Have you considered a career in public relations (PR)?

Public relations is about managing reputation. A career in PR involves gaining understanding and support for your clients, as well as trying to influence opinion and behaviour. You’ll use all forms of media and communication to build and maintain goodwill. You’ll also monitor publicity and conduct research to find out the concerns and expectations of your client organisation’s stakeholders. You’ll report and explain your findings to management.

This is an exciting, fast moving industry with great internships and entry level graduate jobs. You’ll usually work in-house in either the private or public sectors, from the utility and media sectors to voluntary and not-for-profit organisations. Some PR officers may also be based in consultancies.

This session will give you an overview of:
– What job opportunities look like in PR
– Where you can find graduate jobs, internships, placements
– What you can do now to build up solid skills for this type of work

In this online event, five PR professionals will tell you about their career journey and answer all your questions. You will hear from…

Simon Truscott, PR & Social Media Manager at FIS
Simon studied French at the University of Reading 2011-2015, and was VP (Councillor) of Wantage Hall JCR 2012-2013. During university, he worked and interned for The AA, Autocar Magazine, DMS Media, Toyota GB and Peugeot-Citroen. Since leaving, Simon has worked at Toyota GB, then Worldpay and is now part of the global Corporate Communications team at its parent company and global fintech, FIS.

Ed Hopkins, Founder of Dark Green PR
Ed studied Politics and International Relations at Reading from 2010-2013. He has been in PR full time since July 2013 and spent 6 years at Brands2Life (large independent comms agency in London) working on big brands such as John Lewis, Nikon, Dell, Virgin, Logitech, King and Match. He then worked for 1 year as an Account Director at Greenhouse PR focussing on sustainability-led brands. Ed has now founded Dark Green PR this year during lockdown, which is a new agency dedicated to helping clean, green and vegan brands on a mission to combat climate change. 

Emma McSweeney, Account Director at DMC PR
Emma studied at UoR 2008-2011, graduating with a 2:1 BA in English and Television Studies. During her final year, she undertook part time work experience with local PR agency DMC PR, writing press releases, helping with events and dealing with the media. The part time role was advertised on the UoR careers site. It is here where Emma got her first taste for PR, developing her skills and work as the company expanded to take on more clients, projects and staff. In 2014, she widened her experience to the beauty, beverage and retail sector, working on the corporate comms for the UK’s largest airport retail brand – World Duty Free. After 18 months, Emma heard exciting things about DMC’s expansion and their managing director offered her a new role working on the PR & Social Media for a very large client. Since then, the business has evolved and Emma says that it has been a very exciting process to be part of. Today, Emma is an Account Director managing the PR and social media strategies for international brands, a member of the Chartered Institute of PR and a Publicity Volunteer for the Reading branch of Samaritans in her free time.

Charlotte Mitchell, Senior PR Manager (Entertainment & Brand) at Sky
Charlotte followed her passion for literature and the arts, and studied English Literature at Reading University, before graduating in 2008. She took some time off to travel before joining a utility firm, EDF Energy, where she secured her first PR role as a Media Assistant in their busy press office. She stayed there for five years, working on a wide variety of projects, including the company’s sponsorship of the London 2020 Olympic Games, CSR initiatives to encourage more young women to study STEM subjects and crisis communications around the workings of nuclear power stations! Charlotte made the leap to Sky and the world of television in 2015, which is where she works currently, as a Senior PR Manager, specialising in entertainment. Her team is responsible for publicising all of the TV shows that you see on Sky; and her world is full of red carpet premieres, set visits and lovely (but sometimes stroppy!) actors – she says that it is brilliant!

Lily Murphy, Corporate PR and Communications Manager at eBay
Lily is Corporate PR and Communications Manager at eBay UK. She graduated from the University of Reading in 2016 with a Bachelors degree in English Literature and previously held communications roles at publishing house Bonnier Books, the UK arm of Swedish media conglomerate Bonnier. At eBay, she works closely with stakeholders across the business, supporting with high-level corporate PR planning and leading on campaign work.

What’s in it for me?
– Understand what a career in PR looks like
– Speed up your research by speaking directly to PR professionals
– Find out the steps you can take now towards a career in PR

Who’s it for?
All UG and PG students with an interest in exploring Public Relations as a career path.

This session will be taking place as a webinar.
To participate, please go to the Careers24/7 Blackboard organisation (http://bit.ly/UoRCareers247) and click on ‘Webinars’. Here you’ll see a list of upcoming sessions. A few minutes before the session is due to start, click on the title of the session to enter the room. You will not need to use a camera or microphone, but please ensure you have headphones or speaker so you can hear the audio. Here’s a short video explaining how this works and what the webinar tool looks like.

*This online event can count for 1.5 hours of your RED Award training and development hours. Find out more about the RED Award at reading.ac.uk/REDAward