My Two Weeks In PR

On Monday 1st of July, I started my two weeks work experience at esteemed PR company Fido, based in Manchester City Centre. It’s fair to say I was pretty nervous considering I’d only been studying PR at college for a few months, so didn’t know how the whole industry worked, but I was soon sucked into the midst of it all, and I absolutely loved it. The location was so lovely too, built in an old stable alongside a canal.

 

 On my first day I learned about Fido’s clients and what they do for them, and it was interesting to see how
certain things were tailored to each client, even if the stories were slightly similar. I’m glad I knew about this from my first day onward as it helped me to navigate the scary office server that saved every press release written, every photograph taken, basically everything that was of importance, even if I did save a few things in the wrong places a few times… oops.

During the first week I wrote press releases, conducted my first telephone interview, collected client information
from newspapers and wrote photo calls telling photographers when to be where and why for different stories. I’m so glad that I was thrown right into the actual business, instead of doing menial tasks like counting staples (I’ve actually had to do things like this in other companies!), as I feel like I’ve really got a feel for how a PR company works, just after two weeks!

The second week was just as interesting, with more press releases and photo calls to write. Not only did I write the press releases, I actually got to attend the photo call relating to one of them which was brilliant as I got to see how it goes from the photographer getting the pictures, to me getting the quotes and writing the piece, to it being sent off for approval and publishing. I’ve also learned how to use industry software which was interesting to see.

As I’ve always been interested in writing this experience has been fantastic for me. It’s helped me to understand that sometimes my sentences are a bit long (sorry to everyone reading this as I’m still probably doing this now) and that certain phrases can be changed to sound better than I initially thought.

The people I’ve been working with are absolutely lovely, and not only have I gained some invaluable experience, I had a good laugh along the way, showing that PR doesn’t always  have to be a huge scary industry. Thank you Fido, for such a great two weeks experience!