This year, I applied to do my work experience at Approach PR – I am a second year student studying magazine journalism at Leeds Trinity university.
When starting university, I never thought of doing PR but this year I took it as a module in order to broaden my options for the future. I am now considering going into PR rather than Journalism!
I’m still unsure whether I want to be a journalist or work in PR, so I thought gaining work experience in both areas will help me make up my mind. Although, I haven’t done a work placement for a magazine yet, completing a PR placement at Approach PR is definitely helping me make a choice!
Before starting I was very nervous – I’m not a very confident person; this is one thing I need to improve on which work experience will definitely help, confidence is key in this line of work. I was fearful that I’d have no idea what I was doing because I’ve only studied PR this year, however this hasn’t been the case.
I am really enjoying working at Approach PR so far – I am always busy doing something interesting such as; social media for a client, writing blogs and researching.
In particular, I have really enjoyed doing the social media side of things for a number of clients – especially Smoke Barbecue Glasgow as they have a very informal, chatty style which I am very comfortable with. Also, I feel I relate to their audience of young people and students living in the city as I fit into this category – this helps me aim my social media posts to this audience successfully.
I have already learnt so many new skills, before starting work experience I only knew the very basics of PR, whereas I have now learnt a lot more about the business and applied my skills to real life clients, a great learning curve and taste of what it’s like to work in PR.
And to make this experience even better, the team are super friendly and helpful, they make me feel very comfortable and I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
Doing work experience is really important – it prepares you for life after university, when you have to enter the real world. Also, it is something that employees will look for when hiring you, the more experience you have the better.
I would recommend doing a work placement, even if you don’t have to! And if you’re looking for a PR work placement, I would definitely recommend Approach PR!
