What makes a great PR Practitioner (in our humble opinion!)

Later this year Darren Northeast PR will be looking to increase our head-count and will be on the search again for a Junior PR Account Manager.   We’re often asked what qualities we look for in our team and what skills our team needs to possess.

We do treat every individual team member as a person in their own right, so we don’t have a typical member of the team here at Darren Northeast PR – we all have our own personalities, skill-set, temperament, education, experience, thoughts etc.

But looking at the PR industry as a whole and the skills that are needed as a baseline… being a great communicator is a must!

One thing we always tell people is that PR is not all about glamour.  If potential team members think that working in PR is all about Champagne, parties, hanging out with celebs and boozy lunches – then they are very much mistaken!!  It’s nothing of the sort – trust us! (Although sometimes there is the odd great event to go along too…)

But most of the time it’s about long hours, LOTS of writing and research, meeting deadlines, persistence, extremely hard work – and juggling 50 different things at once!  If that sounds like you, then do consider a career in PR.

Some key skills that are a necessity in PR include –

• Having a broad knowledge of what’s going on in the media at any one time (including current trends and current affairs) – so you need to be an avid consumer of all news! Including celebrity gossip, of course…
• Confidence is key in talking one on one, to small groups and even large groups – including managing events, presenting to clients, pitching to the media or ‘working the room’ at a business networking event!
• Developing great working relationships is vital in a PR role – including dealing with clients, journalists, partners, stakeholders, business owners / leaders
• Being able to multi-task is essential – juggling a multitude of topics, clients, media requests, plus ongoing emails and telephone communications are all daily tasks in the life of PR
• Great time management and organisational skills are another big part of a PR practitioner’s skill set. Again, the need to juggle workloads and meet deadlines all day every day is what makes a true PR professional.

So, if you’ve got what it takes, then you may be looking at a career in PR.  Here at Darren Northeast PR we do not just rely on the latest University degree – in actual fact, that’s the last thing we look for – it’s the person themselves that makes them shine and standout, not just their CV.

So good luck in becoming a PR practitioner… it’s definitely a fun and varied career choice!