Seven Years Later: My Week at Shooting Star

Want to get experience in PR, marketing or digital communications? Intrigued to know what it’s all about? Keen to work with an enthusiastic, welcoming and friendly team? Well, look no further! Shooting Star can offer you all that and more.

My name is Alice Cammell and I am currently on my last day of work experience here at Shooting Star. I graduated from the University of Birmingham last year with a 2.1 degree in English Language and Applied Linguistics and have been interested in PR for years … seven years to be very precise!

I completed one week’s work experience with Shooting Star back in 2011 when I was in Year 10 attending school at The Priory Academy LSST (time flies!). It was part of the school’s curriculum that all students complete a week’s work experience and we could either ask the school to arrange it for us or we could do it ourselves. I knew then that I had a real passion for writing and working with people so as soon as I heard about the world of public relations, I wanted to find out more about it. A friend of mine recommended Shooting Star (Shooting Star PR back then!) so I decided to take things into my own hands and try to arrange my own work experience with them. I contacted Jez and thankfully, the team kindly welcomed me with open arms.

The reason I have returned is because while attending work experience at another PR agency a couple of months ago in Nottingham, Jez contacted me via LinkedIn and invited me back! I happily accepted, grateful for the invitation and the chance to gain even more experience in PR.

I have once again really enjoyed my time at Shooting Star and meeting the team (which has certainly grown since I was last here!). On my very first morning I had the pleasure of meeting the delightful Frank and Veronica at Andrew’s Hedgehog Hospital for a meeting, and I also was lucky enough to hold a little hedgehog called Nutella! I knew then that the rest of the week was bound to go downhill… I’m just kidding, of course! I have had the opportunity to do all sorts of exciting things!

I have accompanied Jez and Wale on a follow-up meeting with the Lincolnshire County Council and Optima to discuss website improvements; I have taken part in Expo East which was a very interesting and enjoyable day where I gained valuable insight into networking and attended multiple talks; I have written blogs for the Shooting Star website; I have created a couple of posters for Shooting Star’s charity of the year, Sophie’s Journey; I have created a spreadsheet of the contact details obtained at Expo East; I have tweeted from the Shooting Star Twitter page; and just this morning, Wale has taught me how to upload blogs and press releases to the website. So if you are reading this, it means I’ve been successful! Woohoo!

It has been an absolute joy to return to Shooting Star and the experience has certainly been priceless. I am not entirely sure what my career aspirations are, purely because there is just so much to choose from! Having said that, I know that words, writing and people are absolutely ‘my thing’ and PR has always been something that has intrigued me; and I would love to work for a PR agency one day. For now however, I have just accepted a job offer from the Wentbridge House Hotel where I will be working on reception and in events, which I could not be more excited about! So, who knows what the future will bring?

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Shooting Star for a fab week and for taking me, for the second time, under their wing. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the lovely team and being part of Shooting Star daily life. I have learnt so much and I am more than sure that we will stay in touch for years to come!

Thanks guys!