What I can say about this strategy, is a couple of things.
One is that I am super thankful that I kept a list of all the tasks I performed during my time there. It refreshes my memory to look back and reflect on what I did and it also jogs my memory in case there was something I happened to leave off my list. My list was pretty easy to make up, just add a couple of things here and there as I did them and now I have an easy to read record of things that I can quickly refer back to. I have actually done two other work experience jobs in the past and I never recorded anything in terms of what jobs I did and how I contributed and seriously, if I had to write a report on those past experiences right now, I don't know where I'd start because I've mostly forgotten the exact tasks I performed. I mean, I could tell you the general gist of it, but I couldn't personally attribute anything to myself really in the scheme of things, where my Open Day 'diary' kind of does it for me!
Another is that, by giving myself a little break, I find I am a bit more motivated to do my report. After giving so much time and energy to Open Day for six odd weeks, I felt a little tired of it and didn't really want to do anything more to do with it! Only kidding really, I did enjoy it loads, but it feels good now to look back on it and write about it rather than still feeling the stress from it and trying to write about it then! And I needed a little breather, as I was doing full-days, three times a week at Curtin, then doing my regular job on the other two days - during the semester break too - so I basically finished up classes in Sem 1 only to spend the entire break at uni before going back in Sem 2!
Also, while doing my degree has taught me the theory and some practical elements of working in the PR industry, during my time actually doing it, I don't think I ever really thought to myself, 'oh, how am I supposed to do that?' or 'what did the textbook teach me about that?', rather, when given a job, I just got on with it and did it and didn't really think technically about it. But now that I am actually having to compile a report about it, it gives me a chance to really review what I have learnt in the last couple of years and see where it came into practice both in the jobs/work I was actually doing and within the corporate team I was a part of.
Also, I'm keen to learn more about event management when doing research for my assignment. I think sometimes we all think event management is a great, glamorous aspect of PR - which sometimes it can be - but really, it's not ever focused on in our units. It's a career path we know exists and that our skills can be used for, but it's not really taught to us specifically, like, say media or international PR is. So I'm kind of looking forward to finding some research or journal articles about it and seeing how they can relate to my time working for Open Day.
Overall, I'm glad to be nearing the end of my last year at Curtin and I'm super thankful to the team at Corp Comms for giving me a chance and taking me on during their biggest event of the university calendar!
Best of luck to everyone who is in the same boat as me and writing your reports! I will be anxiously awaiting results come the end of the year!
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