Assessment Day at Diffusion PR

OMG! I’ve been shortlisted for a PR Grads Scheme at Diffusion PR! Yey! How exciting! After hours spent on filling in Grad Scheme applications and then days/weeks of waiting, I finally received an email saying:

“I am delighted to let you know that you have been short-listed, and are therefore invited to our Graduate Assessment Day at our central London office on Saturday 27 February 2010.”

Triple hurray!

Ok, what now? I was shaking for the rest of the day trying to deal with the news and also trying to figure out how to get ready. The last thing I wanted was to look like a complete fool. This may sound like an action of a complete control freak, but I started creating this document on PR, news, PR disasters and Social Media. I know everything by heart but once my nerves start working their way, I can easily forget my own name. Don’t laugh it’s a true. Unfortunately... (I think I could share the document with you – let me know what you think and if you are interested.)

I was so anxious on my way down to the office. The situation of tube lines closures didn’t help at all. What I found quite ‘funny’ was that the moment I arrived ... the anxiety was gone. All the fellow candidates were nice people and even though we were ‘competitors’ of some degree, the atmosphere in the office was great.

The day started with a short presentation about Diffusion PR as a company and the benefits of joining as a PR Grad. I think that the hidden reason behind this initial step was to motivate us. The “I am delighted to let you know” email didn’t enclose much information about what was going to happen so we were all quietly waiting for the big news. We found out very soon – it was a team work on a PR campaign creation and a presentation.

I was assigned to the Hackney team (team names based on London Boroughs – quite funny but great idea). It was interesting to find out that my team consisted of 6 girls. I think that once there is ‘a girl-only team’ the productivity can be either high, if we all work toward the same goal, or quite off-putting, if some girls become more pushy and competitive. Luckily, our team was great. Based on the Belbin’s Team Role assessment, we had all the key roles covered: the implementer, plant, coordinator, etc. I think that we have all delivered a fantastic piece of work, even though we didn’t know each other prior to the assessment day.

Once the assessment was over we were invited for drinks to Diffusion’s favourite bar. Oh God, I really needed a beer or two! The task of creating a PR campaign was both engaging and challenging in the same time and made my brain works really fast.

Feelings about the day? It was great! I definitely benefited from being put into a situation of working with other students on the campaign. It wasn’t entirely new experience for me but the speed of decision making and moving forward was really shocking and made me see what I was capable of.

Feelings about my chances to be hired? Positive but.... There were so many talented people so the team at Diffusion PR may possibly have it very hard to pick the top 8 candidates for the next stage.