Busy Busy Busy!

I have been having a few teething problems with a wireless Internet system, which left me in a rather dazed and confused state for a while! No excuse I know but I shall endeavour to bring you up to speed.

I was in the Guardian Last Saturday - in the 'Rise' section that's for graduates and you can find nestled in the jobs section. I had to review some books on job hunting.

This all came from when I was approached by a Chris Alden, a journalist completing a piece for the Guardian Newspaper. More specifically the Rise section of the Saturday paper that is in the Work section and is aimed at graduates. Chris had found me through this blog and wanted me to help reviewing eight books that are written to aid job seekers. They were:

What Should I DO With My Life? - Po Bronson
The 2006 What Color [sic] is Your Parachute? - Richard Nelson Bolles
How to Get a Job You'll Love - John Lees
Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions - Martin John Yate
How to Get The Best Graduate Job - D. Williams, P. Brown and A. Hesketh
Pitch Yourself - Bill and Michael Faust
How to be Brilliant - Michael Heppell
Brilliant CV - Jim Bright and Joanne Earl

Some of which were rubbish and some were rather helpful. You can read the article here.

They also put me on the front cover which was nice!

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I also went to the CIPR Northern conference! I was incredibly disappointed that not one single student took the CIPR offer of cheap tickets! - Come on guys at this rate they will never offer again!!

Anyway I went and had a wonderful time! I have some pictures (courtesy of Andrew) but Blogger is misbehaving so I'll put them up at another time.

Anyway on what was probably the hottest day in the history of Leeds (6th July - write it down) over 150 delegates descended on the Electric Press in the Millenium Square. I handed out some badges (which - future student helpers note - was an excellent way to meet people too) and showed all the delegates about and then got to see all the keynotes and visit three workshops. Bargain!

I was also interviewed for the podcast being done of the day and it is well worth listening to as you get to hear large chunks of the conference including behind the scenes questions. There is also a videocast too!

Stuart Bruce's blogging workshop really opened my eyes as to the rather shocking lack of knowledge by so many of the other delegates about blogging and a lot of other social media. I found this fantastic and incredible - I can't imagine not having a blog and not reading others. After all, blogs and other web sites where I get my information from for the most part!

This continued to be the theme of the day and certainly most people there will have gone home with their heads ringing to the tune of podcasts, RSS feeds and blogs!

Anyway I shall let you know tomorrow how I am preparing for the Hill and Knowlton Graduate Project Day on the 19th!

I Have a PR Degree!

Hurrah and indeed hurray.

I am now the proud owner of a BA PR (2:2)!!

I got the results a few days ago which probably explains why I have been scooped with my own story! (Is there nothing that Stephen Davies chap doesn't know?)

Anyway massive thank you's to all those who helped with my dissertation research and any other projects I was doing.

Wages of Spin - in French?

Well I discovered this through Google today and it made me laugh a lot.

You see Mme. Wright? Who knew that forgetting my handbook and chatting with Iona Sherlock at French GCSE wouldn't have the catastrophic effect you predected. Despite my B at GCSE I can still communicate with the good people of France!

I'm off to look at other frenchified pages.

If you use the links from my frenchy page you will see other blogs like Richard Bailey's and Stephen Davies' frenchified.

"Who said protest was futile?!"

Andrew Wake, one of the organisers of the CIPR Northern Conference, has just left a comment on one of my other posts saying:

CIPR have now approved 10 student places at £25 on a first come first served basis so anyone interested needs to e-mail us (andrew@dontpanicprojects.com) or give us a call on 01706 828855.

Who said protest was futile?!

I thought I would highlight it and look forward to meeting anyone who applies.

To get a job... or not?

Like many in my position I am pondering whether to get a summer job.

You know the type, a bar job or waitressing. Something with very little reponsibility that will pay me weekly and keep me sweet until the grown up job of my dreams arrives.

Now I will need something that will allow me to go to interviews, attend the conference and my H&K day and graduation weekend. If I do get a job that starts straight away I will need to be able to ditch rubbish job fairly quickly - a week or so's notice.

It's a pretty tall order really. But I reckon it will keep me out of harms way and maybe I'll be able to afford a holiday at the end of the summer? A holiday....

CIPR Northern Conference

It seems that some people were listening when I posted about the CIPR Northern Conference and other PR events seemingly shunning students and young PR personnel with their ridiculously high prices.

Within a few days I had received an email from Andrew and Nicky of Don't Panic, offering me the chance to attend the conference for free, which I though as very interesting. Of course I took them up straight away and will therefore be attending on the 6th. So big thank yous to them.

I am really looking forward to going. I do, of course, have to earn my ticket to a certain extent through working the reception a bit and shuffling various delegates about. But I get to attend all the keynote speeches and three workshops. So if you are attending I shall see you there.

I wonder whether they will be extending similar offers to other students? I reckon that if they really want some good publicity they should offer a free spot to one or two students that ask every time.

Or maybe even have a student conference?

Hmm ... I feel an idea or two coming on...

Email me if you are interested in the idea of a student and Fledgling PR conference.

Lunacy of the job seekers!

At this time of the year there is a certain graduate panic that takes hold, and some people will apply for any job with PR in the title. This is lunacy. For example I was talking to a recruitment consultant this morning who's client is in the financial PR arena. He said that most of the applicants he had phoned regarding this job were unaware of what was involved with that industry, despite having applied for a job in it!

Now these are not just PR grads. Apparently PR is the industry du jour amongst grads, a bit like finance in the eighties and advertising in the nineties.

The PR industry at this level is highly competitive and I love the fact that so many people are interested in pursuing a career in PR from so many different backgrounds and are accepted.

But a lot of the people who are applying with no real clue will learn quickly that PR is not for everyone and that you have to research each of your job applications thoroughly before you apply, so you are not caught out.