Posts Tagged ‘Careers’

So how long have you been in the industry? I’ve been at Ruder Finn for just over a year and I’ll be honest, I thought I’d got to grips with most parts of my role… until recently, when I attended a creative writing training session with our MD. The session showed me just how important experience is in this industry and that no matter how much you think you know you’ve still got a hell of a lot to learn.

So it got me to thinking – what about everyone else? Surely they must have felt that overwhelming panic when telephoning a journalist, or experienced the utter dread when you’ve sent a client email with a whopper of a spelling mistake? Or am I the only one who, at the start of what is hopefully a long career in PR, still sometimes feels completely clueless??

To answer my question, I spoke to my colleagues and crowdsourced some opinion using my recently-acquired Twitter skills and posed the question, “What one piece of information or advice do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your PR career?”

Thanks to all of the below for their contributions and suggestions and for reassuring me that I’m not alone. If you like what you read, make sure to follow them on Twitter:

“Don’t sweat the small stuff. When things go wrong, it isn’t really a disaster, it just seems like one at the time.”
Alison Denham, Director of HR & Operations, Ruder Finn

“Respect those who have been in the space longer than you but also trust your instincts/ideas. Don’t be frightened to speak up.”
Kate Boyle, Kate Boyle PR

“Don’t believe other people when they tell you something can’t be done.”
Hugh McKinney, Head of Public Affairs, Ruder Finn

“I would have found it useful to know difference between agency v in-house environment and how to know which you’d be more suited to.”
Nadia Shanaz, Freelance

“You should never underestimate the value of attention to detail. It doesn’t matter how good a piece of work is in terms of strategy or content – if it is littered with typos and grammatical mistakes it is that the client remembers.”
Emma Sinden, Director Corporate & Technology Division, Ruder Finn

“Don’t moan, understand you’ll need to graft, start at the bottom and get on with it!”
Laura Smith, Borkowski

“I wish I’d known how similar agency life can be to customer service. The strain of client needs and team demands makes me thankful my retail shop jobs during high school taught me how to put on a smile, mind my manners, and meet the needs of others no matter how ridiculous.”
Alison Morris, The CHT Group

“Being honest is better than faking it when it comes to important info. S’ok to say, I don’t know-but will look into it.”
Jessica Brookes, Blackberry

“In PR you just have to learn how to grow thick skin and get on with it.”
Sharon Chan, Consolidated PR

“The best source of advice and most wise mentor you’ll ever have is gut instinct.”
Richard George, LinkedIn

“That one day you’ll enjoy pitches, and wish you could have all the slides (instead of praying you only get the easy ones).”
Jon Silk, Waggener Edstrom

“Be nice to people, as you never know when you’ll cross their path again.”
Andy Crisp, Grayling

“Read everything, knowledge of the news from tabloids to broadsheets & also the industry is invaluable.”
Siobhan McNeill, University of Hertfordshire.

“Remember that journalists are just like real people.”
Patrick Smith, Joshua PR

“Keep a record of everything, especially anything sent to the press. Word for word.”
Ray Allger, ACCA UK

N.B. If you’re looking for advice on how to get on in the PR World Chris Lee, Founder of Run Marketing, has written a really interesting blog post offering advice to graduates looking to get their break in PR – give it a read for some really helpful tips. I also find PRmoment a useful site for insight into the current issues facing the industry and great profile pieces with some of the key influencers in PR. Check them out and see what you think.

It is coming up to that time again.  Dissertations are in, final exams are looming and the prospect of leaving the fun university life that has been a reality for the past few years is becoming more and more real.

But, given the current financial climate™ what are the prospects for today’s graduates?

Rather than come up with a flimsy list of tips (that is the next post) I thought I’d speak to an expert.  Tony Byng used to work with me at The Weber Group before pursuing a career as a lecturer.  He is currently the programme Director for Leeds University Business School’s MA in corporate communications and PR. I asked him what he thought of the industry today and how tough it was for Grads:

… from what I gather, the market is still relatively open for those students who are prepared to ‘put themselves about’ or who have garnered some real experience during their summer vacations. Having said that, we have seen an increase in applications for our marketing-related Masters programmes of between 20-40%… suggesting many are hoping to ride out the economic storm by spending another year in education - if they can afford it!

We have a large Careers Service at Leeds and the University has a very good track record of graduate employment. While the ‘Milk Run’ is rather a sparse affair these days, Leeds is still targeted by many corporate employers - partly due to the quality of its education, but also down to the quality and background of the students we accept.

The issue with PR specifically, is that both agencies and in-house departments appear to be pretty poor at graduate recruitment. I have rarely come across agencies who start a recruitment drive in, say, November… interview in the spring with a view to employing in August/September. Most of them don’t seem to be able to plan that far ahead! And, it’s not just PR - most marketing agencies are the same, apart from the some of the larger ones. Of course, a lack of experience tends to shut the door pretty quickly as well.

I asked Tony what his advice is for this year’s graduates:

So, my advice to students considering a move in to PR is, perhaps, a little old-fashioned. I tell them to surf the web, read Guardian Media and PR Week, talk to anyone with even the slightest association with PR and encourage them to identify agencies they would like to work for (based on awards, client list, positioning, etc.) and then get on the phone… looking to find out who’s hiring, when they may be hiring and generally selling themselves and trying to get a network going. I even encourage them to ask for internships - even a day shadowing an account team. It’s difficult to say no to someone who appears keen and bright when they offer themselves for free! If they think this sounds too much like hard work, then they’re probably not cut out for the industry anyway!

How does the Uni help PR grads find work?

In terms of the University, I recommend that students look to the careers service for advice on preparing CVs, interview skills and using resources for researching target agencies. I also advise students to look at their whole CV and find something that differentiates them - not a just a rounded CV balancing work and play but something genuinely interesting to talk about. It is difficult for the education sector to do too much more when the industry appears to be less than organised. I would be delighted if you proved me wrong on this last point

I would also add a whole online dimension when targeting employers.  Many grads (see Jed and Michael to name but two) over the past couple of years have had success through building a digital network through twitter and blogging and this has really augmented the real life meetings they’ve had during the job hunting process.

To help prove Tony wrong, I will be speaking to PR students at Leeds over the coming few months and we’re also reviewing  how we promote the graduate scheme at Ruder Finn.

N.B. Cross posted on my blog