- Adam visited his former university to share his experiences working in journalism and PR.
It was a pleasure to be able to give a talk at the University of Wolverhampton – a place that holds great memories for me.
I was given the honour of sharing with the Creative & Professional Writing class my experience going from the university onto a career in journalism and now starting out at Connect PR.
From the positive tweets and kind words said after the talk I got the impression it went well and I always love sharing the stories that range from going on drugs busts with the police, interviewing the Prime Minister to working on the PR of some of the UK’s biggest companies.
It doesn’t seem that long ago I was sat at the back of Candi Miller and Jackie Pieterick’s lectures with no clue where my degree would take me.
Fortunately that didn’t last long. My talk was inspired by a Q&A I saw Kevin Spacey give last year where he said it was important to ‘send the elevator down’ he was effectively saying it was essential to give the advice to those who are just starting their career as a matter of duty – a touch of class I thought.
The main crux of the class was to get the students to start thinking like a professional.
We looked at ways to maximise their career by following people in the PR/journalism world on social media to see how they conduct themselves. Also to create contacts within those industries and show initiative by providing them with content and information to get ahead of any competitors.
Nothing too complex.
I’m a believer that going above and beyond will reap its rewards and doors will open for you.
A perfect example is Jodie Perkins who joined us on work experience at Connect PR for two weeks.
Jodie is studying at Birmingham City University who
came in and instantly wowed us with her enthusiasm and talent. She has now been taken on working one day a week, which we fit around her studies.
She took her opportunities by going above and beyond with her work, even one of our clients was taken aback by the high standard of her work.
I wanted to get this across to the students that there’s no Toy Story magic claw that picks you up out of a box of people and puts you in the hands of your chosen career. You have to earn it.
I’m hopeful that message landed and if word comes through that at least one person in that class managed to get an article published or work experience in their desired profession then I’ll be one happy guy.