Sunday, December 5, 2010

A new view: agency PR

I’ve officially completed my first two weeks at Maple Creative, a Charleston, W.Va. based public relations firm. This is my first foray into agency PR after having worked the past two summers in corporate PR, and I’ve already seen in my very limited experience how different the two are. Here are some of my key observations of these differences:


  1. Billing your time. At most agencies, you have to track the time you work for each client on a daily basis. For me, this has been the hardest thing to get used to. It does help me remember what I’ve accomplished each day, which is a definite plus in such a fast-paced environment. Which brings me to my next point:

  2. Fast-paced environment. In any PR job this is likely to be the case, but in my opinion the agency world steps it up a few levels. Non-stop phone calls, e-mails, meetings and trying to fit in everything else in between is no easy feat. I finally gave in and invested in a BlackBerry, which has been a lifesaver in helping me keep up.

  3. Time management. When managing several clients instead of one, there is a lot more juggling involved. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to stay organized, and so far that has been keeping an ongoing to-do list and making sure I write down everything I possibly can.

Regardless of the differences I’m thrilled to have this opportunity and I’m loving everything I’m doing so far. Good luck trying to catch me this winter break, ‘cause I’m going nonstop!

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