Advice for advancing your career in PR

As I begin my third month as a Junior Account Executive at Spark, I thought I would share my initial top tips for any budding PRs, as they begin their own journey into the industry as I did in June.

1) Whose afraid of the big bad phone?  – As a fairly confident person, I was certain that I would have no problems calling and pitching journalists. However, in my first couple of weeks I found picking up the phone a truly daunting prospect. Just do it - once you get on a roll you’ll find it isn’t as scary as it originally seemed. In my limited experience, the more confident you are the better the results you get.

2) Know your stuff – Thoroughly research the product you are pitching. If you don’t know what you are talking about, how can you expect a journalist to be interested? This allows you to have a more spontaneous conversation, as reading off a script is unlikely to inspire a journo to cover your client.

3) Put the kettle on – Make an effort to get to know your workmates; they are the best people to teach you about your job and how best do it. Ask lots of questions, even if you feel like you’re being a pain, more often than not people are happy to help you. Also – colleagues will always appreciate an offer to make hot drinks.

4) Time flies – I have found that writing daily lists of things I have to do and people I have to call helps me to ensure that I’m organised. In a high pressure environment, like PR, bad time management does not bode well and will infuriate your clients, colleagues and journalist contacts.

5) Learn from your mistakes – In your first couple of weeks in a new job you are bound to make mistakes. Instead of dwelling on them, try not to be too hard on yourself and learn from them so that the same thing doesn’t happen again. Starting a new career is a learning curve and often takes a while to get used to. Be kind to yourself, everybody makes mistakes, it is learning to rectify them which is important.

While Spark is a technology PR company, these tips apply to most other branches of the industry. Before you start to look for a job in Public Relations, check out this handy article which asks, ‘Is PR for You?’ As Ana said in her Top Tips for Interviews blog, public relations isn’t all about parties and glamour, but it is certainly a varied and challenging career choice.