Each day as an analyst typically starts before 8am as that is when announcements on the London Stock Exchange go live. However, today my clients have not put out any announcements, so I am starting around 8am. When I get into the office, I routinely start with my morning monitoring. This consists of checking for coverage for my clients, as well as looking for articles that may be of interest to them.

Afterwards, I would start on my to-do list for the day. Today, I have a timely press release that I need to distribute, so I begin drafting an email cover that I will send with the release. I like to put enough time into drafting this, as well as the subject heading as they are key to catching a journalist’s eye and getting my client coverage – as well as winning me a bottle of champagne or chocolate brownies in next week’s coverage competition. Thankfully, I created a distribution list last night, so I don’t have to worry about pulling that together this morning. Once I have sent it across, I will be sure to monitor for any relevant coverage.

Next on my to-do list is drafting a briefing note on a journalist, ahead of my client’s meeting next Monday. A briefing note essentially prepares my client for the meeting, allowing them to see what the journalist tends to be writing about as well as their background – it allows the conversation to hopefully go smoothly.

Its lunch time now – time to go catch-up with my colleagues.

After lunch, I will do a bit of monitoring to see if anything has come out following the press release I distributed this morning. If something has come out, which it looks like it has today, I will be sure to send it over to the client as soon as I can – the goal here is to get it to the client before they see it themselves, especially if it’s a big piece.

Next up on my calendar is a client call. In these calls, I tend to run through the main points in the agenda and note down actions related to each of them so that we know what the client expects from us, and to make sure that we do not miss any deadlines. After the call, I will clear these notes up and distribute to the internal team, before sending them over to the client.

It’s a Thursday today and we have this week’s Maitland Learning to finish off the day. Today’s session is on all things to do with public affairs. These sessions are targeted at analysts and consultants and are run by senior members of the team. Essentially, we have a whole hour to discuss a practice or field within H/Advisors Maitland, giving us the opportunity to ask senior members of staff questions. These sessions are my favourite way to end the day.

Whilst this may be my typical day in PR, each day can be very different. Some days I have the opportunity to go and meet a journalist for lunch, or go to an in-person client meeting, or even head to Parliament for the afternoon to watch a Select Committee.

The evenings can also be quite busy, with opportunities to go to drinks receptions, events held by clients, or even company drinks – the perfect way to build up your network while having fun.