CC: So what's your background?
I went to the University of Sheffield and did a degree in English. After university I worked for a PR company in Soho, promoting big corporate brands. After getting experience here I went travelling and spent some time volunteering at a charity in India. It was here that I really got a taste for working in the third sector. After that I knew that I wished to work for a charity and starting applying for not for profit jobs when I got back to the UK.
CC: How did you get this job, and did getting it fulfil a long-held ambition?
When I saw the job it seemed perfect for me, although a bit of a stretch which made me a little nervous. The campaign I work on predominantly promotes the benefits of exercise on mental wellbeing. At the time of applying I was working temporarily selling membership at a health club, so was well practiced at this!
I had also done a stint working in a celebrity booking agency, and I think this was fantastic experience for my job now. Getting this job certainly did fulfill a long-held ambition, because after working in the commercial sector I knew that I wanted to work somewhere where I would be promoting a worthwhile message. In the PR agency I was the voice of big corporations, but I wanted to be the voice for something that I was genuinely committed to.
CC: How long have you worked at your current organisation for?
Almost a year
CC: What was your first charity job? And your first communications role?
My first charity job was teaching at a school in Africa, when I was 17 that I got involved with through my school. My first communications role was on a graduate training scheme with PR agency Red Consultancy, which was amazing fun. I worked on accounts for big brands with big budgets, which meant we were able to see through some fantastic ideas and I was able to attend lots of fancy events! I learnt huge amounts there and I thank them for giving me such a fantastic grounding in PR, but I am sure that the charity sector suits me better.
CC: What do you actually do on a daily basis?
At the moment I’m very busy working on our Get Moving campaign. There are going to be 600 events happening across the country as part of this campaign, and a flagship event in London on World Mental Health Day.
A large component of my job is calling journalists to get them interested in the campaign. We have packaged up lots of different ideas of how they can cover the story and have written these up. We are lucky to have lots of people with firsthand experience that are happy to tell their story and find these are often the easiest to sell in to the media.
I’m also preparing a report about the contribution celebrities have made to mental health. A celebrity hook is often the only way to secure broadcast coverage. I spend a long time trying to get hold of celebrities and their agents and trying to encourage them to give me their support.
CC: What's been your biggest achievement in this role so far?
I managed to secure Alastair Campbell as a spokesperson for a campaign raising awareness of men and mental health. He went on BBC breakfast and national and London radio, giving us fantastic coverage for our campaign. He was a fantastic person to have onboard. His media background meant you could trust him completely to be bang on message and he’s a lovely person, really genuine.
CC: What are the most challenging parts of your role?
Many of my campaigns rely upon celebrity support. This can make life difficult for me as stigma towards people with mental health problems can mean celebrities shy away from speaking out about their experiences. However, people are becoming braver and going public about mental distress – something the report I am producing applauds. It’s important to get celebrities involved because if you don’t have a famous face to talk about your campaign, the broadcast media are rarely interested.
CC: What do you enjoy most about your job?
The people I work with. The atmosphere is great and my team is fantastic. We all really support each other and everyone always shares the workload- and the chocolate! I’m also still learning and developing in this role, which is a really important to me.
CC: Anything you don't enjoy?
I talk to a lot of people who have had traumatic experiences, such as being let down by health services or even people close to them, and speaking to them about their difficulties can be quite upsetting.
CC: What kind of personality is best suited to working in a job like yours?
The most important thing is the ability to talk to anyone. Being able to pick up the phone or bump into someone at an event and build rapport whilst speaking enthusiastically about your campaign is crucial. It’s conversational skills more than anything, so you have to be quick thinking and confident.
Creativity is also a large part of the job. It’s important come up with innovative ideas, especially when working with a limited charity budget. The more creative the news angle and well written the press release, the better!
CC: Any Top tips for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Get experience, even if you do not get paid. It’s difficult to just step into roles like this so it’s essential to build up your work experience. Working for free in a role like this is also useful for finding out it you actually like it!
Work experience is the best way to build up confidence and contacts, and it looks great on your CV. Plus, you never know where it may lead... the last two people who started here on a voluntary basis doing work experience are now employed full time!