Pros
You get to go to the fashion week You can meet people from the industry and make contacts You get something to put on your CV
Cons
Incredibly low pay - 16600 for a full time position on a freelance contract, because of that type of contract I was not eligible for a furlough and was laid off during corona Low pay or no pay - I was offered the job after interning for 4 months. The company doesn’t pay the interns even if they’re graduates (except for £8 per day for costs of travel). I was interning for free for the first month while working there 4 days a week and using my own equipment (laptop, phone). After that, I asked if I could be paid. I was offered £25 per day (8h of work) Hostile environment - Some people working there are great and helpful but I can’t say that about everyone. At the beginning when I was an intern the senior management were treating me like a piece of furniture. When I met them for the first time they didn’t seem to notice that there is a new person in the room (I didn’t expect anything, I only wanted to say hello and introduce myself). Another intern told me that she was called ‘an idiot’ by one of the senior managers. Black PR is a 4 people company, but there is a feel of a strong vertical hierarchy and it seems like if you’re just an intern, you’re not worthy of certain people’s precious time or attention. Now I am working for a bigger company (50 people) and after one day there I felt more appreciated and valued than I ever felt when working at Black PR. No training - despite this job being my first graduate job, I received no training and had to learn everything on the job (which I would understand, but it seemed like any mistake I made was unacceptable). Not all of my responsibilities were fully explained to me and when they finally noticed (after two months) that I wasn’t doing a certain task (because no one told me to and I had a proof of that) I was shouted at by one of the senior employees during a zoom call with other employees witnessing it. Culture of staying after hours - one employee would sometimes finish her work day at 8pm or later because she didn’t have enough time to finish her tasks Boring and repetitive job - all you have to do is send emails and parcels. Sometimes you go to an event or take appointments. Fashion week - you get the opportunity to work during fashion week, but the reality is that you work extra hours for very little compensation. I have worked 32 extra hours and received a £100 ‘bonus’ for it (yes £3 per every extra hour). You work for 14 days without any days off during fashion week. LYING TO THEIR CLIENTS - they would say that we work in the office even though we were working from home during pandemic. When I briefly mentioned that we were working from home in the email, I received an angry call and was told that I am not taking this job seriously. No strategy - all they do is literally spam everyone with newsletters and hope that someone will reply. They have some contacts, but they do exactly the same thing for every client. Fake smiles and laughs - you can really learn that there All this job can give you is something to put on your CV but I regret every second spent there. My mental health was in an awful state too. I was working really hard and it felt like I was never doing enough. They have unrealistic expectations of your pace of work as well.