Skills to Pay the Bills

Skills to Pay the Bills – Your Quickfire Agency Skills Guide

As recruiter in the PR industry, we are lucky to work with extremely talented candidates daily. It often amazes me the variety in career backgrounds or experience that many people I talk to have. The beauty about PR is that many skills from other professions can overlap. You often find a journalist, a researcher or someone in HR for example has a highly successful PR career.

The structure of PR agencies can differ per agency, but the skills to be successful in a junior role or a senior position remain constant. I often get asked the question ‘I’ve never worked in a PR agency before; would I have the skills they are looking for’. If you are thinking of a switching career or starting out a life in PR, I have developed a quick skills checklist to help along your journey to career success.

Junior to Mid-Level

Prioritisation

Agency is a bit of an adrenaline rush – from managing multiple clients, to budget tracking to being involved in career defining events. This is as exciting as it is challenging. Mapping out your day and understanding what to prioritise comes with experience and is a core skill needed throughout your career.

You must take a step back in all the madness and think is this press release more important than the strategy presentation? What are the deadlines? Has something come in from a client left field that has shifted the goal posts?

From listening to candidates in the past, two key things always come to mind helping with prioritising: Lists and Communication! Even in the digital world, practitioners find writing lists down regularly is hugely beneficial in mapping out your day or week. Communicating with your colleagues is also essential – being transparent with your workload and asking for help on how to plan your day is not a weakness, it’s a strength.

Attention to Detail

In the world of service, and comms in particular, your ATD is key. This can be often taking for granted. There is no secret to success in PR. The successful practitioners do the basics to the highest standard. You can be hours developing the most creative brief of all time, so why let yourself down by not proofreading it before sending it to a senior manager or a client? Rereading your work before sharing is pivotal to success and avoids issues down the track!

It’s Proactive not Reactive!

Any PR person can stick to the scope – distribute a media release, do a social content calendar or share a campaign report. However, the best practitioners are ones that go the extra mile. They’re on it – they see what’s making the news or getting traction, they spot the angle relevant to the client and pounce. It’s a great feeling when the angle you spotted turns into a quote or interview for an executive, or a social post goes viral. Even if your ideas don’t hit the headlines, proactivity and sharing news hooks shows your keeping the client top of mind. It not only impresses them, but also your boss!

General Knowledge is not so General

You often hear a client in today’s comms world looking for an ‘integrated campaign’. This has many facets: traditional media, digital, social and internal communications. Your skills/personality may gravitate towards one specifically, but people often underestimate the power of general knowledge across the comms mix. It’s as important to equally understand what a good engagement rate on a social post is or readership figures are for a publication. Understanding how each component works and pulling that together to develop a campaign isn’t general knowledge, it’s expert.

Leaving the Desk

Yes, we get it, the majority of your work can be done on a device. Despite it being a digital first world, the power of people interaction is pivotal. To make it to the next level, spot conferences that will benefit your career, go to networking events or look for courses to help you upskill. The comms world is constantly changing, and you need to be agile, but one thing remains constant: building a network! Meeting new people benefits you, the agency and your clients!

Mid to Senior Level

Critical Thinking

Okay so you have a wealth of experience now in the bag - so how are you going to show it? There is an old saying in service that the customer is always right, but are they? It can be very easy to go along with what the client thinks they should do, but the role of a PR practitioner is a look holistically at a project or strategy and think is this really the way to go?

Good clients will want to be challenged and advised on how to approach a campaign. Take media relations as an example - every client wants the big Irish Times piece for an announcement. But you must take a step back and think - would that hit the right target audience? Would a regional media push be a better strategy to meet the objectives? Do not be afraid to go with your instincts and experience and challenge the client in a respectful way.

The Budget Guru

Reading this you might be shaking thinking about excel spreadsheets and formulas or chasing clients for POs. But a successful budget guru knows there is a story behind the numbers. If you’re scoping out a budget for client, you must ask yourself what do they actually need? Is it a steady press office or is it building a comprehensive comms strategy from scratch? Knowing exactly the client comms objectives will help you resource effectively.

Another factor to life at an agency is tracking hours and time. A client must be viable for them and you, so taking ownership of monitoring hours and flagging with your senior leads avoids the awkward conversations around under/over servicing down the line.

However, the main reason for budget tracking is your people culture. Tracking hours ensures people have the right amount of work, have a healthy balance of work and also where the gaps are. This will help with retention – the more people around the more the work can be spread!

People are People, not Numbers

The great thing about a PR agency is the diversity of the people you work with. Everyday is a school day and it is a brilliant experience working in a team environment. To move up the ladder, you will have to take an interest in people - what makes each individual who are they are and how they work. You will more than likely be a career manager for a staff member, so empowering them to take ownership is important, and taking a genuine interest in their career path will build a strong culture in your organisation.

Business Development Credentials

We said at the beginning that working in an agency can be an adrenaline rush, and there is no better feeling than winning new business. If you have got to the top of the agency tree, chances are you will have been part of a few successful pitches. If you are looking to move at senior level, examples of successful BD wins are a huge plus. It is a big effort, and one that is time consuming outside of your daily workload, but building a pitch to work with brands you genuinely have an interest in makes your work enjoyable on a daily basis.

Is this the career path for you?

Do you think you have what it takes? We want to hear from you. There is a number of agency roles at all levels currently on our books. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or email [email protected] today!