Differences Between In-House PR and Working at a PR Agency

Working at a PR Agency Means:

• Typically staffed with thousands of employees 
• Often have satellite offices in other big cities and possibly even internationally
• Tend to have brand-name corporate clients with large budgets
• Offer a great deal of opportunity, lots of projects, big ideas 
• Funded by decent budgets
• A lot more brainstorming and strategic thinking, etc. 
• Have very large divisions 
• Divisions focus on different specialties 

Working In-House Means:

• Working for the client directly 
• Usually the most profitable 
• Hardest position to get. 
• Once people are in-house they tend not to leave for a while
• Teams are usually very small (about 1-4 people on average)
• Not a lot of opportunity to become part of the in-house teams. 
• Limited budgets 
• Tiny teams with just as much work

Alexis Rodriguez started out working at a large agency called Ketchum Public Relations. This expanded her client base from beauty to consumer, lifestyle, food, and healthcare. Rodriguez left Ketchum in 2002 to join Tractenberg & Co. where she worked with a number of 

well-known beauty brands including Stila, Sephora, MD Skincare, and Kate Spade Beauty.

Personally, I think that you can learn a lot from being at an agency. Since you have such large teams with various clients and a good budget to work with you can be as creative as you want. The resources, connections and tools at an agency appear endless. I think that many great PR professionals began at agencies and developed the skills to become the 

well-rounded PR professionals that they have made themselves into. 

I also think that you can take what you learn at an agency and eventually bring it into the

 "in-house" environment of PR. Unless you like the small tight knit group at the in-house you are limited to resources and may not be happy there. I hope to start out at an agency and branch out on my own after I attain the knowledge and connections that a 

large agency can offer.