We are celebrating staff development again: Orchard account executive Harriet Black has gained the Chartered Institute of Public Relations PR Diploma, receiving a distinction for her main project which focused on ethics in public relations.
Having graduated from Portsmouth University in summer 2009 with a degree in media studies I had already made peace with the fact that I would probably never end up with a job in the fiercely competitive media industry and that my degree would be the last qualification on my CV.
After four long years away I went back to school last week but this time not as a student. I had been asked to speak to year 13 students at the Guernsey Grammar School & Sixth Form Centre so I could share pearls of wisdom about working in the local media industry.
In the days before giving the talk I had re-traced my journey over the last couple of years which included completing a degree in media studies at the University of Portsmouth, work experience placements at BBC Guernsey, Channel Television and student radio station Pure FM, and a stint working as a broadcast journalist at Island FM before landing a job at Orchard PR as an account executive earlier this year.
But, it was as I stood before the students in the lecture theatre that I suddenly remembered just how lost I had felt four years earlier sitting in exactly the same spot. At the time it seemed that getting a job in the media industry would be impossible, but I know now, from my own personal experience that it is not and that Guernsey has a thriving media industry, particularly PR, with plenty of opportunities for willing and enthusiastic candidates.
My instant response to this question is quite simply, yes. Is that because I spent four years studying (one of which was a placement year in industry) for a CIPR approved public relations degree? Perhaps. However, when taking a moment to re-evaluate, I don’t think the answer is quite so clean cut.