Deekshima shares how she chose to grasp a different perspective in PR

Studying in India and choosing PR as a profession

"As every 90’s Indian kid, I was glued to television and loved watching cartoons and comic series. Studies always were the last thing of concern and importance as a child. But I had a creative nag from my childhood days and wanted to learn painting - as it was the most creative thing I could see at age 10.

Coming from a family of medical professionals, mainly doctors and medical practitioners, creativity was rare. My family was focused on creating another doctor as part of their legacy. But certainly, life had different plans for me. I broke their dreams when I chose humanities as a subject for high school. I studied history and political science and started getting interested in journalism. Reading books soon became my new creative love. But, as it is rightly said people evolve, and so do their interests and passions. Over the years, I understood that reading was only my favourite hobby, my creativity belonged to thinking big and out of the box.

I completed high school with a decent percentage but outnumbered the scores in English - all the credit goes to the books I read. Taking a second rank in class, my marksheet recorded a 92% in the subject. This was the beginning of a unique career. I started finding the creative choices that I could select as one of my professions. Learning from my record of an incredible score in English and my passion for choosing a creative stream, I made the easiest decision of enrolling myself in a Journalism and Mass Communications course. I cracked the entrance exam which was the basic requirement for admission and got myself registered in one of the prestigious colleges. The 3-year long degree, an enormous number of projects and various assignments helped me understand the nuances of the industry.

I understood that the industry is vast, and each component is broad in itself. Throughout the course, I wanted to dig into the communications industry deeper to understand the various avenues and professional scope it brings for young aspirants. While I recognized my creative interests during the course, I now had a little dilemma between selecting Advertising or Public Relations for a career. I started reading up online to understand the top lines of the industry. I gained knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of PR and advertising and met a couple of industry stalwarts to acquire additional details.

After careful consideration and understanding of factual insights, I understood that I had to pursue a programme to better understand the industry. I researched the best universities in India that provide communication programs. I chose Xavier Institute of Communications to pursue further studies and cracked another entrance exam, this time - at India’s 2nd most prestigious institute in Communications. This was another breakthrough in my career. At each step during the course, I got to showcase my creativity through radio jingles or PowerPoint presentations. My creative acumen saw the light of the day with well-structured, thoughtfully designed, less verbose, innovative PowerPoint presentations. My assignments and projects required an intense amount of research and drawing conclusions to be captured in PowerPoints. Honestly, I had some of the most excellently constructed presentations amongst the other group members.

After completing the year-long course, I started researching jobs in Advertising, but PR was still not an option for consideration. For some reason, I used to find it really boring, since I have always been a ‘on the toes’ kind of girl. Since it was getting tough to stay in another city and I wasn’t able to have a break in advertising, I disheartedly took a job in a PR agency, back in 2016."

Milestone in PR career

"As my PR career started in 2016, I was still not satisfied and continued to look for my true calling. I got the golden milestone of my career with a global PR firm - Weber Shandwick, in 2019. It was a rollercoaster of experience at Weber. Being a part of the consumer team and getting to work on giant brands was a dream come true. Soon I understood that all the learnings I have had in the past three years were almost insignificant.

I had some amazing colleagues who mentored me all through my 3.5 years at the firm. I got to learn deeply about presentation skills and met some incredible clients from across the verticals. All of this actually did keep me ‘on my toes’. I had devised and executed some amazing campaigns and got recognised and rewarded for my work at the annual firm awards."

Studying at 31 again

"After an incredible learning phase at Weber Shandwick, I moved on to pursue growth opportunities. I joined another well-known agency in 2022-23 and applied all the learnings taken from Weber, here. Eventually, I began to learn through my friends about the various perspectives and avenues the public relations industry holds in India and internationally. As my passion was now fully blown in the industry and consumer vertical specifically, I was interested in exploring the understanding and work methods of a different market. But there was a huge risk involved in leaving a settled work career of eight long years. I started weighing the pros and cons of pausing the corporate work life and studying again. The thoughtfully calculated risk only inclined me to study further.

I started browsing through the courses and shortlisting universities. As my interest in consumer PR became a passion in my career, the only criteria while choosing a university was the one which offers a consumer-focused course. When I came across the course structure and module details at the University of Salford, I instantly knew that this course was the one. I quickly completed all the formalities and waited patiently for an update."

Life at Salford

"Choosing the University of Salford for my postgraduate studies has hands down, been the best decision. I am in love with the course modules and the teaching methodologies. Though we are a small group of only 13 students, it’s incredible to see the professors put in an equal amount of energy, as they would for a larger group  of 20-25 students. There are specific departments for every kind of assistance like askUS, who will help you find a general physician assist with bank account opening and other student-focused queries.

The Clifford Whitworth Library is a knowledge bank. It is almost impossible to not find any kind of book or any subject of book there. The tech bar at the library is also amazing. They will solve all your Outlook and Blackboard issues.

The University of Salford is filled with some great munching options too. It becomes just so convenient to grab a bite while you have a busy  day on campus. Moreover, the university has a couple of great options for part-time job seekers, like Unitemps and Handshake.