Work in Publishing Week: Marketing

Curious about publishing, but want to find out what it’s really like? Who better to share with you what a career is like at Penguin Random House than the people doing these jobs.

During Work in Publishing Week, our colleagues from Marketing, Design, Technology, Production, Publicity, Editorial, Sales and Distribution will share their insights. We’ll also be giving tips from our Resourcing team about how to make your application stand out.

First off, we’ll be talking about Marketing. Tom Troughton is a Senior International Marketing Executive:

Hi Tom, could you tell us one thing that would surprise people about your job?

 The number of markets we work across here at PRH! As part of the International Marketing Team, we need to make sure we get our books in front of readers based all around the world. We’ve worked on some hugely exciting marketing campaigns – from Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth to Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments – in a wide range of countries spanning Spain, Singapore and Malaysia to name a few.

What skills do you need to work in Marketing?

Marketing in International is incredibly varied and allows you the opportunity to not only think creatively but strategically, tailoring book campaigns for different markets. You need to be well-organised – often working on a number of books across a number of different channels at once – and enjoy thinking outside of the box, coming up with new and exciting ways to reach readers.

Top tips for applying for a job in Marketing from our Resourcing team:

For our marketing roles, we’re looking for someone who’s interested in experimenting, trying and testing, because that’s what you’d be doing with our marketing campaigns to boost their audience and connecting our campaigns with as many people as possible. We also look for people who follow what’s happening in the marketing world, so if another company has done some interesting advertising that could be relevant, we want to know in your application.

If you’re keen to learn more about digital marketing tools, you can find lots of free online courses like Google Analytics Academy, that help to build the skillset in your CV. In your application, you could also demonstrate your experience organising events – let us know if you’ve done some fundraising, and have worked with budgets before. Maybe you’ve even gained experience using social media for a project.

Interested in paid work experience?

Our application window is currently open, and you can apply here. Places are chosen by random selection, and applications close at noon on 20th November. You can learn more about work experience at Penguin Random House here.

Hear more about what the day to day involves from Chloe Healy, Marketing Director at Vintage: