Going from the seminar room to the boardroom is both an exciting and challenging experience for any graduate. Given that I finished university on 16 June and started at Portland on 27 June, I remember exactly what the transition felt like. It’s the time where you apply all of the skills that you developed over your university years in practice, but also where you realise just how much more there is to learn.
There are many prospective employers out there and distinguishing between them is a challenge within itself. From my mind there were three things that I wanted: a) a reputable firm which attracts a variety of clients, b) a good salary that enabled me to live comfortably in London and c) a culture where people could work as a team and achieve great successes together. Portland matched all three criteria.
To me, what separates Portland from its competitors is that there is no systematic training-belt where you need to take exams for another year before you are ‘client-ready’. There is no ‘division’ between the graduates that come in and the partners at the top – we all work as one unit.
The result of this workplace culture is that your colleagues from diverse and varied backgrounds, who have different ideas and approaches to tackling issues. We cultivate this variety into quality research-led communications strategies for our clients.
People at Portland come from a wide range of degrees, but what binds us all together is that we constantly stay ahead of the news agenda and current affairs.
Take my first month here, in which we had the Brexit vote, the resignation of the Prime Minister, 64 Labour resignations, a leadership election and a new Prime Minister.
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