We’ve been joined in the office the past couple of weeks by Ed Hipwell, a recent Graduate who was looking to gain office experience in a PR environment to find out if the profession is for him. Ed settled in to office life quickly and has been a great help while he’s been here, but is PR for him?
Over to you Ed..
Hello I’m Ed, O’Leary PR’s latest work experience recruit! I’m 24 and graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2015. After gaining my degree in Sociology, I didn’t quite know what career path to take so I saved up (just about!) enough money to go travelling in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the USA for three and a half months.
Upon my return from this once in a lifetime trip, my thoughts turned to becoming a ‘proper adult’ – a fairly daunting prospect. High on my list of priorities was discovering what profession I wanted to work in. Having a degree with such a general a scope is both a gift and a curse in this regard; I am neither constrained nor guided by my qualifications, which makes decision-making difficult.
Nevertheless, I did know that Public Relations was one area I might be interested in pursuing. The trouble many graduates find themselves in when they leave university is the lack of office experience, looking at my CV you can clearly see I’ve been busy working but in bar and catering work, so I set out to get just that.
The rest, as they say, is history and here I am today on my final day in the office after two weeks discovering the ins and outs of PR life.
So, what did I learn? Having spent time in the O’Leary PR office, I feel like I have gained a great deal of confidence in an office environment and learned a lot about what PR involves. I now have a much better insight into the different aspects of the profession, such as the importance of social media, the level of organisation required, and how to facilitate and manage client expectations…also that a cup of tea or coffee can help in any situation!
I’d like to thank, Judith, Kirrie, and Katie for having me in the office, and for helping to make it clearer that PR is an area I am very much interested in pursuing a career in.