ApexPR

ApexPR is a small communications company in Toronto, Ontario. When I say small, it has approximately thirty employees. It was founded 11 years ago by Patricia Macnamara. She was the president but recently stepped down to become the CEO and work more behind the scenes. She recently gave the LoyalistPR class the opportunity to find out what it is like to work in a small public relations agency, and fielded several questions from interesting students such as myself.




Pat started the presentation off by defining to us what she felt best described a public relations agency:
"A group of committed, passionate, hard working, smart, fun-loving professionals dedicated to delivering communications solutions to their clients."

Branching from this definition, Pat then went on to give the class her best list of the top ten qualities that a person should possess if they are looking to work in a pr agency. According to Pat these are:

1.Ability to prioritize
2.“Do anything” attitude
3.Multi-tasker
4.Organized (anal retentive!)
5.Confident
6.Flexible
7.Enthusiastic/energetic
8.Thirst for knowledge
9.Professional
10.Sense of humour/fun-loving

From the information Pat gave, it really opened up my mind to the possibility of interning at a PR agency. The qualities that are looked for in successful candidates seem to pretty much define me to an art. But Pat then went on to say that to truly decided whether a PR agency is for yourself, that you should also be able to live by the following guidelines:

•You are a media junkie
•You have worked in the service industry…and liked it
•You believe in the value of hard work
•You are a good listener
•You take pride in getting the details right
•You want to grow quickly, but understand that you don’t get to develop strategy on the first day
•You write well (good command of grammar/syntax)
•You like doing something new every day
•You want a career, not a job

If it was not for Pat McNamara and her very informative and insightful presentation of the life of a PR Agency, I would not be considering interning for one. However, with her vast knowledge and impressive statistics Pat has changed my mind and I will definitely be looking further into ApexPR.

If you, too, want to find out more information on ApexPR, feel free to visit them on the web at http://www.apexpr.com/ and on twitter at www.twitter.com/apexpr