For my second year of university, we all have to focus on the professional field we’re interested in and try to find out about it as much as we can. Doing that will help us decide if the field is suitable for us and whether we need to experiment and find something else instead. Having that in mind, I started spending time looking into the PR/Communications field.
The first thing that helped me understand what the professional field is about was CW1 for 201MAPA. We were asked to draw a profession map and outline the most important parts of the jobs in that industry. That’s why I did a lot of research and collected numerous pages with important data for a Google Doc, analysed dozens of different job adverts and tried to sift out the information. I wanted to find out what the main job responsibilities are what skills employers are looking for.
Following my research online, I did further my knowledge by attending numerous events. I attended a couple Careers events (CU CareersFEST at university and NEC Recruitment Exhibition in Birmingham) where I interacted with the employers or representatives from different companies and organisations. My goal was to speak to as many people as possible from various companies (Sainbury’s, Lidl, Toys R Us, TkMaxx, Hilton, etc.) and figure out how they promote themselves, how they do PR and why it works for them. In addition, I incorporated my search for placements as I asked if any of the employers offer short placements in the PR field.
In addition, I attended a few workshops/meetings that were taking place during the Careers events. I went to see Julia Speeds from Enterprise Rent-a-Car talk about how to do networking and interact with employers at a conference called “CU CareersFEST Networking for Success with Guest”, listened to a presentation on the best ways to find a suitable job (“Top Job Searching Techniques”), went to see an employment specialist for a CV drop-in session so that they can give some valuable feedback on my both creative and ordinary CVs.
Besides all the events, I watched my first panel discussion with Mark Wylie, Sim Lee, Steve Stopps and Jason fox about their own experience working in the creative industries (“Careers in the Creative Industries”). That event helped me the most as I got the chance to hear about real life situations of real people and have a little chat with the guests afterwards. It was interesting to hear about daily challenges and obstacles that they had to overcome in order to become successful.
I made a great decision registering to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/ as I can be notified which useful and interesting events are happening in town. I already registered for a few future ones such as “CAREERS EXPO 2018: Student Diversity: Unlocking Potential” and “Coventry Jobs Fair”,which, as well as the placement that I am going to do during spring, will help me strengthen my knowledge and help improve as a professional person.
AkviWho? 