One feature that I'm adding to my blog is short interviews with PROs. This will be with old and new, experienced and newly-entered professionals and will hopefully give students a better insight the industry.

The first person to be grilled is Jed Hallam who is an account executive over at Wolfstar. Jed previously went to Nottingham Trent University studying English Literature and Creative Writing and worked at Academic Answers Ltd as their PRO.

1. How is work at Wolfstar working out for you?

Wolfstar is amazing, I’ve never felt as at home as I do at there. I hate the idea that people think that makes me a brown nose (I’d also be the first to point the finger!) but I love my job! I get to work with great people like Stuart, Chris, Sam and Natalie who all understand the importance of social media and the way it can affect a business. I settled in really quickly to – making fun of people on the second day is a sure sign that I made the right decision!

2. What is your role and what kind of things do you get up to during the average working day?

In PR there really is no such thing as an average day. Cliché, sure, but it’s true and it’s the main reason why I love PR. My day can range from understanding foreign exchange terms (futures contracts, short selling etc) to organising an event for a group of lovely mummy’s – each day I get to interact with a different set of people, a different medium and try new things.

3. How does this differ from the in-house work you were previously doing?

Massively. My first job was great because I got to work with a single client and hone my skills – I was the only PR person and I was responsible for creating the whole department because the company was a start-up. It meant I got to experience everything from creating forward features lists to advising the CEO – much more experience than someone with the same ‘time’ of experience would have had. The biggest issue was that it was quite lonely at times and I quickly outgrew the position.



4. What skills do you think are required to do what you do?

I’ve blogged about this before (shameless plug) but I truly believe that there are a few core skills PR people need; analytical, negative, confident and creative. Obviously additional skills are needed, but these are the key skills (in my opinion). The additional skills are; excellent writing skills, a thirst for knowledge, a little bit geeky and an inherent need to make friends with people (also known as insecurity).



5. Did you know what you wanted to do after leaving University?

I’m a textbook PR person really; I never thought about public relations as something I wanted to be involved in. From the age of 10 until 15 I wanted to be a journalist, then from 15 until 19 I wanted to be a poet (a beat poet in particular) and then from 19 until 21 I wanted to be an advertising copywriter. When I saw an advert for a public relations post I thought three things – I get to write, make friends and they’ll pay me for it.



6. Do you plan to stay in this sector of PR?

I don’t really have a specific sector I prefer as such, but consumer digital is something I’m really passionate about.



7. Dream job?

I suppose my dream job would be to run my own social media agency. It’s something I’m quite ambitious about – Tom Watson spoke about the lack of ambition in PRP’s recently on his blog – but I’m really ambitious. I’d like my own agency so that I can help to shape the future of public relations.



8. How did you end up getting your role at Wolfstar?

This is quite a funny story I suppose. Once upon a time I began using Twitter and blogging, this lead me to be introduced to Stuart Bruce – the MD of Wolfstar – who suggested we meet one afternoon for a chat. Well, I was about to leave the UK to travel around the world for three months (which you can read about here – it’s in Twitter-esque bites) so we spoke about the possibility of working together when I returned. So I departed these lovely shores and had some amazing experiences and then came home – I’d been forgotten about - three months is a long time in public relations. So after speaking to a few friends in the industry I decided I was going to grab Wolfstar’s attention in a grand way. I set up a Facebook group listing the five reasons why I wanted to work at Wolfstar and five reasons why they should want me and then invited all of the influential public relations people I knew to join. It worked and they gave me a two month trial. After two days I was asked to put together a few ideas for a new client and they liked my ideas so much they gave me a job there and then. The definition of blue skies.



9. Best and worst parts of the job?

The best part of the job is teaching businesses how to interact with their customers in a way they’ve never known before. The worst (which is easily swallowed by all of the best parts) is the hours. I commute to Leeds from Nottingham, which takes about an hour each way and I usually work from nine until seven and then I put in another two hours at home and then about four hours on a Saturday and a Sunday – the hours don’t take the toll but the time on the motorway does.



10. Brand you most admire?

Since personal branding has moved from being a dirty word to being acceptable, I’m going to say Richard Branson and Russell Brand (no pun intended!). The former because of what he’s built from what he had – which was nothing, and the latter because of how he’s managed to turn around the most negative situation and place himself as one of the most talked about celebrities of our time. I’d also like to extend kudos to The Guardian, SingStar, Radiohead and Wikipedia.



11. Something anyone going into PR should know?

If you want to work in PR there are a few things you should know; it will take over your life, you must breathe it and you’ve got to be prepared to work in an industry that is forever changing. Accept those three things and you will love it. Seriously.



12. Tool that is the most useful for your work?

There are two tools which have proven to be invaluable above anything else and I would advise anyone who would like to work in PR to get involved; Twitter and blogging. PR might as well be an acronym for personal relations – web2.0 has seen the rise of the community and for you to get anywhere within this community you must be involved with it and contributing relevant opinions to the members of that community.