From Friday 15 March, Women in PR and PRWeek are inviting women working in the UK PR industry who have five years’ experience in PR to apply for a place on our mentoring scheme, starting June 2019 until May 2020. Entries must be submitted by end of the day on Friday 29th March 2019.

The scheme has been running since 2014 and 75 women will have completed the programme by the end of May 2019. We receive applications from candidates with a huge array of experience and backgrounds, all with high aspirations for their PR career. They recognise that they will benefit from experienced counsel in order to get to the next level, whether they are at middle management level in agency, or perhaps a PR manager working in-house.

We have a fantastic wealth of experience within our mentoring board, which this year includes four new faces:

• Doyel Maitra, Head of PR and Consumer Affairs, MoneySupermarket
• Emily Morgan, MD, the Red Consultancy
• Michele Moore, Senior PR Manager, Cap Gemini
• Sarah Samee, Head of Communications, CIFAS

The full mentor list is below. We have built the board to reflect the UK PR community, with a broad mix ofindustries, backgrounds and organisational experience to bring to bear on our mentees’ challenges.

Mentee alumni include Zoe Melarkey, formerly head of PR for npower and now head of communications at Purplebricks, who says,

“It was fantastic having a mentor who was outside of my organisation and as such could give me perspective, which is very difficult to obtain from peers and sponsors within your own business. Jennifer also has two boys like me and was able to be highly empathetic regarding juggling a big job and family life. I was impressed by how closely the WPR committee matched me with a mentor who was right for me, given she was also another female leader in a very male-dominated industry.”

If you think having a mentor can help you achieve your career goals and become a leader in PR, what do you have to lose? Apply using the form set out below or visit PR Week and we will be in touch in April if you have won a place.

2019/2020 Mentoring Board

• Rachel Friend – UK CEO, Weber (Agency),
• Rachel Bell – Chairman, The Academy (Agency)
• Misha Dhanak – Founder & CEO, The Romans (Agency)
• Gay Collins – CEO, Montfort (Agency)
• Tanya Ridd – Director of Comms for EMEA, Snap (In-house)
• Jennifer Thomas – Head of Internal Comms, Direct Line (In-house)
• Deborah Saw -Executive Chair, Newgate Communications (Agency)
• Ali Jeremy – Director of Comms, NSPCC (In-house)
• Ginny Paton – Director, Mischief (Agency)
• Molly Aldridge – Global CEO, M&C Saatchi (Agency)
• Nicola Green – Director of Corporate Affairs, O2 (In-house)
• Doyel Maitra – Head of PR and Consumer Affairs, Money Supermarket (In-house)
• Emily Morgan – MD, Consumer, The Red Consultancy (Agency)
• Michele Moore – Senior PR Manager, Cap Gemini (In-house)
• Sarah Samee – Head of Communications, CIFAS (In-house)

How to enter

Successful applicants must:

• Have a minimum of five years in PR
• Currently work in a pure PR role in the UK
• Have some line management experience in a current or recent position
• Be available to attend a PRWeek photoshoot in London on the afternoon of 15 May
• Be a member of Women in PR

To enter, please answer the 10 questions below and send your responses to info@womeninpr.org.uk with the subject line: Application for Mentoring Scheme.

Please attach two written references with your application (these can be references obtained previously for LinkedIn, or references written specifically in support of your application for a place on this scheme).

Applicants who do not send two references, or who send contact details for referees instead of written references, will be discounted.

Please start your application by providing the following profile information:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Email address
• Twitter handle
• LinkedIn profile
• Current job title and employer
• Location

Questions:

1. Tell us about yourself and why you think having a mentor will help drive your career (200 words)
2. What can you get from a mentor that you cannot get from senior colleagues? (100 words)
3. What is your single biggest career achievement to date? (200 words)
4. What is your ‘five year plan’? Please outline key objectives (200 words)
5. How many people do you manage and what is your leadership style? (100 words)
6. Have you had to address any issues around diversity or social mobility, personally or within your team (please describe)? (100 words)
7. How active are you outside your day job in helping to improve our industry? Tell us about any organisations, initiatives or campaigns you’re involved with (100 words)
8. Are there any particular issues you have had to face in your career? How have you dealt with these? (100 words)
9. Please paste here a reference from a current or past line manager or senior colleague. Please include their job title and contact details (although we should not need to contact them) (200 words)
10. Do you have concerns around juggling a PR career with having children, either now or in the future? Tell us if you would prefer to be matched with a mentor who has experience of this (100 words)

Please note that by sending in your entry, you are agreeing for your personal data to be stored and used solely for the purposes of the management of the PRWeek/WIPR mentoring scheme.

Successful applicants will be contacted by the end of April 2019. Unfortunately, as the mentoring programme is run by volunteers, individual feedback on applications will be not available.

For questions, please email info@womeninpr.org.uk

Good luck!