At first glance, my career path looks well-planned. Politics, policy, public affairs, international relations – over a decade of logical and deliberate career moves to where I am now. But it wasn’t all that planned.

I am currently an Associate Director at PLMR Healthcomms, the health and social care public affairs and market access team within the PLMR Group. I joined the team around 2 years ago as an Account Director, and have been supporting our clients to deliver impactful campaigns and engagement programmes during that time.

Spending my working week speaking to Parliamentarians and policymakers, pushing for improvements in care for patients across the NHS, is an absolute dream job for a policy and politics nerd like me. Similarly, I am so lucky to have such wonderful team mates, who make coming to work a pleasure.

My background

I was the first person in my family to go to university. I came out of law school with a good grounding in processing large amounts of complex (sometimes boring) information, crafting an argument, and writing concisely, but without much direction on “what’s next”.

I fell into a job working in the Northern Ireland Assembly for an MLA, and spent the next 4 years there.

Politics is at times the most rewarding job in the world. Helping constituents; contributing to party policy; writing speeches; crafting messaging for elections; managing media relations and social media activity; making the tea; carrying bags. I was truly a jack of all trades.

But it was also challenging and relentless: fighting crises; fighting elections; fighting for constituents.

Having successfully got my MLA re-elected in the Assembly election in 2016, I applied for a few jobs in Northern Ireland (unsuccessfully) and one in England (successfully), which involved working in public policy – mainly around devolved administrations, devolution, economic development, infrastructure and health.

Despite not really loving health policy, I applied for a job at NHS Digital, which I miraculously managed to get, given the interview date was changed at the last minute, and I had one day to prep.

My job at NHSD was split between political engagement; wider stakeholder management; crisis management; and (in my last few years) international relations. It was an incredibly wide brief; but made for a really interesting life.

I did everything from supporting our Executive team for Select Committee appearances, to reacting to Covid-19 and preparing for Brexit, to drafting and implementing parts of trade agreements, including an MOU which resulted in the first life sciences agreement post-Brexit.

When the Secretary of State announced the merger of NHS ALBs, I got an opportunity to speak to some of the team at Healthcomms – with whom I had worked on some projects at while in the NHS – and I grabbed the opportunity to work within this agency.

Not only could I continue working within the health sector (which by then I very much liked), but I had the chance to work at a faster pace; a chance to build and support a wonderful team; and a chance to support the wider life sciences sector to engage with the centre, based on my knowledge of how it worked in practice.

Healthcomms joined the wider PLMR Group about 6 months later, and I am now lucky to be part of a team of over 100 people across the country, all pulling in the same direction, and delivering for clients through a wide range of campaigns and programmes.

I currently sit within the Management Group of PLMR, contributing to our business plans and strategies, and supporting colleagues across the organisation to deliver new and innovative ways of working.

I love it. The PLMR Group has a common mission, culture and drive across our business units, striving for the best outcomes for our clients. It is incredibly rewarding.

I didn’t have a plan when I left university, but I would struggle to have planned my career any better if I had tried – from politics, to policy, public service and public affairs, and now PLMR.