If you’ve seen the first blog, you will know that I moved to Manchester from Sydney around 6 months ago. You may ask why? I honestly don’t have a magical answer. I wanted to do it, so I did.
When I was looking at PR company’s I stumbled across the Toast website and loved the idea and the look of it. Shortly after I found a story on our MD Julia Mitchell and from then on I was set. I was going to work for Toast. I emailed Julia and received a response not too long after, asking for a quick chat via Skype. Thanks to the wonder of technology our chat was abruptly ended mid-sentence and we continued over email. After some back and forth I was offered a two-week trial starting not too long after I was scheduled to arrive. From my experience contacting agencies, this usually isn’t how it works and I’m so thankful Julia took a gamble on me.
Here are a few differences that I found working in PR in Sydney and working in Manchester:
- There is a much more emphasized importance on work life balance. This is either the Mancunian way or the Julia way.
- WhatsApp has taken over email for in-house communication which forces a quicker response thanks to that nifty tick to notify the message has been read.
- There is a lot more movement. In my first month, I had been to more meetings, cafés, and offices that I had ever before. As soon as I sorted out my Google Maps, I was loving it.
- Weather is a must in conversation. The weather gets talked about more often than I ever thought it would, especially since Manchester seems to only have one type – rainy and cold. It’s always good to throw in ‘What’s with this weather, hey’ in conversation and you’ll be best friends thereafter.
I can’t wait to see what the next year and a half holds for me.