Welcome to the 7th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast.
This week we focus on how to get a job in PR, as we speak to PR expert and author Sarah Stimson. If you’ve ever thought about a career and job in PR then this episode will blow your socks off. It’s well worth listening to no matter what you’re applying for as Sarah’s insights into work experience, internships and the application process more generally are priceless.
You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Additionally, you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher radio.
MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
- What exactly PR is and what a PR job entails – 2.00
- The key skills needed for a successful career in PR – 3.38
- Whether it is worthwhile to do a PR degree – 6.40
- The importance of work experience – 7.38
- How to go about getting PR work experience – 8.05
- What you can expect the PR recruitment process to look like – 8.55
- How to create a PR focussed CV – 10.43
- How to structure a covering letter which will stand out – 11.57
- The common mistakes that applicants make when applying – 13.44
- How to use Twitter effectively – 15.20
- How to create a blog with impact – 16.35
- How to engage with senior thought leaders using social media – 17.51
- Top tips for creative applications – 18.46
- How to make an impact in your first 6 months – 21.05
- Details of the Taylor Bennett Foundation and how to apply – 23.40
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Check out the ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ step-by-step online course at https://howtogetagraduatejob.com/
- Don’t even think about applying for graduate jobs until you’ve read my free guide, ‘The 5 steps you must take before applying for graduate jobs’. Click here NOW. It will completely change the way you apply for jobs!
- Would you like a free 30-minute video coaching call? Simply select a time that works here https://calendly.com/gradjob/ We can go over your CV, application, or anything that you are struggling with.
- Assessment Day – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
- Career Gym – Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!
- Job Test Prep – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
- How to get a Job in PR – Sarah’s excellent book. (Click image below to buy on Amazon!)
www.stimsonsarah.com/ (Sarah’s website containing her blog and a wealth of information on getting a job in PR)
www.prca.org.uk/ (Website of the Public Relations Consultant Association)
https://twitter.com/gooorooo (Sarah’s Twitter account)
http://www.taylorbennettfoundation.org/ (Charity where Sarah works which is aiming to increase diversity in the communications and PR industries)
Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals
www.behindthespin.com/ (Sarah’s website recommendation, Behind the Spin is an online magazine for public relations students and young practitioners)
Yorkshire Gold Tea 80 Tea Bags (Pack of 5, total of 400)
Transcript – Episode 7 – How to get a job in PR with Sarah Stimson
James: Welcome to the 7th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast. This week we focus down on the sector of PR, as we speak to PR expert and author Sarah Stimson. If you’ve ever thought about a career in PR then this episode will blow your socks off. It’s well worth listening to no matter what you’re applying for as Sarah’s insights into work experience and the application process more generally are priceless. So get yourself ready and let’s crack on with episode 7.
James: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graduate Job Podcast. I’m very pleased to be speaking today to Sarah Stimson. Sarah is a P.R. and communications expert; author of the book, How to get a job in PR
Sarah, a warm welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.
Sarah: Thank you very much.
James: I’ve given the listeners a brief introduction of you and your work. Before we jump into our topic today, would you like to introduce yourself and properly tell us a little bit more about what it is that you do?
Sarah: So, my background is— I spent a long time working as a recruiter and a headhunter in the PR industry, recruiting from graduate level all the way up to the most senior positions of Director of Communications, and in the last five years I have been concentrating on helping black and ethnic minority graduates into the industry where there’s a severe lack of diversity. I run something called The Taylor Bennett Foundation which is a charity focused on that issue and we run 10-week training programs as a kind of finishing school between university and then starting work. So, I’m the person in charge of putting that timetable together, delivering all the employability content. So that’s kind of what I do on a day-to-day basis.
James: Super. Today we’re going to follow the title from your excellent book and explore, How to get a job in PR
Sarah: It’s a really good question because I don’t think there’s any defined definition of PR that does it any justice, really. In the broad stroke of things is to say that PR is about reputation management; whether that be the reputation of a company or government, or an individual like a celebrity; and the way that PR people do that is by influencing the public, usually through the media but also through other mediums. So, sometimes through something like lobbying and it’s really about telling a really good story. So, people who can tell a good story and can write really well are well suited to careers in PR and there is so many different sectors and disciplines within the industry. So, everything from internal communications so being the person that is responsible for communicating to a company’s employees, to media relations where you’re talking to the press on a daily basis, or CSR which is corporate social responsibility and that’s dealing with the reputation of the company and their responsibilities to the environment and to their local community. So, there’s loads, lots of different elements to PR but the basic skills required for all of those jobs are the same, really.
James: So, it’s not just all champagne and parties and Ab Fab stereotypes?
Sarah: You know, I think there is an element of that and there are some parts of PR that are still like that, but it’s few and far between. Most PR people are seen as quite serious professionals these days and increasingly it’s becoming a discipline that sits on company boards. So it is taken very seriously.
James: You mentioned then about the skills being consistent across the different types of PR. So what would be the key skills then that are needed for a successful career in PR?
Sarah: The number one skill that all employers ask for no matter which discipline or sector you go into, are strong writing skills. You really must be able to write really, really well, with good attention to detail, with good attention to punctuation and grammar and to have a very—- It depends on who you are writing for but most PR people ask to have a quite a chatty tone, to not to be writing in academic style and some graduates struggle with that because they’ve spent three years at universities writing essays and then they’re expected to change to write in a more article driven prose. So, that’s the top skill that all employers ask for.
Then after that, they require less tangible things. So, things like being good in a team because there’s lots of teamwork in PR; particularly at a very junior level; be able to listen to other people’s idea and being able to muck in, not being precious. So, being able to stuff the envelopes and sending them out to an event as well as doing the more senior strategic things; an interest in the media. So, really, really broadly; not just getting your news from the free newspapers at the Metro and the Evening Standard where it seems most graduates seem to be reading. But also looking at, you know, once or twice a week, looking at broadsheets; once or twice a week reading a tabloid, getting your news from a variety of sources. So, not just watching free news on the BBC but maybe also look at Aljazeera and Sky, and maybe some of the American channels and getting your news from a broad range of places.
And then the skills that increasingly are being asked for by employers in PR are digital skills. So, you would expect somebody who is leaving university now to be quite a digital native. So, to be used to using social media like Twitter and LinkedIn and Instagram on a daily basis but they want you to think beyond how do you use those things to how should brands use those things. So, you really need to be thinking about looking at brands, and how they use social media and how you might be able to use that for future clients.
James: You make some interesting points there. You mentioned the, not just reading the free papers, although in my experience having read them in the morning on the Tube is, they’re just completely filled with PR stories–
Sarah: Yeah.
James: –masquerading as stories. It’s interesting reading through them and seeing which ones are made up survey by, you know, certain companies and all those tricks.
Sarah: Yeah, that’s definitely true and those students who study PR increasingly find themselves realizing that not all the news is investigative journalism, for example, and there might be a survey by an insurance company on, you know, how women reverse their cars for example, and that gets good news coverage.
So, I don’t see anything wrong with reading the free papers but just to make sure that you’re reading a broader range of coverage so that you understand what’s going on in the world is an important thing to do.
James: Absolutely, and you touched upon the use of social media which is something we’ll talk about later in the interview.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: But before we do, thinking around PR as an industry to get into, is it something that you’d recommend people need to do a degree in? Or, is it where you can just more pick up the experience on the job through internships or work experience before applying?
Sarah: In the UK very, very few employers ask for PR degrees as a prerequisite for entry level jobs. In the US it’s changed slightly. So there there is more emphasis on you having an academic qualification in the discipline. But here still, employers are more interested in your skills. They’re more interested in, do you have an interest in the media? Do you have strong writing skills and do you have an interest in their particular sector? So, if you’re going to go into tech PR, do you like technology? If you’re going to healthcare PR, you might have done a science degree for example and want to do something slightly different. So, at the moment PR degrees here are not a gateway into the industry. That said, some PR degrees have a work placement and usually they can be anything between three months and 12 months long and if you want to get a foot in the door of the industry, they’re worth doing the degrees just for those work placements because your experience will always trump your education when it comes to getting a job in PR. So, if you can get yourself in the door somewhere and get three months experience, you’re going to be better off than someone who’s just got a degree in any other subject.
James: Yep, and it’s a point that you, you know, reinforced in the book, the importance of that experience.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: So, touching upon that, how would you recommend then, people can go about getting that experience whether through an internship or work experience placement; because I know there’s such a competitive market to get them.
Sarah: Yeah, really competitive. I mean, the first place to start, really is the PRCA website which is the Public Relations Consultant Association and on there they’ve had a really active campaign against unpaid internships. And so they list all the members of their organization who pay their interns minimum wage or more. So that’s definitely a good place to start. There’s quite a lot of companies listed on there.
They also run an apprenticeship scheme. So if you have not gone to university and you just finished you’re A-levels or your GCSE’s and are looking to go into the industry, there’s a route into the industry for you that way. So, it’s definitely worth looking at those places first.
James: Okay. And what would — I know it’s a general question but — what would a typical application process look like for getting into a PR company? I guess they don’t have this huge Milkground type grad schemes where they’re going to be taking in large numbers each year. What would the different steps look like?
Sarah: Some agencies do have those large grad schemes. So the bigger agencies in the country do and they will do, maybe once or twice a year, they’ll do a round of applications and they can consist of doing either a CV and cover letter application as usual; or, they’ll have an online application system where you fill it in online and then it goes through to the assistant. And then from that they will do either interviews or they’ll do an assessment day and typically you can have— I mean, I had a graduate who’d gone through our course. She did an assessment day. There were 12 grads and only 1 job.
James: Wow.
Sarah: So, it can be really competitive. Or you can go and do a graduate, an assessment day where there were 20 people there and they’ve got four jobs on offer. So, you know, it depends on the companies. The bigger companies do do those kinds of grad schemes. Even smaller ones now tend to offer either placements — if you’re doing a PR degree — or a grad scheme at entry level. But the best way into the industry, I think, is to write speculative applications because when you’re sending your application into a grad scheme you’re competing against a good 100 other applications; whereas if you’re sending your CV in speculatively to the right person, yours might be the only CV they see that day. So you have a much better chance of actually being noticed. That would always be my preference in terms of finding yourself a job, and that means doing your research, finding out what that company does, who is the person in particular that you should be writing to, not just writing to the info@ or Admin@ address on the website, and tailoring your letters specifically for that company.
James: I agree. And following on from there, what would a good CV focused, a PR focused CV look like?
Sarah: On your PR CV, really, the things you want to highlight most are any PR experience that you have or any relevant experience. So, relevant experience in PR will include any event stuff you might have done. Have you worked at events? Have you been a waiter, for example — that kind of thing — or any journalism experience you have. Have you written anything? Do you have anything been published? I mean, it doesn’t have to have been paid published work, either. So, it might be that you just write a really brilliant blog. You really want to highlight those things in your CV because those are the skills that the employers are looking for; and then apart from that, obviously, your academic achievements; making sure that you list your degree grades or A-level grades. If you don’t list them the employer will assume that you’ve got really poor ones. So you need to make sure that you list them.
James: Yep.
Sarah: And highlighting anything in your hobby section that would be relevant for the job. So, you know, the fact that you read a range of different newspapers; who your favourite columnist is, for example; or any work experience that you may have done on the local newspaper; any poetry that you have published; anything like that that is relevant to the job is really important.
James: How would you structure a covering letter to make sure that it stands out and it’s actually going to get read?
Sarah: I will always say, don’t write anything more than a page. A page is absolutely plenty. We looked at some employers and we timed some recruiters, actually, that are reading CVs and how long they looked at each CV and on average they were looking at CVs for 30 to 45 seconds and then not looking at cover letters for much longer than that. So, you really need to put all the important information first. So, what job you’re applying for and the reference number, if there is one; if you’re applying for a specific position or that you’re writing on a speculative basis. Then you need to write why they should hire you. So, far too often graduates concentrate in their cover letters on why they, what will be good for them for working at the company. Say, if you hire me I’ll get experience in this and it will be a chance for me to grow my experience and it will be a chance for me to build on what I’ve done before. The companies are not interested on what they can do for you. They’re interested in what you can do for them. So, you need to be saying to them, if you hired me, I will be the eyes and ears of the social media because I’m on it every day and I will be a good asset to the team because I understand what’s going on in the world because I have good current affairs knowledge. So highlight what you bring to their company.
James: You mentioned 30 to 40 seconds per CV. I’m surprised it’s that high, actually. I thought they would have, you know, do just a quick cursory look, five seconds and then either a yes or no, and next, moving on to the next one.
Sarah: Yeah, no. I mean, it’s really ruthless. I mean, graduates often complain to me that they don’t hear back from employers when they are applying for jobs. That’s because employers are getting, you know, hundreds of applications for every graduate job and it’s just not practical to do that kind of admin. So to make yourself stand out from the crowd, you’ve got to get all the important information in front of the employer as quickly as possible.
James: So, having worked in PR recruitment you must have come across hundreds of candidates at different stages.
Sarah: Yep.
James: What are the common mistakes that people tend to make to let themselves down as they go through the recruitment process?
Sarah: Poorly written CVs and cover letters are the number one thing. So, if you’ve got grammatical errors, punctuations errors, typos in your CVs, you are going to go straight in the bin because if you can’t do those things right, there’s no way you’re going to be able to write a press release correctly. I once had a CV where in his hobbies the candidate had listed “murder” as his hobby and it turned out — on further investigation — that he meant murder mystery parties but had left the last couple of words off. It’s important that you proofread; definitely.
James: Oh, dear, that’s a bit of a howler. I completely agree. So when I’ve been sifting through applications for graduates schemes and, you know, if I come across the slightest grammatical error or spelling mistake it would, for me, it would be a no because if you can’t be bothered to make sure that the application form for a job is correct, it doesn’t say a lot about, your general attention to detail and what you’d be like if you did get the job.
Sarah: Exactly. And the other common mistake is getting the name of the person wrong that you’re writing to, and this happens when graduates cut and paste. So, they’ll just cut and paste a letter they’ve sent to another company and then they get the name of the company wrong or the name of the person they’re writing to wrong, and that’s an immediate in the bin.
James: Yeah, that’s quite an embarrassing one, that one; or if they get the names the wrong way around, depending on the name, first name and surname. That’s another, another no-no.
So you mentioned earlier about social media. How on top of social media do you expect good candidates to be in terms of having a blog presence or having an active Twitter account, etcetera?
Sarah: I would fully expect all graduates now who are applying for PR jobs to be really active on Twitter. If nothing else, it’s an amazing network tip tool because so many journalists and PR are onto it. So, you should definitely be on there.
In terms of blogs, for the Taylor Bennett Foundation, when we take our grads, if they haven’t already got a blog we make them set one up because basically a blog becomes your online platform. It becomes your online portfolio for your writing. So, if you can show employers that you can write well through doing something online, you’re a step ahead of most other grads. Also, it can show your interest in the industry. So you can write something about either the specific industry; so you might want to write about fashion or food or something, or you might want to write about a particular part of PR. So you might want to write about internal communications or CSR, or combine those things and talk about the team of PR for fashion brands, for example, that make it really, really neat. So, I always encourage grads to set up a blog. They’re free to do. You only have to publish once or twice a week and you can get a pretty quick following by sharing on social media.
James: And with the blogs, would you recommend that they kept it completely professional? So focus just on the aspect of PR that they were going to, or is it okay to have pictures of fluffy cats and, you know, cakes that they’ve made, etcetera?
Sarah: I think— You can do the personal thing too but there’s a fine line. So, if you look at my blog, it’s mostly professional. Occasionally I’ll put something personal up but everything else on there is. My blog is aimed at helping PR people into the industry; again, helping them get jobs. So there’s lots of kind of career advice pieces on there and I try to keep it like that. I tend to keep my personal stuff on my Facebook account where I don’t have very many work acquaintances at all. So, if they’re on their and they’re from work they must feel honoured because most of the things on my Facebook account are pictures of my baby and the dog and they’re not work related. So, I think you have to choose your platform.
Twitter is an interesting one because there you— Yes, you need to be professional but also you need some kind of personality, otherwise you become very boring to follow. You don’t want to just be just broadcasting all the time. So there needs to be a level of engagement and it’s a really easy way for graduates to contact very senior people and have engagement with them that they may not be able to reach any other way.
James: So, imagine I’m a current student thinking about going into PR. How would you recommend that I begin that engagement with senior thought leaders in the industry or people who might be able to help me with my career?
Sarah: So, one of the things they could do is offer to write guest posts for blogs. So find people who write senior blogs, senior people who are writing blogs online around the industry and then say to them, you know, can I pitch an idea to you for me to write a piece for your blog, and then you’re getting all the traffic from their website coming to your website. So it’s a brilliant way of getting your blog in front of lots of people in the industry. And also, you might want to think about engaging with them when they’re talking about a particular topic. So, say, oh, I had that experience and this is what happened to me; just getting your name known within their circle.
James: You talk in your book about creative applications.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: How important is it to be creative in how you apply for positions? Are there any top tips that you’d recommend in terms of how to go about it or things that have worked in the past?
Sarah: So creative applications are anything other than sending a CV and cover letter which is the standard way to apply for PR jobs. My advice always has been to judge your audience carefully because if you are sending an application to a public sector department, for example, it’s unlikely that a creative application is going to have much impact; in fact, it’s probably seen as inappropriate. So, you just want to be careful about who you send them to. That said, if you’re applying to a kind of funky digital agency or a consumer brand agency, quite often they’ll want you to do something that makes you stand out. So a couple of the PR agencies that do grad schemes, for example, specifically ask that you don’t send CVs and cover letters and you send something creative.
James: Oh, do they?
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. So they could ask for—- So, for those kinds of applications I’ve seen things like one candidate sent her CV in on cupcakes. There was one candidate who sent a Singagram; somebody else who put their CV up on a billboard. There was somebody who wrote, did a London Tube map and each line on the Tube, that was like, one was education, one was experience, one was hobbies and then they each stop had a different thing on it. So, you can have— You know, there are really good ways of impressing employers with a creative application if you think about it carefully but you have to think about what’s appropriate for that employer. Increasingly – I was speaking to an MD of an agency last week who’s about to start recruiting for PR interns, and he asked for no CVs but they asked for a one minute YouTube video and that’s increasingly common because they want to see, you know, are you articulate? Can you speak well? Can you get your point across in a minute? Can you be persuasive? So that’s why people are increasingly moving away from CVs into how can we get to see people quickly and then for them to make an impact in front of us.
James: Interesting. I can see why it would be the application on cupcakes probably went down quite well with the team.
Sarah: Yeah, or straight to their stomachs, it’s the way forward, I think.
James: As you mentioned, the key is just to make sure that you’re tailoring it to the specific audience.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: And also these things, you know, you’ve got to take time. You’ve got to think about them clearly and put a lot of effort in to make sure that they land and are successful.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: So, shifting gears a little bit, thinking ahead to you’ve applied for the job, you’ve been successful and you’ve got the job. How can you make sure that you land with impact in the first six months?
Sarah: That’s a good question. So, my advice always in the first six months is to learn as much as possible. That’s your opportunity to ask questions because in the first three to six months of a job, an employer expects you to ask about everything and for you to be inquisitive and curious. Once you get to six months in, if you’re still asking those questions they’re going to be wondering why you weren’t asking them four months ago. So, you need to ask as many questions as you can, as quickly as possible.
Also, take advantage of the people around you to learn. So, if there are people there who’ve got a long history of working in social media – or there’s not that many people who have a long history in it these days – but a history of working in social media or have worked on a particular newspaper or they’ve just got some interesting experience that you want to learn about, there is nothing wrong with asking if you can go for coffee and pick their brains about something. There’s nothing worse than a grad who sits in the corner and says nothing.
James: Yep.
Sarah: So, you really need to make sure that you are giving your input into the company and not just being the person that does the photocopying. Make the company aware that you’re adding some value.
James: I completely agree. You mentioned in the book as well that you need to, you know, not be too precious in the beginning and expect to be going straight into making important pitches or, you know, be happy to, as you mentioned, make the tea and you know, do the filing or whatever; just to make yourself useful.
Sarah: I think, sometimes it a bit of a shock to the system for graduates because they’ve spent three years at universities. Some of those who have been on PR degrees, they would have learnt a lot of theory in PR and then they go and get their first PR job and they are upset that they’re not expected to help run the crises for BP, or something. I think you just have to consider that the people that are ahead of you in that business have been there for a long time and have had to pay their dues and they’ll expect you to do the same. So, that does mean that you’ll be doing the more junior jobs. So, doing the media clippings, doing the photocopying, you know; making your share of tea and coffee. I wouldn’t expect you to make all of it but you know, to offer to make coffee when other people are in your team with you; doing the event mail-outs; doing all the really junior things because it’s only through doing those things really well that you’ll be given more responsibility.
James: Completely agree. Everybody loves it as well if you can make a good cup of tea.
Sarah: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
James: Yorkshire Tea Gold is the way forward, top tip there for the listeners.
Sarah: I think you might be slightly biased on the Yorkshire front.
James: Quite possibly.
So, you mentioned at the beginning of the episode about your day job being with the Taylor Bennett Foundation.
Sarah: Yeah.
James: Can you tell the listeners a little bit more about what their work is and how they might be able to apply in the future?
Sarah: Yep. So, the foundation was set up in 2008 by the communications headhunter, Taylor Bennett, and Taylor Bennett focus on placing very senior people into the communications industry in in-house roles. So, the head of communications for Sky or Coca-Cola, Santander or something like that, those kinds of positions. And increasingly they were asked that their shortlist of candidates reflected a more diverse population. So looking at kind of black and ethnic practitioners and sadly there were very few black and ethnic practitioners in PR in senior positions. So, when Heather McGregor, who is the MD of Taylor Bennett and the founders foundation started to think about how could she address this problem from a business angle, actually it made sense to do something philanthropic and to attack it at the more graduate level so that in ten years time this isn’t such an issue. Actually, when we first started thinking about the foundation, no one was talking, really, about diversity in PR. Very few people thought it was an issue and now it’s a really, really hot topic and all the industry bodies are onboard; most of the large PR agencies are onboard. So, we have support from a wide, wide range of companies within the sector.
And what we do is we take six graduates for 10 weeks. Each course is sponsored by different PR agencies. So, in the last year those agencies have been The Red Consultancy, Brunswick, Finsbury, and MHP Communications and each course has a slightly different focus. So for MHP, for example, it’s a slightly more generalist focus because they have departments who handle both healthcare, tech PR, financial PR and senior PR brand, plus the whole gambit. For example Finsbury and Brunswick, they do kind of financial and corporate PR. So each course has a slightly different focus and in those 10 weeks they spend some time at the agencies learning from the people there. They are given weekly tasks to do. So, we send them lots and lots of writing tasks because as you know, writing is such an important part of PR. So we do lots of that. And then they go off on lots of different visits to lots of different PR, and in-house and PR agencies. So in the last year that’s included Ten Downing Street; Buckingham Palace, Channel 4, Morgan Stanley, ITN, and you know, lots of different places but really interesting places for them to learn from.
So it’s a brilliant, brilliant course. At the end of the 10 weeks we will help them go off and get jobs. So it gives them employable training, they get CV writing and cover letter writing, interview skills. We do some work around professionalism. So, making sure you know how to answer an email correctly; how to make a telephone call. What you might think are very basic skills but actually, universities are not that great at teaching those things. So we kind of finish them off to be more work ready.
And then at the end of the 10 weeks we would hope they would go and get jobs. So, about 70 percent of our students then go off and get jobs in PR. Actually, in the last year it’s been more like 90 percent. We have a really good hit rate.
James: Wow.
Sarah: Yeah. In terms of application, the next course is going to run in April next year. That will be sponsored by MHP and we’re going to have the application form on our website very shortly, in the next couple of weeks. So, if you just put Taylor Bennett Foundation into Google it will come up and the application process is a very long application form where we are testing your writing skills and your commitment to the course and then we hold an assessment day. So, we have 20 candidates come to assessment day and six of those will be offered places and they’re offered them on the Friday, they start the following Monday. So it really is a quick turnaround.
James: Wow; that sounds like an amazing opportunity.
Sarah: Yep. It’s amazing. Everyone whose be through it have said – and there’s been quite a lot of people that have gone through it – have said, I learned more in 10 weeks with you than I did in three years in university. Which either said we’re really brilliant or their universities weren’t great doesn’t it?
James: I’m guessing the advice to listeners is, get the application in early and make sure it’s a good application.
Sarah: Yeah. Absolutely.
Unlike most companies where I would say to you, you know, don’t wait until the deadline because people will shut the applications early if they get too many applications, we don’t do that. So, you know, you can wait until the deadline. I would say 90 percent of the applications we receive come in on deadline day but if you’re a minute past the deadline, it goes in the bin because we don’t put up with anyone who is late. So, if you’re going to get your application in and you think you might have problems with your computer, we don’t take any excuses. So, if you can’t put your application in on time, you’re not considered for the course. That’s my rule.
James: Wise advice and yeah, as you said if 90 percent are coming in in the final week, say then it pays to make sure that yours is in early so that people can spend more time looking at yours as opposed to—
Sarah: Exactly.
James: — a quick flick later on.
Sarah: I tend to sit with them all around me on my living room floor, hundreds and hundreds of applications and I sit and read through them on the floor and then put some into yes/no piles, yes and no piles and the maybes. So, yeah, I’m quite ruthless. I am quite harsh. My colleagues will say I’m quite harsh because I do, you know, any wrong comma or apostrophe and they’re out, I’m afraid.
James: With that many applications, you can afford to be picky.
Sarah: Exactly.
James: Moving on now to the lightning round where we ask some quick questions before the end of the show. So, firstly, what book would you recommend for listeners to read?
Sarah: There’s a book called, Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals
James: Excellent. That’s one that I haven’t heard of myself. So I’ll add that to my list.
And what websites would you also recommend?
Sarah: There is a website written by PR students and academics called Behind the Spin. So, if you’re a student or a graduate and you’re just looking, about to embark on your career in PR, it’s a really good place to start. It’s hosted by a guy called Richard Bailey who works at one of the universities up north, in Leeds actually, and he has a variety of different students who write different pieces for it. And also, they’ll take submissions. So if you want to write about something in PR and you want to be published somewhere, you won’t be paid for it but your submission may get published on their blog. It’s definitely worth having a look at that.
James: Super. And the links to all the websites and books that we’ve mentioned will be in the Show Notes on the website.
And finally, moving on to today, what one tip could you share with listeners that they could implement today?
Sarah: If there’s one thing I would recommend for you to do, it would be to get on Twitter and to be active on it. So, to get on there, make sure you’ve got a user name that’s suitable for work and not hotstuff@, but maybe—
James: I’ve already got that one.
Sarah: Something a bit more professional and to follow lots of people on Twitter. So, if you find me you’ll find I’ve got lists of journalists and lists of PR people and you can just follow this whole list, if you want to. Or find some senior PR people and find who they’re following and find out who is interesting in the industry that way. It’s the number one way of you finding the right kind of people to be applying to. So, networking is really, really important and obviously that is not easy, particularly if you’re not based in London to do it physically but you can do it virtually online very easily by getting yourself on Twitter.
James: Brilliant. Thank you, Sarah. It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today.
Before we close, how can people connect with you on Twitter and LinkedIn and your blog, etcetera?
Sarah: My blog is stimsonsarah.com; so that’s easy to find. My Twitter handle is Gooorooo which is G-triple o- r- triple o, which is a play on the word Guru which is kind of a dirty work in PR, really. I don’t like saying I’m a Guru, and you can find me there. And then if you can just stick my name into LinkedIn I come up. If you put my name into Google, I think I’m the first 10 or 20 results on Google. So I’m fairly easy to find.
James: Excellent. Thank you, again, for your time, again.
Sarah: No worries.
James: Speak to you soon.
Sarah: Take care. Bye, bye.
James: Many thanks again to Sarah for her insights into how to get a job in PR. She made so many good points it will be difficult to just settle on 3 things to takeaway, but the most powerful for me was when she said, ‘Your experience will always trump your education when it comes to getting a job in PR’. Your experience will always trump your education, I know that might not be what you want to hear after 3 years at university, but it is vital that you do get that experience. Be proactive, get out there, volunteer, write for the local paper, start a blog, get an internship. Sarah’s blog on her website last week had a post detailing 150 PR internships, work experience placements or entry level roles so they are out there. It’s just a questions of getting on the front foot and going to get them. Speaking of experience, if you’re eligible for it, make sure you apply to the Taylor Bennett Foundation, it’s an amazing scheme and applications are open now for Spring 2015, just down leave the application to the last day with the other 90%.
The second key point for me was on being proactive and making speculative applications. In industries such as PR these can work really really well, especially if you combine it with careful research and interaction with the recipient via social media. Check out episode 5 with Mildred Talabi for more tips on using social media to interact and build relationships.
Finally, I loved her point about being explicit in the covering letter about what you can do for the company, not just what they can do for you. In my experience this is very rarely done, so do it and stand out above the crowd.
Right that’s episode 7 done and dusted. You can find a full transcript of everything that we’ve discussed and all links at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/pr. Please get in touch with us on Twitter @gradjobpodcast, and also if you’ve enjoyed the show please leave a review on Itunes, just as LJK100 did, and left us 5 stars saying ‘My new years resolution is sort my career out and get a job I’m actually interested in! A friend recommended I listen to this podcast for some help and inspiration and it’s been really useful already. Definitely worth a listen, looking forward to the next one’. Thanks LJK! Join us next week when we speak to Jack Catherall and cover the topic of video CV’s. I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but more importantly I hope you use it and apply it. See you next week.