Happy Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year!
Well it's been a stressful first term but it's been worth it as mentioned in my previous post. Having a bit of time off has allowed me to reflect on things a bit since starting my second year of university. It's reminded me that nothing is more important than family but if I really want this degree and career, I'm going to have to work extremely hard for it.
2012 has been a turning point for me- it's made me realise my potential at this course and career choice, I've also learnt a lot about myself. I turned 20 on Christmas eve this year and that's also been a bit of a shock to my system and my real Gen Y side of me is coming out! Life isn't forever so make of it what you will and don't let anyone or anything stand in your way!
Oh... and my new years resolutions for 2013:
* Yes- I'm jumping on the "losing weight band wagon"- No big surprise there!
* Settle for nothing less than perfect in my coursework and exams, absolutely pull out all the stops these last 18 months of my course
* And finally, grab opportunities with both hands and make a real good go of things! (This applies to my course and life in general). But of course live by the motto if it doesn't work out it wasn't meant to be because at the end of the day- we're human. And I think a lot of people forget that about themselves and others...
So watch this space for a jam packed year full of fun, exciting experiences and opportunities and updates!!
Oh and being such a good marketing student that I am- it meant that I won the trivia game after Christmas dinner (for once and much to my Dad's dismay!). Have fun everyone!!
Tuesday 25 December 2012
Wednesday 19 December 2012
The Good, the Bad and the Delightful!
Well been a little longer between posts on here than I had hoped but the past two weeks have been so stressful... all four assignments due at the same time, makes me wonder how I would cope with multiple client accounts when I get a job. But the important thing now is that they're all done and dusted and I'm just awaiting some results and should get cracking with the next four assignments!
The bad news is that I got my first ever 2:2, which to tell you the truth I'm gutted about! However, it's all experience and this is just motivation for the group to make sure that the next assignment is better!
The good news is that I got another assignment back (my individual PR product launch piece) and I got a 2:1 for it (yay), which put the smile back on my face. I've got plenty of detailed feedback which hopefully will help me boost my grade next time to a first! I want to put up some parts of my work on here as this blog is designed to be my portfolio also but as I understand it currently I can't yet as at the end of the year my work has to be externally moderated and posting it online before then isn't the best idea.
Plus (yes more good news) for another module's assignment our task was to come up with a solution for the 2012/2013 Edcom competition.
http://www.adventure-competition.eu/pages.asp?pageName=brief
We had to create agency teams and come up with a solution to tackle young adult binge drinking on a European scale. We had to critically analyse the brief set to us and come up with your own campaign able idea and present it to a panel of university judges. The best teams (if there are any) would be put forward to compete in the actual Edcom competition on behalf of the university. If you haven't guessed where this is going by now... yes our team has been put forward!! Plus we all got personally congratulated by the judges on our presenting skills and the amount of time and effort we put into our idea.
Unfortunately again I can't disclose any actual details until after the competition is over but watch this space where throughout the year I will reveal all!
For now though- the delightful news- it's 5 days until my birthday and 6 days until Christmas and spending some quality time with my family and friends is definitely in order! Have a great holiday!
The bad news is that I got my first ever 2:2, which to tell you the truth I'm gutted about! However, it's all experience and this is just motivation for the group to make sure that the next assignment is better!
The good news is that I got another assignment back (my individual PR product launch piece) and I got a 2:1 for it (yay), which put the smile back on my face. I've got plenty of detailed feedback which hopefully will help me boost my grade next time to a first! I want to put up some parts of my work on here as this blog is designed to be my portfolio also but as I understand it currently I can't yet as at the end of the year my work has to be externally moderated and posting it online before then isn't the best idea.
Plus (yes more good news) for another module's assignment our task was to come up with a solution for the 2012/2013 Edcom competition.
http://www.adventure-competition.eu/pages.asp?pageName=brief
We had to create agency teams and come up with a solution to tackle young adult binge drinking on a European scale. We had to critically analyse the brief set to us and come up with your own campaign able idea and present it to a panel of university judges. The best teams (if there are any) would be put forward to compete in the actual Edcom competition on behalf of the university. If you haven't guessed where this is going by now... yes our team has been put forward!! Plus we all got personally congratulated by the judges on our presenting skills and the amount of time and effort we put into our idea.
Unfortunately again I can't disclose any actual details until after the competition is over but watch this space where throughout the year I will reveal all!
For now though- the delightful news- it's 5 days until my birthday and 6 days until Christmas and spending some quality time with my family and friends is definitely in order! Have a great holiday!
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Making it worthwhile
I currently commute to university as I only live about 20 miles away. In rush hour, this takes me an hour and 15 minutes tops. Whilst I'm driving it gives me a lot of time to think about project ideas, presentations, etc. It's actually a very productive time for me because although I'm not able to physically write things down my thought process goes into overdrive and more often than not my ideas for all my first year projects came from this method.
So today, I was driving down my road and realised I needed petrol (I promise there is reasoning behind me telling you this!). The petrol station was packed with angry looking drivers who quite obviously don't have a care for anyone else but themselves by they way they were treating each other.
After filling up my car and standing in the queue to pay, I observed everyone in the forecourt. They're all angry, frustrated, impatient, etc. Not a single person looking positive which is depressing and it got me thinking during my journey into university. This could be a normality for the rest of my life? Commuting into work, encountering these people day in and day out, it's quite draining.
That's when I realised that to go to all this effort and to make having nightmare commutes worthwhile (like people who commute to London on trains also- that must be even worse!!) you must really enjoy your job. My parents keep telling no one enjoys their job, not really. But I really intend to land myself with something that I can wake up and be enthusiastic about every single morning, regardless of any other factor, like commuting.
It's kind of given me fresh motivation to get through this university course so that I can start earning money and thus start living my life and being able to start fulfilling a lot of things I have planned. I guess the great thing about PR is that you can tailor your job to suit your needs and wants. There are so many different types of agencies and in-house that cover such a broad scope you can have a job that is as specific or as varied as you like and this is what I look forward to- really finding my niche through this course and having things finally fitting into place.
So today, I was driving down my road and realised I needed petrol (I promise there is reasoning behind me telling you this!). The petrol station was packed with angry looking drivers who quite obviously don't have a care for anyone else but themselves by they way they were treating each other.
After filling up my car and standing in the queue to pay, I observed everyone in the forecourt. They're all angry, frustrated, impatient, etc. Not a single person looking positive which is depressing and it got me thinking during my journey into university. This could be a normality for the rest of my life? Commuting into work, encountering these people day in and day out, it's quite draining.
That's when I realised that to go to all this effort and to make having nightmare commutes worthwhile (like people who commute to London on trains also- that must be even worse!!) you must really enjoy your job. My parents keep telling no one enjoys their job, not really. But I really intend to land myself with something that I can wake up and be enthusiastic about every single morning, regardless of any other factor, like commuting.
It's kind of given me fresh motivation to get through this university course so that I can start earning money and thus start living my life and being able to start fulfilling a lot of things I have planned. I guess the great thing about PR is that you can tailor your job to suit your needs and wants. There are so many different types of agencies and in-house that cover such a broad scope you can have a job that is as specific or as varied as you like and this is what I look forward to- really finding my niche through this course and having things finally fitting into place.
Friday 30 November 2012
Breaking Conventions
Do you remember when you were in secondary school and started getting a serious load of homework; your parents and teachers always told you not to leave things to the last minute, otherwise they wouldn't be a true reflection of your ability?
Well as much as I agree with this statement now, having gone through GCSEs, A Levels and now currently a university course, the worst possible thing you can do is leave things to the night before. However, I'll admit, I left an assignment until a week and a half before it was due in, despite having at least four weeks to complete it... Yes, I know, this looks bad... but let me explain.
I knew I had a tight timeline to work with and I had read the brief and done my background research and reading and made notes, so it wasn't as if I hadn't made some kind of start on it. It was because other projects that appeared to have much more content to do had taken over and suddenly I was faced with this situation of needing to do it in a week and a half.
So I used this amazing online tool where you type in what type of assignment it is (report, presentation, essay) and then enter your deadline date and it helped me to put into perspective what needed doing and it gave me suggested mini deadlines. To cut a long story short, I set aside a few hours everyday and got the assignment done, checked through and what I can only describe as polished up nicely three days before it was due in. Which wasn't bad considering I needed to do some Christmas shopping that weekend too!
My point here is I've learnt something about myself through this experience. Although I would never willingly let myself be in that situation again... I loved the thriving feeling of that I had a deadline to work with, it was what some would call a lot of pressure... but I loved it. It made me think also, both part time jobs I've had, have been in thriving busy environments. Some people may not enjoy living life that is structured and deadline orientated, but I do! It gives me a satisfactory feeling that I've accomplished mini challenges that lead up to a big accomplishment and makes me feel happy that my day has been productive.
Well as much as I agree with this statement now, having gone through GCSEs, A Levels and now currently a university course, the worst possible thing you can do is leave things to the night before. However, I'll admit, I left an assignment until a week and a half before it was due in, despite having at least four weeks to complete it... Yes, I know, this looks bad... but let me explain.
I knew I had a tight timeline to work with and I had read the brief and done my background research and reading and made notes, so it wasn't as if I hadn't made some kind of start on it. It was because other projects that appeared to have much more content to do had taken over and suddenly I was faced with this situation of needing to do it in a week and a half.
So I used this amazing online tool where you type in what type of assignment it is (report, presentation, essay) and then enter your deadline date and it helped me to put into perspective what needed doing and it gave me suggested mini deadlines. To cut a long story short, I set aside a few hours everyday and got the assignment done, checked through and what I can only describe as polished up nicely three days before it was due in. Which wasn't bad considering I needed to do some Christmas shopping that weekend too!
My point here is I've learnt something about myself through this experience. Although I would never willingly let myself be in that situation again... I loved the thriving feeling of that I had a deadline to work with, it was what some would call a lot of pressure... but I loved it. It made me think also, both part time jobs I've had, have been in thriving busy environments. Some people may not enjoy living life that is structured and deadline orientated, but I do! It gives me a satisfactory feeling that I've accomplished mini challenges that lead up to a big accomplishment and makes me feel happy that my day has been productive.
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Latest Experience, a Guest Lecturer and a Hint of Nostalgia
Okay, so first post of the blog, logging my latest experience at university- note I said latest. I have had many experiences at university, a whole year of them in fact and as I write these posts I will try to refer back to past experiences in my first year to get you up to speed. I'd rather do that than bombard you with loads of information all at once- no one wants to read all, that let's be honest.
So today during my public relations practice and skillset lecture, we had a guest lecturer, Ken Deeks. For those that don't know him or of him, his background started off in journalism and he then made the transition into PR and now currently runs a communications company that helps companies to enhance their communication skills and improve overall appearance- something that I've noted a lot of our PR speakers have done in their careers.
He was interesting to say the least- I don't think I've met anyone so down to earth and yet so animated about his job. He obviously has a lot of experience and of course working as journalist certainly helps tick a lot of boxes when it comes to being on the flip side that is PR- he knows from experience exactly what journalists are looking for when he pitches a story to them. His lecture mostly consisted of this and handling the client and media relationships as this ties in with our modules we're currently studying- content creation and content management.
The most important thing I've taken from today? Put yourself in someone else's shoes...
- If you were a time constrained journalist what would you want to hear from a PR spokesperson trying to sell you a story, what would win it for you?
- If you were a client, what would your own expectations of your PR team be, whether that would be an external agency or in house?
- And arguably but in my opinion, most importantly, if you were a reader what would you want to hear? What would make you want to invest in that new product or make you think positively of that brand?
It was definitely food for thought and also made me nostalgic (yes being able to say that now makes me feel old!) of a time when I was 14 and wanted to either be a journalist or novelist. I loved English (still do) and everything about it; the way you can craft words for effect and I especially love the fact when writing a story, be it fictional or for a newspaper, you can put your own spin and signature on things, so people know that it's you who has written it. It's still one thing I would like to do when I'm older- write a fictional book. It would just be one of those things that would give me some personal satisfaction in my life... watch this space!
So today during my public relations practice and skillset lecture, we had a guest lecturer, Ken Deeks. For those that don't know him or of him, his background started off in journalism and he then made the transition into PR and now currently runs a communications company that helps companies to enhance their communication skills and improve overall appearance- something that I've noted a lot of our PR speakers have done in their careers.
He was interesting to say the least- I don't think I've met anyone so down to earth and yet so animated about his job. He obviously has a lot of experience and of course working as journalist certainly helps tick a lot of boxes when it comes to being on the flip side that is PR- he knows from experience exactly what journalists are looking for when he pitches a story to them. His lecture mostly consisted of this and handling the client and media relationships as this ties in with our modules we're currently studying- content creation and content management.
The most important thing I've taken from today? Put yourself in someone else's shoes...
- If you were a time constrained journalist what would you want to hear from a PR spokesperson trying to sell you a story, what would win it for you?
- If you were a client, what would your own expectations of your PR team be, whether that would be an external agency or in house?
- And arguably but in my opinion, most importantly, if you were a reader what would you want to hear? What would make you want to invest in that new product or make you think positively of that brand?
It was definitely food for thought and also made me nostalgic (yes being able to say that now makes me feel old!) of a time when I was 14 and wanted to either be a journalist or novelist. I loved English (still do) and everything about it; the way you can craft words for effect and I especially love the fact when writing a story, be it fictional or for a newspaper, you can put your own spin and signature on things, so people know that it's you who has written it. It's still one thing I would like to do when I'm older- write a fictional book. It would just be one of those things that would give me some personal satisfaction in my life... watch this space!
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