CC: So what's your background?
I did an English degree at the University of Leicester and became a youth worker for a year. Then I applied for the Barnardo’s graduate trainee scheme.
This was a two year scheme and I rotated around the different departments at Barnardo’s, including the Press Office, Events and Celebrity teams. As part of the scheme I also took a one year course in Management through the Open University. I passed that and ended up in their Press Office as their Communications Officer.
CC: How did you get this job, and did getting it fulfil a long-held ambition?
From Barnardo’s I moved on to Stonewall and became their Communications Officer.
I’d already been to quite a few Stonewall events and I was a very big supporter of the cause. I’d known for a while that Stonewall was where I wanted to go. I think it’s achieved a lot for a charity of its size.
CC: How long have you worked at your current organisation for?
I’ve just gone past my two year anniversary at Stonewall.
CC: How has does if differ from your previous experience?
It’s a really different experience to Barnardo’s. You end up having a lot more areas of responsibility. At Barnardo’s you’d focus on one report or one particular campaign. But at Stonewall, everyone pitches in more because there’s less staff. We all have to take responsibility for our communications.
At Stonewall, because we’re much smaller, we have to think more about the wider picture. We have to get involved with the branding and marketing. We’re using social media to gear people into action and we’ve seen a lot of success with that.
CC: What do you actually do on a daily basis?
The first thing I do is check the press cuttings. We do a key word search to find out when and where Stonewall’s been mentioned. At least every other day it will have been. Sometimes it’s reactive and sometimes it’s a pitched story.
We’ll then do a broader search to see where the terms ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’ and ‘bisexual’ have been used. We’ll produce a report on that and consult with senior staff members to decide how best to respond to those stories.
We’ll also scan the papers to see how we should be targeting a certain story. For example, we’ve just produced an index of the top 100 gay friendly employers in Britain and we’re now pitching that out to the media.
Then I’m on the phones. Depending on what’s happened it can get really busy. There might be some calls from the weekend that we need to chase up, particularly when there’s been hate crimes.
Often we’ll be writing articles on our recent reports and meeting journalists. We’ll discuss Stonewall’s priorities with them and what we’ve got coming up. We’ve got a very active policy and research department, so we can sell that to media titles. We’ll also be warming up case studies.
CC: What's been your biggest achievement in this role so far?
Two front pages stories in the national edition of the Metro. Our hate crimes report and homophobia in football report have now reached three million people. It’s great to see Stonewall leading the news agenda.
CC: What are the most challenging parts of your role?
Reading the Daily Mail in the morning and thinking about how to combat their negativity. What’s hard to combat is nuance of tone. It’s difficult to get people to apologise for it.
CC: What do you enjoy most about your job?
Everything. I enjoy it when we’ve got a campaign coming up and lots of exciting ways to promote it: recruiting new celebrities, getting young people involved, uncovering something new with really meaty stats. Seeing the coverage afterwards is great.
CC: Anything you don't enjoy?
I wouldn’t say there was anything I don’t enjoy.
CC: What kind of personality is best suited to working in a job like yours?
You need to be sociable. You’ve got to be happy to be the mouthpiece of the organisation, but be alert and cautious too. Be chatty but succinct.
CC: Any top tips for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Do your research. Look at what charities are out there and how they’re positioning their messages. Also research communications through the media. Have a look at the Media Guardian and PR Week. See what the hottest topics are.
Do some voluntary work to get some experience and look at what training courses are available through CharityComms and the Media Trust.
The larger charities offer good training packages and it’s a good way to get into the sector. I’d certainly recommend the Barnardo’s graduate scheme. You get a real insight into how the different departments work.