An Account Manager's Journey at Armitage Communications...

I’ve been asked to blog about how I got into the wonderful world of marketing and PR but, truth be told, much of the credit for my getting into the industry should really go to my wife.

I’d spent several years scratching out a modest living doing freelance SEO copywriting by day, and then pulling pints at the local by night. Neither of these offered much in the way of career progression.

But then in the summer of 2014 I first met my (now) wife, and it quickly became clear that I needed to step my career up a gear if I was to move in with her and be able to support myself.

Ideally, I wanted a role that could provide more of an outlet for my writing skills and creative tendencies, as well as an environment in which I could progress my career quickly.

Enter Armitage Communications, who for their part took somewhat of a gamble in employing someone (i.e. me) with relatively little experience of agency PR, and next to no engineering background. Whilst there was a fairly steep learning curve on the engineering side to begin with, it definitely got easier over time. In fact, outside of work I now regularly have to stop myself from boring people senseless with all the technical and industry knowledge I’ve accrued over the years.

Having started out on the bottom rung of the company as a Junior Account Executive, I quickly found that there were plenty of opportunities here to grow and progress, and that persistence and professionalism were recognised and rewarded.

Within a year of starting out I was given my own account to manage, and now, several promotions later, I’ve carved out my own fiefdom working on some of the largest and most prestigious names in industrial technology. So there are definitely opportunities here to climb the ladder relatively quickly, and the higher up you go, the more you can put your own stamp on things, which is all the more rewarding.

I can’t pretend that it’s all been easy the whole time, and as with any job clearly some days are more challenging than others, but by and large I’m proof that if you put in the work here, then doors will open. I’m pleased to work for a company that was willing to put its faith in me, has provided support as I’ve risen up the ranks, and has given me the chance to show the PR world what I can do.

We’re always on the lookout for talent, so whatever your skillset or experience, if you think you can add something special to our account teams, then please send your CV to debbiem@napierb2b.com.