How Not To Get a Job in Public Relations

As a PR student I am constantly looking for an opportunity to boost my C.V. by doing work experience or internship in a London based company or a consultancy. I have updated my CV, worked on a personalised covering emails/letters and then I just wait for the phone call. The part when I get invited to come for an interview can be the most scary one. Therefore, I always try to prepare myself for the type of questions that might come up. This doesn’t work all the time and I sometimes find myself thinking how to answer a question like “What is your biggest weakness?” in a positive way.

I have recently come across “How Not to Get a Job in Public Relations” post by Newman PR and I was shocked. It is a well-written real-life story about a fresh Uni graduate who was looking for a summer part-time internship in PR. She was one of the lucky ones to be selected for an interview but unfortunately she didn’t impress and when asked to write a most press release, she failed immediately. This is not as shocking as what came after. The interviewer offered her a constructive criticism about her press release, which was intended to help her in her future job applications. This is a good thing, right? Usually the potential employers don’t even bother to get back to you if you haven’t been selected for the job position. She should have thanked for it but instead she got offended and replied in a very angry, selfish and completely inappropriate matter attacking the consultancy’s culture and employees. She went as far as contacting the two co-founders claiming that the interviewer harassed her!!!! Hello?

I would be more than happy if after unsuccessful interview I (receiver) received an email explaining why and giving me some constructive criticism. Why, you may ask. Well, nobody is perfect and we learn as we go and having the knowledge about what did I do wrong would help me to learn from my mistakes.

This post by Newman PR actually gave me some great advice what can I expect from an interview. I didn’t know that I could be asked to undertake a writing test to prove my skills. I was also unaware that I could create a PR portfolio of mock press releases, etc. This is a good tip to all of us wannabe PR practitioners. Did you for example know that the way we communicate via emails can say a lot about our character? I know that now…