Adam Burns - BA (Hons) Public Relations

Adam Burns is a successful final year PR student and employee of the prestigious Public Relations agency Bell Pottinger.

Adam credits many of his achievements to his time at Leeds Met, he says, "The Public Relations course at Leeds Metropolitan is renowned in the industry for being the best in Europe. When I was selecting a university I did some research on Leeds Met alumni to see what the PR course had produced and was blown away to find many of the key players in the field – from the MD of Grayling, to senior management at Hill & Knowlton."

Adam continues, "Leeds as a city is a fantastic place to study PR as there are so many great agencies and in-house opportunities. Bell Pottinger, Brass, Wolfstar and Umpf are right on the universities’ doorstep and ready to offer agency experience – while Asda, Morrisons and HBOS all have headquarters in the region and welcome student placements on a regular basis."

Adam secured a placement at Bell Pottinger thanks to a competition held through a joint initiative between the agency and Leeds Met. The University's Public Relations students were invited to pitch a PR campaign based on a live brief for one of Bell Pottinger's national brands, and as one of the winning students Adam was offered a year-long placement, and subsequently a full-time position. Adam recently founded Two Birds One Stone, a youth focused PR agency that offers brands targeting the youth market a service with a difference. The difference being the entire team is made up of students or recent graduates with an average age of 21.

Adam believes experience is critical to being successful in PR, and urges students to apply for placements both in-house and at agencies. He also recommends aspiring PR students to use social media and start blogging in order to get noticed in this competitive sector.

Find out more about boosting your career prospects with a work placement at Leeds Metropolitan.