This is for account managers, senior account managers and account directors at PR agencies who are thinking about an in-house move and want a plan rather than a hunch. By the end you'll know how to test whether the move suits you, rewrite your CV for a corporate reader, handle the interview, and survive the first three months. The agency-to-corporate transition has changed in 2026: in-house teams are leaner, expected to prove commercial impact, and far less impressed by a big client list than they used to be.
1. Work out what you're leaving, and what you're not
Be specific about why you want out. "Better work-life balance" is a reason, but it's thin, and a corporate interviewer will smell it. Write down the three things about agency life that wear you down. Pitching on spec? Timesheets? Managing six clients' crises at once?
Now check each one against reality. In-house, you trade timesheets for internal politics. You swap six clients for one organisation with six internal clients, and some of those are harder to please than any retainer. If your frustration is mostly about workload, you might just need a different agency.
You'll know it's worked when you can name what you want more of, not only what you want less of. Depth on one brand. A seat near decisions. Seeing a campaign through to the business result.
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2. Pick the kind of in-house team you're aiming at
In-house isn't one job. A comms team of three at a mid-sized fintech is a different animal from a 40-person corporate affairs function at a utility or a retailer. The small team wants a generalist who writes the press release, sorts the LinkedIn post and briefs the freelance designer. The large one wants a specialist in, say, internal comms, public affairs or investor relations.
If you're a senior account manager, ask which sort of week you want. Hands-on and scrappy, or strategic and process-heavy? Most people I speak to have only ever considered the employer's name, not the shape of the team.
You'll know it's worked when you've got a shortlist of five or six organisations and can say in one sentence why each team's structure suits you. Browse PR jobs on OHUB to see how in-house roles are actually described right now.
3. Translate your CV into corporate language
Agency CVs lean on client names and campaign awards. In-house hiring managers care about outcomes for a single business, so lead with those. They also don't speak agency, so "retainer" and "new business" will mean little.
Swap this: "Managed £400k retainer for a consumer tech client, delivering 120 pieces of coverage."
For something like this: "Led comms for a consumer tech brand through a product recall, protecting launch timelines and keeping coverage balanced across national and trade press."
Coverage volume is the vanity metric of the agency world. Most in-house heads I know want to hear about reputation, stakeholder trust, sales enablement or risk avoided. If you can tie your work to a number the business already tracks, do it, but only with figures you can defend in the room. Never round up.
You'll know it's worked when a friend outside PR can read your top five bullets and tell you what changed because of your work. For wider reading on this shift, the OHUB piece on hiring PR professionals through the agency to in-house transition shows the employer's side of the same judgement.
4. Learn to talk to stakeholders who aren't PR people
This is the biggest gap, and it gets underestimated constantly. At an agency your client usually wants PR to succeed. In-house, the finance director, the general counsel and the head of product may view comms as a cost, a risk, or a nuisance that holds up their announcement.
Practise pitching internally. A line you can use in an interview: "At the agency I got used to winning over a sceptical client contact. I'd approach internal stakeholders the same way, by finding out what they're measured on and showing how comms helps them hit it."
Read how the organisations on your shortlist talk about themselves in annual reports and investor updates. Corporate vocabulary (risk, margin, headcount, governance) will crop up in your interviews whether you like it or not.
You'll know it's worked when you can describe, unprompted, a time you changed a non-comms person's mind and what you said to do it.
5. Prepare for the interview questions that agency people fumble
Three come up again and again. "How would you handle having no agency support?" "What happens when your senior stakeholder ignores your advice?" "Why do you want to leave the pace of agency life?"
The third is a trap if you answer with a complaint. Try something closer to: "I've enjoyed the variety, but what I miss is staying with a story long enough to see its effect. I want to own one brand's reputation over years, not months."
On the first, be ready to say you'll use freelancers or a small agency for peaks, and that you know how to brief and measure them, because you've been on the other side of that brief. That's a genuine advantage and worth saying out loud. If you'd like a longer view of the human side of the jump, How I Jumped the Fence is worth a read.
You'll know it's worked when you can answer all three without a single complaint about your current employer.
6. Negotiate with the right expectations
Pay in-house can land below agency level at the top end and above it at the junior end, depending on the sector. In my experience a mid-level move often means roughly flat salary but better benefits, such as pension contributions, bonus and annual leave, and the numbers move around by city and employer. Ask what the bonus is tied to and who sets it. Check the notice period in your contract too, because corporate start dates drag.
Don't treat a lower base as a failure. Treat it as one input. If you want a neutral view of employment terms, gov.uk covers statutory minimums on notice and holiday.
You'll know it's worked when you've compared the whole package, not just the base, and can explain why the total makes sense for you.
7. Plan your first 90 days before you start
The first three months in-house are about listening. You'll be tempted to prove yourself with a flurry of output, the way you did at agency pitches. Resist it for a few weeks. Book a conversation with each stakeholder who touches comms, ask what they need and what's gone wrong before, and write it down.
Then pick one visible, modest win and deliver it properly. A tighter media-approval process often does more for your reputation than a flashy campaign. The 90-day agency escape plan on OHUB goes deeper if you want a week-by-week structure.
You'll know it's worked when at day 90 three or four people outside your team can say what you've changed.
If a step goes wrong
Can't get interviews? Your CV is usually the culprit. Go back to step 3 and show it to someone who works in-house. Getting interviews but no offers? Look at how you describe leaving agency life, because resentment shows. Got an offer that feels off? Trust that, and ask for another conversation with your future manager before you sign. And if you're three months in and miserable, give it six before deciding. Corporate onboarding is slow, and the first quarter rarely shows the job at its best.
This week: take your CV and rewrite your top three bullets so each one names an outcome for the client's business, not a volume of coverage. Then send the new version to one person who works in-house and ask what they'd cut.
