Monthly Archives: January 2015

Graduate Job Podcast : How to get a job in PR

Screenshot 2015-01-14 09.51.08

 

James at Graduate Job Podcast interviewed me recently.  We talked about what graduates need to do to get a job in PR (and the best kind of tea to drink).  He asked me lots of the questions that graduates ask – what’s a good CV? What skills do you need What’s a decent cover letter?  How important is work experience? – so it’s really worth checking out if you’re applying for PR roles.

You can hear the full interview here.  If, like me, you don’t like the sound of my voice, there’s a full written transcript there too so you can read that instead.

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Filed under Careers, Graduates, PR

50 PR agencies rated by employees on Glassdoor

glassdoor

Recruitment in PR is changing.  Gone are the darkest days of the recession where applicants were banging down the doors of PR agencies, it’s becoming a candidate led market where firms have to move more quickly to find and secure good talent.  Increasingly, potential employees are turning to social media to research the companies they apply to and a new job board is leading the way is employee review and rating community, Glassdoor.

Recently, Stephen Waddington interviewed Joe Wiggins, the lead PR for Glassdoor, a jobs board with a platform for employee reviews of an organisation.

Rachel Miller wrote about it here, and gives a really thorough overview of how Glassdoor works so I won’t repeat that all here.

On the back of the 150 PR internships, apprenticeships, work experience and graduate schemes post I wrote last week, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top 50 agencies to see what their current employees say about them.  Some of these are global firms so the scores may be representative of more than just the London office, but it still gives a pretty good overview.

Helpfully, employees also list some of the questions they were asked at interview and rate the interview experience so if you’re planning to meet anyone there soon to talk about a job, it could be a really useful resource as part of your interview preparation.

These are listed in the same order as the PR Week top 150 agencies, rather than by their Glassdoor rating.  Keep in mind that some agencies have only had one review which may make their score look incredibly high or really low.  Ideally you need a few reviews to give you a better idea of a good average.

1. Brunswick: 3.9 stars. 91% would recommend to a friend. 100% approval of CEO.

2. Edelman: 4.1 stars. 85% would recommend to a friend. 96% approval of CEO.

3. Weber Shandwick: 3.9 stars. 82% would recommend to a friend. 96% approval of CEO.

4. FTI Consulting: 3.3 stars. 62% would recommend to a friend. 100% approval of CEO.

5. Bell Pottinger: 4 stars. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

6. H&K Strategies: 4 stars. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

7. Freud: 3.6 stars. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval rating of CEO.

8. Ogilvy PR: 2.7 stars. 46% would recommend to a friend. 56% approval of CEO.

9. Finsbury: 1 star. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval rating of CEO.

10. MSL Group: 3.1 stars. 50% would recommend to a friend. 60% approval of CEO.

11. Ketchum: 3.9 stars. 78% would recommend to a friend. 95% approval of CEO.

12. Instinctif Partners: 2 stars. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

13. Golin: 3.5 stars. 79% would recommend to a friend. 100% approval of CEO.

14. Good Relations Group: Not listed

15. FleishmanHillard: 3.3 stars. 65% woud recommend to a friend. 85% approval of CEO.

16. Cohn & Wolfe: 3.8 stars. 78% would recommend to a freind. 93% approval of CEO.

17. Fishburn: Listed but not rated.

18. Chandler Chicco: 2.7 stars. 24% would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

19. The Red Consultancy: Not listed

20. Tonic Life Communications: 2.4 stars. 47% would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

21. Portland: Listed but not rated.

22. Burson Marsteller: 3.2 stars. 64% would recommend to a friend. 61% approval of CEO.

23. Four Communications: Listed but not rated.

24. Exposure. Not listed.

25. We Are Social: 3.8 stars. N/A would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

26. Maitland. Not listed.

27. Lansons.  Listed but not rated.

28. The Communications Store. Listed but not rated.

29. Brands2Life. Listed but not rated.

30. Porter Novelli: 3.3 stars. 65% would recommend to a friend. 84% approval of CEO.

31. Hotwire: Listed but not rated.

32. Nelson Bostock: 5 stars. 100% would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

33. The Big Partnership. Not listed.

34. Hanover. Not listed.

35.TVC Group. Not listed.

36. Buchanan: Listed but not rated.

37. Powerscourt. Not listed.

38. Pegasus. Not listed.

39. Red Door Communications. 4 stars. 100% would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

40. Camargue Group. Not listed.

41. Frank Not listed.

42. Kraeb Gavin Anderson. 3.4 stars. 100% would recommend to a friend. 100% approval of CEO.

43. Cake: 2.9 stars. 53% would recommend to a friend. N/A approval of CEO.

44. 3 Monkeys. Listed but not rated.

45. Octopus Group. 3 stars. 100% would recommend to a friend. 100% approval of CEO.

46. Eulogy. Not listed.

47. M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. Not listed.

48. Axon Commuications. Not listed.

49. PPS Group. Not listed.

50. Waggener Edstrom. 2.9 stars. 50% would recommend to a friend. 66% approval of CEO.

 

 

 

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Filed under Careers, PR, Recruitment

What skills do you need for a career in PR?

comms2point0

Head over to Comms2Point0 where I’ve blogged today about the skills you need for a career in PR.

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Filed under Careers, Graduates, PR

Social Media Streamlining For The New Year

likeAs it’s the first week back after Christmas, I’ve a stack of emails to answer from over the holidays.  At the Taylor Bennett Foundation we ran four programmes back-to-back last year and this has been my first chance to catch my breath before we run our next programme in the spring. We’ve also had to move out of our office space and don’t have a new one to move into so all our office equipment is currently in storage.

I already work from home a fair bit, but Continue reading

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150 PR agency internships, apprenticeships, work experience, graduate schemes & entry-level roles

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One of the things I’m most often asked about is the importance of internships.  Do you really need experience to get into PR or can you go straight onto a graduate scheme?  In my experience, it’s absolutely vital that you have previous PR experience before applying for an entry-level job in communications. One of the things I often advise those job hunters to do is to look at the PR Week top 150 agencies and start looking for work experience, internships, apprenticeships and graduate schemes offered by those firms.

So to kick 2015 off in style I’ve done the hard part and trawled through websites to bring you the top 150 companies’ internships, apprenticeships and entry-level opportunities in this handy list.

Continue reading

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Filed under Careers, Graduates, PR