Nick Bird – Account Director at Spreckley
…. Choose early morning caffeine hits. Choose working with the latest pioneering technologies. Choose staying ahead of current events. Choose the opportunity to build a broad range of skills. Choose never having the same day twice. Choose helping to shape the future of your client’s business. Choose working with Apple Macs. Choose a central London office location. Choose a fantastic set of like-minded colleagues. Choose a Buzzfeed article as your water-cooler discussion. Choose building relationships with the biggest influencers in the media. Choose a career in PR.
For those making that choice a career in public relations can often boil down to two options. Go in-house or go-agency. Both have their merits, both have their limitations, but for the purpose of this blog I’m here to focus on life in an agency. So what are the benefits to agency life?
Variety
Whether it’s liaising with a diverse range of clients, to dabbling in different technology sectors, one of the biggest benefits to working in an agency is the opportunity for variety. This in turn has an impact on the campaigns you will be dealing with, especially in terms of different clients, and exposure to various communications disciplines. Also the agency structure impacts variety – through different accounts you will have the opportunity to work with different people and learn new skills.
Expertise
Being a part of an agency means PR pros will be a part of specialist expert teams when they are working on campaigns, which is an excellent opportunity to gather niche knowledge and exposure to dedicated disciplines such as digital, public affairs, internal comms and branding. Also, working on a cross-section of clients gives you the opportunity to experience different technologies and different business set ups.
Commercial acumen
Having first-hand exposure of running accounts efficiently and of course winning new ones, and servicing your client base well, gives PR professionals in agencies valuable direct experience of running a business, which is of course an asset in any career projection.
Cutting edge
In such a highly competitive industry, agencies are constantly streamlining and improving their service offering in order to stay ahead of the game. The pace and creativity is cutting edge and agencies will undertake some of the most sophisticated and challenging communications within the industry. This means PR pros working in these environments stay ahead too.
For those interested in choosing PR we at Spreckley offer a fantastic internship scheme designed to give you your first experiences of agency life. If you are interested, feel free to get in touch here by sending an email to the following address to find out more about the programme: [email protected]