u/AdrianFish

I was contacted by someone claiming to be a Talent Acquisition contact at a major EV manufacturer.

Initial outreach was highly personalised; they referenced my actual automotive journalism background, LinkedIn post about redundancy, specific articles I'd written and seemed to understand my experience well.

The unusual bit is that the outreach came from a personal Gmail address rather than a corporate company email, reading like this: firstname.lastname.hr.companyname@gmail.com

Since then we've exchanged several professional emails which are lengthy and somewhat wordy, almost certainly partly / fully written by AI. They've reviewed my CV (I sent over a heavily doctored CV with my address, phone number etc taken out), they asked about salary expectations and preferred location, and are now proposing a call to discuss possible communications / content / brand opportunities.

No asks for money, ID, bank details, weird links, Telegram, WhatsApp interview, etc.

I've also found a real person with that name working at the company on LinkedIn and I’ve attempted to connect.

Does this sound like a legitimate but unconventional recruiter / contractor, a sophisticated recruitment scam or something else?

Curious what people think.

Hi guys, I’m looking for a bit of outside perspective from people working in PR.

I’ve recently left a senior reporter role after a number of years in journalism and I’m now trying to move into PR or comms, ideally within automotive (my specialty) or something similar.

My background is very digital, high volume content, SEO, Google Discover, headlines, audience trends etc and also working closely with PRs on stories. I feel like the skillset transfers quite well, but I’m aware it’s still a shift!

At the moment I’m focusing on reaching out directly to PRs, agencies and existing contacts, setting up coffees, calls and trying to build relationships that way. I’ve had some good initial responses and conversations, but nothing has turned into anything concrete yet.

For example, I had a good call with someone at an agency a month ago who seemed really positive about my background and suggested we stay in touch - she even seemed keen to offer me a job and I’m worried now I played it too cool as I was days away from redundancy and a two-week holiday. I followed up more recently to pick things up again and didn’t get a reply, which makes it a bit tricky to know whether to follow up again or just leave it there. I’ve had a couple of similar situations where early interest doesn’t quite turn into anything tangible.

I’m mainly trying to get a sense of whether this outreach-heavy approach is actually the right move or if I should be leaning more heavily into formal applications? I’m also not totally sure what level I should be targeting, or whether agency or in house is the better route to break in.

Appreciate any honest takes, especially from people who’ve made a similar move or hired journalists into PR roles.