Work Experience at EML

As a student looking at a possible future in PR, I knew that it would be a competitive industry to get into. Considering this, I thought that the best way to make myself more appealing to the PR market would be to undertake some PR work experience and thankfully I knew someone to place me in the right direction, that being with EML.

Before I started my work experience with EML I was petrified! This due to the fact that I was unsure as to whether or not I would be able to undertake the tasks given to me, how well I would get on with people in the company and whether I would impress. However, I can honestly say that throughout my whole 4 weeks of being here I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and learnt a lot about the PR industry. I was given worthwhile tasks that I found interesting and I feel like I actually learnt something from doing them. These included researching journalists through through various tools, which I was intrigued by as I didn’t have a clue as to how PR companies went about contacting the vast amount of journalists in the world. I was also given the privilege of being allowed to come along to witness a pitch given by EML to a possible client. This gave me an insight into how PR companies need to sell themselves and made me realise that I really need to brush up on my presenting skills! Going along to meet a journalist was also different and interesting, as I got to understand how EML has to maintain a keen interest from journalists.

What made it so much easier for me to find it interesting and worthwhile was the fact that I worked with such friendly, easygoing staff (not that they slack on the job!). I felt comfortable with asking questions, which is something that a lot of newcomers can struggle with.

Given the chance again, I would grab it with both hands and I would definitely recommend work experience to any student, purely to get a taster of what work life is actually like and whether they would actually enjoy their prospective career. EML has been brilliant with providing me with work experience and like I have said before, everything I have taken part in has given me a much better idea of how PR works. It’s a lot different learning about PR to actually working in it, in a good way.

I must also mention that all EML staff are immense cooks and so you can’t be afraid of eating plenty of food if you work with them!

Natalie

*Unfortunately EML is not currently in a position to accept any more work experience requests

Patience is a Virtue

Rumours surrounding Google’s forthcoming Chrome 6 suggest that this version will attempt to predict our next browsing moves, with the aim of making our web surfing even faster.

The ‘predictive pre-connections’ will apparently be based on an analysis of user browsing habits over time. For example, If you enter a search term, it will automatically pre-load in the background the pages you are most likely to visit, which then reduces the amount of time it takes to display those pages should you fulfil the destiny that the great Google has mapped out for you.

There are obvious privacy issues afoot, but am I the only one disappointed that the technological genius of some of the world’s most powerful corporations is being put to gaining a couple of nanoseconds in my web browsing? Isn’t it fast enough already? We have already seen the decline of a generation now insatiable for instant gratification, where will it end? Besides which, Google announced in February that they plan to test out ‘ultrafast’ gigabit broadband offering speeds 100 times faster than most currently available. Doesn’t this make their ‘predictive pre-connections’ a little obsolete in the speed quest?

It seems to me that Google is selling out on positive technological progress in favour of pursuing petty one-upmanship against Microsoft and its Internet Explorer with a pointless new feature. Let’s see some useful innovations please Google, you’re far more likely to find people coming around to Chrome that way.

Wasted technology?

Ok so a bit slow off the mark here, but a story from last week found that Britons waste £52 billion on gadgets that they cannot operate every year. Also that 50% of functions are left idle on the majority of gadgets.

The tech blogs all sounded surprised at this, and from a techy point of view this is fair enough. Those with an interest in gadgets will be the ones who want all the extra features and functions, but what percentage of those who own, say a digital camera, are just people who want to just take a photo? I’ve got a half decent compact digital camera but for about 95% of the time it’ll just be left on auto mode as I can’t be bothered with changing the settings. And anyway, the auto mode takes decent photos which is all I need it to do.

Take the TV as another example, how many different functions are there on a TV? God knows, hundreds probably. But which ones do you need apart from the channels/inputs and volume? Maybe the screen resize one but the majority of sets now are clever enough to work it out themselves.

I was sat in an interview the other day where a client of ours was talking about when a technology has really made it into the consumer space, and this is when his wife and children could operate it without needing to play with the settings or wonder how it works (or in some cases why it doesn’t.) The majority of devices will now work out what functions we need and what settings are best, so it’s no wonder that the majority of consumers are happy to leave these alone and trust the product.

Give it a whirl

Ploughing through the weekend papers, and getting bored with iPad column inches, the tech story that tickled my fancy was the mobile phone battery that is charged by whirling it around a finger.

Phone dying on you and need to check that one last message or just finish a call? Whip this battery out of your phone, slot it over a digit and start spinning.  They reckon 30 seconds of twirling will give you another 2 minutes battery life.

Last year it was kinetic batteries that charge as you run or dance at festivals and now 2010 has begun with a twist.

Overkill

While it’s fairly well accepted now that joking about any sort of airport terrorism is a daft idea, it still seems a tad overkill to arrest someone for a Twitter comment, confiscate his laptop, iPhone and home computer. However that’s what happened to a Doncaster man who, frustrated with the airport’s closure in the snow, threatened to blow it up unless it was cleared in a week.

Any sort of airport related threat, particularly taking into account the last few months, isn’t the brightest thing in the world to write, but still, you’d imagine the police would have been able to work out pretty quickly that this was a poorly thought through joke. Maybe even pop round his house and explain just why it wasn’t the best idea. However questioning him for almost seven hours does seem a little over the top. Let alone taking into account that after he was released on bail, he was suspended from work pending an internal investigation and has been banned from Doncaster airport for life.

Obviously there needs to be some sort of common sense applied to the Terrorism Act and our right to freedom of speech. Surely for the Terrorism Act to work properly and for the police to be able to do their job they need the support of the public, and ridiculous over the top reactions such as this just ruin the credibility of both the police involved and the act itself.