December saw the end of yet another rotation at Edelman. Here are my thoughts on public affairs...
Coming to public affairs with very little experience in this field, I thought my background in PR would see me through, but it was certainly a jump right in at the deep end. They always say a challenge brings out the best in people, and I guess this is exactly what the graduate programme is all about.
Remember how at school and university you’re always advised to keep up with current affairs. To know which politician is in trouble, which company has caused a national disaster and who won X-factor (maybe the latter is just a consumer conversation, but important nonetheless). Well public affairs was in a way a bit like being back at university in a very good light. I found myself doing ‘extra reading’ inspired by the enormous database of knowledge of the colleagues around me. Their enthusiasm and dedication to the job is second to none which is of course obvious in their work. I’m hardly ever intimated, but at the start with all the serious faces, I must admit, I thought this might be tricky. However after roughly 54.23hours I felt at home thanks to a wonderful pod and two incredibly welcoming MDs.
The public affairs team at Edelman is hardworking, intelligent (of course) and actually hilarious. Out of all my rotations so far I don’t think I’ve laughed as much as I did here. Seriously. They work longer hours that’s for sure, but in a somewhat surprising way, it was a pleasure. I looked forward to the day ahead, what challenges it would bring and what jokes would spread.
So what did all these stimulating challenges encompass? Stakeholder maps, tick. Briefing papers, tick. Daily monitoring, tick. Monitoring of Parliamentary committee meetings, tick. According to the other teams, ‘all very sophisticated sounding tasks’ apparently! Public affairs boasts of big name clients such as the British Virgin Islands, Sainsburys, Starbucks, Network Rail, Microsoft and The Open University, all of which I was lucky enough to work on. The most exciting task to be involved in was pitching for new business. A great opportunity to understand all the behind the scenes work involved in generating new revenue.
Skills learnt during these few weeks are those that I will proudly and happily take away with me. Organisation, rhetoric, diplomacy and above all, attention to detail are imperative to any progression. So thank you PA team for sharing your incredible knowledge and talent with me. A ‘must-do’ five weeks for any graduate seeking to learn and improve.
To find out more, check out their website at http://www.edelman.co.uk/what-we-do/public-affairs and my blog at http://maryfizzy.blogspot.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment