The Insider’s Guide to PR: Chapter 4
A PR LIFE – THE LADDER, THE PAY AND THE
LIFESTYLE
An AM or an AE... what will you be? The path in PR can be as slow or fast as you
want as your career is very much driven by your own personal ambitions and
aspirations. This chapter sets out the typical career path in consultancy and explains
how the job jigsaw fits together across account teams. It also discusses the pay scales
and the typical lifestyle.
Start climbing that ladder now with our quick guide to the job:
• Junior Account Executive: a role requiring little experience, junior execs are often
placement students on a sabbatical year out from university. Juniors are
responsible for administration and rarely have a client-facing role, though they
Claire Bicknell may build up to this as they near promotion to the next level.
Account Manager
Clareville Consultancy • Account Executive: the entry point for most graduates, execs are expected to do
Arts and Humanities graduate the majority of the day-to-day work on an account such as media sell-ins, feature
writing, sorting press clippings and compiling press packs. It is at this stage that
“As an Account Manager, my role is individuals, with the help of their account managers, start to build up their
to run a team of three business-to- contacts, particularly with journalists. Other work centres around research, liaison
business executives and assistants in with third party suppliers and event organisation.
our growing PR consultancy. No day
is the same so my job is very varied. • Senior Account Executive: the senior exec takes on more responsibility, often
I supervise seven clients and I am acting as account manager on smaller accounts to gain managerial experience.
very hands-on with the campaigns. I The job profile is focused less on personal development and more on
have to think ‘What perception or responsibility to the client and the team. This is often a challenging role.
reputation does my client want to
have?’ and how I can achieve that • Account Manager: a manager’s overall responsibility is to ensure that results are
through their target media. I write delivered. He or she oversees the workload of the team and must be able to spot
press releases, target forthcoming potential danger points on the account. The client will often come to the
features, organise product launches, manager as the first port of call if they have a problem or request or need advice.
journalist interviews, photocalls and Managers report to account directors and delegate work to the team.
much, much more.”
• Senior Account Manager: the senior manager role is related to the senior exec
role in that it is a transition to the next level. Senior managers will begin to take
on the responsibility for directing accounts in a mentored environment as they
progress upwards.
• Account Director: the responsibility of the account director is to manage the
relationship with the client and ensure best performance is achieved for both
client and consultancy. The account director oversees client work at a high-level –
day-to-day running of the account is left to the manager – but it is still up to the
director to know what is going on and to ensure the client is happy. Directors are
often involved in generating new business for the consultancy as well as being
responsible for coaching the team.
• From here you can become Group Account Director, Member of the Board,
Managing Director and even CEO – the sky’s the limit!
Training
Louisa Beejay PR consultancies go out of business if they don’t look after their people and any
Account Executive good company will offer a wide range of schemes. Training programmes tend to be
Manning, Selvage & Lee individually tailored to ensure that every member of staff receives the maximum
Italian and History of Art amount of help. Professional development tends to be offered through a mixture of
graduate in-house and external courses and also involves coaching and mentoring from senior
managers. All PRCA consultancies must provide training as part of the Consultancy
“I recently attended E3 in LA for Management Standard (CMS).
Microsoft’s Xbox, which is one of the
largest and most important trade The pay
shows for the games industry. We Good PR consultancies reward their employees through a combination of
managed all the aspects of Xbox’s competitive salaries, excellent benefits and individually-tailored packages. While pay
European presence at E3 – press scales are not at the level of City bankers, there are examples of PR folk who have
conference, party, one-to-ones and made their fortunes. Like any industry, if you’ve got the idea and the motivation
group media briefings with key there’s nothing to stop you starting up your own business.
spokespeople. All of these went The hours can sometimes be long but, again, good PR consultancies that are well
smoothly and contributed to the managed have strict policies on working hours.
overall success of the Xbox European
team at E3.” The graph on the next page is a rough guideline for salaries at different levels.
However, salary is, of course, commensurate with experience.
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The Insider’s Guide to PR: Chapter 4
This graph reflects average salaries from across the UK:
Junior Account Executives: £11,000 - 13,000
Account Executives (entry level for the majority of graduates): £14,000 - 18,000
Senior Account Executives: £19,000 - 23,000
Account Managers: £24,000 - 35,000
Senior Account Managers: £35,000 - 40,000
Account Directors: £40,000+
Source: Frontline Survey 2001
Quality of Life
Vicky Brown
Different companies offer varying benefits and these can range from the sensible,
Account Manager
such as pensions, to the sublime like duvet days, to unusual extras such as alternative
Manning Selvage & Lee
medicine.
English and History graduate
Benefits are broken down into three main categories – financial, lifestyle and career –
“I work as part of a team on a number
and the graph below from recent a survey shows the most prevalent benefits in each
of integrated marketing campaigns
category:
within Europe for our client Philips.
This means the PR work that we do is
Prevalence of financial benefits
interwoven from start to finish with
Commission for new staff introduced 59% the advertising and promotional
Annual company bonus 57%
Contributory pension 47%
campaigns. It is particularly satisfying
Private medical insurance (PMI)
Commission for new business introduced
45% to see one uniform message being
36%
Low interest loans (e.g. for season tickets) 28% delivered in a variety of ways,
Life assurance
Personal performance bonus
26%
23%
ultimately with greater impact on the
Company car or cash equivalent 17% consumer.”
Profit share 16%
Long term illness cover 14%
Long term service awards 11%
Petrol allowance for private mileage 9%
PMI for other family members 7%
Luncheon vouchers/meal subsidy 2%
Prevalence of lifestyle benefits
Gym membership 29%
Mobile phone 26%
Sabbatical opportunities 26%
Flexible working hours 20%
Christmas shopping days 16%
Laptop computer 14%
Maternity/paternity leave above statutory 13%
Duvet days 12%
Alternative medicine/treatment 8%
Lifestyle vouchers 6%
Regular medical examinations 4%
Help with childcare 3%
Assistance with domestic costs 1%
Anthony Scammell
Source: Frontline Survey 2001
Account Manager
Golin/Harris International
While it may not be all champagne and caviar as the media would like to portray,
English Literature/Sociology
the quality of life is good, salaries are competitive and there are plenty of
graduate
opportunities to go forth and network through initiatives like PRCA FrontLine.
“The client is Bass Brewers, and I
work on Worthington’s sponsorship of
the League Cup. Effectively, we
Katherine Smith
operate a press office which acts as
Campaign Manager
an interface between the brand and
Firefly Communications
the media. Getting results is always
Geography graduate
satisfying. Setting up a photocall and
then seeing it in the papers the next
“The most rewarding experience recently has been a client
day is a great buzz.”
calling up overcome with emotion because you have just
managed to get them into six articles in the Financial Times –
they take this stuff home to show their kids – it is mad!”
Laura Manley
Account Executive
Text 100
English Literature and PR graduate
“My main function as an account executive is to communicate
with the media, making sure my clients make the most of all
opportunities for press coverage. Developing angles and creative
ideas to gain media exposure can be challenging, especially
within the IT sector, where you need to make complex
messages lucid and interesting to a wide-ranging audience.”
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