According to PR Week 9 out of 10 of the UK's largest PR agencies have hired more graduates this year despite the credit crunch. This apparently shows that the PR industry looks set to buck the recession. But there's a major flaw. The majority of PR graduates will not go straight into jobs working for the UK's ten largest agencies, many will begin their careers at small consultancies that might be less well equipped to ride out a recession.

As the only person on my course to have got a PR job since graduating, I would be surprised if small consultancies were mirroring large agencies and hiring more graduates than in 2007. But perhaps I'm wrong - what do you think?

Labels: credit crunch, formby, graduate, jobs, matthew watson, pr week, public relations, recession, students, uk

Class of 2008: Public Relations with Media BA (Hons), The University of Huddersfield.

Labels: class of 2008, eileen jones, formby, graduate, graduation, matthew watson, pr, public relations with media, university of huddersfield

Since the assessment day last month I have been checking my e-mails constantly waiting for a response. Today it came. I'm not going to be working for PR week's international consultancy of the year 2007, Hotwire PR.

They said :

As you know we had over 400 applications for positions, and you did incredibly well to get down to the last 35. We found it very, very hard to assess who should go on to be in the last 12 candidates for final interviews – but we made the decision based on a number of factors including your knowledge of technology, your writing and your understanding of PR.

Bearing all of that in mind, I am sorry to say that we haven’t shortlisted you. This doesn’t mean that you didn’t do a great job – just that it was very competitive and inevitably some good candidates weren’t shortlisted.

I've asked if there is any feedback they can give me to help with future interviews. So we'll have to see what happens with that. I really liked Hotwire and enjoyed the assessment day, so even though I didn't get the job I enjoyed the experience and the trip down to London. Plus it also means I don't have to cancel my trip to Nice next week as that coincided with the final interview dates.

Labels: formby, graduate, hotwire, job interview, matthew watson, public relations

I have just sent off my first application form for a proper, grown-up job! I've applied for Hotwire's 2008 Graduate Scheme in London. I shall let you know how I get on.

Labels: career, employment, formby, graduate, hotwire, job, london, matthew watson, public relations