My Own Little Tag Cloud

I thought it was about time I jumped on the wagon and created my own little tag cloud. Unfortunately I struggled to embed it into the sidebar without having to use a magnifying glass to see it afterwards, so I have included it only in this post.

I made it on Wordle. The only problem is that you can't resize it on the website, and if (like me) you don't speak html it's a small nightmare. It's still a bit of fun that succeeded in entertaining me for ten minutes nonetheless!

I like staring at it and creating phrases and sentences. The most obvious is 'Want PR Job'. Very insightful. It's like the online version of reading tealeaves...ok actually it is just a pretty collection of randomly placed words that give a rough overview of the content of your blog.

I prefer Typealyzer, which I mentioned in a previous post. It not only describes the type of blogger you are but also shows a diagram of your brain activity when you write. Now that really is insightful (if slightly less colourful).

The Dissertation Marathon

I recently received my unit results and was pleased to learn that in the dissertation marathon, I came in 1st. If you have never written a dissertation, let me tell you it is unbelievably painstaking waiting for the decision on how you will be graded for something you have slaved over for months and months. But when you get the result you wanted, the good feeling is the opposite equivalent times ten.

The study was titled 'Is Political Blogging A Worthwile Tool For Engaging Young People In Politics'?, a subject I chose because I thought it to be a timely piece in terms of current affairs (funnily enough, the hand-in date was the same day as the general election). I also have an interest in politics and the study of social media, so that's how it came together.

I wrote a summary of my dissertation which I recently had published as a feature on 'Behind The Spin', an online magazine for students and young practitioners. The article is called 'Political blogging: can it reach young people?':

"Politicians are increasingly under pressure to engage with their constituents online. Some engage via social media. Some don’t. Some are blogging. Some aren’t. In the run up to this year’s general election in the UK, I was researching whether a blog would prove to be a useful way for politicians to get young people engaged…" (read the full article)

'Behind The Spin' is supported by the CIPR and is put together by Richard Bailey. If you are a PR student or professional I strongly recommend that you have a read and consider making a contribution.

Have Faith Fellow PR Graduates!

Students all over the UK have been terrorised by shocking news stories surrounding graduate jobs in the last few days. Headlines such as 'British job market bleak for fresh graduates', 'Nearly 70 graduates for each job vacancy' and 'Bar rises as graduate job squeeze tightens' have had us all sick with panic.

The obvious truth is that giving up faith is not the way to become the 1 graduate in 69 who gets the job. I am writing this for fellow PR graduates who, like me, have not yet landed themselves their dream jobs.

Ok, admittedly it is healthy to have some perspective and understand that getting a job is a little more difficult than usual. So here's a little perspective for you from M&C Saatchi Sport & Ent­ertainment CEO Steve Martin commenting on the launch of the brand new PR agency, 'M&C Saatchi PR', in PR Week today:

"The PR market is in growth and we feel the time is right to step up our offering in the broader consumer PR space. We just feel that there is an amazing opportunity in the PR sector now and hence we are launching the new agency to make the most of this from both consumer and corporate points of view"

I hope this makes you all feel a little better. It may be that we graduates have to work part time for a while (like I am doing) until we find the jobs that we want, but patience is a virtue. Possess it if you want to succeed, and don't lose sight of where you want to be.