What’s gone wrong with planning in Wales?

Twice in the past fortnight senior UK business leaders have taken a swipe at how Wales handles planning issues. And both think that the result is a lack of investment that could be hurting the Welsh economy.

First, the chief executive of energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy, Ian Marchant, warned that investment in wind power in Wales will be lost ‘unless the gap between the rhetoric and reality of support it actually receives is narrowed.’ In other words, there needs to be realistic backing for wind farms beyond the confines of Cardiff Bay.

Then Redrow chairman Steve Morgan praised the UK government’s attempts to rejuvenate the housing market but said the conditions were not the same in Wales partially because of “onerous planning and regulatory burdens”.

So, very different businesses but both think Wales is stifling development – through a burdensome planning regime and a lack of government support.

There’s no doubt that getting planning approval for major projects in Wales can take a very, very long time compared with other parts of the UK. Everything we build is likely to be near someone and is not always popular. Getting planning approvals in Wales is often an adversarial slog that can take years.

Mr Marchant compared today’s situation on energy development in Wales with that of Scotland eight years ago. The Scottish Government has the final say on whether large infrastructure projects go ahead, whereas in Wales and England we have a different system.

Scots then saw green energy investment as an engine of growth, he said, and so the planning process was speeded up. Now, a wind farm in Scotland can take just 18 months from application to determination. In Wales “it is five years and counting.” Wales seems to be lagging behind – whatever your view on wind energy.

Mr Morgan bemoaned the fact that the UK Government’s NewBuy initiative isn’t available to potential homebuyers in Wales, so slowing a return to health of the housing sector. He added that another problem is “the increased build cost in the principality due to the more onerous planning and regulatory burdens.” He went on to say that if the proposed changes to the Welsh Building Regulations take effect the situation “will get substantially worse”.

Warwick Emanuel PR has managed communication programmes for many energy and construction projects. In many cases the planning process has moved at a snail’s pace. This delay and its associated cost, coupled with a lack of overt political support in the constituencies, can blunt investors’ enthusiasm. The uncertainty of having to plan for energy market conditions so far into the future is also a worry.

We have the client experience of serious investors who became so exasperated that they walked away – and took their project to the north east of England.

As Mr Marchant said, “Money is like water as it finds the easiest path, and the risk that Wales has is that money for renewable energy just says it is easier somewhere else.

“A marginal site in Scotland is a better bet than a good site in Wales… because I [from an investor’s perspective] will get that one done, whereas in Wales I just don’t know. I genuinely have concerns for Wales.”

Something has gone badly wrong if we are driving investors away. Perhaps it’s time to have a serious look at our planning systems and consider first and foremost the needs of the Welsh economy.

Wynford Emanuel

Warwick Emanuel PR

Sources: Wales Online and Business Insider

Words of Wisdom for PR people

Isn’t Twitter great for getting information quickly? And isn’t it terrible for loading your timeline with stuff that sometimes makes the heart sink?

As a Twitter fan I’ve noticed that it gets news out faster than mainstream media. Sometimes it’s accurate, too. And I love the quirky stuff, like this recent multi-reTweet.

‘AsdaEmployee: ‘What you want on the cake?’

Customer: ‘Best Wishes Suzanne’ and underneath that ‘We will miss you’.

Photo Courtesy of Claire Willis https://twitter.com/clairelou1971

Well, it amused me – and obviously a lot of others.

But there’s one thing of which I am now a bit weary: it’s those little quotes of pithy wisdom that lots of us see on a daily basis. I get so many of them that I remember none. They’ve merged in my brain into an amorphous mass of mini homilies.

You know the sort of thing: ‘The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance.’

Yes, it’s a perfectly sensible and sound bit of advice but there are thousands like it competing for attention. So far, none has motivated me to be more efficient, decisive and dynamic. Of course, that’s more to do with me than them.

So if we’re going to have quotes, let’s have more entertaining ones I say. That means celebrating the wit of geniuses like Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde. The bonus is that you can apply them to your own profession or trade.

For today let’s focus on public relations. We PR people love surveys and ‘research’. Well, they seem to do the job for clients.

In the words of Mark Twain: ‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.’ Well, we’d all agree, wouldn’t we? Without them, how would newspapers fill all the gaps?

And he also advised: ‘Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.’ Ah yes, so true. And as a last resort: ‘Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.’ Steady on Twainy, we can’t possibly agree to that last one.

It’s evident that Oscar Wilde was born before his time. Today, he surely wouldn’t write: ‘It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.’ Dear Oscar, these days we are just about drowning in it from a torrent of news releases. Count yourself lucky.

But he was wise chap in many ways, as I think when I hark back to my early PR days and his glorious quote. ‘I am not young enough to know everything.

Let’s consider news releases. It’s so annoying when our carefully crafted masterpieces of informative prose fail to make it into broadcast media, print – or even online. Sometimes you’ve just got to agree that Gandhi may have got it right. ‘I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.’

Still, forgive, forget and move on, eh?

Aristotle, writing before the IPR got its chartered status, got it spot on about our news releases: ‘Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.’

And what about that Albert Einstein, eh? Not only did he know the secret of nuclear fission, he was also clued up on what makes a damn good news release: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge…’

Up to a point Albert, but I agree that it must help a bit.

Winston Churchill also had some advice that may be heeded PR wordsmiths:

‘Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.’

And as for grammar: ‘From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.’

Sir Winston also urged people to be a bit realistic. Does this sound familiar?: ‘However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.’

But even if you aren’t in PR, his advice applies to whatever you do: ‘Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

And at this point I think my brief bit of whimsy has gone on long enough. After all: ‘By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old.’ Thank you, Benjamin Franklin.

Follow Wynford or WEPR on Twitter

Work Experience – AKA ‘A taste of the real world’

Finishing my second year at Aberystwyth University, it suddenly dawned on that within one year I will have graduated (hopefully) and be facing the ‘real world’.  Living in university has created a different world for me and the prospect of sitting down and getting a job seemed very scary.

Firstly, as an English Literature student, I didn’t fancy the idea of going into teaching.  A question people continually ask me when I tell them my degree.  So I thought about what I liked doing and what I was good at.  After a lot of searching the idea of PR really interested me, as I already organise and direct plays for my drama society in university, this seemed like a good idea for me to pursue.

I found Warwick Emanuel PR & Film on a Google search and was impressed with what they do.  The website was well organised, informative and interesting.  I especially like the blog, where other work experience placements had written about their time at WEPR.  The fact that they were all positive really encouraged me to apply.  I wrote an email and Elizabeth Warwick replied and offered me a placement. The following emails made me feel very welcome and well informed to what to expect.

So, the day came when I had to get up at 7am, as all students will know, the idea of a 7am alarm is horrible.  Personally I object to 9am lectures! I arrived early and waited till the office opened, I was quite nervous and I’m pretty sure I didn’t say much for the first few hours.

The staff were lovely to me and gave me tasks and lots of help throughout the day.  I was given the task of practising writing a press release.  The structure was completely different to what I am used to writing in my essays, which usually includes a lot of waffle to reach the 2,500 word count.  It took me a few goes until I got the hang of it. Victoria was a great help with it all.  She gave me helpful feedback on how to improve. The first day I also helped Hannah with an eco project that lead to me being put on the phone for an hour, for me this was great, I love a good chat.

Over the week my work has progressed to helping with research for different projects, phoning people for more information and adding to data.  One of my favourite tasks was ringing up an employee from SWALEC to get details on his fundraising event for a press release that I then later wrote up. As I am particularly interested in the organisation of events, Victoria gave me the task of creating a fictional event.  I looked at past examples that the company has organised and took in all the details that they have to entail.  I chose to plan an event around the company Willmott Dixon that WEPR already represent.  I found the whole exercise really useful and enjoyable

Throughout the week I have attended a client meeting in Swansea with Katie, a creative meeting in house for a future project and detailed discussions with members of the team about the jobs they do as well as office tasks.

For a work experience placement I feel that WEPR is a great place, they are so organised and have lots of things for work experience people to do and all of it is really beneficial.  None of this organising the stationary cupboard, the horror stories of work placement.

I still have one day left here at WEPR and I will leave at the end of this week with a better knowledge of how a PR company operates.  I believe that I now have an idea of the future career I would like to pursue after my last year at university.

Grace Collins

Aberystwyth University, English Literature

I’ve just divorced my social media ‘guru’

The world seems to be awash with social media experts. They’re all over the place – and some have even been elevated to ‘guru’ status by people promoting them.

So I’d like to begin by asking: can please have the word ‘guru’ banned? It’s applied to so many people that the currency has been well and truly devalued. I believe there are now possibly more PR or social media ‘gurus’ in the world than there are people. So from now on I will only believe people are gurus if they are a bit mystic, shrouded in incense and have a very long beard.

But that’s a digression. Back to social media. It isn’t really my thing, but luckily my colleagues are very adept at it – so I’m not short of help. I get many emails from companies and individuals offering advice on how to master its mysteries. There are lots of people on my Twitter timeline who dispense wisdom on how to do it properly, win new business, unlock the secrets etc etc. Some must presumably be very good, as they seem to be making a living from it.

But there are just so many social media advisers out there, and many of them seem to Tweet about as often as they exhale. There is one who must surely be Tweeting non-stop: a bit like those unfortunate people who can never stop hiccupping. He followed me a while back and I reciprocated. I soon began to regret it.

Just about every time I logged on there he was: smiling at me, telling me how to do this or that and giving me links to articles and websites. But he seemed like a nice enough chap, and I didn’t want to unfollow him – as that would have been slightly rude. Yet some of the stuff he did seemed so pointless, like asking his thousands of followers what they were going to do that day. Well, I wasn’t going to bother to tell him. Would anyone?

Then, after a few weeks my attitude started to slide from indifference to irritation. My heart sank a little every time I entered Twitterland and was immediately confronted by this alleged guru, doing his usual stuff. And I noticed that he was repeating the same things over and over again. My Twitter experience became a bit like Groundhog Day.

My feeling ratcheted up from irritation to mild annoyance, like I was locked into virtual prison cell with this guy and forced to listen to him airing his views. And by now the last thing I wanted to do was to click on one of his links. I was determined that he wasn’t going to wear me down. Hell no, I wasn’t going to give in to all this badgering. Yet he had lots of followers; so was this about him being misunderstood by me, or my lacking any sense of perception about the world of social media?

It was particularly peeving when he suggested I should be spending my Sundays ‘strategising’ my next social media campaign, ready for a supersonic start on Monday. No, I wanted to cut the grass and read the papers and recharge my batteries. I didn’t want someone making me feel that I’m a bone idle business failure, thanks all the same.

Eventually, I toyed with a drastic step: unfollowing him. Yes, termination with semi-extreme prejudice. I thought that was probably OK really because, as a social media guru, I suppose you shouldn’t really irritate the hell out of people so much that they wish to avoid you online. That seems to defeat the purpose. It occurred to me that this was an experience that made me question his ‘guruness’. He was having a negative effect on me now. I wondered if anyone would pay any attention to him – in a good way, that is. Any anyway, with all those followers he definitely wouldn’t miss me at all.

But, despite everything, I hung on in there – locked into my Twitter fate.

Then, just the other day, my life changed. I had a tremendous stroke of luck: he had unfollowed ME. This was a joyous and memorable moment, as it now meant I could unfollow him back without feeling guilty, antisocial and sort of giving him an electronic kick in the teeth. I was free! Big Brother had gone. Probably, my inane Tweets lacking any advice on strategy, how to spend your weekends, or anything useful at all, had irritated him even more than the other way around. I don’t care.

Having just unburdened myself, I suppose I should suggest there’s a lesson in this experience, to give it a (very tiny) point. As business person, run-of-the-mill web user and non-social media expert, it made me a bit more sceptical about much of the advice that bombards me via the web and Twitter. Underneath it may all be valuable and sensible stuff, but if the Tweets annoy you to distraction, then it surely can’t work, can it? Or maybe that’s just me.

Luckily, I get some business Tweets that are relevant, don’t turn up too often, and signpost that they will say something of interest. That’s OK by me: I like them and even take a look at some, now and then. Yes, first impressions count: and that’s as true on Twitter as in my non-virtual real life world.

Wynford Emanuel, Director

Students: talk to a friend before sending that CV

Graduation time looms and many students are already trying to secure a first full-time job. Some will be successful but, based on my previous years’ experience, others will fail because of the way they go about it.

I have a twinge of guilt writing this, because finding a job was a lot easier when my career spluttered into life. But we are in a time of economic gloom and serious competition for work, so we have to face reality. Getting a job can be hard – so it’s best to avoid making it even harder.

Warwick Emanuel is a small company and we don’t recruit many people each year. We get lots of job enquiries and speculative CVs though. Many of them – perhaps more than a half – are good to excellent. A smaller number just about pass muster, and the remainder range from poor to dire. Unfortunately, some graduates who may have worked hard for their degrees shoot themselves in both feet before trying to step onto a career ladder.

As for what should be in your CV and how you should present it: there’s a vast amount of information out there and I’m not qualified to add to it. All I can say is that as a potential employer we need to know that you have the qualifications, ability, enthusiasm and personality to fit in. That’s a good start.

But although I’m not the best person to tell you exactly what to do when you’re job hunting, I can point out a few things you shouldn’t do – based on what we see from time to time. Most of the bad stuff comes under the heading of ‘carelessness.’

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but top of the list of no-nos is avoiding spelling and grammatical mistakes. As the boss of a very big law firm bluntly said to me a few days ago: “If applicants can’t be arsed to check their CVs for mistakes, then why should I be arsed to read it all the way through?”

It’s quite amazing to see that covering emails and CVs have not been spellchecked. Yet it’s so basic: just read it a few times. Look at what your word processing package is highlighting.

What can make this even worse is that I recently received an email from someone who stated that one of his key skills was ‘attention to detail.’ Sadly, this was followed by a misspelling in the following line. Someone who was allegedly good at proof reading opened his communication with a question, but failed to add a question mark.

Then there is the minefield of the cut and paste approach. A year or so ago a graduate wrote to us stating that it had long been her ambition to work for X – a competitor company! It was pretty careless: all I could do was to write back telling her that I hope she achieves her ambition.

The ‘To whom it may concern’ email approach is a telltale sign of a cut and paste job, in my view. I dislike it, and so do many others who receive such job approaches. It tells me you’ve probably fired the same thing off to lots of companies. That’s fair enough, you’re bound to do it – but at least show you put some effort into targeting a specific company. Employers are only frail humans: they like to feel that you have taken some interest in them and their organisations. Tailor your email… even if it’s just a bit. In fairness, many students take the time to find out who to write to. I get quite a few of these, sometimes with the spelling of my exotic name mangled a bit, but even that’s better than the blunderbuss approach – firing off a huge amount of shot and hoping a few pellets hit their mark.

Other interesting but off-putting approaches have included over confidence and boastfulness (e.g. ‘I will help you to take your business forward.’ – from a person who has yet to fill a first job). There’s a fine line between confidence and over confidence, and you need to be aware of it.

Jargon and peculiar use of language is best avoided, too. I recall the student who told me: “I want to coalesce with your workforce.”

And then there’s the casual approach. About a year ago I received an email which (from memory) went like this:

hi

graduating in a few weeks. just wondering if any jobs are going with you

cheers

Yes, it was that bad. No capitals, punctuation, courtesy or common sense. I wrote back saying so, hoping to give constructive feedback. I occasionally do this and get appreciative replies about half the time. I suspect the other half just think I’m a pedantic old git who needs to chill out a bit.

I emphasise that most CVs we receive are good or excellent, so it’s such a shame that little things may be preventing others from getting a foot on the jobs ladder. I don’t know whether job-hunting advice is offered in universities, but if so then some are ignoring it.

OK, so that’s the bad stuff: but what to do to make a good impression? I think the answer is very simple. Talk to someone about your CV, email or application. Show what you’ve written to several friends or contacts whose views you respect (such as your parents, friends with good English or Welsh, or people with specialist knowledge of a relevant topic).  Ask them to give you their honest views. You’ll probably see from their feedback what impression you are creating on people who have yet to meet you.

Letter or email? Which is better? I prefer to receive emails; they’re much easier to deal with. The worst we get (but rarely nowadays) are letters with no email address for reply. Please don’t make me write a letter, put it in an envelope, find a stamp and then walk to the post box.

And to repeat what I wrote at the beginning: things really were much easier at the beginning of my working life. A while ago I was shown my (decades old) job application by one of my first bosses. He found it while clearing out some papers. It was pre-computer days and had been hammered out on a typewriter. I am a bad typist and so streaks of Tippex were needed to obliterate my mistakes – and greatly added to the weight of the paper.

It gave me quite a jolt to see it. A question immediately arose in my mind; “How the hell did I manage to get that job?” Yes, things were easier then.

Wynford Emanuel, Director

SWALEC photoshoot with Sam Warburton

Wales rugby captain Sam Warburton called in at SWALEC yesterday to thank the energy supplier for its support throughout the RBS 6 Nations tournament.

WEPR’s Victoria and Nicola went along to help out on the day, and took the opportunity to meet the Grand Slam hero and hold the Triple Crown trophy at the same time.

Well, Nicola got to hold the trophy. Victoria couldn’t be trusted with more than a rubber, rugby ball due to her self confessed clumsiness and being a bit of a ‘dropper’.

Victoria, Sam and Nicola

Business Rates: As daft as a tax on hats.

As it’s Budget week, I’ve been depressing myself about tax.

We’ve had some corking taxes over the years. In the 18th century there was a window tax, so many people avoided it by blocking them up – thereby living in gloom but with more money in their pockets.

At about the same time Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced a tax on men’s hats. People showed it had been paid by disporting a receipt in the hat band. It wasn’t popular.

Thank goodness we don’t have stupid taxes like that anymore. But hang on a minute: come to think of it, we do. We have business rates, a truly bonkers tax seemingly designed to dissuade people from setting up in business and creating jobs and wealth.

It’s all very odd, because we regularly hear that UK and Welsh governments of all colours back small business with all their heart and soul. They truly love us. But if you are a small business person then things can look very different.

Let’s look at what happens when you start a small enterprise. You may work at home to begin with, and when things pick up you need commercial premises. So you find a workshop or office and lo, you are immediately punished by the absurdity that is business rates. They are collected by your local council and apparently sent off to the Welsh Government for redistribution.  I don’t know where they go. Into some massive all-purpose pot, I expect.

Your premises may be small, but you’ll likely be charged vastly more per square metre than most homeowners. So what’s the logic behind this? Well, there isn’t any that I can see, apart from the fact that it’s a great revenue raiser.  It’s also a symbol of a lingering anti-business culture in the UK.

Business rates are nonsensical. They exist because years ago someone thought it a brilliant wheeze to whack an extra tax on the organisations that create the wealth that pays for our public services. People in power over the past few decades seem to have decided to just let it roll on.

Business rates are a disincentive to starting or growing a small business and to finding the additional space to employ people. Why take the risk, when you can do OK working at home and paying the same council tax as the people next door? Fortunately, we still have risk-taking people who take the plunge – but not nearly enough of them.

My business formerly occupied a large semi detached house which had been converted into offices. The property next door remained a dwelling. Yet our business rates were around four to five times what our neighbours paid in council tax. 

So what are our high business rates for? Why are they so much greater than council tax? The official explanation is that they’re the business fraternity’s contribution to local services.  But hang on, again. My colleagues and I all live near the office and already pay for our local services via our household council tax. So, in total, a small business owner may be paying at up to six times as much property tax as a householder. It’s crazy.

Business rates have been there for ages, and I see no sign that anything is going to be done about them. As far as I can see they are way down the political agenda – if they are on it at all, that is. There has been tinkering around the edges, with relief schemes for smaller firms, but the system needs surgery, not a life on painkillers. Give us tax reform, not tax relief.  Let’s be bold in Wales.

We need to rebalance the system so that the burden is eased for present day businesses and lowers a barrier for would-be entrepreneurs. An expanding economy means increasing tax revenues, so I am definitely not arguing that the entire burden of rebalancing business rates should be switched to householders. Councils and government would have to continue to increase efficiency to reduce costs.

President Obama has stimulated the US economy by cutting businesses’ payroll tax. It’s working and jobless rates are falling. Over here we’ve got business rates, corporation tax, and high NI contributions – which we pay twice for each person, if you think about it.

But anything that looks even slightly like shifting the burden from business to the domestic sector would require a bold and largely unpopular political decision. It’s electoral poison, so it almost certainly won’t happen.

In theory it could be done over a long period. And why can’t we do it in Wales? What about a 10 or even 20 year process of reducing business rates, so we pay our fair share and people with a business idea face reduced risk when they move into commercial premises?

It could mean that the rates on my former office would be about the same as the house next door? Wales could start all over again with a fair and equitable system. But I suppose it’s much more likely that we stick with the widely held belief that the tax regime would be fine – if only someone else is made to pay more. 

This is a simple suggestion for something that I suspect would be complex to devise and implement, but would surely give nascent businesses a boost. I am no economist (yes, it’s blindingly obvious) and some will think this politically naïve, which in reality it is. I am a small business person on the receiving end of government tax policies, and I can’t be alone in my despair at how businesses are often looked at as milch cows – not engines of growth. Absurdly, there is some kind of disconnect between business success and the public services we can afford. I’d say the primary purpose of business is to create jobs, widespread wealth, and more wealth from an expanding economy – not just as an easy touch for cash.

A rebalancing would raise issues about increased employment generating more tax revenue for UK central government. I don’t know how that would be resolved, either, but surely it could somehow – especially as so many are champing at the bit for devolved tax powers.

We’re always reading about business initiatives that affect one sector or another and which sometimes are successful, and other times they seem to sink without trace. How about one that applies benefit to all firms? Why can’t we take a different approach in Wales – spelling out one idea of how our very own Welsh tax regime could stimulate small businesses and create jobs in micro firms.

So, either we carry on with something that is even worse than a tax on hats, or do something progressive. Why not encourage the people who create jobs and wealth, with a fair property tax system, instead of punishing them for daring to do what Wales needs so much?

Mr Grumpy’s top 10 moans on Tweetiquette

1  Some social media advisers tell you to retweet lots of news. But so many people have taken the advice that I get the same repetitive stuff clogging up my timeline. If you must do it, at least be selective. Don’t try to compete with the BBC or CNN.

2  Why retweet stuff that means nothing to anyone else? Retweeting ‘Hi Jim’, or that someone has thanked you for some unspecified help seems pointless to others. Reading it means seconds of my life are totally wasted.

3  Avoid rants that are unexplained and have no background (e.g. ‘That’s the last time I shop at X’). Half a story is no story at all. We want to know why!

4  Please don’t ask me personally for a RT of something or other, as refusal often offends – as they say about credit in my local store. If it doesn’t impress or interest, why would I? No merit, no RT.

5  Don’t tell an imaginary friend about your new product or service (e.g. ‘Hey Bill, have you seen the great offer at Y?’). It’s transparently phoney, artless, and makes you look a bit mad. It’s counter-productive, too, because now I’m determined not to buy it.

6  Homilies, epithets and classic quotations are great, but a little can go a long way (oops!). They can be overdone and get a bit wearisome, so ration them. Oscar Wilde would understand.

7  What’s all this ‘you follow me and I’ll follow you’ stuff? Why would I want to ratchet up my follower numbers by adding people who, in real life, I’d avoid like they had the Ebola virus? Thanks, but I don’t want to boast about the size of my Twitter appendage.

8  Famous people get huge followings and, for practical reasons, they follow few. Some non-famous people have the same policy, assuming the rest of us eagerly await their pearls. Please fight this conceit. Twitter is for TWO WAY communication. At least, mine is.

9  If someone has mentioned you, commented on your Tweet, or asked you a question, then it’s usually good manners to respond. Check who’s referenced @you and acknowledge him or her. After all, it’s proof that we exist (I Tweet, therefore I am).

10  Are in-jokes or coded comments really suited to open Tweets? No! You’re just telling us sad sacks that we’re excluded. It can make you look a bit of a precious smart arse, too. DMs make more sense for this chat, are more polite and may make the rest of us like you a little bit more.

11  I know I said ’10 things’, but there is an eleventh. It’s about those annoying people who Tweet about their lists of this or that. It’s been done to death. And we’re just not interested!

Wynford Emanuel, Director

You can see Wynford ignoring his own advice on Tweetiquette @WynfordE

A small fish in a big pond!

The thought of doing work experience scared me enough, but when my Dad said he could set me up with Warwick Emanuel PR who worked with his company, I felt very scared. I had no idea what public relations was or what kind of work they did. After doing some research I had a better idea but still not enough to settle my mind.

When I told my careers advisor in school, she was very impressed that I had found myself such a good placement and that I should not let the opportunity go to waste. After receiving the self placement form from my advisor, the next step was actually visiting the company to get it all signed and confirmed.

I was so nervous, I had no idea who these people were, if they took on work experience placements, and still no concrete idea what they actually did! Once I had got there, I met Elizabeth Warwick, one of the directors at WEPR. She was so friendly and welcoming which really settled my nerves. She gave me a tour of the building and introduced me to the staff (who were very friendly, but concentrating very hard). Elizabeth told me exactly what they do at WEPR, and what kind of work I was likely to be expected to do whilst on my work experience.

My nerves were quite calm after that, but I always had the thought in my mind, what if they don’t like me, or what if I mess up my work and hinder their business (I have a tendency to think the worst of a situation when I am scared).

Time had flown, and before I knew it, it was the Sunday before my work experience. The once forgotten nerves had returned with a vengeance. All I could think about was ‘what will I be doing, how will the staff react to me being there and will I have to make tea and coffee all day long?’

Waking up the next morning, I felt ready. I was determined to make a great first impression and to tackle every task given to me, no matter if it was making a whole gallon of coffee.

After walking very fast (due to my pet hate of being late for any occasion), I arrived 10 minutes early, walked through the front door and, heart in mouth, I rang the bell for attention.

I was greeted at the door with a big smile and a friendly welcome. I was given the safety induction, placed at an empty desk, and given the whole run down of PR. I was shown huge files of information on some of their clients and what work they have done for them.

My first day in the world of work was very overwhelming. I had written several press releases (though not very well as I had only discovered what a press release was that morning) and asked several times if I would like a cup of tea or coffee, which I gracefully declined (not being too fond of caffeine).

As the week continued, my experience of public relations went from the most basic of office tasks to helping with a casting for a film, and, truthfully even though inside I was like a cat stuck up a tree (i.e. petrified), I loved every single minute of it. Today is my last day at Warwick Emanuel PR & Film and I will really miss working here. At times the work was extreme but with such a positive environment around me, it felt like no matter what I did I would succeed! I would definitely recommend WEPR to anyone who wants an experience in public relations, and I wouldn’t change anything about my time here, it was amazing!

 
Work experience placement from Hawthorn High School Lauren Mclellan

Working your experience and getting ahead

Many companies are inundated with requests for work experience, or potential employment, and Warwick Emanuel PR is no different. In the current economic climate it’s more important than ever for graduates and jobseekers to do all that they can to make a good impression and get ahead, and some of the approaches we receive are very memorable, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

Annabel John is currently a student at Cardiff University where she is studying French and German, but would like to pursue a career in Public Relations when she graduates. She has just spent a week with us after completing placements with two other local companies. Annabel impressed us with her excellent covering letter, previous experience and the fact that she had spent most of her summer holidays working to get even more under her belt!

Here she advises fellow students and jobseekers how to make an impression for all the right reasons.

With my final year of university about to start, it is time for me to start applying for graduate schemes and looking for a job. It is quite a daunting thought but after this summer, I am actually rather excited about it. Having had a gap year and studying French and German, which is a four year university course, the road to the ‘real’ world is quite a long one for me! I am quite lucky in as much as I know that I want to have a career in Public Relations and I have had quite a successful summer in terms of work experience and internships. I have gained experience into quite a few different areas of PR through placements at three different agencies and I am sure that this experience will be invaluable to me in the future. But how did I go about getting these placements?

The first thing I did was to revamp my CV. Yes it sounds quite basic, but things like my GCSE results are no longer as important as other skills that I have acquired since then. I tried to identify the skills that are significant to a career in PR and highlighted things I have done to develop these skills. It is important to only include relevant things as nobody wants to read a 5 page long CV! I have always been told to try and keep it to two pages.

A good covering letter is crucial. Nobody will even bother to read your CV if you have written a covering letter that is littered with spelling and grammatical errors. It is essential to make your covering letter personal. A paragraph or two explaining a little more about yourself is quite important- just highlighting the skills you have, ones you would like to develop and such like. Research the company that you are asking for work experience too, explain why you want to go there in particular. Most people send out a lot of requests for work experience, and I have been told about one or two horror stories where people have forgotten to change the company name in a covering letter! A stupid, avoidable error which could be the difference between getting a placement or not! If you are planning on sending your CV out on mass, then double check details like that! A quick phone call to the company to find out who the most appropriate person to send your letter to is also important.

If you are fortunate to be offered a placement somewhere then make the most of it! The first thing you will probably be asked is what you would like to get out of the placement so have a think before arriving. For me, this has been great because it meant that I have been given lots of tasks that have helped to develop certain skills, for example I can now write a pretty good press release- and very little gets changed from draft to issuing which is quite exciting. Dressing appropriately is another easy thing to do which will make a big difference. It is almost impossible to change somebody’s first impression of you so look smart on your first day- from then on you can gauge how everyone else is dressed and adapt accordingly! Enthusiasm is probably the final thing which I think is of the utmost importance. You may be given slightly mundane tasks to do initially but everyone has to start somewhere! Do these efficiently and enthusiastically and it will not go unnoticed. Anyone in a job knows what it is like doing an internship or work experience- I guarantee you will be given more exciting projects too! 

This summer has proved to me how diverse and interesting PR is and has strengthened my knowledge that this is the career for me. My placements this summer have given me that extra bit of confidence and determination to try to stand out from the crowd and succeed in breaking into this very competitive career path…well hopefully succeed anyway!

Written by Annabel John – future Public Relations practitioner