Written by Jenna Maclean – Trainee PR Account Executive, 2021
Over the last five months, I’ve been a trainee account executive at Muckle Media, taking my first steps into the world of PR. Before seeing the job advertisement, PR wasn’t something I’d ever considered or really knew much about, but after reading the advert I recognised lots of key skills I had that could translate to PR and thought I’d apply.
Graduating in the summer of 2020 was not the best time to be entering the job market with a global pandemic going on, so I was thrilled to get back into full-time work when Muckle offered me the position. On my very first day, we released a story on behalf of philanthropy organisation The Hunter Foundation about Scotland’s economy and contacted leading politicians, which resulted in blanket media coverage and stakeholder engagement. Over the last few months, I’ve honed my skills by working across a variety of consumer, third sector, public sector and B2B accounts, from writing press releases for hotels to drafting interviews about aquaculture and pitching celebrity chefs for TV.
After five months of being a trainee account executive, how would I describe PR? PR stands for public relations, and so we aim to help our clients interact with the public in more than one way, managing and building reputations. Each of them will have their own target audience and so it’s up to us to help them communicate their key messages and values with their respective audience. This could be in the form of advising on and creating social media content to drive interest and footfall to a new distillery or hotel, or it could be writing a thought leadership piece around building sustainable homes. We’re also on hand to advise our clients how to manage their reputation during a crisis or unexpected developments, or to try and launch a news story that gets covered and sparks media interest.
What’s my favourite part of PR? Aside from my reputation as the queen of proofreading (no typo gets past me), I’ve absolutely loved exploring media relations. During my time in the job, I’ve been part of many media sell-ins and thrived on placing last minute stories and pitching long-lead features.
My traineeship with Muckle is coming to an end as I head back to university to study for a Masters in Film and TV Production. Working in PR has helped me to further develop my transferable skills and has certainly given me a much better understanding of the media landscape that I’ll be able to apply to my course. I’m excited for what the future holds but am definitely going to miss my wonderful colleagues at Muckle!
To find out more about Muckle Media’s traineeships please visit our careers page