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Are you applying for the right level positions? Sometimes you’ll need to come into an agency at a more junior level than your in-house title. Most skills will transfer, but not all will. Also, is your resume written in such a way to convey your contributions and how they helped achieve business objectives? If you’ve only been applying to big agencies, look at mid-size and small.
love this question! so following for education!
i was recently laid off & just had an interview for an agency position as an AE & i was basically told i didn’t have enough professional experience. it can be so frustrating to be literally trained in college for the exact position you’re interviewing for, but told you’re not experienced enough for an entry level job. quite the mind twister!!!
I digresss! my best advice for you is to take as many online courses as you can to show you are educating yourself on the agency side of things. & when you’re applying for these jobs, you need to be reading news that pertains to their vertical. Also networking in PR/Comms groups on LinkedIn is awesome and a good way to make connections. Also, not sure your age or where you attended college- but my professors have been pivotal in my career journey just by having them as a resource & they repost so many jobs from previous students they’ve taught. I really hate admitting it, but who you know helps so much. A referral could change a life! I suggest joining referral bowls on here also!!
Goodluck! you’re not alone!
Great advice here. You'll have a job soon, I suspect! As others say, look for AC or AAE also. You just need to break in and get that first role.
I jumped from in-house to agency when I was ten years into my career, and I did it by jumping to a boutique agency. Also, I highly recommend working with a recruiter who can advocate for your previous experience and how it can translate to an agency. Finally, if you can network and connect with employees who will refer you to a role, that will help enormously.
I should add— i have a masters and bachelors from top universities and 7 years post undergrad experience in media/in house corporate communication. Thank you all for the advice! I will rework my resume a little to see if I can attract more opportunities at agencies.
Of note: PR agencies generally consider marketing and Comms experience as two completely separate things.
Unless you’re applying to one of the bigger, international agencies (that offer a much broader array of services), try to really focus your resume on core PR experiences - especially media relations.
Completely agree with the advice others are giving. In addition, start just having conversations. Do you know anyone in agency? Ask them to chat or grab a coffee. Send LinkedIn messages to old classmates letting them know you'd like to pick their brain. Once people know your goal, they may have helpful insight and be able to share open roles. Good luck!!!
Definitely look for a small or mid-tier agency to make the jump. But please be cognizant of the fact that agencies pay bands are way under those of most similar in-house positions. So really make sure you make the jump for the right reasons and you are getting what you need from agency life.
A recruiter told me that agencies target young employees and shun mature workers. In fact, I had another recruiter ask me why I was applying for a junior role when other employees in the organization made the leap to vice president within 2-4 years. Needless to say she is not on my Christmas gift list (sarcasm). In my own experience, corporate roles of the very same responsibility pay 10K more than agency roles. On the flip-side, agency roles can have a lot of great team dynamics (fun) when more than one department works together to achieve a common result... and that (agency life) is one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had. Today's job market requires one thing: a resume that defeats the automated ATS algorithm. As painful as it is, you have to play the keyword-matching game so that your originally genuine resume is less genuine enough to be their kind of genuine (LOL) because humans aren't paid to read anymore ... because reading (and humans) has become too expensive.