10 Yetis Insight Blog - The Advantages For Working For An Agency Over In-House

Fresh faced graduates just leaving university and hunting for jobs in PR forget that they actually have a choice to make at this point. In-house public relations or working for a PR agency. Many don’t realise that there is actually big differences between the two. The end game is usually the same, getting your client or clients’ positive coverage and exposure amongst target audiences in relevant outlets; but the jobs themselves are vastly different.

Being a digital PR agency and all, I’m going to talk about why working agency side is quite frankly amazing when compared to working in-house.

The pure excitement

Every day is different when you work agency side which makes everything that little bit more exciting. We never come into work knowing what the day will bring, which may sound terrifying but it certainly makes the days go by fast! We NEVER clock watch here at Yeti Towers HQ.

Of course there are the day-to-day tasks we do that remain constant throughout the week, but other than that, our work days are mostly dependent on how well (or not!) our clients are doing. Sending out releases, checking journo requests and speaking to clients could all lead to something unexpected which keeps us on our toes as well as providing us with stimulating work!

The experience gathered

Working agency side means you will have your fingers in a lot of pies. You will have to do everything for your client but you don’t only have one, you could have as many as six or seven, so planning and multitasking is a must.

As a result of this challenge we end up learning on the job and gathering so much experience which will come in handy in the future.

When you start at a PR agency you are pretty much thrown into the deep end where there is always the opportunity to get your hands on something new to learn.

As we are a digital PR agency, us Yetis often have to work with different platforms, learning about microsites, video productions and concept images.

This opportunity broadens our horizons and doesn’t pigeonhole what we can offer to our clients.

Variety

When you work agency side you will find yourself with a large variety of different clients. All of your clients will be different; they will have different goals, a different message and a completely different audience. I hope I said different enough to get that point across!

Having this variety of client’s means you learn so much about so many different sectors. If you have a health client, prepare to be educated on heaps of medical knowledge that you would never have known otherwise. If you have a holiday client, you will suddenly find yourself talking about the cheapest deals for holidays at parties or the best destinations for people to visit at certain times of the year.

Basically working agency side and having so many uniquely different clients gives you tonnes to talk about at parties to impress all your friends.

Travel opportunities

Having more than one client means that you may get the chance to travel. Now this could just be to Birmingham or Glasgow but there is always the possibility it will be somewhere more exotic!

Us Yetis travel all the time to see our clients as we like to get to know more about them, their environment and their message. Usually this does just involve a train or car journey but there have been opportunities that have arose for members of our team to travel further afield, with trips to Hong Kong and China happening just this year!

Creative freedom

When you work in-house everything always has to be ‘on brand’ for your singular client. You might have a fantastic idea but if it is too outlandish it’ll be scrapped and never used. When you work agency side, as there is such a vast variety of clients, there is a tremendous amount of creative freedom. We can go into brainstorms knowing that whatever we come up with could be suggested to at least one of our clients. Of course we still have to ensure our clients ideas are ‘on brand’ but we have the chance to alter and play with ideas far more than those who work in-house.

Feeling pigeonholed is a horrific feeling when you pride yourself on being a creative type and working in an agency allows us pigeons to spread our wings (great metaphor, I know).

At the end of the day, only you can decide which path suits you but if you are interested in working in PR I honestly believe working agency side is the best way to get you bundles of experience while also providing you with a fun, ever-changing, ever-creative job.