Hello to my fellow PR students, I hope you are all well. I think we can all agree that this year has been, unique, to say the least. It’s the last week of online learning and Christmas is in three weeks. I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone and we’ve barely been able to go outside. We all deserve a good relaxing break filled with cups of hot chocolate and tubs of sweet-treats!
Now, as tempting as Netflix and Amazon Prime
may be appearing to us before we all fall into weeks of TV-binging I have gone
ahead and written this (very brief) 101 Guide on how to stay on top
(academically speaking) of this Christmas Break, especially as this is during a
pandemic. We have waaay more temptations around us than ever before and the
majority of us still have assignments deadlines looming upon us and one thing
we don’t want to do is fail to utilise our productive time, holiday or not!
So here are my tips below:
First-Year Students
Take
additional courses
Once you submit your assignments you are going
to have some free time on your hands. Looking back from a third-year
perspective this is a great time to take on some additional courses! Check out LinkedIn
Learning and Hootsuite for some free online pr and social
media courses, to build on those all-important PR skills and knowledge you have
been gaining over the past weeks. Some of these courses will be so beneficial
in getting you ready for your second-year modules, like PR creating compelling
content, and will also look great when the time comes to make your professional
online profiles!
Connect
with friends back home
Your first year of university has been
completely different from what the majority of us have experienced. Your
lessons were primarily online, so some of you might have decided to work from
home instead of moving away. You have completed your first semester (in a
pandemic) and you should be so proud of yourselves! You might have made a ton
of new friends/course buddies virtually, so use this time to unplug a little
bit and connect with your family and friends from home. If you start to get
this personal-life balance right now, by the time you get to your third year
the distance you currently feel will seem like nothing and you’ll be able to
conversate with your friends as if you were still seeing them like during
sixth-form/college.
Second-Year Students
Build
your personal brand
This is honestly the best time for you to
start building your personal brand. I can imagine that your placements
requirement for your module assignments this semester has been cancelled but,
slowly and surely the world is opening back up and it will soon be time for you
to start sending out those shiny CV’s and cover letters to the PR agencies you
are looking to intern at. By building your personal brand now it will help you
get your foot in the door when application time comes around and, also get your
name in the mouths of the right people.
Complete
projects
Continuing on, although work placements have
paused for the moment, completing projects (outside of the ones set at
university) is another great way to show your future employers that you are
actively looking to improve your skillset and is a chance delve deeper into
your PR interests than what is typically required of you (which every employer
loves to hear about!). If you don’t know what project to start, look for a
problem and create a solution, document how you did it and creatively present
it as either a portfolio piece or online through a blog post. Why not join me
and email it to Kelly to upload on to the #BCUWeArePR
website?
Third/Final-Year Students
As final year students, we have so much on our
minds and so many tasks to complete, and it can honestly get a bit overwhelming
so my main advice to you is: to try to do a little bit, every day.
Timetable
your days
If you’re applying for graduate jobs, masters
courses or even internships I can imagine that the deadlines for your
applications are approaching in. A way to help organise this is by creating
multiple to-do lists, either written pen-to-paper on simply create them
digitally on Trello.
You could also create a timetable specifically for Monday-Friday. You want to
avoid burn-out at all costs so leave your weekends free to do whatever you want
or participate in some self-care activities.
Plan
for your future
In our second semester, we will only have two
modules left, that being Professional and Academic Development (PAD) and Major
Project. PAD is always about planning ahead so over the Christmas break take
some time out to think about what you want to do in the future in terms of
careers. Do you want to stay at home or are you looking to move in with a
friend? Has a specific role caught your eye that you need to upskill in?
Connect with current employees on LinkedIn, or find some online courses and
gain a certificate so that when the time comes you can show your employer that
you have taken that extra step to show how much you want this role.
Whether you’re travelling home for Christmas
or staying at your accommodation, stay safe and I hope you have a lovely,
productive break :)
The post was
written by Lindelani, final year PR specialist student at BCU School of Media
You can follow
her PR and university journey on:
Twitter: @PR_Lindelani & @girlsinmedia
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lindelani/
Blog: lifewithlinde.com
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