Year One in PR: Reworking My Definition of Success

When I began at Greenough as an Account Coordinator last year, it was my first full-time job out of college, and I thought I had a picture of what success would look like. I had spent four years studying communications strategy and a few internships getting my feet wet in PR, and I felt mostly confident heading into a healthcare role I was excited about. What I didn’t expect was how much that picture would change over the year, or how much of it would come from the people on my teams.

From speed to strategy

In my first few months, I measured success by speed. I spent those early weeks reading through onboarding documents and having coffee chats with my new colleagues while I got used to the 9-to-5. Deadlines and responsibilities didn’t feel new to me, since I had always been prompt at school, so I figured the best thing I could do was turn work around fast. Sometimes that came at the cost of quality, and I was still navigating the pace of an agency.

What stood out about Greenough was how much industry knowledge my teams showed from the start. I listened in on client calls and heard them talk through the initiatives they were working on, and I was really impressed. They knew reporters by name, along with the trade outlets and topics the clients care about, and they were strategic about it all.

This is where my understanding of success shifted. At first, I found it challenging to distinguish between the different trade publications, but I learned from watching my colleagues' approaches to media outreach. Success comes from knowing when a specific announcement is relevant to a reporter and making the connection to stories they had covered before.

Taking the time to find the right reporter and tailor the pitch is much more valuable than sending more pitches.

Keeping up with industry news

My college classes taught me that keeping up with current events is a must when working with the media. Agency life moves quickly, and so does the news cycle. Especially in healthcare, new policies and regulations emerge, conversations around AI change, and legal battles can shift the industry overnight. I knew that following the news is part of being at an agency, but I didn't completely understand how closely it connects to our clients' campaigns and directs our approach in media outreach.

To keep the team on track, my colleagues will share developing news articles first thing in the morning across accounts, each with a media angle we should act on fast. My understanding of strategy changed when I watched my teams use their industry expertise to act on a story the moment it went live.

I made it a habit to read relevant news by subscribing to industry-specific newsletters and following outlets on social media, so the headlines are in front of me every morning.

Smaller teams, bigger responsibility

Our teams at Greenough vary in size, and some of my accounts resemble more of a power duo. As a result, I felt a high level of autonomy and responsibility from the start. For example, on one of my accounts, the team is especially small and needs more of my time, so I lead most of the outreach for the client. When an editor shows interest in a pitch I sent, I see how much of a difference my proactivity can make. This opportunity came fast, and it felt intimidating for someone who was a student not that long ago.

Agency life also turned out to be less buttoned-up than I expected. I used to believe a professional email meant sounding as polished as possible, and my early ones came out sounding like I was a robot. Then I noticed how conversational my colleagues were with clients, and how well that worked for building a relationship. Conversations between clients and colleagues don’t have to be serious all the time, and now my emails sound a lot more like me.

Trusting my own ideas

Once I had the fundamentals down, the next step was building confidence in my own strategy. Rather than just completing a task, I started thinking about how I could offer stronger ideas and recommendations to clients. I remember sending a piece of content over for review and my colleague saying, “Well, what do you think would be best here?” That question changed my thinking completely. Until then, I had been acting so administratively. I got lost in keeping up with the foundational tasks that come with being entry-level, and I forgot to put my perspective into the work.

Creativity was a skill I hoped to use in my job, and I’ve felt gratified to find opportunities for it within my daily PR tasks, even this early in my career. Strategy work, such as planning decks and content outlines, calls for fresh ideas, and so do social media and pitch writing. When I watch my colleagues take on bigger creative projects, I can see where this path leads, and I’m excited to advance into that level of work eventually.

What success means to me now

I’ve heard agencies are fast-paced, but I didn’t understand what that meant until I was immersed in the work. At Greenough, it meant having responsibility early and seeing one proactive idea move an account forward. A year in, I’ve learned from my colleagues about knowing the media landscape and keeping up with evolving news.

From my perspective, trusting my creativity and instincts about where an idea is headed is where success starts.

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