Pass the PR love to the protégés...

Wow it has been about a month since I last posted! I must break these bad habits before they become a problem.

Feeling strangely philosophical at the minute as I try to set myself on a new path. I am still job hunting - the philosophy comes from discovering more about myself and what I believe in as I sit through more interviews and fill out more application forms. Recognising your personal philosophies and goals makes this a lot easier to undertake. But more on the process of job hunting on a later date.

Whilst I have been away a couple of things have caught my eye beginning with this:

A while back now Simon posted about this CIPR Northern Conference 2006. As a non member of the CIPR, although I would like to be, I would have to fork out £185 for a ticket. As Simon points out I shouldn’t be outraged by this – after all “One of the recent PR Week conferences cost £1000+ for one-day.”

Surely this is wrong. £185 (plus VAT) is, and continues to be, a lot of money. Although obviously this will be an amazing event and if I can quote from Simon:

“The two confirmed keynotes so far include:
John Willman - UK Business Editor, Financial Times
Rob Skinner - Chief Press Officer First Direct and Marks & Spencer Money

While the three main workshops that I want to sit in on include:
PR in the voluntary sector - delivered by the team from Oxfam
The Regeneration Game - a panel discussion on the role PR plays in regeneration
Blogging and New PR - Philip Young and Stuart Bruce (but of course!)”

This is a terrific event that I and I’m sure many of my peers would love to go to. But then why put such a price tag on it so that so few of my generation of PR people can attend?

And what about the other conferences that cost £1,000 a day? Wow-ee who would you get there?

A lot has been said about the possible barriers to entry for young Public Relations practitioners, monetary being one of the biggest. The CIPR does a fantastic job to remove so many of these, with reduced rates for student and the Behind the Spin magazine.

But where is the free or reasonably priced PR love for fledgeling PR people in the form of these amazing days out? It saddens me that these price tags can be perceived as anything but ridiculous

So many Bloggers are also educators (not just the academically associated ones), and though their blogs have taught me so much, all for free. Same goes for the amazing podcasts available from forward and FIR. But despite all these amazing mediums, nothing really compares to being in the same room as someone who can impart wisdom, and the atmosphere of being at such events, and learning new information face to face.

Surely if the industry shuts out its younger members then it also shuts out their ideas and feedback, and all the things that we can teach them, all the creativity that is blocked.

I know there will be people who feel that all conferences are this expensive - from accounting to computing - so why should PR be any different? But does this really excuse it? As anyone whose mother has said 'if everyone else was jumping off a cliff would you?' can tell you - no, it doesn't.

So I suppose it is back to personal philosophy again. I just reckon that there should be greater breaks for those who are just starting out in the industry such as the students and the new PROs. And ultimately won't this will help to build a stronger, better PR industry in the future?

After discovering Technorati Alex realises she has some catching up to do...

Philip Young tagged me a long time ago (all the way back in February - sorry) and I did not even know. But today I discovered exactly what technorati actually does and it's fascinating!

So now I have the chance to right all my wrongs and thank all those who have linked to me but I have been too ignorant to thank them, starting with Philip - I shall complete the questions and keep the meme going (albeit a bit late).

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Lighting Department of Peter Jones
2. Waitress in Cypriot restaurant (in London)
3. JD Wetherspoons supervisor
4. Designer Clothes shop

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. The Godfather
2. Drop Dead Gorgeous
3. Life of Brian (if pressed to put only one Python)
4. Amélie

Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Spaced
2. Doctor Who (guilty geeky pleasures...)
3. CSI - any of them
4. Scrubs

Four places I’ve been on holiday:

1. Kathmandu (well trekking)
2. Cape Town
3. Clearwater (Florida)
4. Toronto

Four favourite dishes:

1. Melintzanosalata
2. anything with chillies in
3. Shellfish
4. bread and butter pudding (has to have golden syrup in otherwise its not right!)

Four websites I visit daily (aside from my own):

1. Yahoo
2. Radio one
3. The Onion
4. PR Blogger (Stephen Davis' site)

(perhaps I should now add technorati)

Four places I’d rather be:

1. Shoe shopping
2. Reading, on holiday in Southern France (St Emilion area preferably)
3. Getting rather tipsy and listening to some good live indie rock and roll with excellent company
4. Painting / Drawing

Four bloggers I’m tagging:

1. Chloe Chaplin
2. Amy Golledge
3. Erin Caldwell
4. Kami Huyse

Well the results are in from Edelman.

There is of course the good news and the bad news. I have failed to secure a place in the next round of interviews. This is of course a set back. Rebecca was very willing however to answer any questions relating to where I could have gone wrong. Frustratingly they seemed to think that I had not fully prepared my individual presentation sufficiently, although I scored highly in all the other tests (especially grammar). This is of course irritating but there is little that I can do about it.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that one of the women there was Jackie Cooper, who heads up Edelman’s sister company JCPR. They represent more consumer based clients than Edelman. She was apparently impressed by me and is interested in giving me an interview on the 6th June.

I suppose, from the purposes of this blog that it would have been fairly dull if I had just strolled into a job straight off the bat. Now I represent the job seeking PR graduates slightly better, I will also have more time to write all about it again due to less academic constraints. I can also spend all my time preparing for June 6th and trawling PR Week Jobs, Guardian Media Jobs, Brand Republic Jobs, Monster, Reed, and the rest.

So although I am fairly annoyed that I have been knocked back, I have been offered a second stab. So I can take their criticisms on board and this time leave no doubt in their minds that I prepared fully for this interview.

BBC Interview

I hope that none of my interviews are this pressured! Guy Goma turned up for a job interview with a BBC website and due to a case of mistaken identity he was then interviewed live on BBC News 24 about the Apple vs Apple court case .

He says his appearence was "very stressful". I hope that he got the job, I reckon that he will possibly be the most memorable of all the candidates!

It's Eurovision on Saturday!

And to celebrate an extract from Father Ted.

Dougal: I've got Eurosong fever, Ted.
Ted: Yeah?
Dougal: Oh god, yeah. I love the Eurosong competition. I just can't wait. What time is it now?
Father Ted: Half past one.
Dougal: Half one?! And the competition is on in...
Father Ted: May.

The Edelman Interview

As you may or may not be aware, I was invited by Edelman to participate in the next round of interviews for a place on their graduate scheme.

Now before you worry - and I know you do - that we might descend into unpleasantness again I have received the thumbs up from the people at Edelman. I am allowed to reveal their graduation scheme selection as much as I please – thank you.

In a word, wow.

It is hard not to feel initially uninitiated when sat in a room with a group of undoubtedly talented people. There was Mel, a Masters student at Cambridge, Daniel, who had flown over from Washington DC where he is currently studying the legal system, and Mark who had flown from St Andrews. In total there were eight of us.

But I had to remain positive. Yes I’m sure that most of them have more A levels than you can shake a stick at, but I had made it this far and there must be a reason.

It is always difficult to know how to act at this point, should one sit back and assess the situation and risk being forgotten? Or perhaps one should speak up and risk everyone thinking you are a pompous pillock?

Well, I always reckon that it is important to stand out on these events and so was soon having a conversation with a girl who had come all the way from County Cork to be there, which soon spread and I am happy to say there didn’t seem to be anyone there who wasn’t very friendly.

We also met Stuart Smith and had the opportunity to ask him some questions. At this point I was thankful for Morgan McLintic’s tips!

We had individual presentations, from a choice of seven topics from which I picked five minutes on the last five days top news stories. I felt that this went OK. There were very very tough questions afterwards from a group of people that we hadn’t met before. We had been warned about this and I assume it was to test what we knew, our ability to think on our feet and to assess how we handle pressure.

Later we had group presentations where, with limited facts, we were to put together a pitch in an hour. This was really interesting as we were observed whilst we put our plans together and then questioned as to why we made those decisions, after we presented.

But these are all things that you can prepare for. You can read about what to say, how to prepare and top tips for how to act. So my favourite part of the day was the tests, for which, preparation was limited.

This seems a little masochistic but really I find these things fascinating. We had verbal and non verbal reasoning and spatial awareness. These were really tough and were time controlled. Finally we undertook a personality test which we were told would be able to show how we reacted under pressure and what position we tend to take in a team. There are always a bit difficult for someone like me. I always get bogged down on these things thinking 'well am I more X or Y, and what does this mean and how can it be construed?'

I am on the edge of my seat wanting to know what I got! I will most probably phone them even if I do not make it through to the next round, just to find out. There are just so interesting!

Well I will hear from Edelman's HR department either way some time in the coming weeks. As soon as I know, you will.

Dissertation Update

Ever so nervous. I have just heard through the grapevine that my dissertation is the only one that Karl has properly marked yet. I wonder whether it is better to be the first while things are fresh, or the last?

Although I shouldn't be nervous, at the end of the day I worked bloody hard on that document and I hope that my grade will reflect that.

As ever with these things I am hoping to be able to post it here through Writely after it has been marked.