Why attitude more than skills matter for a career in PR

It’s at this time of year that sixth form students across the UK are usually off visiting universities around the country ahead of submitting their UCAS applications. It’s a time I personally remember extremely fondly. Travelling up the M6 from Essex to visit the University of Manchester with my Dad who made it very clear he was not at all keen given the location (Moss Side) of the student accommodation. Or to the University of Surrey with my Mum where, in contrast, she loved it and I thought it seemed distinctly dull and suburban.

I was the first in my family to go to university and, looking back, I clearly had no idea what I really wanted to study. I studied German, History and Classics at A-level - my Manchester degree choice was PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), my Surrey one was Classics and German. However, it turns out life has a way of choosing a path for us. I didn’t get the A-level grades I needed for either course place, ending up going through the clearing process and studied a four-year degree in European Business Studies and German at Humberside Polytechnic as part of the European Business Programme. An incredible course across multiple European academic institutions that, for me, included a year in industry (that I spent working at Hill & Knowlton in Singapore and Hutchison Telecom in Germany) and 18 months at the Fachhochschule Muenster in Germany. 

So, what’s the point of that story? It’s simple - that you don’t need a PR degree for a career in PR. You didn’t in 1995 when I graduated, and you certainly don’t today. And I’d argue you don’t need a degree at all. My degree taught me life skills like empathy and understanding of different cultures and gave me a globalised view of the world. It taught me to be resilient enough (and a great packer) to move house and country 12 times in four years. And it taught me the best card and drinking games ever – special thanks here to @nicobraun and @stephanbecker.

Comms is not something you learn from a book or from a lecture hall; it’s not something where there is a right or wrong way of doing things; and it’s not the archetypal career for extroverts as much as everyone thinks it is. In fact, some of the best comms leaders I know I would 100% categorise as introverts.

PR is something you learn on the job - by doing it, by observing others, by making mistakes. It’s a profession where for me I will ALWAYS hire for attitude and train for skill.

The top five things I believe you need to work in PR:

1.      Be inquisitive – so much of what we do is asking questions. In agency it was interrogating a brief, asking the right questions to understand what a client was really trying to achieve. In my role today it’s not the what we’re doing that I need to know about, but the why. Why does it matter to our employees, the world, our customers, our shareholders etc. I preface many discussions with ‘this might be a stupid/ill-informed question, but…..’ – yet it’s often those ‘stupid’ questions that get to the heart of the problem or opportunity. Equally today’s comms leaders need to be more inquisitive about the wider world than ever – one action in one part of the world has implications in another – we need to understand the balance required in what we do and not operate in a parochial vacuum.

2.      Be a risk taker – for me the communications function is most like legal in the corporate functions of a large company. We advise, we counsel, we weigh up the pros/cons of doing something and the inevitable risk/reward that comes with it. Being comfortable with ambiguity and the potential risk that comes with that is therefore critical. There is no black and white in comms – just plenty of shades of grey, that on any given day might have a different result.

3.      An eye for simplicity – whether it be identifying the heart of a story from all the noise of what a marketing team drunk on the company koolaid is telling you; or seeing the obvious opportunity or problem from your campaign results or reputation measurement. Keep it simple.

4.      Relentless determination – for much of what we do the devil is in the detail. From carefully choregraphing every step of a launch event or campaign, to checking every decimal point in a quarterly earnings press release. The one consistent is that we work fast and hard. This is certainly no job for the feint hearted – it’s relentlessly long hours and spinning of multiple plates that require quick thinkers and quick workers who can pivot in a heartbeat.

5.      EQ over IQ – You don’t need to be the smartest in the room, but you do need to be able to read the room. Emotional intelligence and interpersonal influence are key for comms leaders - sensing the mood, gut instinct, connecting the dots, inspiring people, corralling and convening ……and the list goes on. EQ probably used to be called ‘good with people’ – but it’s so much more than that. None of us are ever remembered in a job for what we did (unless we really really messed up), we’re remembered for the way we did it and how we made people feel.

Sadly, the hiring approach in the UK PR profession today is less about bringing through candidates with the right attitude and much more about who you know, where you went to school, the university on your CV and possibly your surname. While gender balance in PR has always been pretty good – although too female dominated in some areas – it is still sorely lacking in any kind of racial and socio-economic diversity.

And this is the heart of the issue for me when it comes to the entry point into PR. You don’t need a degree. You certainly don’t need a PR degree. But the system fools and fails the most disadvantaged by creating the feeling that you can only ever succeed with a degree, and that any degree, at any cost, is worth it. It isn’t.

The best person I have ever recruited and worked with in my career left school at 16, worked as a marketing assistant in a small agency before applying for a role at the PR agency I worked at. I was the hiring Account Manager and had to fight my MD to get his approval to offer her the job. She wasn’t like him – but she had something special and that was relentless drive and passion. She is now UK marketing director of a well-known global technology brand and flying. While we aren’t in contact on a regular basis, I am fiercely proud of everything she has achieved, and use it as a useful reminder to myself as to why fighting for what you believe in and know is right is worth any consequences.

This is where the industry needs to step up. We need to offer more ‘on the job’ internships and apprenticeships for school leavers. We need to scrap ‘educated to degree level’ on job specs. We need to ensure there are the structures in place and the allies in a business to sponsor and support different types of candidates from different types of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. And, most critically, we need to move beyond the white, male, privately educated cohort that still dominates the upper echelons of the UK PR industry today and embrace diversity and inclusion in its broadest sense

I heard a story last week about a large global company that was forced to rethink the standard degree requirements it had for every job in the company when it transpired that the candidate in line to succeed the CEO didn’t have a degree. If a catalyst like this forces companies to understand that the best, brightest and most creative talent comes from unexpected places then I’m all for the change it drives. But let’s not wait for that moment in the PR industry when we can do something now to make a difference.

More on this topic soon from me and Sarah Ogden who shares the same passion. If it’s something you feel equally strongly about, please do get in touch.