Here’s some thrilling news for all Foursquare fans – from now on you can request and visualise your entire check-in history and you can even have it in the form of an infographic! Foursquare calls this the Foursquare Time Machine! Isn’t that cool?

Indeed, it is a tool that will probably be appreciated only by real Foursquare addicts – those who more or less check in everywhere they go – but it still offers a great check-ins overview in an interactive and visual form as well as some interesting suggestions of new places you should discover. The best thing about it though is that it’s a really cool trip down memory lane allowing you to re-live moments of the past.

So, just for fun

To be totally honest with you I cannot wait to graduate! September is quickly approaching and I'll be incredibly happy to finally have a full-time job. I have so far had the study and the practical experience and I must say I do like work life a lot more than being a student. Which is why I am utterly excited about the next few months so that when I came across Arianna Huffington’s commencement speech at Smith College I made sure I got myself a nice cup of tea and sat down to carefully listen to her talk.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed her speech! It was so honest and also so, so funny, but it most importantly provided some great advice based on the personal experiences of Arianna Huffington. For those of you who do not know much about her, she is one of the most influential people in media and is best known as the creator of the very successful Huffington Post. Her career is a true inspiration to me because as a foreigner living abroad it gives me hope that I too am going to have a stellar career regardless of my origin.

In her speech Arianna urges us

As some of you know I served a five month internship at Montpellier Public Relations – a PR consultancy in the UK – between September last year and February this year. This was an invaluable professional experience. It not only taught me a lot, but it also proved that I have made the right career choice, which is why I decided to share with you what I’ve learned and what I would advise others who want to work in PR.

While serving this internship I gained firsthand insights into how exactly a PR agency functions and how relationships with clients are being established and maintained. I developed thorough understanding and appreciation of the management and business model of a full service PR and marketing communications consultancy operating across a range of clients from various sectors – from healthcare, facilities management, professional services to recruitment. This helped me realise that really comprehending client expectations is the first and probably even the most important step towards meeting client needs.

First of all, I am glad that I chose a smaller agency, because I was given a lot of work, which I very much enjoyed, and I had the chance to learn a lot both on my own and with the supervision of the team. Working in a smaller rather than a large consultancy has allowed me to take on more responsibilities, be in a direct contact with clients and the media and so progress faster and develop a set of essential PR and marketing skills.

As I’ve mentioned in my blog posts review for last year, it turns out that my first post about why I wanted to work in PR was the most viewed one for 2012. It is also a topic that people extensively search for online and so are being referred to my blog. It’s no surprise then that I’ve decided to write an edition of this blog post every year. Here’s 2013!

It’s been a whole year since I wrote 2012 edition and since then things have changed a lot. I now have gathered months of practical experience in PR and social media and I am very happy to say that I have definitely chosen the right career path and PR is the profession for me.

Over the past few months during my PR internship I dived into agency life and I have learned a lot about writing, media relations, client liaison, social media communications, meeting deadlines, teamwork and many more. I must admit, PR is certainly a stressful profession! I am not surprised that according to a new research PR Executive is one of the top 10 most stressful jobs in the world along with firefighter, pilot and military.

On the bright side though, PR is on the rise! As this brilliant article in Management Today highlights, because “the world has changed and communications has become more immediate, more important and varied” and “incredibly transparent” PR is being put at the centre of businesses: “In the modern world... the most important commodity for a business is trust, and gaining trust is about giving people what they want. Who knows what people want? PRs do.” (I’m glad I chose this career :-))

So, enough with the talking, here are the (2013) reasons why I want to work in PR:

Why Work in PR: The 8 Reasons:

Happy New Year!