By: Mary Warner

It is the big question that most practitioners ask themselves before getting into the PR business: should I go client side or agency side? Obviously it is a personal choice but I feel that I have something to add to the conversation having done both. Take my opinion for what it’s worth and I would love for this blog to start a conversation about other’s experiences with this same question so please, comment away!

I had worked in non-profit for several years, dabbling in communications and I finally decided that PR was what I wanted to do. I went back to school for 8 months to study the craft and came out ready to work. Initially I decided I wanted to go client side. I had heard some nightmare stories about agency life and it didn’t seem like a fit for me.

On the client side, I worked alone. I was the only person working on communications in the company. It gave me the chance to do a lot of things my peers from school weren’t able to work on yet. I was designing the campaigns, writing the releases, contacting the media and providing on-site media support. I was also doing the other work such as media monitoring, reporting and admin. But I was having a lot of fun and learning so much along the way. So why did I leave?

It came down to a campaign that was not working for me. I had followed all the typical avenues and was getting no coverage and serious pressure from above. I just didn’t know what to do and had no one to learn from. It made me realize that maybe I needed to be with experts and people who can teach and guide me. The switch to agency has definitely been worth it. There is so much to learn and, now that I am at H&K, I feel that agency is the natural next step out of a PR program. It is the best place to apply and continue the knowledge from school.

And most of those nightmare stories are exaggerations, sure there are sometimes late nights but there are a lot of amazing perks, including training and education opportunities, client trips all over the country and sometimes all over the world, working in teams where you can bounce ideas of each other, being surrounded by a wealth of experience and, in general, working with really fun people.

This has been my experience and I would love to hear yours.

Mary Warner is a Consultant in the technology practice at H&K Toronto.