Social Web Thing » Graduates

Edelman Grad Scheme Closing Shortly

Ben — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 12:00:56 +0000

From personal experience I know this time of year is an incredibly busy part of the student calendar, so I thought I’d remind those who are interested in applying for the Edelman graduate scheme that you have until Monday 31 January 2011 to get your application in.

Although, I have not personally experienced being part of the Edelman graduate scheme, as an interested outsider and colleague, I’ve spoken to many of the grads – and without exception they find it a tough, educational and thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the world of PR. It’s a good scheme and grads are supported with mentors, as well as gaining experience across a range of departments.

If you’re still in two minds about applying – I would say go for it. Edelman is a great place to work. It’s a fast-paced and exciting environment where you will get to work with fantastic people on some of the worlds biggest brands. Admittedly, there can be long hours at times, but there are also some nice perks, such as drinks on a Thursday, massages and breakfast, as well as the occasional glass of bubbly.

Do let me know if you have any questions on life at Edelman. You can find out more information on the Edelman graduate scheme here, as well as a list of 2011 PR grad schemes here.

Landing a Job in the Digital World

Ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:51:52 +0000

I gave a presentation this week entitled Landing a Job in the Digital World at Leeds Metropolitan University. The deck focused on using an e-portfolio, blog and social media to record achievement, note experiences and network with industry professionals.

I was privileged to be asked by Iwi Ugiagbe-Green to speak at an institution where I spent 5 great years as a student and then employee. The audience was made up of current students and graduate trainees who either have an e-portfolio or are giving it some serious consideration.

Iwi is running a project called Pebble-pad PDA use Placement Pilot Scheme (PUPPS) which records the experiences of people using Pepplepad software. I’ve played around with Pebblepad before and it is a good piece of kit that enables you to make an e-portfolio quickly and easily. However, it does all this behind a closed (invitation only) door and lacks a vanity URL facility. So whilst, Peppblepad is a great tool for educators to record thoughts and reflect, it could be enhanced to improve its use as an employability tool.

Anyone who knows me well, will vouch that I’m fascinated by recording achievement and, generally, I feel universities should do more to encourage students to record their work and experiences – and help them to put this online. I’m adamant that this is the way forward and if done well, will significantly boost a graduate’s employability prospects. I was delighted to hear what Iwi was up to and she presented her e-portfolios which she has used for professional development.

As I mentioned in the presentation, graduates are forever being told ‘it’s a tough world out there’ and ‘you need to stand out from the crowd’, but are given very little specific guidance. So I included a fantastic example, by Laura Tosney who produced a video application for a job at 33 Digital – so good in fact, I’ve embedded it into this post. She knows how to stand out from the crowd – and she got the job.

It was also great to have a chat with Iwi and discuss where she sees e-portfolios being utilised at Leeds Met, as well as the other issues, such as personal privacy, client confidentiality and how much information do people really want to give away online.

I would argue that the horse has already bolted for the Y Generation and we all have extensive digital footprints. Instead, we should look to enhance not minimise our digital footprint with some Personal SEO techniques.

Below is a copy of the presentation – if you attended the session I would delighted to hear your feedback or any questions you may have. You can find out more of my thoughts and presentations on e-portfolios here.

Landing a Job in the Digital World

View more presentations from Ben Cotton

Digital Skills: Views from the PR industry

Ben — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:13:33 +0000

Recently, PR Week (Wednesday 13 January 2010) ran an article lamenting the level of digital skills within the PR industry. Using stats provided by recruitment agency Major Players, Matt Cartmell highlighted the gap between PR roles that require digital skills and the relatively small number of candidates who mention these attributes on their CV.

Whilst the article contained some interesting snippets of information, it left me with more questions than answers, namely:

1. Who should be teaching digital skills?
2. What digital skills do employers want?
3. How can people demonstrate digital skills?

I enlisted the help of industry colleagues Marshall Manson, Director of Digital Strategy at Edelman and Stephen Waddington, Managing Director at Speed Communications to share their thoughts on these questions.

Marshall said:
“1. In my experience, academics are good at teaching principles and lousy at teaching practicalities. So most of the training is going to have to be done by employers in a professional setting. Mostly though, PRs need to take the time to build experience. That’s what I’m always looking for nowadays.

2. Experience. Real depth. Understanding of how the platforms really work. And increasingly (especially at senior levels), real insight into how to build strategies and work with the platforms to undertake successful campaigns built on conversation. Also critical: Ability to listen to the conversation and discern insights.

3.Talk the talk. And back it with real examples.”

Stephen said:
1. The digital PR industry is too immature for formal teaching courses to have been developed. The rules have yet to be written. But there are plenty of good books and lots of materials online. And the tools are free are readily available for anyone to experiment.

2. If you’re new to PR you need to build your own social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And you need to develop content on a blog platform, Flickr and YouTube. Likewise if you’re in PR and want to stay in PR you equally need to learn how to use digital techniques to create and seed content.

3. It’s the old adage. Show me what you’ve done don’t tell me what you could do. Build out your own social networks and use a blog platform, Flickr or YouTube. I am constantly astonished at the number of PR and journalism students that aren’t sufficiently motivated to experiment with these new forms of media. I would always choose someone that had made the effort versus someone that had not.”

I’d like to put on record my thanks to both Marshall and Stephen for sparing the time to give their views on this issue. I’m sure any graduate looking to break into the PR industry in 2010 will find this a valuable post. On a personal note: I look forward to exploring this topic more closely in an article for Behind the Spin magazine.

2010 PR Grad Schemes

Ben — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:17:28 +0000

Jan 2011 – this post still receives a lot traffic, but if you’re looking for 2011 PR Grad Schemes, please click here.

I was thinking the other day what would have made my life easier in my final year at university. Looking back it was a hectic period – amongst all the deadlines, presentations, portfolios and exams we were looking for that dream graduate job. At times it was difficult balancing the two: trying to clear the immediate university workload, whilst attempting to plan for the future, namely searching and applying for jobs (all over the country) in the industry. It was an uncertain time.

So to make things a bit easier for PR students, I have put together a list of 2010 PR Graduate Schemes, when they open, close and links to apply. I’ll be updating it over the coming months. I hope you find it useful.

Note to companies: if you have a scheme please email me and I’ll add you to the list.

Band & Brown (via Facebook)
Closed

Blue Rubicon
Closed

Brando (via Facebook)
Closed

Burson-Marseller
Closed

Chime Comms
Closed

Consolidated PR
Closed

Diffusion PR
Closed

Edelman
Closed

Fishburn Hedges
Closed

Fleishman-Hillard
Closed

Four Comms
Closed

Hill & Knowlton
Closed

Hotwire
Closed

NHS – the scheme was recently announced in PR Week, details TBA.
Open: TBA
Closes: TBA

Porter Novelli – see blog post for more details
Closed

Shine Comms
Closed

Weber Shandwick
Closed