Marlow to Milton Keynes is not a great distance but it offered a big change. A lot more money and the chance to build my own team. But beware. I grabbed the chance only to see the opportunity fizzle out in an over-extended business which meant a chance to fill a gap in my c.v. – PR.
There had been a plan – to gain experience of every aspect of marketing so that I could look for senior roles somewhere down the line. Received wisdom now says staying in one sector is the way to go…but hey who knew ?
Marlow to Milton Keynes – Corporate Comms
If you’re looking for great PR experience you can’t beat the public sector. Its not book launches most of the time; its asbestos and care homes, cost reductions and political games. But, again great people (thank you Pete Winkleman, Nav Sidhu and Vanessa Gwynne) and clever stuff like “BroadbandAid” and partnerships with Jaguar Racing and The Citizen. But, its hard. The majority of the work is reactive and negative as processes are unreliable, staff change rapidly and there are no prizes for “council does what council is supposed to do”.
Again, a great team both within corporate communications and across the organisation plus the chance to develop and deliver the external, internal communications and PR for what was, at the time, the biggest public / private partnership working with HBS. Also a chance to get external communications under control with the advent of design templates. Held internally in our own office with referencing and version control. Only saved £150k !