Off topic (While writing an essay for Uni)

Why do people need a Facebook app in order to find out their daily luck prcentage?

Isn't life itself pretty accurate when it comes to THAT percentage?

I guess I'm just being grumpy and it is nothing wrong in wanting to feel lucky so... I should better go back to my (hopefully) fabulous essay... :D

Go placebo effect! Go! :))

The e-mail that got me the job.

So Jack, my day didn't end yet so here goes my short-notice version of a press release.

Open minded Mr. Wu says no to credit crunch

Mr. Wu is one of London's most well known Acupuncture Therapist. He learn this art in Beijing from one of the best Chinese Acupuncturists ever, the renowned Mr. Lin Kong. But he also inherited his skills from his grandfather who use to do acupuncture in Hunan Province.
With this excellent mix, after doing his apprenticeship Mr. Wu found it quite easy to establish for himself a small practice right in Beijing. Things were good for him as he recalls: that was a very peaceful and quiet time of his life. But in 1996 things changed, he decided he really wanted a son from his wife. And because they already had two twin daughters, they decided to come to London and start over.

So in August 1996 Mr. Wu became the proud owner of a Acupuncture Practice on Baker Street. Things grew step by step and as time went by the more he worked the more happy patients he got and so he established a good name for himself and his London Practice. Oh!... And by the way, he has now four children, three daughters and a son.

Mr. Wu was always open minded so when the credit crunch came and began to affect everybody's businesses he tried to find alternative ways to get more patients. This is when he started to work with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people from the Directory of Pink Therapist. People who needed acupuncture (in this case), but maybe they were a bit uncomfortable with receiving treatment from therapists a bit less like Mr. Wu, who was never judgmental and was only concentrating on healing and treating his LGBT patients just like all his patients in the best way possible.

Sarah is one of Mr. Wu's patients, she is a male-to-female transsexual who now lives full time as a woman. She told us that because she is in early transition, she considered stopping her acupuncture treatment for her lower back pain, treatment which proved very useful in the past. But being an active member of the on-line LGBT community, she found Mr. Wu trough the Directory of Pink Therapists, therapists who in stead of judging, decided to work with sexual minorities in a positive manner. And to use her own words, she is absolutely delighted and relieved that she can continue her acupuncture therapy.

But Sarah is just one of the LGBT people Mr. Wu treats and heals, all thanks to the Directory. Now he feels there was no credit crunch for him and as he told us himself trying to find patients in alternative ways was one of the smartest things he had ever done, after coming to London of course.

Day one

OK. So I’m just a regular bloke looking for a job at a time when millions of other people just like me, find themselves in the exact same situation. So what’s so special abut me? Why write a blog about something that common? Before I fall pray to my first instinct to offer Seinfeld as an example, please just bear with me because the situation is about to get a lot better.

During my quest for an internship I stumbled upon this site: Graduate Talent Pool. Here of course I applied for everything that sounded interesting and as a result I've got some interviews. During the application process sometimes I had to complete interminable or highly creative forms (like for Leo Burnett's self proclaimed Academy) or I had to do a PR campaign plan, like the one I did for Pink Therapy's Directory plus a press release example. Which I refused to do at that time because I was not used to write for free (as you can see for yourselves, unique friends, the situation changed radically in the mean time).

So I go to this interview at Pink Therapy. They were very precise in their e-mail regarding the timing because they argued there was no waiting room, so there was no reason to come earlier. Anyway, there I was, just on time and waiting for someone to answer the intercom, and they did. I must say that I was a lot more relaxed than the usual, maybe because it was an internship so probably there was no pecuniary motivation or maybe just because I was being my confident self. After all I had a really good PR campaign on my memory stick.

As I enter the room two gentlemen introduce themselves: Dominic and Jack. And the funny bit is that before I get to say anything they ask me not to sit facing the big art piece on one of the walls, they tell me that some of the other candidates found it so disturbing that they had to leave. This of course makes me acknowledge the huge black painting with two naked erect men hugging each other. Well... this is an image that can disturb any straight man, but not me, because I am a man on a mission, that of building myself a career and being successful in London's PR industry. And as I answered Dominic's question: why here? It's simple: they need a PR intern and I need a starting point. Plus the project is very interesting from a PR point of view, because I get to take the Directory form zero PR and prove to myself and everyone else what I'm capable of...

Until next time: Take care & Tetales bahtalo!

Your friend, Florin

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere

Yes. I know this is not about New York. But I feel exactly the same way when it comes to succeeding in the London's PR industry.

So here I am. An eastern European bloke with a degree in Journalism and Communication Sciences obtained at Romania's oldest and most prestigious University, but still... Romania's. Doing a Masters in Communication at Westminster University, not Cambridge, nor Oxford, just trying to break in the London's famous PR industry during, and here comes the best part, what has been called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930's.

So I apply to jobs, the guardian and pr week are becoming my favourite sites ever. I go to interviews, I meet some people, but everywhere experience is required. And I say to myself of course it is required... with all those people made redundant in this white collar crisis. It's always safer to hire the more experienced candidate in stead of the (maybe) more creative one.

I'm not naive and of course I have to survive... So in the mean time I found myself a job in catering at Lord's Cricket Ground.

So all I need now is an internship in PR, somewhere to start from...

Take care & tetrales bahtalo!

Your friend, Florin

P.S.: Will this become a success story?... Stay tuned for more episodes to find out for yourselves!