Building a Career in Internal Comms In this episode of Engaging Internal Comms, The Big Picture People’s Craig Smith talks to Dureen Anwer, who is the senior Corporate Communications Manager at NHS organisation NEL, a role that involves both employee engagement and external corporate communications. NEL is a commissioning support unit consisting of 1,500 people, which provides expert support and advice to clinical commissioners, and an extensive range of services such as contracting, analytics, finance, IT design, and digital communications. Dureen has followed a phenomenally successful career path. After moving to the UK from Pakistan, she moved up from the role of communications officer to a senior IC role within five years. Dureen has worked in several organisations including the NHS and Herefordshire Council. To achieve your career goals, it may be necessary to first step down the career ladder When starting a career in internal comms (or other roles, for that matter), the traditional career ladder isn’t always the best way to view your path. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step sideways, or even a step down, to move ahead. This is how Dureen made her move into internal communications, by first stepping down from a senior management position. “I was moving from a PR agency to a multinational. I needed more stability, and I wanted to work on the client side instead of being on the agency side, where you don’t have enough room for creativity. I had to step down the ladder,” says Dureen. Dureen describes how important it is to consider what you want from your role. If there is an opportunity that accommodates these factors, then stepping down the ladder will allow you to expand your experience and eventually allow you to climb higher in your career. This does mean that in the early stages of building your career in internal comms, there may be episodes where you may feel overqualified, or your experience isn’t reflected in your authority, responsibilities, or salary. Dureen emphasises how this is all a part of steering your career into something bigger in the future. “I believe it’s always getting your foot in the door which is the most difficult bit. Then all I needed to do was to be proactive and prove my worth,” she says. Whilst building your career in internal comms, you must play the long game, and concentrate on opening up the opportunities that allow personal development and growth. This will evolve into organic career growth in internal comms. You must be resilient to build a career in internal comms For many, moving back to move forward in your career is a difficult concept to grasp. It goes against the grain. Resilience is necessary. “Starting from the bottom again meant that I was looking up to a lot of other people who might not have had similar experiences, or had less experience compared to me,” explains Dureen. She says it is important not to allow a sense of being undermined become a barrier to your own future success. “I didn’t let that get to me because I looked at it from a different perspective that these people, they know the market,” says Dureen. “I reminded myself that I know my goal. It might not happen today, it might not happen tomorrow, it might not happen in the next five years. But ultimately, there’s no reason that I can’t achieve it. So that was my personal motivation.” As they are building their career in internal comms, comms people must utilise their key skills to learn and create new opportunities to advance their long-term career goals – they must invest in themselves. Business acumen and key skills are critical in internal comms To be successful in internal comms you must have a good understanding of the business before you attempt to act as a communication channel amon
