Entering the PR World

The Community February 20, 2008

Filed under: PR — Hillel of Greater Toronto @ 8:25 pm
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Starting out in a new part of life is scary. People are always scared to close the door behind them and open the next one. High school graduation can be recognized as one of the biggest transitions. We are not only graduating from grade schooling, but it is the first time we have the opportunity to move away from our parents, we begin to identify ourselves by our “majors”, which in turn result in our career paths. We connect with others at the same institution as us and develop a new circle of friends.

This year, though, at Centennial College, I entered a new community. This year has been my first insight into the world of Corporate Communications and Public Relations. Maybe it is just my class, but I find it amazing how each one of us is there to support the other. We are all preparing for interviews for field placements. As each person goes to his or hers, all 39 of his or her classmates are waiting to hear how it went. If someone in the class has an interest in a certain area and another person has “connections” in that area, they are there ready to help that person.

School is possibly more social now than ever before. We are finding ourselves going to school this year because it is a pleasure to be amongst our peers. We are connecting with each other on academic, corporate and social levels. It is something that I do not think any of us have ever experienced before.

Our teachers are there to support us in the same way. Watching us day in and day out for the past number of months, they have gotten to know us pretty well. They are there, possibly more than ever, to guide us into the working world of CCPR. They take it upon themselves to guide us, help us and advise us…all things they are not required to do.

I feel, or rather, I hope, that this is a taste of the networked community in the CCPR world. Obviously it is not going to be all picture-perfect as described here, but I do foresee constant support and companionship.

Anybody else feeling this way at this time?

 

Entry-level Jobs February 13, 2008

Filed under: PR — Hillel of Greater Toronto @ 11:17 pm
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So, every morning I grab a copy of Metro to read while on the subway on my way to school. It is quick and easy to read, allowing me to stay generally up-to-date when I don’t have much time as it is.

Yesterday in an inserted section of the paper called “Learning Curve” was a column by Tracy Rogers titled “Entry-level jobs are a window of opportunity.” Immediately I was intrigued since I am preparing to start a field placement and already go into an office on a weekly basis to fulfill my Client Project course.

So, I thought I would share Tracy’s five points of advice to those entering the workforce with everyone out there.

1. Meet people

2. Get involved

3. Attend training

4. Remember, it’s just a job

5. Stay positive

You can read more about these five points on the link above.

 

Easy PR vs Hard PR? February 8, 2008

Filed under: PR — Hillel of Greater Toronto @ 4:51 pm
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I just got home from meeting with my client project. This morning I met with someone who graduated from a post-secondary PR program in Toronto a couple of years ago, used to work for a pretty big Toronto corporation and now works for a not-for-profit organization.

We started talking about the different areas of PR and how you can jump around within it and how people from her program all have such different jobs, but still all PR. She started to describe her job in the big corporation in comparison with her current job. She said, “that was easy PR…this, well, this is more challenging and rewarding.” Intrigued by this comment I asked what she meant. Her explanation was as such:

“at my old job, I would publicize events and hope people would not show up. I would send out press releases and now have to follow up because they were in the news daily. It was simply easy PR. Now, well, I have to keep in contact with every person I send something to, hoping it will be picked up and hoping for a good turnout to events. It’s all up in the air and never a sure thing as it used to be. But I like this more, I’m helping people and seeing how my work is a success.”

I found this to be a very interesting point. I never heard that side of PR before nor had that thought come to mind.

This is only one person’s opinion but I thought it would be interesting to see what other people thought of it.