From Student Placement to Award-Winning Senior PR Executive 

DNPR’s Jordan Hooker has had a remarkable journey since joining the team as a student just two and a half years ago, leading to her winning the Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year Award at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ prestigious 2023 PRide Awards last month. Here she shares her story, from finding her feet to spreading her wings and flying high! 

It took me ages to know what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved to be creative, so after my A-levels, I took an art and design foundation year at UCA in Epsom (University for the Creative Arts). My foundation year allowed me to explore all areas of design and creativity from fine art to branding – but I really took a shine to the Fashion Promotion and Communication rotation. The blend of creativity and analytical thinking suited my work style perfectly and led me to the realisation that communication was where I wanted my degree to take me.

From there I went on to study BA (Hons) Marketing Communications at Bournemouth University, and in my second year, I chose to specialise in PR.

I loved the social media management elements and found myself taking ownership of our group-based workshop, generating a full social media launch campaign for a client, outlining roles and responsibilities and proofing all my teammates’ work before submission – which, ironically, is now a huge part of my job!

PR Events was my favourite of all the modules; combining PR campaigns and event planning was the perfect blend for me – and it’s something which has proved invaluable in my work for DNPR clients now.

During this time, I received an email from my favourite lecturer asking if anyone would be interested in interviewing for a part-time position at DNPR and I took the chance, which was incredibly out of character for me, but I knew I would regret not going for it.

As my first “proper office job” I was anticipating quite a gruelling and rigid experience – but DNPR is nothing like that. I found everyone focused, but easygoing – driven by wanting the company to succeed, not just by a paycheck.

So, at the end of April 2021, I started as a Part-Time Junior Account Executive, stepping up my hours to full-time during holidays and reading weeks, balancing uni alongside work.

After gaining my degree, in June 2022, I went full-time permanently as a PR Account Manager & Social Media Strategist. Then, less than six months later, I took on a host of new responsibilities in the months prior to the departure of our Operations Manager, before taking up the leadership mantle officially in March this year, under the new title of ‘Senior PR Account Manager’.

I think Darren was surprised by how quickly I took everything on board. I have always been organised and enjoyed taking responsibility for projects, so this role suits me well. I love the idea generation aspect especially, coming up with intricate PR campaigns and deciding how to enact them, but I’ve also enjoyed the administrative side of the role too – generating spreadsheets, work plans and so on.

I’ve also surprised myself! I didn’t expect to take on this role so successfully, so quickly, but I am so proud of where I am now – though my imposter syndrome likes to tell me otherwise sometimes! Darren has been amazing throughout. He has always seen something in me that I haven’t seen in myself and always encourages me to take the next step, without pushing me past my boundaries. I know I can trust he has my best interests at heart and wouldn’t ask me to do anything he knows I’m not capable of.

What I’ve accomplished under his guidance speaks for itself! By nature, I am quite an anxious and reserved person, but Darren and the rest of the team have truly brought me out of my shell and allowed me to be myself and for that, I am very thankful to each of them.

Winning this incredibly prestigious award so early in my career has felt quite strange – I can’t quite believe it all if I’m honest! When it eventually hits me, it’s definitely going to boost my self-confidence going forward in my career.

From here the future looks bright and I’m looking forward to helping DNPR to be the best it can be; at the moment, I’m really excited to be developing some new ideas to push us in a new direction. I love working with my team, helping them to grow into their strengths and reach the potential I see in them. 

I am also currently expanding my own offering, with a course to develop the confidence in my own skills I need to take on the official Operations Manager title that goes along with my current responsibilities. I love what I do, Darren and my whole team always have so much confidence in me, so the next step is making sure I always have that same faith in myself!