A day in the life: A PR professional
Clara is the Senior Media Officer in the universities sector. Prior to that, she worked at a public relations and communications agency specialising in education. She also has a background in classical music PR.
What is your role?
Senior Media Officer at Universities UK. It’s quite a varied role, and as well as spending lots of time speaking with journalists about the university sector, I also oversee digital strategy and content creation for a wide range of social media channels.
How did you get into this career?
I got into this industry while I was at university! I was initially interested in journalism and got involved with the student newspaper, which I loved. The experience I gained editing sections of the paper helped me to arrange internships with magazines and I also started reviewing art exhibitions, plays and comedy shows. During this time I didn’t really know what public relations was, but after meeting PRs I realised there was a strong element of team working which really appealed to me. The arts world was what I knew the best, so I started an internship with a creative PR agency for music and culture. We were a small team so I was able to gain lots of skills very fast, and thankfully my role there turned into a full time job before I had graduated.
What does a typical day look like?
There isn’t really a typical day in a press office! Although I begin at different times each day, the one consistent element is starting my working day by reading, listening to and watching the news, figuring out how it might impact universities, and how it might dictate what my day will look like. If the day isn’t dominated by responding to a big story, I’ll be able to spend time on proactive, strategic work. That could be drafting a speech for an event, writing a comment piece or working on a longer term communications strategy to help publicise a particular campaign. I am really particular about keeping meetings to a minimum, but we do still have a couple each day. These always have clear agendas to ensure we can stay focused on our goals and get the most out of the time we have to share ideas together.
What is the best thing about your role?
The best thing is the variety of topics I get to engage with. I didn’t think that would be the case with my in-house role, but it has been such a privilege to work with experts on topics such as mental health and wellbeing, suicide prevention, tackling harassment, student satisfaction, university funding, and much more. To me, it’s never boring, and I don’t think many people get to say that about their jobs.
What’s the most challenging thing?
The most challenging thing about my job … with variety comes unpredictability, and it has definitely taken me a while to adjust to that. I am a planner. In the press office, the priorities that I decided to focus on at the beginning of the day may well be scrapped by noon because the news agenda moves so quickly. That also means it can be very difficult for me to know how busy I will be on any given day. But it does also keep it interesting. Sometimes I’ll plan to spend a quiet afternoon evaluating a recent campaign, with a limited number of phone calls, and I’ll end up at the BBC briefing a spokesperson for a live interview.
What do you do to switch off?
Anything outside or not involving a screen works really well for me. So reading, walking, yoga and a bit of running too. It is extremely rare for me to eat at my desk. Taking time away means I can relax properly and work more efficiently. I also think it’s quite tricky to neatly eat anything while talking on the phone or typing, so this is a shout out to my employer for fostering a working culture which means I don’t have to attempt or pretend to work and eat simultaneously.
What’s your top tip for getting into this kind of role?
My number one tip to get into this industry … don’t wait for vacancies to pop up to express your interest in working for a particular company or for any potential client. I got my foot through the door by approaching individuals at smaller agencies I was interested in because I could prove to them that I had a genuine interest in what they were all about. I had written articles, blogs and reviews about the arts and I let them know how I thought I might be able to help them. I still think that’s a strong way to start a conversation.