Rebecca Taylor-Cottle

"Being organised and communicating clearly are key skills in my role, so I'm definitely a 'Coordinator' personality type. I'm empathetic and enjoy working closely with others, so I'm well suited for a role where I need to get to know many people throughout the business and in the media. As a 'Coach', my role is all about understanding what people want (even if they're not sure themselves!) and finding creative ways to help them get what they need. Ultimately, being in Communications is all about simplifying complex information and sharing it with others, which also fits with the 'Trainer' personality type."

"I am a senior communications manager at Citrix, an international technology company. I'm responsible for public relations, social media, analyst relations and internal communications throughout Northern Europe (the UK and Nordics) and South Africa. It's not a techie job, but I need to have a good understanding of how the technology we create works, so that I can explain it to other people. My role is all about educating people about what Citrix does, and giving different audiences (journalists, analysts, employees etc) the knowledge they need to confidently talk about our business and products. Whenever you see a positive story about a brand on a website or in a magazine, the journalist will have spoken to a Public Relations (PR) or Communications Manager to find the right information. Likewise, when you see a negative article, a PR or Communications Manager will have tried to provide the company's side of the story! My role is all about improving the reputation of the company I work for, by encouraging journalists to write good things about our business and products. I also manage our social media, again sharing good and interesting news with our followers, and help our senior managers communicate key messages to their employees too. I work \"in-house\" (ie. for one company) now but most people start their Communications careers at a PR agency, where they will work alongside teams of other PRs to manage media relationships for anywhere between two and eight businesses. They tend to be vibrant, busy and creative places to work. A starting salary in London is likely to be in the region of £18-21k, but would be lower outside the capital. However, many people progress quickly through the ranks - I had had two promotions and was an Account Manager by 24."

"I decided to do a degree in Public Relations at Bournemouth University when I was 18, because I had enjoyed my A-Levels in Business Studies and English, and because I wanted to do something that would lead directly to a job, rather than a purely academic subject. One of the reasons I chose Bournemouth was that there was a full-year, paid placement in the third year, so when I graduated I already had significant work experience under my belt. After graduation, I got a job as an Account Executive at a PR agency which specialised in food and drink, and was promoted to Account Manager at 24. I then moved to another agency, this time specialising in technology, and worked with clients like Worldpay and Silicon Valley Bank. After a few years I wanted to try something new, so took a more marketing focused role. This was where I really improved my organisational skills and became a true project manager. When I was 30, I was headhunted into an in-house role, as Head of UK Communications for a major technology firm. As well as public relations, this role included managing social media, internal communications, and our corporate social responsibility programme, so it was a big learning curve! After a few years I was promoted to lead communications across all of Northern Europe, which is also the role I have at my current company."

"A love of magazines is one of the reasons I got into Public Relations in the first place, and I also love to read novels, and books about feminism and inspiring women - I'm currently reading Ruth Bader Ginsberg's autobiography. I enjoy yoga and pilates, and find that exercising is really good for my mental health as well as my physical health - it helps me switch off from work when things are busy and stressful. My ideal weekend would involve a long walk with a pub lunch at the end, and maybe a Marvel movie.I also like to spend time with my husband Dan and our three-legged rescue cat, Oscar."

"I work flexibly - sometimes I am in one of our offices, sometimes at home, and sometimes with one of the agencies I manage. My job is very varied but one thing that stays the same is the amount of time I spend responding to emails - I can get up to a hundred a day, from colleagues, agencies and journalists. I also spend quite a lot of time in meetings with people from around the business, discussing how the Communications team can help them achieve their goals. For example, if the Sales team wants to sell more products to healthcare providers, we may look at doing some research about technology in healthcare that the journalists in that sector would be interested in writing about. I also spend a lot of time writing copy. Some days it might be an email on behalf of a senior member of the team, updating the sales team about how the business is doing; or it might be a blog post about the importance of diversity in tech. Almost everything I write ends up being published under someone else's name - either a relevant senior member of staff, or a journalist! It's my job to provide the content they need to raise their own profiles, but I like being in a supportive role so it suits me well.At the moment, I am leading a big international research project which we hope will give us an interesting story that journalists will want to write about. Once we have the research results back, we'll have a launch, where we contact all the relevant technology journalists and ask them if they'd be interested in writing about it. We'll also create and run a supporting social media campaign, a full report, blog posts, and internal emails so that our sales team understand how they can use the research to connect better with their customers."

"3 A-Levels at A-C : Business Studies, English Literature, PsychologyBA (Hons) Public Relations"