Turning dreams into plans: my first week at HPR

Graduate Yolina Boyanova tells you everything you didn’t know about the Holyrood PR four-week placement

Graduate Placement at award winning PR agency in Edinburgh

I HAVE always known I want to pursue a career in public relations and if you had told me a few years back that I will be graduating my Bachelor’s Degree in PR during a global pandemic, I would probably laugh and get back to reading my Comms Principles & Practice textbook.

Job hunting is not easy, I’m not gonna lie. After what seemed like an eternity of writing applications, cover letters and preparing a portfolio, I decided to just try my luck, pack my bags, and move to Edinburgh to chase my dreams.

So, here I was, in my little room in the city centre, staring at the Holyrood PR website for the fifteenth time that day, when I just got brave, picked up the phone and dialled the number.

Little did I know that this call would land me a grad placement at Holyrood PR where I could finally get to put my degree and passion into practice.

Right from the start, I knew this four-week role would buck the see me doing more than just making coffee and running basic errands. I discovered that the learning plan was tailored to the intern’s personal development and needs, as on the very first day, Cameron on the team was eager to find out what I wanted to learn during the course of my internship in order to gain the most out of it.

I realised the Holyrood PR team cared about my goals and embraced me as a part of their team since the beginning. In between learning how to write success posts and getting used to working with Canva, Asana, WordPress and Dovico, my first week was filled with discovering exciting and emotional stories about our clients, using my own creative input and building my confidence.

Let me quote Steve Jobs by saying “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.”

I was entrusted with more responsibilities than a young graduate could ever imagine and the best part was being surrounded by a smart, diverse and creative team, who do their best work when they put their skills together.

After finishing my first week as a PR intern, I can finally see that Holyrood PR was the best place for me to start my career journey.

I am so happy to be given the opportunity to make an impact. I’ve only had seven days into the industry and I am just getting started.