The end of my internship at Therapy Focus

Well it has certainly been a rollercoaster and an eye opener at Therapy Focus, from creating speeches, media releases to cleaning out the back room and organising Sunny’s Roadshow! I feel that I have dabbled in it all and come away confident with the skills and knowledge that I can perform well in the work place.

From being in an internship and being exposed to the amount of work and the variety as well, I have come to realise how much and how little our university degree prepares us.

On one hand the majority of work that I have had to do, media releases, prepping speeches, check lists, events, web pages etc are all covered in one unit! One semester of work dedicated to what we will have to do almost every day. While I am grateful for that one unit, I have to wonder whether it was really enough? Does prepping one media release, one speech or designing one web page really prepare you for what you will ultimately face in the work force- to be honest NO!

I have had to write several media releases by now, and I must admit I am gaining more confidence in my skills. But it makes me wonder, after two and half years at university I am more confident in my essay skills and my report skills than the daily bread and butter of PR.

If we did not have professional practice as our last unit how many of us would feel confident in our skills? How many of us would enter the work force and have no idea where to start? I am sure of course that our employers would look after us and coach us, but in reality after almost 3 years I had expected to feel more comfortable and confident in my future role in PR.

Don’t get me wrong, I love PR, I loved university and my classes, even the ones I didn’t do too well at. But doing this unit really highlights that theory can only get you so far, and that the only real way to gain confidence is to be in the work place, gaining experience and feedback from professionals who one day may become your peers.

Saying all this, there are some things I am grateful for: being able to articulate myself to a number of people from a variety of backgrounds, understanding the importance in dealing with respect in all aspects of communication, the value of feedback as well as in ways that are totally unexpected as I found out when I wrote an email for my sister.

My sister is currently studying at Tafe and is looking at doing some work experience, and wanted me to check an email that she was sending to an employer. After reading it through I deleted it and started it again. Afterwards she asked me how I learned to write so well. This to me highlighted the difference in our educations- to me writing a formal email was something that I didn’t need to think about anymore.

I then had to try to explain to her that over the last three years I have had to contact a number of people from a variety of backgrounds, only last semester I sent out almost 50 emails to potential employers for my internship! And after writing reports and essays and reading so many academic papers every semester, that eventually it all rubbed off.

My advice to her was to read some articles and reports that are not what she would normally read and see where that would lead her.

After my years at university and now my internship, this is not the first piece of advice I have given. As a result I would like to sum up what I have learned and would say to future PR students and interns and wished someone had said to me when I started.

Don’t start university unless you’re sure of what you want to do- and the only way to do this is through experience.

Pay attention to class, but ultimately theory and grades are not everything, getting A’s in class does not mean you will come out better in the long run.

What does get you noticed is your work experience, not just in a PR capacity but in general, if you have a proven track record, that you are loyal, dedicated and get along well with everyone can go a long way for an employer as this shows potentially whether you will make a good member of the organisation.

Your extra curricular activities may be a stepping stone, if you enjoy sports, arts or dance etc then why not apply in these areas for your internship? Your experience and passion for the activity means that you have great background knowledge and foundation which can help with different activities and suggestions.

And finally- start thinking about where you want to end up once you finish university. Where you want to be and who you want to work for are key questions and start thinking about the steps you need to take to get there- classes you will need to do well in, contacts you could make, experience you could gain. Because ultimately this is what could make the difference in getting a job or not!

Thanks to everyone that has got me to where I am today and best of luck to everyone with their reports and getting in to the work force!!