WE’RE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A PR HOT SHOT, JUST LIKE YOU.

Lost your soul in corporate or agency life? Don’t suffer alone! Come and be soulless at the lang cat instead! We all float down here in Leith. You’ll float too!

This is a job advertisement from the lang cat.

Don’t know us? The lang cat delivers market-defining insight, research and consultancy to the platform, pension, investment and fintech sectors.

We also provide PR, content and strategic communications services. We’ve been making quite a name for ourselves on this side of the business, and growing incredibly fast over the past few years, winning clients against some well-established PR behemoths.

We now need a thrusting new PR account director to help us manage the load. Our client base ranges from high street banks to fund managers to fintech startups to global technology suppliers. All of them use us because a) we rock, b) we deliver and c) we know exactly what we’re talking about in our chosen marketplace, which is retail savings and investments.

ENOUGH ABOUT US, BACK TO YOU

It goes without saying that you’ll be a master of the PR basics. We don’t care if you learned your craft client-side or agency-side. But you’ll certainly be dealing with multiple clients and competing priorities on your time in this role, so if you’ve only ever been client-side then you’ll need to prove to us you’re able to balance those demands.

It also goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, that you’ll need to know your stuff in and around the retail financial services space. You don’t need to be a technical expert or anything ‘we’ve got the lang cat’s renowned #teamdata for that’ but if we have to explain what a pension, or a platform, or an IFA, or an ETF is to you then you’re going to find life pretty intolerable. We’ll all point and laugh for a start.

So what else? We’d like it if you were:

• ACCOUNTABLE – we don’t do the slopey shoulder thing. No space for it in a small business.
• RELENTLESS – we work with some very large companies who trust us to get their messages out. You’ll need to be determined in your dealings with them, and your work on their behalf.
• FLEXIBLE – we all get our hands dirty at the lang cat. No-one is above any job. You’ll also need to be flexible with working hours; some of our clients are in different time zones. We’ll be flexible in return.
• ORGANISED – you have to have to have to be able to organise yourself. Planning, prioritisation, all that good stuff. No-one else will do it for you and if you let stuff drop you’ll find yourself explaining it to your client very quickly. Don’t confuse our irreverent style with carelessness.
• CREATIVE – we know our stuff, but we’re also able to spot hooks, angles and different approaches which other agencies miss. We’re always open to new ideas (apart from where to go for lunch, which is Teuchters in Leith).
• COLLABORATIVE – you’ve got one of the industry’s best insight teams sat right behind you. Not sure how to pitch a story so it resonates with advisers or investors or potential clients of your account? Ask the others.

That’s a big list. And we haven’t even talked about the fact that you have to be able to write really well, have a good contacts book and be impressive at pitches.

SCREWED

We’re screwed, aren’t we? We’re aiming too high. It’s too much to ask. Does such a person even exist?

But,but, if we can find someone that ticks all these boxes, we can promise them a working environment unlike any they’ve had before. Read the website – we’re actually like this in real life. We get ratty, we get stressed, we rip the mickey out of each other relentlessly, but we also look out for each other and laugh more than is probably appropriate. We can promise flexibility in work patterns – many of us have families and understand how hard it is to fit everything in.

Tell you what. Let’s add ‘persuasiveness’ to the list. If you can’t tick all the skills boxes above, we might still be interested. But you’ll have to persuade us why you’re the right person. However, let’s be clear that we do have a few genuine minimum criteria:

• EXPERIENCE – 5 years in financial services is better than 4, but we’ll settle for someone who knows their stuff.
• UNDERSTANDING – of at least two of the following: investment, pensions, platforms, fintech, roboadvice, protection, financial planning. We’ll test you.
• SKILLS – excellent written and verbal communications skills. We’ll test you. If you don’t have these may we recommend a career in the actuarial profession?

If this sounds like something that doesn’t frighten the hell out of you, then get in touch with Mark Locke, who heads up the lang cat’s PR and comms business. You’ll find him at marklocke@langcatfinancial.com.

THE DETAIL

This is a full-time role based at the lang cat’s beautiful, airy offices in Leith, Edinburgh, but with travel from time to time. It’s offered as a permanent role, but comes with a six-month probationary period. Salary will depend on experience. There’s a pension scheme (8% unconditional), a profit and performance related bonus scheme and you can have a holiday sometimes if you must. Working hours are flexible and you can work from home some of the time if you want. You get all the tools and tech you’ll need to do your job and access to the office Sonos on the understanding that ritual humiliation of your music taste will be guaranteed. The coffee is decent and plentiful.

A NOTE TO AGENCIES

Hi lads. We’ve never paid for hiring staff and don’t plan to start now. But if you do think you’ve got the bestest candidate ever, you can put them up for our consideration, on one condition. If we take them, we’ll pay your fee. But if we don’t take them, you agree to pay us 25% of your candidate’s first year’s target salary. Because sauce for the goose, is sauce for, y’know, the other thing.

And that’s it. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Love

the lang cat