[yorkie1221]

Hello, i'm currently working in an MP's constituency office having just finished my degree. I'm doing the usual stuff at present, writing bits for the paper, replying to invitations, emails, campaign literature etc etc.

A couple of points, is any of this good/useful experience for applying for jobs in Communications/public relations?. as i would like to go into PR, specifically communications/campaigns positions.

are there any other ways of getting experience? political parties and charities were all i could think of that i could do in my local area.

Finally, does working for a party affect your job prospects in a negative way? as i will be doing campaigns related stuff in the run up to the election, would companies/businesses which i apply to for PR positions look unfavorably on this? (it is one of the 'big 3' parties, not an extremist one)

any responses would be most helpful.

Cheers.

[Wololo]

Originally Posted by yorkie1221

Finally, does working for a party affect your job prospects in a negative way? as i will be doing campaigns related stuff in the run up to the election, would companies/businesses which i apply to for PR positions look unfavorably on this?

In a democratic society, it would be pretty unethical of a recruiter to reject your application because of the political party you worked for.

That said, I'd never employ one of those lib dem bastards

[Playboy King]

Future prospects....you'll soon be an expert in claiming expenses

[jamz0770]

Originally Posted by Playboy King

Future prospects....you'll soon be an expert in claiming expenses

This and no doubt you'll be pretty good at lying too.

In all serious I'd imagine it is fairly decent experience for that stuff and I doubt a company would reject you based on that.

[BhamBengali]

Are you getting paid?

[yorkie1221]

Originally Posted by BhamBengali

Are you getting paid?

yeah.

[Monforzh]

Fact is that any experience you garner from a job, will be relevant to another job that you apply for. Snarky comments aside, albeit you will be pretty good at lying afterwards, working for a political party, especially in PR bodes well.

Look at it this way, MPs live on PR. Hell the PM's job is one massive PR jobby. So being able to have an experience at that level will garner a lot of needed CV points.

All I hope is that your MP is one of notable acclaim with no massive failures to his name. Or else you would be working with an MP who is a PR failure. EPIC FAIL!

Hope this helped.

[yorkie1221]

cheers Monforzh.

lol, yeah well he hasnt been asked to pay anything back by Legg and his reputation is pretty decent. Luckily he's the incumbent and its a safe seat so my cv will at least show that i worked for a winning team.

Problem is, its only £14,000 p/a.

i tried applying for a couple of other PR type jobs, mainly communications officer roles that pay around the 26k mark and i havent even got to an interview!

i have only been working in this current position for a month, so basically only have a months experience on top of my degree.
is a lot more experience needed then you think before i'll get a look in elsewhere?