How TikTok ‘Unlocked’ my career in PR
This blog was written by our very first UNLOCKED intern, Holly.
Imagine this: it is March 2024, you are in the library and university deadlines currently occupy 99.99% of your brain… you take a break and decide that mindless scrolling will quell the pain for a few minutes.
Then suddenly, a group of interesting-looking adults with paper party hats on the Glasgow subway appears in your hands. Lo and behold… it is the team from Story Shop.
This all seems a bit dramatic, but I truly believe that the TikTok algorithm changed my life.
Thanks to this one post that sprouted up on my FYP, I learnt about the UNLOCKED internship programme and one of the companies taking part, Story Shop.
So, this led me down a rabbit hole (and a slightly longer break from uni work)—what is UNLOCKED? Who runs it? Who are the guys on the Glasgow subway? Most importantly… how can I be part of that?
I had always loved journalism and writing, but was never too sure on how to get into this space.
Nobody in my family had any connections to the creative industry, and I had moved to Scotland from Ireland as a wee 18-year-old, so I didn’t feel part of any community yet, creative or otherwise.
During my time at University, I did my best to manoeuvre myself into this space, joining a student journalism publication and working my way up the ranks to Editor-in-Chief. However, like all good things, this had to come to an end, and the (nearly) quarter-life crisis began—which career path will I take?
So, after researching whether I was eligible to take part in the UNLOCKED internship, and more about Story Shop, I thought I would try out the industry adjacent to journalism… PR. Having dealt with PR requests on the flip side, I thought I would give it a go.
Starting Story Shop, I was able to learn everything from the ground up, and I couldn’t have asked for a better training ground for a PR novice like myself. Henry, Gregor, and Mads were all journalists themselves, so they know exactly what makes a good story, and what people want to read. I learnt everything there was to do with PR in a short amount of time, and by the end of the first week, I had sent Henry across a draft press release for one of our clients (casually).
With Story Shop, most things are a ‘yes’, and the wildest ideas are never considered silly.
PR is such a creative realm to work in, and I really appreciated working in a team that valued creative, unconventional approaches to projects.
During my internship, I gave it my all, and in true Story Shop fashion, I said ‘yes’ to any opportunity that came my way… even if I had no clue how to tackle it. And that leads me to my biggest piece of advice for other UNLOCKED interns: never stop asking questions. It is such a cliché, but asking questions (no matter how rogue they may seem) is the quickest way to learn, and the best way to avoid making mistakes.
Through UNLOCKED, I have found an industry where I feel both comfortable and valued– something I could have never imagined before embarking upon this programme.
I will always be the biggest advocate for both Story Shop and the UNLOCKED programme, and again, I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved (and the TikTok algorithm) for changing my life with these opportunities.