Melissa Mace - In House PR

Melissa Mace had her heart set on a career in PR from school age, so chose to study Public Relations at London Metropolitan University. That said, while recognising the value of that course, she’s a great believer that you can’t beat doing when it comes to being a great communicator, and she recommends that all PR students follow her example and scatter their degree time with plenty of work experience.

Thanks to all that work experience, Melissa was able to secure an agency role soon after graduation, though she has since made the jump into in-house, where she finds PR work even more rewarding. Having previously worked at both finance and mobile companies, she now works for Whitbread as PR Manager for their Costa Coffee brand overseeing consumer and media relations activity.

We spoke to Melissa about her career to date.

How did you first get into PR?

I’ve always been creative, and loved reading and writing from a young age. When it came to having to make a decision about what to do with my life I was torn between journalism and advertising. It was actually a careers advisor at Sixth Form who suggested PR to me.

I then found out more about the industry, undertook some work experience and applied for a place at Leeds Metropolitan University studying Public Relations. Luckily for me it was good advice! I really enjoy my work and have been in PR since leaving university.

How did your PR career progress?

While studying at uni I made sure to get lots of work experience under my belt. I spent time at a range of companies, from a private hospital group to a local council to an international beauty brand. I also seized the opportunity to do a paid sandwich year (great for getting spending money for the final year of uni!) This was at McDonald’s and gave me great experience in PR, event planning, crisis communications and public affairs.

My first ‘proper’ job after university was at a PR agency, before I made the leap to client side. I’ve been quite fortunate not to be pigeon-holed into doing communications for a particular industry, which can happen fairly easily. To date I’ve worked for an agency, a dot com, in the finance sector (car insurance) and for a mobile network operator.

I’m now at Costa Coffee and love every minute of it. I’m a strong believer that it’s your knowledge and experience that count – specific industry contacts can be built up as you go along.

How useful has your PR degree been?

When I was looking for a place to study there were only a handful of universities offering PR courses. I went with Leeds Met because there was a strong emphasis on getting real work experience as you went along – plus the city is fantastic for shopping and nightlife!

The course has been useful to me, but I think it’s the experience gained actually ‘doing the job’ which has been most valuable. My advice to people would be that a PR or Marketing degree is great for getting you thinking strategically – but nothing beats getting out there and having a go!

How does working in-house differ to agencies?

I think that both have their pros and cons. I personally prefer being client side. You can see first-hand exactly how impactful your work is. And you also get a much deeper understanding of the brand which helps with planning campaigns.

Give us an idea of a typical day at work?

Every day is different!

One of the things I love about PR is that, although the job role doesn’t change too much (you always need to monitor coverage, take calls, execute and plan campaigns on a daily basis), you might take one phone call that can change the rest of your day. It could be anything from a difficult press enquiry which requires a response to an opportunity to get involved with something you’d never considered before. I don’t know many other careers that provide such variety.

What’s the worst thing about your job?

PR analysis! It is notoriously difficult to evaluate PR, especially with social media being so difficult to value. PR is a massive generator of word of mouth – all PR professionals know that – it’s just impossible to prove to board members!

What advice would you have for anyone considering a career in PR?

Work experience, work experience, work experience! It’s a competitive industry so you need a head start.