I didn’t think my first job would be in the pensions industry either but I’m glad it was. It’s a fast moving, exciting industry with lots of interesting people and is, of course, a topic that everyone needs to know about. I am now that person at a dinner party explaining why having a pension is beneficial, vital and to be honest the best, and should be the only, option – I know, slightly dull for a Friday evening. I think it is vital that you start putting money into a pension as soon as you start working. You don’t see the money, it never actually goes into your bank account, so why not add a bit into a pot so that when you retire you can fly out to Barbados and drink cocktails (hopefully!)
Before starting my pensions journey, I went to Bath Spa University and studied Photography. Having always been more of a creative and extroverted type of person, I wanted my professional career to be along similar lines, so I started to look into the world of PR. I knew I wanted to be in a profession that allowed me to network and meet new people and I soon realised how exciting, innovative, and thought-provoking PR was; helping businesses to promote themselves, using social media to get the word out, and talking to the press all intrigued me. And then came along KBPR. I have now worked for KBPR for nearly two years and have loved every single minute. KBPR is a great company to work for. We work hard, we have fun and most importantly we enjoy working together. It’s a great team full of different characters and I love our regular Zoom calls and wellbeing activities like group Barre classes.
Most of my working life has been spent working from home. In fact, I only worked from an office for six months and then Covid-19 hit and the world as we knew it completely changed. Working in the office was lovely and busy, there really was never a dull moment amid the hustle and bustle, and then suddenly we all had to learn this new way of working. One Friday afternoon we were told to work from home for a few weeks and we still haven’t returned… It was a stressful time. People were being furloughed all over the city and some companies were struggling. But I like to consider myself one of the lucky ones who worked in an industry that boomed from the pandemic.
I don’t think KBPR had ever been so busy; our services were needed more than ever due to the lack of physical interaction, and I can honestly say I loved it. I loved securing articles and podcasts, helping our clients push out press releases, and attending virtual events; I felt like I was helping to make a huge difference. I learned how to communicate effectively with people in a virtual way and how to catch the press attention with catchy headlines that I knew they would want to publish. The PR world became more exciting and even more fast paced than before.
I now no longer find myself asking ‘Did I purposely get into the pensions industry?’ instead I am asking myself ‘Now that I am in pensions, what does the future hold for me?’ And my answer is that I hope I continue to strive at KBPR and develop my skills in the PR and pensions space. As the company grows, I am learning new things all the time and that excites me; knowledge is power at the end of the day. I’m especially looking forward to seeing how the new dynamic virtual world merges with our old ways of working. I know we will never resort back to the way things were, but I miss seeing real faces in real life.
For anyone thinking of joining the world of pensions as their first job I would highly recommend it, and I hope this blog helps you to understand why. It may not be where you thought you would start but the everchanging diversity of the industry will make you proud to say it is where you ended up. Every day I am surrounded by hard working experts who want to make a difference in the world of pensions, and what fascinating people they are. It isn’t all about DB or DC, we delve into insightful topics such as ESG, and diversity, and even gender equality. You never know, you could be the next person at a dinner party talking about pensions over a nice bottle of bubbly!
