Communicating is child's play

It's been about four weeks since the birth of my first son, Harrison Brian Bullick, and also four weeks since a time when my communication skills have never been tested to the max before.

I have dealt with awkward media enquires, I have had to burst a few bubbles and manage expectations, and I have given numerous presentations. But none of those compare with your partner going through the motions during labour and you having to tell them, "it's going to be OK".

You have a message you need to deliver. The recipient does not want to hear it. But you know the importance of the message to the situation. Sound familiar? Take the difficulty you face and quadruple it. You are closer but still far away.

Before you even think about how to deliver the message, you need to make sure the content is right. The only way to get the content right is to know your audience (in the example I am recollecting, I would be worried if you did not know your audience!).

 What words would resonate with them? What words would make them reach for the nearest object and introduce you both?

You have had nine months to work on the words and plan how to deliver them. Of course, like any event, a spanner can get thrown in the works so you need your alternate plans, in extreme cases maybe even a crisis management plan (she may not be able to handle the pain as much as she bragged in the weeks leading up!).

Clear, concise communication is required to perform virtually all tasks, both in the office and in life, to a high standard.

Even if you are not in the comms industry yet, never underestimate or forget the transferable skills you have picked up.

Getting social when recruiting

Social media has completely changed the world of job hunting. All sides of recruitment are often using social media in an effort to fulfil their own needs.

Having been on the job hunting side and, more recently, on the recruiting side, it struck me at how big a role social media is playing in recruitment.

The Job Hunter
That party at your mate's house that was amazing, where everyone got drunk and got naked for the camera. You may have thought it was a great idea at the time but when it comes to applying for jobs, unless your potential boss is looking for an employee that likes to "get hammered and flash for the flash", steer clear of having these photos on your Facebook profile. If you do insist on keeping them, adjust your privacy settings.

That example is probably the one we are most familiar with, along with negative comments about the company which seriously hamper any chances of internal promotion.

Social media isn't all bad for the job hunter though. LinkedIn provides a great platform to showcase your skills and competencies in a public environment. It also shows who you are connected to and a potential employer will like the fact you are able to build up a network of key contacts that are of value and use.

A Twitter profile can also reveal a lot about a person. Who are they following? What are they tweeting? What does their bio say? This could let you down or it could be one of your greatest assets depending on how you use it.

The Recruiter
The CVs and application forms have landed in front of you. All you have to do is flick through them and pick people for an interview, right? Wrong.

Social media provides recruiters with a whole other world of getting to know the people they will be potentially giving their money to. And if you work in a small company, team chemistry is vital and social media could save you from making an expensive mistake.

Using my recruitment experience as an example, we were looking for a graphic designer and social media acted as an online portfolio for their work. All of the portfolios viewed online were of a high standard and professionally presented but it enabled us to have a look at their individual styles. Is their experience relevant to what the job will entail? If we didn't think so, what questions could we ask at interview stage?

Also, when they produced their hard copy at interview, because we had already seen their work we were able to actively listen with ease as we weren't concentrating on whether we liked the designs or not.

Summary
To job hunters - do not be afraid to embrace social media. Besides showing potential employers you know how to use the different platforms (if that is part of the job description), it can push your work and skills right under their noses.

To recruiters - Do not make judgement calls based solely on social media. Use it to complement the CV and application forms that are sent in.

Experience the experience

During a discussion with a friend at the weekend they commented that I had done a lot of work experience placements and queried why this was the case.

In this blog I have already given my thoughts on the importance of work experience in your quest to get your desired job.

But it got me thinking more in depth about the last part of the question: "why this was the case". My initial reaction was that it had to be done. But it only 'had' to be done because I am a driven individual who will work to get where I want to be.

I knew that a job in communications and PR was not going to land in my lap and I had to show potential employers how serious I was about a career in the industry. Forging a career and getting two weeks work experience are very similar in that respect - neither will fall into your lap.

While I was studying for my NCTJ qualification in Sheffield I worked in a pub behind the bar to fund my education. With a course that was virtually full-time and two jobs (I also taught science in after-school clubs) opportunities to gain experience were not exactly readily available or feasible. So I promoted the charity events that the pub put on and gained media coverage.

Stints at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and Bradford Bulls in the press office, a year-long placement at teamtalk.com and jaunts around the Nottingham Evening Post and Huddersfield Examiner are all on my CV and are through me organising each one while studying at university.

After a few unsuccessful job interviews due to a 'lack of experience' I headed back to the finance company in a non-PR role for an income. But my drive didn't desert me and I kept an eye out for every opportunity.

I revamped and edited the monthly internal magazine-style publication for a department, I ran charity days and helped organise incentives for the staff.

Outside of the 9-5 job, I approached the local rugby league club, Nottingham Outlaws, about doing their media and PR on a voluntary basis. It provided a great opportunity to devise my own strategies and I was hands-on with every element from monitoring coverage to media relations to social media. I learnt as I went along and added new elements to my skillset.

Charities, local sports clubs, a friend's new business venture - there are plenty of opportunities to gain some fantastic experience and make great contacts to assist in your battle to forge a career in PR.

You just have to go get them.


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What you take is greater than what you do

Like many in the rugby league community I was shocked at the sudden cull of staff as the demise of Bradford Bulls went into overdrive yesterday (Monday 2 July).

There was one particular name I was looking out for when reading the reports and when I saw it I felt a genuine feeling of sorrow. 

The club's longtime press officer Stuart Duffy was the hub of information and focal point for all things Bulls related.

I enjoyed two work placement stints with Stuart while I was studying at university and he provided me with a chance to get my hands dirty and get stuck in to the day-to-day operations and he hid me from nothing - not something a lot of organisations allow.

He spoke openly and honestly about the club, the players, the media and the job and it was this willingness to fill me with information and insight that I admired a great deal.

Work placements are vital to breaking into the industry you want to be in and PR is no exception.

I have no doubt that the various placements I have done have played a key role in helping me get into PR but it was something more than the chance to put 'Bradford Bulls' on the CV that I took from my time there.

While it was fantastic to see my interview with Shontayne Hape in the match programme, it was the conversations with Stuart that provided me with the most power going forward.

Learning directly from someone who gave as much attention to the food for the media on match day as he did to organising a press conference is something you cannot pick up in a book or on a course.

There seemed to be a desire in him to ensure I had a clear picture on everything as if I was under his command on a full-time basis.

Reading some of the Bulls players comments it's apparent that his presence at Odsal will be greatly missed. It will also be a shame for any future students looking to gain valuable experience who will not have the chance to learn from him.

For me, Stuart Duffy was an unbelievable man to learn from in such a short space of time and it won't be long before he is passing on his pearls of wisdom to somebody else.

Tweeting, coverage and figures

Looking back, the first couple of weeks at Outwrite felt a lot like work experience.

Over the years I have done various work placements at newspapers, football websites and press offices in an attempt to build up my industry knowledge and skillset. All of it was, of course, unpaid as I completed tasks I longed to do in a career. 

Once the end of the placements came it was back to full-time education or work and plotting that next item for my CV.

During those first two weeks here, it had a distinct feeling that this was another stint gaining experience before I headed back to 'normal' life.

I also had the added realisation that I was being paid to contend with!

For the last two years I had done all of this on a voluntary basis at Nottingham Outlaws and now someone was actually paying me to do similar work.

The tasks being asked of me came as a shock to the system too.

Three years at the finance company was all about figures, cash collection and management and training of my staff. Now I was tweeting, reading the papers and designing a flyer. At any moment I was expecting my old boss Vinny to tap me on the shoulder and question just what I was doing.

But no tap came - just my conscience randomly kicking in and causing me to momentarily panic and reach for the x in the corner of the screen to exit my LinkedIn account. "Why are you on LinkedIn when you should have put your figures in the tracker?"

A feeling that should have been avoided seeing as the internet in my old job only allowed me to visit yell.com, Google maps and various banking websites so a brief flirtation with a social media site during office hours was nye-on impossible.

Two months on, I am glad to report that the feeling of it being work experience before heading back to school and enduring double science has gone.

Jobs are completed without the need to look at the step-by-step guides I relied upon in previous weeks and flirting with social media sites is starting to develop into a full-blown relationship.

My working head is all about Outwrite now. Papers, twitter, updating our website and giving Vinny my figures at 4pm.

The dust has settled

I think I may have just witnessed the final piece of dust settling in the most frantic and stressful period of my life.

We have broadband.

In isolation the installation of the internet doesn’t cause stress levels to rise uncontrollably, although some sales people give it a good go. However, when bolted onto a series of life changing events it has the ability to push you that little bit closer to breaking point.

Luckily I survived and Orange will be providing me with the latest Forest news and web TV for the foreseeable future.

A future that had a significantly different picture 12 weeks ago.

Branch manager by day, voluntary media and PR manager by night and a family man slotted in all possible places, I scoured the PR and communications landscape looking for that first step on the career ladder.

Rejection letters, e-mails and silence filtered through as I was beaten to the interview stage by candidates who were already on, or had experience of, that ladder.

Then an opportunity came my way and after impressing, evidently, at the interview stage I was offered the role and all I had to do in the proceeding four weeks was move country, search for a new school, ready myself for the pending arrival of my baby and do an assignment for my CIPR course.

In isolation, each one of those can cause grey hairs to start creeping through. Throw them together and you have a cocktail of events that would turn the strongest man into a blithering wreck. Fortunately for me I learnt the art of delegation long ago and passed the first two to my girlfriend.

With a roof over our heads, a school place sorted and an assignment written, I was able to relax, as much as you can, for my first day in the office.