Charlotte Gill Work Experience

I am currently studying English and Film at Leicester University. After deciding that I would like to work in PR after graduating I thought that it would be beneficial to gain some work experience. I therefore contacted The Phoenix Partners and was thrilled when they offered me a few days work. On my first day at The Phoenix Partners I met with Nikki Lee to discuss my understanding of Public Relations. I was then asked to take an existing press release and upload it to the company’s blog using blogger.com. After doing this, I was shown how to use Vocus Public Relations software. Before coming to The Phoenix Partners I wasn’t aware that such software existed, it was so interesting to learn how to use it, and to put these skills into action creating a contact list for one of the company’s current clients. I was also shown useful ways of searching for different contacts, and I was informed which would be the most useful depending on why they were being found. After doing this I went on to write a press release about the Managing Director, Rachel Hargrave participating in a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in a few weeks time. My last task of the day was to email a press release out to several contacts. It was so nice that the company were happy enough with my work to send it out to contacts. I then worked on a contact list for one of the company’s current clients.

On my second day at The Phoenix Partners I completed the contact list that I had been working on the previous day. After finalising the list I developed the press release I had written the previous day in order for it to be used on the company’s blog. I then put this on to blogger, ready to be uploaded on to the company’s website. After doing this I researched appropriate venues in the East Midlands for the company’s ‘Phoenix Moments’ events in the future. I was then asked by the staff to come up with ideas for a teaser campaign that they are currently working on as they thought it would be interesting to get some fresh ideas. To do this I researched the client and created a mind map of any ideas that I thought would be appropriate.

On my third day at The Phoenix Partners I wrote a press release about the company beginning to work with a charity. This was the first press release that I had wrote for the company completely independently, which was quite intimidating but I took all that I had learned from Nikki and gave it my best shot. After I finished writing the piece, there were a few changes that needed to be made but aside from those, the press release was good. My last task of the day was to create another contact list on Vocus for the same charity client. It’s amazing how easy it is to find contacts when using the software.

I really enjoyed my time at The Phoenix Partners. The people are all so friendly and helpful and I felt that I had the support of the full team throughout my time there. It was clear that they all wanted me to get the best experience and learn as much as I could. I feel that I gained so much experience and learned so many useful things in the short time that I was there.