Whilst studying Biomedical Science at University, I had been expecting to end up with a career working in a laboratory somewhere, not in financial PR – which I didn’t even know about at the time! However, after working in a laboratory for some time I realised I needed something different and came across the exciting world of financial PR. I joined Consilium in 2021 and quickly realised that this fast-paced dynamic environment is exactly what I wanted. Working in a healthcare-focused financial PR, corporate communications and IR agency allowed me to stay close to the biomedical field that I was familiar with, and trained for, whilst taking me far away from the monotonous work in the lab setting. Although there is no typical day at Consilium, an example of what a day could look like, follows:
6:45 am: I wake up before 7am, which is when the press release for my FTSE250 London-listed client is scheduled to go live. I quickly scan my emails to check if any urgent messages have come through overnight.
7:00 am: Although I have email alerts set up for all my clients, it doesn’t stop me from repeatedly refreshing the London stock exchange website to check if the release is live; once live, I confirm it with the client and get ready to start the day.
9:00 am: I arrive at our shiny new office on Gresham Street in the City of London after working from home the day before, taking advantage of the flexible working policy in place at Consilium. At Consilium you get the benefit of sitting with different colleagues every day, this exposes me to the varied work across our client teams and I learn new things from peers and seniors all the time. I search for coverage from today’s press release, adding it to the coverage book and scan emails again to create and prioritise my to-do list for the day.
9:30 am: I have an internal huddle to discuss the ongoing actions and the plan for our client call later today.
10:00 am: I join my first client call of the day – and look forward to circulating the actions, a team de-brief after the call and to catching up with my outstanding actions in the afternoon.
12:30 pm: I head out to get some lunch and enjoy it in the company of my colleagues in the office kitchen. Whilst eating, we catch up on the different and interesting things our clients are doing. I also share stories of my motorbike rides, some of the close-calls I’ve had and show some of my GoPro footage to another colleague who used to have a bike himself.
1:00 pm: This week we’re having our weekly scheduled lunch time teach-in on IPO preparedness, covering the aims, strategy and IPO process from a communications standpoint. I find this particularly interesting as I have a natural interest in the stock market and its always interesting to see how a company matures and raises funds to grow.
1:30 pm: I get back to my desk and join the briefing room for the analyst and investor webcast for the news out from our client this morning, ahead of its scheduled start time of 2:00pm, ensuring all technical checks are completed and, together with our Founder and Managing Partner, Mary-Jane Elliott, we make sure the client is rehearsed and ready. We’ve scheduled it for the afternoon to allow US-based stakeholders to also join.
3:00 pm: As the webcast comes to a close, we have a short debrief with the client, giving them feedback and ensuring they are happy with how it went. I then update the media and analyst coverage book and prepare to circulate an end of day summary.
3:30 pm: Now I start drafting a press release for an exciting collaboration one of our clients is signing, ensuring to capture the key messaging.
4:00 pm: A client has sent over an urgent press release they would like released immediately, I put my current actions on hold and work with my colleagues to get the release issued straight away.
4:30 pm: I move onto my other tasks of the day, which include drafting a communications planner, exploring media opportunities, and drafting the agendas for my client calls tomorrow.
5:30 pm: I work on finishing off the documents I need to draft and circulate these with the team. I also send round the final end of day summary with the updated coverage book for today’s press release.
6:10 pm: We head to the bar across the road to unwind.
7:30 pm: Our wonderful admin team have booked us a table at Smiths of Smithfield and twelve of us enjoy dinner on the top floor, before making our way home. Thank you Consilium for a fun night out!
