Sophia N, is currently studying her GCSE’s in Cambourne Village College. She was welcomed to the Conscious Communications team for a week in July 2022 as part of work experience.

It was November when it was first announced we had to find a work experience placement by January 2022. Needless to say, I didn’t pay much thought to it since I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do.

Fast forward a few months and I got a placement at Conscious Communications. I didn’t know much about this field of work until I joined in July, and I was amazed by the wide variety of skills used in this job. Activities ranged from planning event briefs to writing press releases and blogs to even digital creations! As someone who is seeped with creativity, I found I enjoyed every task given to me since it included every aspect of ingenuity.

On my first day, I was introduced to every member of the team and was presented with a timetable which consisted of tasks needed to be performed. Each task was set up with a different team member, allowing me to get to know what each person specialises in and what role they played In the company. It was fascinating seeing such a diverse team working together and produce outstanding results.

As the week progressed – I began my second task, planning an event series. This task in particular involved a fair amount of research to find suitable speakers for this event. Surprisingly, I found this intriguing as it was new for me to find so many people following so many career paths.

Although it was no surprise, I found the digital creating interesting. I’ve always wanted to do something that was inspiring to myself and others as a career, though I wasn’t quite sure what the outcome would be. I was naïve thinking the only option for creative individuals was to become the next Banksy or Vincent Van Gogh, but this company made me realise there was a broad range of jobs you could do that still involves ones individuality. Aside from the practical side of this company and the job, the atmosphere in the office was welcoming and pure. Everyone was truly kind and pleasant to one another. It was such a pleasure having the opportunity to gain an understanding on the world of work and the PR and Marketing field; I still have a few years to figure out what where I want to go in my life, in terms of careers, but now I’m confident to say that this occupation has peaked my interest. Honestly, they’re an excellent team, I am grateful for this opening. A big thank you to the Conscious Communications team.

Sophia M, is currently studying their GCSEs at Melbourne Village College. Sophia joined the Conscious Communications team for two weeks of work experience.

As I approach my GSCE exams, I’m slowly starting to have to consider what career path I might want to go down. With my two weeks of work experience with Conscious Communications, I have been given an insight to what a job in PR and marketing might look like, and I can easily say that it is something that takes my interest.

I have really enjoyed my time at Conscious Communications and have learnt lots of valuable information, not only about the specifics of PR, but an office workplace in general compared to the strict secondary school one I’m used to, with more freedom but longer hours. 

On my first day, everyone was welcoming and introduced me to the company. I was told all about Conscious Communications: the history of the company and what the team does. After all the presentations, I was able to start my first task, organising a Christmas party event. Planning the event gave me the opportunity to research venues, think of creative activities that could make an event unique and interesting to everyone, and required me to think about everything realistically: how transport would work, what the order of events would be, what are the timings for everything and do they make sense, and so on. It was a good introduction to what a career in event planning could be like, a potential path I had not considered in great depth before.

Towards the end of the two weeks, my final task was to research some companies similar to those that Conscious Communications work with, and plan out something that the team could potentially plan for them (for example, creating a social media presence). This gave me creative freedom to do what interested me the most.

Whilst all the tasks I did were both engaging and useful for learning about the field of work, I learned the most from the series of events task I created, which educated students on the importance of work in the future. I researched potential speakers for the event, a range of CEOs and founders from many different companies and non-profits, three each per event, nine in total. The task gave me the opportunity to use Canva to design multiple social media posts and posters to market the events, and I was able to write a press release. This was something that I wanted to do as I enjoy writing and hope to have it somehow incorporated into my future career.

Overall, I had a wonderful time at Conscious Communications, I and would recommend their work experience for anyone considering PR and marketing as a career choice!