Harriet at Hopwood
by hopwood | 25th October, 2011
Having just completed my Masters in English at Exeter, I returned home to the Midlands wondering which direction my career was heading in. I knew I needed practical experience and wanted to gain an insight into the PR industry. So to be intern at hopwood was an ideal opportunity. After all, I wasn’t quite sure what PR was – I knew it was outward facing and involved communications, but how did it interrelate with other industries? What was its relationship to journalism? How was it different to marketing? These were all questions that were to be answered in my time at hopwood.
Welcomed by the friendly team and abundance of tea, I was soon thrown in to writing press releases. Having to adapt my detailed, analytical style to informative, concise facts was challenging, but it was intriguing to learn that so much of journalist’s material is inspired and indeed written by those in PR! I enjoyed sitting in on meetings – though more of an observer than a contributor – and revelled in the fact that they called it “the board room”, very ‘The Apprentice’!
What I enjoyed most about hopwood was the diversity of their clients. One day I would be researching a women’s charity, the next writing for an MP or a leading corporate clothing company. I was immersed in business, politics, the public sector and not-for-profit organisations. Having always had an interest in the environment, I particularly responded to their property and urban regeneration clients and the projects which are transforming our towns, cities and landscape today. More
