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Your first language does not have to be English.
At any one time more than 60% of our revenue will come from international work. We have several European languages represented in the agency and we welcome applications from those with commonly used languages. However, your standard of written and spoken English must be at a very high level. English is the ‘business language’ of most international companies, and anyone working at Garnett Keeler must be able to work with the English-speaking press in the UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland etc.
- Experienced PR account handlers. This usually means people with qualifications (we pay particular attention to NCTJ, CIPR or equivalents from the UK or overseas, and to recognised degrees in journalism). You do not have to be from a journalism background but your journalism skills will be tested.
- Journalists. If you have a few years of experience within a credible news outlet (newspaper, radio or TV station, web portal, or leading trade publication) then we may be interested in talking to you. Again, we will pay particular attention to formal recognised training and qualifications (a recognised degree in journalism, in-house training from a major news organisation, NCTJ or equivalent). We welcome applications from journalists even if they have no PR training or experience.
- Project managers and event managers. Our company routinely handles complex international events of all sorts for clients, ranging from corporate hospitality and motorsport through to conferences and seminars on highly specialist subjects. If you can manage complexity, handle guests sensitively, book venues and ensure that they meet targets, manage a wide range of external suppliers and sub contractors (from audio visual firms to guest speakers, from banqueting managers to travel agents, from hotels to charter aircraft operators, and from clients to celebrities) we may have a vacancy for you. It isn’t all glamorous - sometimes the requirement is for the sharing of intellect amongst scientists, doctors, vets or other specialists, for example - so you need to be able to cope with events, and people, of all sorts, and all nationalities, with equal degrees of professionalism.
- Trainee account handlers. We do not necessarily value degrees in PR above degrees in other subjects (though PR graduates should not be dissuaded from applying), and we particularly welcome applications from graduates in ‘hard’ academic / scientific subjects. Whatever your academic background, you’ll have to show us that you are articulate, socially confident, literate, and a creative thinker. In some cases, we will place a slight premium on degrees in journalism. If you’ve had a ‘false start’ in another industry, we may regard that as useful life experience.
- Freelancers. It is rare for us to use ‘generalist’ freelancers. Mostly, freelancers must have specialist skills in a particular area of interest to the agency and/or its clients (eg animal health, pharmaceuticals, defence, engineering, transport etc). Regretfully we are not able to respond to speculative approaches by freelancers (but please feel free to register with us at the ‘freelance register‘ section of this website - this is always our first port of call when looking for new freelancers).
- Administrative and support staff are normally recruited locally. The agency will look for advanced social skills, pragmatic common sense, and good general office skills. A premium may be placed on high levels of computer skills. Staff should be well presented and have very high standards of written and spoken English. Candidates with main-stream languages (eg French, German, Spanish, Italian) or languages of the key emergent economies (eg Chinese, Asian languages, Arabic, central European languages) may be favoured.