Grad PR Job Hunt Cont'd

As I mentioned in my previous post my job hunt has started. In the search for the perfect 2010 PR Grad Scheme I decided to do something slightly unusual – visit the Autumn Graduate Fair sponsored by The Independent. It was quite hard to find it to start with, particularly if you go with friends and you are not in charge of the map –thnx Howie :) The venue for this event was located in between Victoria and St James' Park in the beautiful Royal Horticultural Halls.


I must say that I found it slightly disappointing. Since I am passionate about Public Relations and all that comes with it, I really don’t want to apply for IT Consulting, HR or Finance Business Placement. I may consider Management Consulting or the fancy Bloomberg Summer Internship programme but I am a PR girl...
 
I wish there was more of these Grad Job Fairs available in London before Christmas. I should perhaps consider organising one that will serve the need of us, PR & Events Management & Marketing & Advertising & Marketing Communications & Journalism & Sociology etc. graduates. I don’t want to sound like a person that moans about everything, but honestly there was nothing for me on the Show. I received this interesting email prior to the event with a list of matched companies, based on my profile and preferred sectors. One of them: ‘Cisco Systems - Associate Sales Representative’ – seriously? What a joke! I hate sales.
 
There is one good outcome of this. I finally found the time to sit down and update my C.V. and start working on my online PR Portfolio. The latter still needs some polishing since I want to include my student assignments too. At the end of the day I am a PR student and what else can represent what I am capable of better than examples of my hard work at Uni?

I noticed this poll at LinkedIn: ‘When hiring a public relations employee, what area is most important?



A Education
B Current media Contacts
C Writing ability
D Previous agency experience
E Spokesperson experience’


What would you pick? Only one answer counts. Isn’t it fantastic?

I always thought that a person comes in a package. We all have culture background that affects our life choice, ethics and many other things. I will have BA in PR but does it mean I have great writing skills? I have done very relevant PR internship but is it enough? I have worked on a large media contact database but is it what you expect? I don’t have experience as a spokesperson but can’t I learn it? I wonder what will be the result of this poll. Here is the link. So feel free to vote. Don't forget to let me know what you picked. I am curious.

Overall, this week wasn’t very successful in terms of finding one great looking PR Grad Scheme. Hope that the next week will be better. I’m staying optimistic.