which will take place in the
evening, which will take place on weekends, during holidays. So, from the communicator's
point of view, it's going to require a great deal of availability.

Necessary skills and qualities for the job

To bring this back to the public, over and above the qualities of the communicator, I
think it's the taste for public service, the desire to help others. What I'd like to say is:
don't come into public service if you don't want to serve the general interest.

Clearly, for me, it is eliminatory. You really need to be aware of that. You have to be
empathetic, you have to be open to others, because you interact with all the
departments of the municipality. We'll be interacting with the education department,
with the municipal technical centre, with the departments located within our walls,
with town planning, with the population. We really do have a whole host of
departments working around us. You have to be curious, you have to be really
open-minded. But you really can't take information out of its professional context,
and that's very important. After that, from a communication point of view, it's very
good to be creative, to be very organised, to master the technical side, to have good
interpersonal skills and to be an excellent writer. This is a criterion for all students, I
say, write them, write, read, but go for it. Because the level of spelling and grammar
is plummeting, and that's something you really need to emphasise, because these
qualities are indispensable.

Disadvantages and positive aspects of the job

Personally, the only drawback I have is more anecdotal, but it's the building. We're in
an old building where it's potentially a bit too cold in winter and a bit too hot in
summer. But then, for example, for the summer, we were able to arrange specific
times when we started very early in the morning and finished earlier at the very
beginning of the afternoon. So there you have it, there were solutions. And you have
to be careful, the point is that you're in jobs where you have to be very available. So
the 'disadvantage' is being available at weekends.

And the other disadvantage, which I'd like to warn students about, is that in
principle, in terms of pay, you'll be better off working in the private sector than in the
public sector.

After that, the personal advantages are that I live and work in the area.

So I don't have any transport problems, I'm a young father, every morning I can take
my daughter to school. There's also a treatment. For me, there's less pressure than
in the private sector. Because we're working to qualitative targets. We're not focused
on profitability, so we're under much less financial pressure than the private sector.

So, as a father, it's true that this job gives me an excellent work-life balance.

It's a very important criterion, I know that I can take my little one to work every
morning, I don't have to drop her off very early, I know that she can sleep, I'm fine,
I'm serene and I can come to work. I know I can see my daughter, I don't have to
travel to the other end of France like I did in my old job.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to do the same job
as you?

I will already give one piece of advice, I will start with the negative aspect. If I'd
known, when I was younger, that it's so complicated to find a job in communications,
I wouldn't have continued down this path. Be careful, this is a very saturated. Don't
be afraid to train hard, to give it your all, to put your heart and soul into what you do.
Do it with passion and enthusiasm. If you feel that you don't like it, remember that it's
never too late. It's never too late to go off on a tangent anyway. Don't be afraid to
specialise too. For example, at the start of my career, I was looking for a job in
communications and corporate communications.

And then, in the end, I learnt to specialise in webmarketing, digital marketing, online
advertising and things like that. And there, with a more technical aspect, I was able
to develop specific skills and be more marketable on the job market.