I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to undertake my work experience placement at Professional Public Relations (PPR) in Perth. My placement started early August but I, like many others it seems, have only just begun blogging because I have been so daunted by the idea of it! So, now that I have finally decided I NEED to get on top of blogging it seems best to start from the beginning!
My first day at PPR started as you would expect. I was given a bit of a tour and introduced to the staff who were all very friendly and welcoming! After this I spent a few hours at reception where I learnt a lot about how PPR operates on a day to day basis. I also learnt how PPR do their media clippings for clients, and that with Perth Fashion Festival only a few weeks away there would be A LOT of clippings to do (which turned out to be very true).
My first task for a consultant was to make phone calls on behalf of client - something I actually found quite scary to start with as I have never really had to make professional phone calls!
The rest of my first placement week was full of researching, drafting emails, media evaluations, liaising with contacts on behalf of clients, and much more!
Even though it was only my first week, I really felt like I was learning a lot and gaining fantastic knowledge on how public relations consultancies operate in the 'real world'. I left my first week feeling incredibly tired but looking forward to finding out what the next week of my placement would bring :)
2 comments:
Hi Sam
I look forward to hearing more about what you have learnt at PPR seeing as your placement is well known in the industry. It is amazing how much you can learn by going out into the workplace even it is just through observation. I have finished my internship and I enjoyed it. Although the consultancy I worked with is smaller the tasks are much the same.
I also found professional phone calls to people I didn’t know daunting too but you soon learn that they are just people too. =)
Another thing I learnt is the amount of research that goes into PR. This means in a consultancy you are dealing with a number of areas depending on the client type.
I have worked a good deal of time in social media. Have you done the same?
Look forward to reading more of your blogs and what you have learnt.
From Joelle
Hey Sam!
I loved reading about your experience at PPR, it must be incredibly exciting to work with such a well known firm in the industry. I'm currently interning with the Young UNiFEM Perth, although it is a non-for-profit organisation, I think I'll be learning quite a bit from them.
On handling professional calls, I first experienced that feeling when I was doing my Radio News unit for Journalism. Calling up unknown people and asking for interviews, only to get turned down in a tone where you know theyre not interested in talking to you at all (only because you're a student journalist) was just really horrible. But it did get a little better, and it definitely helped in boosting up my level of confidence after a while.
Looking forward to reading more of your blogs!
Ashwini Sivanantham
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