My PR Journey | Joshua Callaghan
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It seems slightly strange to write about my PR Journey after only working in a PR job for a little over a month. However, as an 18-year-old straight out of A-Levels, I have realised that my unpaid and voluntary roles have been vital in preparing me for a role in PR.
Growing up, I’ve always loved gaming and the idea of working in the games industry always seemed like the perfect match! As a younger teenager, I immersed myself in many gaming communities such as the r/humblebundles subreddit. I loved discussing hidden gaming gems and applied to become a volunteer moderator for the forum. After becoming a bit too excited about being approved to voluntarily moderate a subreddit, I began to engage the community by arranging developer interviews and giveaways. Looking back, this role was (and continues to be) great at providing me with gaming communications experience. At the same time, I wrote and edited Humble Choice reviews on my YouTube channel, and decided to apply my review writing experience to rapidreviewsuk.com in the Summer of 2020. At Rapid Reviews, I’ve gained a great perspective of experiencing public relations from an editorial standpoint! The more press releases and event invitations that arrived in my inbox, the more the idea of working in PR appealed!
Then, in late 2021, UCAS applications arrived and I still wasn’t sure about uni plans! Whilst I was provided with offers for all of my choices, the prospect of studying digital marketing full-time for another three years didn’t appeal to me. Whilst reading about uni facilities and course content, my phone sent a Twitter notification: an account called @ranaraptor had liked one of my review posts. I’d messaged a few individuals working in PR about entry-level career advice and did the same with Rana. After speaking via DMs, Rana invited me to a Google Meet. Whilst I was expecting to hear a bit about Rana’s background, it ended up turning into an unexpected mini-interview! There was a potential employment opportunity at Raptor and I was thrilled. Truth be told, A-Level revision ramped up and I became busier and busier as the dreaded exam dates came closer and closer. Nevertheless, Rana and I continued to message and I gradually met more of the team. With an end date in sight for exams, I decided to speak to Rana about potential Summer employment which leads me to now… I am one month into my two-month PR Assistant placement and loving my time at Raptor; learning about new areas of the PR industry and getting to work with an awesome team and clients.
My advice for those finding an entry-level PR role is that experience is vital! Start a blog, moderate a community or host your own YouTube channel; building up a vault of content for potential employers shows you have a genuine passion for both your hobby and communications. Most of all though, follow your passions and connections will naturally come. Reach out to potential employers; they will notice your genuine love and expertise for whatever avenue of PR you decide to explore, and that will really help!
Joshua Callaghan