Being your Best in 2025
A packed room at the Sutherland Labs in Covent Garden gathered to hear what Being your Best in 2025 was all about. This was a different format from the usual HarknessKennett networking breakfasts which have over the years featured case studies and best practice on a range of issues across many sectors.
The idea for this workshop emerged from our candidate feedback that 2024 had been a pretty challenging year and how could they make the most of their skills and experience and stand out from the crowd. We decided to bring together a range of speakers who’ve different experiences to lead the conversation.
Jos Harrison, a comms leader who is currently working on a change project for Principality Building Society and has a track record running his own agency;
Paul Middleton, a former head of comms and recent contractor through HarknessKennett at Flutter, the world’s largest sports betting and iGaming operator, and
Vicki Marinker, who coaches communications professionals, with longstanding credentials as a recruiter in the comms area.
Tanya, who’s our Director of Recruitment introduced and facilitated the session.
I started by welcoming everyone and gave an overview of the current market. 2024 had been a bumpy ride for many, although things had been smoother since the autumn of 2024 and whilst it was early days, 2025 has started off well with a number of new appointments in the first six weeks this year. Hopefully, a positive sign!
Tanya introduced the speakers and asked Paul Middleton to give his perspective on 2024 and share his thoughts on Resilience - one of the key themes attendees had asked about.
Paul talked about how it’s absolutely normal to feel a sense of rejection when we are job hunting. Despite us often knowing that we are in a huge field of candidates and the hiring manager can only interview six people. His three top tips for building resilience were:
enjoy the silence, (by doing something in-between jobs that gives you a real sense of achievement).
market yourself effectively, (by avoiding high-volume vanilla job applications and instead working with a coach or a recruiter, he mentioned Tanya, to really sell who you are and your unique skill-set); and finally
understand the differences between perm’ and contractor working (e.g. as a contractor you need to deliver from day one, the temp is very high, and planning is done in a totally different way).
Vicki Marinker shared her views next, which have been influenced by her previous career in recruitment and starting up a variety of businesses. She says she now prides herself on helping people figure out what’s unique about them. That might be because they want a new role or because they want to pivot to a different role or even a different career. Really, it’s about helping people find their motivation and rediscovering their confidence. She talked about ikigai, the Japanese concept of ‘reason for being’ providing fulfilment and a sense of purpose. Vicki shared many practical tips on finding your voice, writing your CV and marketing yourself and highlighting her own experience of LinkedIn.
Jos Harrison added his thoughts on rejection and said his perspective was based on being a contractor as well as a hiring manager in recent roles. He talked about the importance of tailoring your CV and really doing your research about the organisations you are talking to. His tips included reaching out to your network and leveraging people who know you. Jos talked about being aware of the challenges you face and how best to overcome those.
The conversation continued with questions from attendees. People asked how much tailoring they should do to their CV? Are covering letters still relevant? What happen when the job spec included skills or experiences you don’t have? And finally, what about the use of humour when posting on LinkedIn, how witty can /should you be?
With that, the hour was up and although many stayed behind to chat to the speakers and colleagues, old and new, there was a sense that it was valuable to share experiences; that marketing yourself in a crowded market does take time and reaching out to recruiters, colleagues and coaches is helpful to have a fresh perspective.
A huge thank you to Jos, Paul and Vicki on sharing their own experiences and for everyone who attended. We’d a great conversation!
If you’re looking to hire comms talent we’d like to help. And if you’re looking for your next role and would like advice on the market and opportunities and feedback on how you come across, please do contact us as we’d love to hear from you.
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Published by James
