If you want to get ahead you need to put in the ground work! @ vox-popPRcareers

Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Becky and I am a first year undergraduate student, studying for a BA in Public Relations. I am a mature student with an ambitious streak, wanting to get ahead in life and carve myself a thriving and exciting career in the world of communication. I realised something though as I started my studies last October. PR once an unknown industry to many, now an expanding, extremely competitive and thriving industry even in the midst of a recession.

I must admit I am a worrier and it got me thinking that I will be graduating with the majority of my class 8 years younger than me (that’s nearly a decade and that is scary) my thoughts were that not only will I be competing for jobs with those who are 10 years younger and therefore slightly more sprightly and with the same qualification, I am also competing with people my own age but with years of experience on their CVs, a daunting and very scary thought. So how do I get ahead?? I decided to take control and to forgo the student life of parties and festivals and lounging around in the garden half asleep all day for a piece of the action. I am talking about a full time, unpaid work placement in the City! Sounds ghastly I know but hear me out.

I have realised since I returned to studying, that hands on work experience is without a doubt the best thing you could do to advance your career and get some real life experience under your belt because if nothing else it is going to open your eyes to the real world, to the industry that you are aspiring to work in and yet those aspirations are probably based on something you read, something someone told you or a friend of a friend that knew someone who had…. need I say more! If you are studying the subject it is because are attracted to something and even I admit I had glamourised ideas before I started my degree you read about Max Clifford in the papers, you see Sex and the City and Kim Cattrell oozing sex apeal as the gorgeous Samatha Jones and you think I could do that!! Well its not all cocktails and LBD’s let me tell you! No industry however great it looks on the exterior can ever just be fun but if its a career you enjoy then you will enjoy working at it. That is why I am a great advocator of getting some hands on experience becuase lets face it the worst thing you could do is spend 3 years working for a degree, graduate and start your first job and go “Man this sucks” “I didn’t realise I would be doing this” or having to retrain to become a teacher or something becuase you did not prepare properly.

So why am I ranting and who am I to rant? Good question! I am YOU! Someone that wants to get ahead and I am going to share with you over the coming weeks the exciting things that I experience on my placement. The things I learn and the challenges I am given, so let me start by introducing the company its called global tolerance and they do “Communications with Conscience” This is not just any experience this is cutting edge experience because lets face it the hottest topic at the moment is Ethical PR, do those two words go hand in hand?? I always get the raised eyebrow when I tell people where I am working because they think that Ethical PR is a double negative. I am an advocator of good, honnest communication, of dealing with people on a personal level that is where I think the future of PR is. Look at the way this BP scandel has been handled, where is the crisis communicaiton?? Where is the communicaiton?? That is what I will be deavling into over the coming weeks and I would love to hear your thoughts!

Hope I haven’t bored you too much, and seriously if you are serious about getting ahead experience within the industry will make you more knowledgeable, more focussed and more prepared. It is worth the sacrifice!