How did I end up here? 5 tips for getting your first job in PR

See...there's nothing to be scared of.

It was around two-thirds of the way through my journalism degree when I realised my future career lay in public relations.

I was on work experience for a small PR agency who were helping out a girl band. I planned school tours, co-produced a music video, researched and redesigned their website, developed their activity on facebook and typed up a couple of press releases geared towards the local media.

Although I’d enjoyed the previous work I’d done at newspapers, radio stations and magazines, for the first time I felt like this was a career that really suited me. I liked that there was still the pressure, immediacy, and level of writing involved with journalism; however there was also the added face to face contact, meeting and working with large numbers of new people, an increased opportunity to present, and the higher levels of teamwork required to bring it all together.

When I started my degree, I wanted to be a traditional truth-seeking journalist working for the community, however, for many reasons, the environments I encountered on work experience led me to believe that this wasn’t an achievable goal.

Despite this, I found that employing the tools I’d learned on my course meant that charities or businesses were able to gain third party endorsement which they couldn’t previously afford, either for financial or knowledge based reasons. It seemed to me that if PR could still benefit a community of people, it was a good alternative to journalism.

After realising this, I set about learning as much as I could about the industry (reading blogposts like this one, for example). After hearing over and over again that social media was the next big thing in PR and that a micro-blogging service called twitter was at the heart of it, I signed up and began following the thoughts of the industry leaders, stuck my CV up on LinkedIn and started to maintain my own blog.

In the classroom I took every available PR module, going as far as devising a strategy to encourage young men to start morris dancing. I even wrote my dissertation on the relationship between PR and the press. After graduating with a 2:1 and gaining events and PR experience with the BBC Blast Tour in Truro and with the Combined Universities in Cornwall at Tremough Campus, I heard via Rachel Picken of MPAD about an exciting opportunity with a Cornish media company.

After having a look at their website, I saw the exciting work Barefoot Media had done with Polo on the Beach. This, combined with the range of food and sport based clients, convinced me that I had to be involved. After one emailed CV, two interviews and a social media presentation, I was offered the job and angrily accepted. (I’d just got off the phone to a bailiff. Long story.) Five weeks in and I’m enjoying the work and learning loads, although I’ll save that for another post.

So, for any students who feel a career in public relations may be for them, here are my 5 tips on getting into the industry.

1. When applying for a job, spend time learning about exactly what they do, in which sector of PR, and re-write your CV with this in mind.

2. Get as much experience as possible in as many different realms of the media, not just PR. If you’re going to be communicating with the media, you need to understand how it works.

3. Read as much as you can, again, not just regarding PR. I like using these blogs, twitter links, RSS feeds, delicious and media guardian. All great outlets of information.

4. A social media presence is crucial. Start tweeting; upload a CV to LinkedIn; put some of your favourite photos on flickr; maintain a blog. Even if you you’re not interested in digital or online PR, with 50 people applying for every graduate PR role, if you’re not doing any of these things you’re seriously disadvantaging yourself.

5. Talk to people! Public relations is a really open industry and if you want to know anything then ask. Posting a question on facebook or twitter will usually provide you with a good selection of answers. Attending networking events, such as Cornwall Social Media Cafe will mean you’ll meet lots of like-minded people.

Let me know if this is helpful, or if you think I’ve missed anything.

JLC enters Another Place

Justin Lee Collins interview in Another Place magazine

My first job as a reporter on the UK’s longest-running surfing magazine saw me undertake some pretty tough assignments. As the most junior member of staff, it was inevitable that I would get sent on the jobs nobody else wanted, so my early interview technique was set to develop on a series of aspiring pro surfers who would clearly rather have been spending time in the sea than waiting for me to reel through a list of questions. I would rather have been surfing too, but it was up to me to coax from their uncooperative mouths a sentence that could one day be printed, and repeat this process enough times to hit the magic figure of 500 words.

So when it came to sit down with Justin Lee Collins to conduct an interview for Another Place, the annual magazine produced by The Hotel & Extreme Academy at Watergate Bay, none of my previous experience was any use at all. Verbose doesn’t come close – the man was a dream in front of the microphone. Here’s what he said . . .

Good times at Watergate Bay: JLC gets spiritual
He has interviewed A-listers, wrestled Mexicans and dressed up as Chewbacca, but taming the Cornish surf in a Sky1 documentary proved to be the toughest challenge yet for Justin Lee Collins. Another Place caught up with the hairy Bristolian between waves.

How have you found the experience of learning to surf?
It’s been great. I’ve attempted to surf on my own several times in the past and never been able to do it, but I’ve always loved the idea of it. I think it suits me and I feel at home here in Cornwall, Watergate Bay in particular. I’m a West Country boy, I still live in Bristol, and this is my pace of life, it’s how I like life to be. So everything about surfing appeals, the lifestyle appeals on a spiritual level. Everything about it apart from the actual business itself of surfing, which I can’t do.

You’ve been set the fairly ambitious target of entering a top-level surfing competition for the TV show – do you think that’s possible?
I’m very much an amateur. I’m under no illusions, it’s incredibly difficult and if you have ever tried to surf or had a surfing lesson then you know how difficult it is. So I don’t think I’m going to be walking the board or hanging ten at the end of this journey. But I’m looking for a long ride – that would be wonderful.

So have you got the surfing bug?
I love the beach. I’m a beach bum and I can sit here all day on this beautiful bay just watching waves crashing in, but now I’ve started to look at the ocean in a completely different way. And I’m sat here thinking, would I have gone for that wave? Would I wait? Would I let that one pass? It’s really weird. And then you see the guys who are out there and they just sit out there for 20 minutes, half an hour, just waiting for the right wave.

Is it something you can see yourself carrying on after you finish filming the show?
I think so. This is a very different journey to the other films that we’re making. I think this one could be more personal – this is what I love so it relates to getting away from the hectic pace of life that I’ve grown accustomed to. It’s perhaps more of a spiritual journey to the others.

You could have made this journey in Australia or Hawaii – why Cornwall?
This is where we come for our family holidays. We’ve been coming to Cornwall for a very long time but we only discovered Watergate Bay about three years ago and
we’ve been regulars since then. I come down with my wife and our two little boys whenever we’ve got free time and we just absolutely adore it here, so it made perfect sense to come here to make this film. We really love it.

Good Times by Justin Lee Collins is published by Ebury Press. Out now.