What I've learnt so far.....

I am now 7 weeks into my internship with Perth Zoo, and still thoroughly enjoying myself! I am just going to warn you all that this blog is going to be a looooong one; I have learnt A LOT over the last few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago I made the daunting transition from completing my internship project from the comfort of home, to joining the Marketing/Business Development Team in the offices at the Zoo.

I have already learnt many valuable lessons from working in an office environment, because it is something I have never done before, this is already one of the clear benefits of completing this unit.

The first valuable lesson I learnt is; bring your own mug! On my first day I really wanted a cup of tea to help me concentrate and to warm me up, and ended up having to borrow one from the kitchen, not knowing who it belonged to. I was worried that someone was going to come looking for their mug and not be able to find it because the obnoxious intern had taken it! From then on, I have been sure to pack my mug in my handbag every week to avoid any possible awkwardness.

The second valuable lesson I have learnt since joining the team at the office is how to stay focused. The Perth Zoo office is a very busy place, there are constantly people coming in and out and meeting various members of the team for different things each day – this sometimes makes it difficult to continue on with my work when people around me are chatting, organising things or making phone calls. I have learnt to try to block out the buzz of the office and carry on with what I am doing and although initially it was difficult, it is definitely becoming easier.

Thirdly, I have learnt just how important it is to stay on top of emails. I was extremely excited when I was given my Perth Zoo email address, which meant I could now communicate with my co-workers much more easily. With this however, comes the task of replying to relevant emails and deleting those that are irrelevant. This week showed me just how time consuming emails can actually be. As I am only in the office once a week, the emails build up over the week until the next time I am there and I found myself spending a solid 45 minutes just sifting through everything I had been sent. I can definitely say that keeping on top of emails when I get out into the ‘real world’ will be a MUST!

My project for Perth Zoo requires me to develop an implantation plan for effective community communications; I have been working tirelessly to research and develop this project, and met up with my supervisor this week to discuss my progress. I was a little bit shocked and scared to find out that I have been a little too ‘academic’ in my approach to this project.

Having spent the last 4 years of my life at Curtin, I have become very accustomed to the way lecturers and tutors expect your assignments and projects to be. It was amazing to find out that I will not (unless I go into academia) have to produce an academic style report once I leave uni. Ceri worked through my project with me, to pull out the parts that were useful and heading in the right direction and helped me to make my project more ‘corporate’ and CEO friendly. Ceri offered invaluable insight into what CEO’s and management will expect of me in the real world, and I am extremely grateful to have had his guidance – otherwise I would not have known that the work I was producing may not have ever been looked at by the CEO and manager’s because it is too ‘fluffy’ (as I was told)!

I am really happy that I have been shown something so useful, something that will benefit me in my career and I would not have been able to learn something like this, without the PR 393 experience. I would seriously struggle to produce something worthwhile in the corporate world, straight out of uni, if I hadn’t had the opportunity to learn and practice the skills I have learnt throughout my degree – as I have had in this internship.

My supervisor also showed me this great website where you can see papers and presentations that people all over the world have done, it’s a great one if you want to gather a broader view on a topic, or you need a starting point for something. The website is called Slideshare (www.slideshare.net) and I have found it to be extremely useful to help brainstorm my project, and help to guide my research.

Overall, the experience so far has been a little daunting, but more than anything, very helpful. Without this unit, and without the opportunity to go into a workplace and see what goes on, and be part of a proper, real life, experienced PR and Marketing team, I think that my experience in my first career job would be a lot more challenging and scary than it will be now. I feel so lucky!

Anyway, I think you have all heard enough from me now.

I’m sure there will be more to report back next week. I hope you’re all enjoying your placements as much as me!

Elle :)