Iliyana's Blog

Why I'm Shutting My PR Student Mentoring Down

[fa icon="calendar"] 02-May-2016 10:56:31 / by Iliyana Stareva

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After a little over a year of having my email open to anyone and offering PR students to reach out to me for advice and help with their PR dissertations, I'm now done with this free service and free will to help. I'm shutting the PR mentoring down. I've kinda had enough. 

I don't  usually start or seek a rant, but I need to say all of this hoping that someone will be able to explain it to me. 

I can't even count the number of thoughtless, pointless emails I've received over the past year:

  • My advisor says I need to narrow down my topic  can you give me a narrowed one please? 
  • I like PR and social media  can you tell me what a good topic is that I should go for? 
  • I want to conduct research around PR and have this brand's Facebook page – can you suggest a topic for it and what the hypothesis should be? 
  • I really like YouTube and I want to write about it and PR  can you tell me how?
  • I really like PR and social media and crisis management – can you give me a topic that combines these three? 
  • I need to write a proposal for my dissertation – can you give my yours? 

This is 150 emails in just a year  with this stuff, and it's all mentioned as "urgent help needed".

Not one clever conversation (okay, maybe just one or two). I'm shocked.

There's no thinking. Only requests to give and do the work for them.

What happened with the ability to think? When did it go away? Why always expect that others will have it for you and you can get away with it? Why always the easy way? Isn't this your life? Why do you expect someone to fix it or make it for you? Why don't you want to take responsibility for your own development?

Where did your imagination go? Isn't there anything that actually interests you? Why even PR when you've no idea what exactly you like about it? Have you asked yourself that questions? It's so basic. I cannot tell you what you like. 

And then the pitches. Students, what's in it for me? Why should I help you? What are you bringing to the table? You want to work in PR if you are studying it and are trying to write a dissertation about it, so why are you not even attempting to build the slightest relationship with me before asking me for a ton of help?  

Someone help me understand this because I can't. Something must be wrong with me.

I am still going to continue running my Why Work in PR interview series and offer advice via blog posts only, but only blog posts! Just as with the media, my time is valuable. One's time is the most expensive and almost impossible to find commodity. Respect it.

 

Topics: Public Relations, Career

Iliyana Stareva

Written by Iliyana Stareva

Iliyana Stareva is the author of Inbound PR - the book that is transforming the PR industry. She's also a keynote speaker and a consultant in inbound and digital for fast-growing companies and agencies. Currently, Iliyana is Chief of Staff to the EMEA President at ServiceNow. Before that, she held global and EMEA-wide positions at Cisco and HubSpot. She is also certified by the PMI as a Project Management Professional (PMP)®. In her free time, you can find Iliyana writing for her blog, dancing salsa or travelling the world.

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