“Just” a Junior Account Executive? Not “just” an interview
Strictly speaking, it is rare that PR agencies will come to a recruitment company for help in hiring a Junior Account Executive, or even sometimes an AE. Why would they? Especially when they’ve normally got a filing cabinet fit to burst with the CVs of every PR graduate to walk out of university this year.
However, in the past 6 months, we have had a flurry of clients coming to us to get help in finding them the perfect Junior Account Executive.
The clue is in the title. They need to be perfect.
Across the industry, despite some purse strings being slightly loosened – investment in recruitment continues to be treated with more caution than risk. Agencies are still reluctant to gamble on their hires whether it be an MD position or a Junior Account Executive.
Recent tales of perfect Junior Account Executives that have joined clients of ours have included candidates turning up to interview not only with their coverage portfolio (if they have one) but also with media relations trackers – Excel sheets with details of each journalist they have contacted, what they sent them and when the coverage was published. Some candidates have even put together creative ideas for the brands that they hope to be working on, should they be offered the job.
These aren’t things that clients are asking for, or by any means standard in an interview process. They are proactive, above-and-beyond added value that junior level candidates are choosing to showcase in the hope that it will give them that little extra edge.
And generally, it does!
Interviewing at the moment is not a standard process and you should not want to be a standard candidate.
For more useful information, visit our careers advice section, where you can also submit a question to the Workfish team.
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About the Author: Lorraine Barker
