Our host Marisa Jayne is joined by her friend, former Kate & Co. PR colleague and The Press Office’s (self-confessed) biggest fan, Rachel Collister.
They chat about Rachel taking her blossoming PR career in Melbourne and journeying to New York City, where she has recently landed a job as a Publicist with global hospitality PR agency Rachel Harrison Communications.
This is a full circle moment for Rachel and Marisa, who both started at Kate & Co. PR on the same day back in early 2019. Marisa recalls Rachel having a clear career goal to work in NYC even back then.
Starting out in the Australian PR industry, Rachel studied an Arts Degree followed by a Masters in Marketing. During this time she flew herself around Australia to intern at various fashion labels and major fashion events - from what was then Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Sydney to interning with Australia Fashion Labels in Adelaide.
She says this experience made her realise, “this is it, fashion PR and fashion marketing. This is my jam.”
From there, she worked at Unreal Fur managing PR and Marketing for the brand before realising agency was her true calling, which saw her land a role at Kate & Co. PR and never look back.
Rachel has always had incredible drive and hustle - it’s these qualities that helped her to take the leap of faith and land steadily on her feet in the cut-throat Big Apple.
Not long after arriving in the City, a NYC-based contact shared with Rachel that, “if the City doesn’t want you to be here, you won’t be here…It will kick you out.”
In Rachel’s mind, living in NYC was her dream and failure was not an option.
What followed was a daily grind of job interviews, Linked In research, Visa processing and hustle that saw Rachel eventually secure a PR role in her dream city.
Rachel explains that her two biggest challenges in landing a job in New York were her limited media contacts in the US market - often job interviews would start with, “list your media contacts in New York, go” - and also the general lack of understanding of the E3 Visa (and how simple it actually is).
To land the role at Rachel Harrison Communications, Rachel says she, “had to be her biggest advocate and convince them, if you give me a chance, I will prove it you. Give me 3 months and I will build up that network.”
Rachel chats to Marisa about the main differences between working in the Australian PR market v US market, how important personal branding and having a clear set of values is when building a successful PR career and provides tangible advice for anyone looking to move their life and career overseas (spoiler alert: Linked In Premium was her best friend!).
Rachel says of her new NYC life, “It’s been a dream for 10 years…When I walk to work and commute to work I look around me and I can’t believe I’m actually doing it.”
