Getting your foot firmly in the PR industry’s door can be easier said than done — which is why the first thing Monique Noel Brown said in her interview was complimentary to the Taylor Bennett Foundation.
“I first got into communications and PR through the Taylor Bennett Foundation (TBF), which supports ethnic minorities and people of colour in breaking into the industry,” Noel Brown, who is now an alumni advisory board member at TBF, explains.
“The programme provided a valuable stepping stone for me, as it has for many others starting out in PR and comms.”
Having graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in Spanish and global communications in 2021, Noel Brown wasted no time in joining TBF’s Summer Stars internship scheme.
“My first role through the foundation was at BT. I firstly joined the enterprise internal comms team, and later moved into the consumer division as an internal comms professional.
“But, when I joined BT, I had no idea what internal comms was.”
A foot in the door
We both laugh at this confession, as Noel Brown continues: “I knew when I was joining TBF that I wanted to try PR and I wanted to try comms, I just didn't know what it entailed. I knew I could do it with my degree because I'd done some research using Prospects.”
Completely fresh in the industry, Noel Brown often felt like “I don’t know what I’m doing,” but her interest soon dissolved her nerves.
She began working on BTs internal DEI initiatives, employee engagement comms — and got the opportunity to work with partner brands such as EE, Samsung and Xbox.
“I don't feel like I would have been given that opportunity to work for such a large company, with no experience, if I hadn't joined the Taylor Bennett Foundation. That was my entry into communications,” she adds.
Once the internships were over, Noel Brown stayed in touch with TBF because of her passion to “help people of colour progress in their comms careers,” and for future opportunities.
In 2022, she secured a role with a TBF internship partner, Amazon Web Services.
“I worked there for about a year and six months, focusing on EMEA public relations. I got the opportunity to work with global teams, do a lot of travelling and also pick the minds of people who had been in the comms industry for 10/15 years.”
Beating imposter syndrome
She says having access to people with at least a decade of experience was “quite a unique experience”, but admits that being around such senior practitioners with only a few years under your belt can “slightly trigger” imposter syndrome.
“[I thought] ‘how did I get here; how am I working on the same things as these people’, but I definitely used it as an opportunity to get some mentorship and learn about different PR remits.
"It helped me learn what I wanted to specialise in.
“I was able to pick out the areas I wanted to focus on and what I was passionate about, because I didn't really have an idea when I [first] stepped into comms.”
By leaning in to the creeping sense of imposter syndrome, she managed to garner pearls of wisdom from her in-house peers, and made the leap into PR agency life.
In 2023, Noel Brown joined Harvard as a senior account executive before moving on to do the same role at Edelman, in 2024.
“I really had to start from the ground up,” Noel Brown says.
“When I was in-house, I got to do a lot of the strategic work like speaking with CEOs, managing c-suite leaders, media training and the typical things senior leaders would otherwise do.
“Working at an agency, I was kind of flipped upside down and was really starting from the bottom up.”
Noel Brown explains that she was tasked with admin duties, writing press releases and doing all the “PR fundamentals”, such as arranging interviews and speaking with journalists.
“I didn’t really have any of those skills before I went into an agency, so it was definitely a culture shock. I had no idea how to write press releases because I had only been in-house, and relied on our agencies to do the writing for us.”
Now, it's of course a different story. Noel Brown is well-versed in crafting a release, arranging interviews and (evidently) speaking with journalists.
Taking things slow
When asked what has been the biggest lesson from her experience in PR so far, Noel Brown reveals: “Some of the great advice I got when I moved into an agency was from one of my colleagues. He said, ‘you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know enough. That will get you there’.
“Working in an agency is like only having one colour to paint a whole picture. Learning that skill was so important to me, especially coming from [in-house] backgrounds where you have to know the company in and out, how it all works and the core messaging.
"That’s how your brain becomes…when you go into agency, your brain splits apart into knowing little bits about each account you’re working on.
“For me that was a career-defining moment; where I was able to utilise the skills I got from in-house on the strategic side, but then also get the core fundamental skills that I needed from agency to move up and to progress.”
Noel Brown, when asked what advice she would give herself in those early days, says that the main thing would have been to “slow down”.
“A lot of people are so worried about when they graduate or when they start looking for a role that they’ll never find a job. The market at the moment is absolutely terrible, it’s hard to find a role, or even land an interview.
“We [graduates] are always in a rush to land a job, and I don’t know why. Being slow and taking your time to choose the right role is very important and, I know for me, as soon as I graduated I got straight into work. I didn't give myself a break or a chance to really think about what I wanted to do.
“Ask a lot of questions when you're doing interviews, and interview them as well. Don't be afraid to push the boundaries when it comes to asking things about culture and salary.
“Times are tough, so make sure you get your pay and advocate for yourself. And, if you're unsure, then go for a role that offers you the opportunities to try different things, because that will give you the clarity that you need.”
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