A warm welcome to @Medha Pal who joins the NoTurningBack2020 Campaign as an Ambassador. Medha is currently an AE @ccgroup an international B2B tech PR and marketing consultancy. She started out working in B2B tech sales following her degree in International Relations & Affairs and at Kings College London.
Here she talks about her ambitions for her future in the PR industry, her view on what more needs to be done to level the playing field and why she chose to carve a career in the sector.
I’ve worked in PR now for almost 2 years for CC Group an international B2B tech PR
and marketing consultancy,and previously worked in B2B tech sales. Although my career span has been short so far, I’ve sharpened my writing, relationship building skills as well as providing solid counsel to clients.
The main reason I studied IR at university was due to my global upbringing (lived in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UK) and feeling like an international citizen. I wanted to learn more about the world from a political angle and develop my understand of how things work in different places.
A lot of my classmates were dipping their toes in the comms industry, bringing further attention to myself that this could be a viable path for me.
I wasn’t getting noticed by recruitment agencies whether that was because I didn’t study PR or have formal work experience in the industry, being ignored by a handful of recruiters became increasingly frustrating.
I think more recruitment agencies need to understand that a CV doesn’t have to be black and white stating you have X years at Y agency and to read between the lines.
You’d assume all PR folk are extroverts, but it’s been surprising to see a handful of introverts.
We did a report for a client of ours, Tribe Payments, called Fintech 2030. The report brought together 15 leading businesses from across the European fintech community with each market leader covering a different part of the fintech ecosystem.
I was able to leverage my relationship building skills which I sharpened at my former job to recruit several high-profile companies to participate in this report, as well as strict adherence to timelines and overall project management of overseeing all the different and moving parts of the report.
More awareness on comms and marketing careers for sure. There’s a huge emphasis on STEM focused jobs and traditional careers, but shining a light on alternative career paths needs to be highlighted more at schools and universities.
An exciting project coming up is several of my colleagues are participating in Elizabeth Bananuka’s first Blueprinted event on ‘How to diversify comms’.
I’m keen to be an industry leader, whether that’s in B2B tech or dipping my toes into other fields e.g. gaming/policy comms.
Don’t be afraid to take the leap in to the creative field, even if you don’t have any formal experience and don’t be discouraged if things don’t go your way immediately.