final instalment
Hey guys, here is perhaps my final instalment in the story of the girl who started writing her blog after her placement!
I’m really not too sure what I should tell you all, you all seem to have had such wide ranging experiences and have done what I have done, if not more. I think I will take this opportunity to tell you about the things that I have been involved in during my placement that perhaps I hadn’t quite expected.
To give you a bit of background, Sascha not only works for the City of Swan, she also has her own consultancy called PMS (Professional Marketing Services). Within her role as a consultant she has a number of other clients, as a result during my placement with Sascha I was able to work on a few other things.
My first exciting foray outside of the City of Swan was with Sascha to the Italian council’s yacht race! What fun! So on my second Friday with Sascha I met her at the Royal Perth yacht club, helped her set up food and merchandise for the event, liaised with staff, I generally had a great time! I found it a wonderful way to meet another wide range of people I perhaps wouldn’t have met (forever expanding that list of contacts!). The most important thing I learnt from this event was that PR professional’s have to have a box of tricks with her (or him) at all times (Sascha had a wonderful box of goodies that had everything you could possibly ever need!) Very useful when having to attach trade displays to the wall when it gets a bit windy!
The second non-City of Swan experience I had was at the Camping and Caravanning Expo at the Royal Show grounds... not an event I regularly attend!
I had a bazaar day telling people about the Fitzroy Crossing Inn and providing information about the region. Sascha had given me some information to read so I knew a bit and she had assured me that no one asks any hard questions. I ended up having a great time, standing talking to couples about Fitzroy Crossing (I have never been) and talking about their experiences. I gave out boxes and boxes of brochures and had a great time chatting to the people from the Victorian tourism council! So basically I had a day chatting! Fab!
I think what I have been trying to imply in this post is that while I may not have expected to be carrying out these tasks, they made me realise that PR practitioners have a number of different hats they wear on a day to day basis, and that you have to be prepared to do anything!
End of story four.
Moral of the story- PR is fun; you get to do a range of rad things!
Thanks for reading my story of a girl who started blogging after her placement!
Robyn
xxx
1 comment:
Robyn, you’re not the only one, I too started blogging after I had completed my placement!
Although I’m not expecting any marks for the timeliness of my blogs, I’ve tried hard to write quality blogs about my time at the Department for Communities, as well as PR in general. I was proud of my time at the Department for Communities and I felt I did a good job on the tasks I was given. There is nothing I would change.
On the topic of not expecting a few things whilst on placement, I too was surprised at the fact that they really throw you in the deep end at government departments. This may have something to do with the fact that the department I was at is quite understaffed, but I also believe they are really confident with the quality of students that come from Curtin. My supervisor actually said to me they probably wouldn’t take on students from any other university, purely because Curtin students have a lot more ‘real-life’ experience. They also make you feel like one of the team, and they can see the potential that students have. They know that we have a lot to offer and aren’t afraid to ask questions or offer suggestions.
I think the real-life experience my supervisor is taking about is the use of real clients for assignments. I was lucky enough to do an assignment on The Global Good Foundation last semester for Consultancy, as well as Rotary for PR Media the semester before that. All of this experience gave me more of an idea of what PR in the real world is really about.
I’m planning on gaining more experience once I’ve finished my exams, and I would love to try out consultancy work this time round.
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