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Investor Relations Specialist

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Money inspires great emotion, ranging from deep red passion to beet-red anger. Everybody loves it and not many people can stand to lose a lot of it. Nowhere will you be more caught up in this circle than as an investor relations (IR) specialist at a corporation.

Although an IR professional has nothing to do with the way a company is run -- that's the job of the chief executive officer and chief operating officer -- the IR specialist communicates the good and the bad news of a company, which can either bring a higher stock price or a lower one.

What you say, says Jay Gould, director of IR at a major corporation, could affect not only your company, but the world economy. He's not joking. For example, if you inadvertently pass along some news to the press that isn't quite ready for prime time, the consequences can be serious.

Suppose this news causes the stock to drop one point, or one dollar. Not a big deal, you say. It's only one dollar, after all. Suppose your company has two million shares in the stock market. Your slip to the media just cost your company $2 million.

Gould recalls being fired by his boss three times over a period of three days --all because of something he once said prematurely. The first time he was on business in Amsterdam. The second time he was flying back from Amsterdam on the company plane, and Gould thought, "What do I do, get off here? I'm 30,000 feet in the air."

As it turned out, his boss hadn't really fired him. "It was his way of expressing displeasure," says Gould, although Gould was ready to take him seriously each time.

You need a thick skin in this profession, he says, because you are dealing with big egos. When a big ego ruptures, the explosion is more intense. It's even more intense when there is big money at stake.

Despite a few rough spots, Gould loves his job. He says it has a lot of sizzle, and he likes to deal with the movers and shakers of the world.

At times, the job can be very sobering, Gould says, when you realize how much what you say affects the outside world. "I've been humbled many times by my spoken words," he says.

Alex Singal is an IR director for a company that manages prisons located in Nashville, Tennessee. She loves the challenge of her job. There is no real routine, she says, and each day is different.

Singal works closely with executive management, such as the chief financial officer. Gould also spends a lot of time with management. Both say that companies that are good communicators will let their IR person spend a portion of time with management.

Singal is something of a financial whiz, having worked for a brokerage firm before becoming an IR director. In her prior position, Singal was an analyst, a person who studies companies and decides whether they are good investments. Analysts rely on IR specialists for information about the companies they study.

Now, Singal is on the other side of the tracks. She has financial analysts calling her for information. Math skills are very valuable, but you also need to be extremely articulate and tell the company's story well, says Singal.

Mary Blair, a member of an investor relations institute, says that a financial background is most important to success in this field. However, the ideal preparation for the job can vary considerably, Blair says.

Her example is this: let's say you want to work as an IR specialist for an oil company. You might have all the communications skills and might even be a great math wizard, but you don't know the oil industry from a hole in the ground. There will always be some type of learning curve, Blair says. So do what you can to prepare, but never expect to stop learning.

You also need boundless energy, says Gould. Since the stock market never sleeps, an IR specialist needs to be someone who stresses a little and works a lot. Although the day may appear to be over when the sun sets and the market closes, remember there are markets in Asia, where the sun is just rising.

Each evening at about 9, Gould prepares for the next day. "This is the time when the Wall Street Journal releases its Internet edition," he explains. He scours the screen for his company's name to prepare himself for what might meet him the next day.

However, if management is doing their job by keeping you informed -- and if you are doing yours by informing shareholders and Wall Street about your company -- then surprises will be minimal, says Gould. Outside events might influence your company and there is nothing you can do to stop that. You just need to be prepared.

For example, interest rate fluctuations affect Gould's company, which is in the banking business. In addition, the collapse of the Asian economy also sent companies' stocks south.

On those bad days, you come in and create a type of cheat sheet that will walk you through what to say to everyone who calls. The cheat sheet becomes less needed after a day of about 50 reporters and shareholders asking questions.

If the news is particularly bad, an IR specialist might decide to set up meetings and travel with management to cities where many investors are located, such as Boston or New York, says Gould. Here, the IR specialist and management will make presentations to relieve anxieties.

This is not the type of job anyone could be bored doing, says Gould. "It is full of peaks and valleys, although I've never had a valley," he says.

Gould would not trade his job for anything, except more time with his family. "I wish someone would have told me how addictive this would be. You feel you have a certain amount of power. I didn't know I would like it so much," he admits.

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