I’ve been on placements before where it feels like you’re being handed all the jobs nobody wants to do, but at Wild PR I was made to feel like a part of the team from day one. I felt as though my time and effort were valued and to me, that is a very important aspect to consider when looking for a placement.

I actively sought out a work experience opportunity and undertook this on a voluntary basis; I wasn’t forced into taking up placement by the university, I instead wanted to do this to gain some insight into the marketing and PR industry. There are certain things that universities serve you better in, that seem to be academic and theoretical matters, however, working in the industry is the best and most practical way to gain hands-on experience and knowledge.

From our initial meeting, before I started my placement, I had a positive feeling about working with Managing Director, Katrina and Marketing Executive, Grace who is currently undertaking a placement at Wild PR before returning to the University of Huddersfield in September 2016 to finish her degree in Sports Marketing and Promotion.

I got stuck straight into work on the first day, and that isn’t a bad thing!

Since I was only there for the equivalent of a week, my time was limited, so it is going to benefit me more to get straight into the thick of it. I went to an event with Katrina at Kirklees College that very morning. It was good to see how Katrina presented herself very successfully as a professional businesswoman and how she communicated with other people at the event., whilst having the opportunity to listen to current business issues being discussed by other leading business professionals.

During my short time here I have undergone many tasks and the constructive feedback I received from Katrina was very helpful. Each piece of work I constructed Katrina took to time to review, providing practical criticism and feedback on how to improve on my work. From this I was able to work on her comments in later work, which resulted in two press releases I worked on contributing to the final distributed release.

There were also, the less glamorous jobs… like sorting out numerous Twitter Lists (a feature I was aware existed before hand, but wouldn’t have a clue what it was used for). You really do take for granted how time consuming this is. I didn’t mind doing these jobs, as I know as a practitioner, you will have to do uninteresting jobs which contribute to the bigger picture, so because of this I felt that I was given a more rounded experience.

I have done things that require me to interact with people over the phone, something that thankfully I have always been comfortable with else I could imagine that being quite unpleasant! Here, I understood the bond between journalists and PR practitioners. It’s sort of a ‘scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ situation; PR brings in some exclusive stories and Journalism offers a platform to publish.

I have learnt more than I could have hoped for working with Wild PR. It has been an enriching experience, really offering me some valuable insight into the marketing and PR industry. I would have enjoyed being able to stay longer, but university is taking its toll and I may end up with premature greying if I don’t visit the library more often.

Thank you to Katrina and Grace for making me feel welcome, helping me progress and being great people to work with.

Follow me on Twitter: @OBrackenridge

Connect with me on LinkedIn: Olivia Brackenridge

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