Experience Experience Experience

For the past 2 months I have been looking for work experience which I needed to complete for four weeks as part of my masters in public relations. I applied to which has felt like thousands of companies and had no luck till couple of weeks ago.

Majority of the companies didn’t even bother to reply to my emails which I found very rude especially as a key factor in PR is communication.

Out of the companies that did reply a lot of them declined due to the fact they didn’t have the office space to accommodate me for four weeks. This is because PR is a very small industry and most companies have a very small number of people working for them.

After many stressful weeks of emailing and replying to companies and when I finally had enough and was ready to give up I got an interview. I though I was dreaming when I read the emails but after a couple of seconds I realised it was reality and I was ecstatic.

I had an interview at a well know Asian television channel called BritAsiaTV.  I was very scared as it is an established business with a brilliant reputation. I met the director Mr Jaz Bal and we discussed the work experience. After a while he asks me “if I have any experience?” and I replied “no I do not.” His answer shocked me a little as he replied that “Even BritAsia TV’s interns have some experience before the carry out the work placement.” I didn’t really know what to say to him because the point of me being there was to get work experience and not an actual job. I don’t understand how can I and many other students get experience when nobody will offer us a work placement without experience in the first place. It’s a viscous circle and if anyone has the answer please let me know!

I was angry when I left as nobody was giving me a break and letting me work for them so I could gain valuable experience which would benefit me in the future.

Then my luck changed and I was contacted by a local charity organisation called Godiva Lion Club. My parents are part of this charity organisation and told them how I was looking for a voluntary work placement and they contacted me and told me to start on the 4^th January. As they say every cloud has a silver lining and I was unbelievably happy.

I carried on looking for another placement in the entertainment industry and managed to acquire an interview was at a company called Nitoonz Communication media agency in Leicester which was ideal as it was local. The interview went great, I met the manager of the company and we discussed what I was looking for in this work experience and what I had to offer. He offered me the work experience and told me to start on the 12^th January after I finished a week at the charity organisation. I was glad to get this work experience as it is in the Asian entertainment industry and this is something I would like to go into in the future.

Fingers crossed, after the drama of actually securing a placement the work experience itself it useful and something I will enjoy.