Our class trip to Hill and Knowlton

On Wednesday November 9 our PR class ventured into the big city of Toronto to visit one of the most globally recognized PR firms, Hill and Knowlton (H&K). Even though this firm is widely celebrated around the world, to some of the smaller PR firms H&K is not very well liked. I personally found this belief to be very interesting and wondered why this is.

So, as the 5 different employees from H&K got up and spoke to our class during the hour and a half presentation I decided to grade H&K based on the pro's and con's of this company.

I will start off with some of the con's that I thought of before the presentation began and then move into the pro's that I found after viewing their presentation.

•  One of the first cons that I thought of was that this company is massive and the number of employees they have must be astronomical. If you were to work here you may not feel as close to the other employees.

• The next con that came to mind was that this would be a scary, intimidating place, with serious people who do not have any fun at work.

• And to round off the con list, H&K as a whole did not seem to be well liked by the smaller owned PR firms. Who really wants to work for a company that is not well liked?

Even though there are some important cons to be aware of, I personally think that in this case the pro's definitely outnumber the con's. I will be the first to admit that I had my doubts about H&K, and I thought of them as the scary, corporate, business-attire-wearing robots. Though, throughout the course of their presentation they completely changed my mind and gave me some things to think about!

• For instance, as a young professional one of the biggest pro's was that H&K represents a strong, stable company that takes care of their employees, and also appreciates their hard work.

• Another huge pro that I found came from the description that Shannon Mitchell gave about the team dynamic that occurs at H&K.

• One of the pro's that definitely cannot be overlooked is the beer cart and the ice cream sandwich cart that comes around to the employees during work hours.

• Adding another pro to the list, H&K also allows their employees to visit some of their offices around the world, for work related trips.

• To create an even stronger bond between their employees they have also developed a social committee so that co-workers can get together outside of work and socialize with each other.

• Lastly, one of the things that a classmate had mentioned to me is that she enjoyed the fact that H&K has many different departments and there is something there for everyone!

In reality I think that this company has a lot to offer to young budding professionals who are looking to get their foot in the door and have a great career. Now, this may be a company that works long hours, has a large cliental list as well as a demanding schedule, but at the end of the day they are a strong, large, multi-national company that truly does value its employees. 

I think that our class was grateful for the time that Shannon, Rob, Summer, Meredith and Allison put into our visit. And I also think that each of us walked out of that office with a new perspective about Hill & Knowlton.

Here for your viewing pleasure is the song "Defying Gravity" from the play Wicked. I would love to have the opportunity to work with Hill & Knowlton, and I really think that it is a WICKED PR Firm, but not wicked in the sense that the play uses!