I've just finished my second week of my placement and I can't believe how much I've learnt in just a mere four days! I'm doing my internship at Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO) - a company I'm sure you all know or at least heard about. I was both nervous and excited on my first day -I think because it is such a large company, but I mixed and used these two emotions and I think so far it's going well.
My first day consisted of mainly inductions to the computer systems etc. However, one very long document that I found interesting was 'Rio Tinto; in our own words' which clearly described how to write the Rio Tinto tone of voice in all documents to further help portray the unified brand of the company. I learnt that in comparison to uni essay's and reports were we need to meet a word count, less is more at Rio Tinto which sounds easy but I'm finding a bit challening at times. Though a very nice co-worker of mine told me to write as if I had to pay for each word, so that is helping!
In addition to learning the Rio Tinto language I've also sat in on a variety of meetings such as:
- Overview of Community Investment, Government Relations
- CER Team meeting (this involves everyone in comms and is held monthly)
- Safety meeting
- Lunchbox meeting
- Movember meeting and,
- A global conference call with other head offices regarding the 2012 London Olympics and Rio Tinto's involvement.
Learning the ropes and how all the different roles within corporate communications (community investment, government realtions etc) come together has really put into perspective everything we have done during our degree to date. For example, when sitting with community investment I have seen how media analysis, media clippings and an understanding of the leverage from sponsorship and partnerships are used outside the classroom.
I've also seen firsthand how PR Corporate 360 is so important to any company particularly one involved in the mining and resource industry. I began to understand how vital crisis communications is, as an incident in the Pilbara was discussed at one of my very first meetings. The incident put into practice everything we had discussed last semester in our lectures with Nigel about being prompt with all media, government and employee liasion and to never say no comment!
Not only have I gone from meeting to meeting but I've also had the chance to write a few articles for the weekly RTIO newsletter, the 'Iron Ore Update' which has definitely tested my writing skills.
I could go on forever as I've learnt so much but I shall leave it all for my next blog. Until then feel free to check out RTIO's Community Investment website that I've been helping the team with, by following this link http://www.ciwa.riotinto.com/ .
I hope you all have a good weekend and everyone's prac is going well.
Alison Peters
Bentley Campus.
2 comments:
How amazing is this job !
This is something I would be interested in doing. How did you go about getting this placement? Are you thinking of staying on?
I hope Rio Tinto are looking after you let us know how the rest of the job goes.
Hi Ivana,
Sorry I havent seen this earlier, blogger needs to change its system so your updated with a notification!
Well I've learnt that half the time it's who you know not necessarily what you know. Born and breed in the Pilabara, Rio Tinto has always been apart of my life and my dad, after 25 years still works for the company. So I asked him to have a look on his Rio database for the manager of Commmunications & External Relations. He then forwarded me the email, i sent my resume through and explained the placement and was stoked to see such a large company had the time to reply to me.
Im not to sure if i'll stay on. Its a huge company so if not I understand. Though a quite a few people in the office have explained that I should apply for the Grad program, though i'm still undecided.
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