I don’t love telling people how long I’ve been working in PR. It starts to sound like I’m counting years rather than moments. That said, it’s been a fair few years now, if my LinkedIn profile is anything to go by.

Recently, I reconnected with a former colleague who I first met as a Year 13 student at an AUT Shadow a Leader Day. She went on to become an intern, then an account executive, and for a time sat next to me in the office.

Recently, she found the calculator I gave, so she’d stop stealing mine.

It’s had me reflecting on how many interns, AEs and others I’ve inducted over the years, far too many to count, let alone counting what else has changed since I started my PR journey.

Back in the day at my first agency, the fax machine was the fastest way to send out media releases and the landline ruled supreme.

Faxes quickly evolved into emails – I’m not that old, it was a transition period for media outlets! Alongside the faxes, there were bags and bags of post every day. Mountains of magazines to sort and envelopes to open.

At Pead today, we’re down to two mail deliveries a week and far fewer magazines for the current intern to sort and arrange.

As time has rushed by, the pace of change has only accelerated.

In the early days, the technical side of the admin role involved plugging in thin clients - small, basic computer boxes that sat on your desk and connected you to the network, and keeping the fax stocked with paper.

There were only a handful of laptops across the whole business, which you had to book if you were heading to a presentation. Conference calling was the norm, and we ran video calls between Wellington and Auckland so clients could come into an office for a meeting.

In fact, I once had an emergency call from Wellington asking me to pop into the meeting room to wake up the MD who had taken a quick nap during a video call (naming no names!).

These days, I’m deep in the IT infrastructure of the business and IT security, protecting us from bad actors, cyber criminals and hackers.

Everyone has a laptop. Landlines are obsolete. Teams meeting rooms are the norm, and we think nothing of connecting across countries, offices and homes for a meeting.

In the last year or so, with the evolution of AI and continued changes in the media landscape and the workplace, things have shifted again.

I often ask our AI tools to do something, usually for a technical question, and I’ve even dipped in for parenting advice. It’s now well embedded in how we work across the business.

Ask me what else has changed, and I’d say mostly it’s the people.

It’s heartwarming to look back and see how far some of the interns and AEs I’ve seen in my time have come.

They’re doing brilliant work all over the world, and I’m incredibly proud of them. I call them my kids.

I love it when someone tells me they’re still touched by a small, silly thing I did back in 2015, like labelling a calculator, and now they’re a Marketing Manager for a security company in Australia.

In the words of Dr Seuss, “Oh, the places you’ll go!”.

At Pead, we believe that great work starts with great people. Technology will keep changing and tools will keep evolving, but the privilege of supporting people early in their careers and seeing where they end up is something I never take for granted.

A Career in PR, Measured in People and Progress

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