With my first week of work experience behind me, I approach my second week with a mix of excitement and slight nervousness. I say this because it is the first time where I actually feel challenged in a workplace, where I am constantly surrounded by interactions and information which genuinely sparks my interest and encourages me to think.
I will backtrack a bit before I elaborate; I am undertaking my work experience at the RAC head office on Wellington Street in West Perth, assisting the Public Relations and Corporate Communications team. I have decided to begin my work experience in the holidays, working 2 days a week for 10 weeks, which allows me to manage my time between uni and my jobs more effectively!
My first day was a little overwhelming - I was standing in the large foyer of a five-story building which the whole company owned and occupied, not knowing what I would be doing, what was expected of me, or even if I would remember anything I have learnt over the past three years! Regardless, I was intrigued to see how other companies operated, especially one as large and prominent as the RAC, and how a marketing department operated in real life. So when I was led through the colourful doors and up the elevator the floor where Corporate Communications lived, I was relieved to meet a group of very friendly people, who greeted me cheerfully and seemed genuinely pleased to have me there.
I was seated at a desk with a nice view of West Perth and given some writing materials to read - a copy of the member magazine Horizons, the RAC member publication Radiator, and a few recent media releases. As I am a member of the RAC, I regularly read Horizons, but it was interesting to read it from a different angle, focusing on the structure of each paragraph in the articles, the article content, the vocabulary and writing style used, as well as the clear theme and message which resonated through each piece. This enabled me to familiarise myself with the techniques and styles that the company like to use.
After meeting numerous people and chatting about the company and its PR efforts, my first task over the first week was to do a bit of media organising and analysing. This task involved using the media tracking service Media Monitors to sort relevant news pieces from different campaigns into folders. The news pieces are all from a number of different sources published in different media vehicles. It was a useful exercise, and not at all as monotonous and tedious as my supervisor thought it might be for me, as it was interesting to see the type of information that was being published, and which media outlets were the most favoured.
Once I had organised the articles in their appropriate folders, I turned to the task of analysis and evaluation, where I generated a number of relevant charts and tables displaying information such as volume, audience numbers and Comparative Advertising Space Rates (ASR). These charts enable the Public Relations department to effectively evaluate their efforts, with regards to how many articles they are getting published, how many people they are reaching, and the potential cost of the space used if it had been purchased as advertsing instead of using public relations.
My next task is to compile this information into reports that the Corporate Communications Department can use to show how effective the use of Public Relations is in the RAC. I must admit, I did not realise how effective it was until I analysed some of the charts – some campaigns generated a huge reach, and used an equivalent of $100,000 of advertising space!
Alongside this, I am assisting the Department with compiling short biographies of the RAC’s Council members, to be published on the website. The idea behind this is that they want their Council members to be more visible to their members. This task is not too difficult at all, and mainly relies on my writing and editing skills.
Probably the most interesting (and nerve-wracking!) experience so far was the brainstorming session which I had with both my supervisors. He photocopied me some survey results, and from these, we brainstormed possible story ideas. I wasn't quite sure what type of stories they were looking for, but once they started I got the hang of it. It was quite amazing to see how quickly they came up with stories, and how clever they were at analysing the survey results. I was very impressed! I just hope that next time I won't be afraid to share my ideas or thoughts from fear of being wrong or completely on the wrong track! Oh well, that's a learning curve!
All in all, I am enjoying my placement so far and I am excited to go back next week. Tonight, my supervisor invited me to attend a PR Young Guns Sundowner with them, so that sounds like a great way to chat with my supervisor more!
Amanda Johnston
Bentley Campus
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