Hi everyone and welcome to my first blog post. Like many of
you, I have recently completed an internship as part of the Curtin University unit, Public Relations 393 (Professional Practice). This blog will serve as a forum for
reflection on the day to day experiences (good and bad) and musings of a third
year Journalism and Public Relations students trying to get by in the ‘real’
and not always glamorous world of PR, marketing and event management.
So, where to start?
I have a serious problem with making decisions. When it came
to applying for university, along with PR, I was tossing up between marine biology,
environmental science, English literature, politics, history, archaeology and
about a billion other things. I feel
exactly the same way when it comes to looking beyond my PR degree. Not-for-profit?
Fashion? Events? Music? In house? Consultancy? Whatever Samantha does on Sex and
the City?
So, when it came time to look for an internship – let’s be
honest, I was lost.
When I saw that Corporate Sports Australia (CSA) was taking
on PR interns, I thought why not? While sports was never an area I’d considered
working in, I figured this would be a great opportunity to get some practical
experience in a challenging environment – working behind the scenes on Western
Australia’s largest community sporting event – the ‘City to Surf.’
Day 1 – ‘Lets feed
the interns to the sharks’
I was pretty nervous about my first day – mostly because I have
very little experience in the ‘real world’ of PR. While I have gained excellent knowledge of the industry through
my studies, it is still a huge leap to go from assembling a communications plan
for a client you have never met, to providing practical and feasible recommendations
for someone who is actually asking for your assistance.
Nerves aside, my first day at the CSA office started off
much as I expected. Myself and another intern were introduced the small team of
about fifteen staff. Throughout the internship as a PR/Events intern I would
primarily be working with three people at CSA; the Event Manager, the Marketing and Media Coordinator and the Volunteer Coordinator. While
CSA is essentially a consultancy, for the duration of my internship I would be
working solely on the City to Surf.
We were then given a DVD to watch as an
introduction to the event. While I was able to gain an insight into what the
event is and it’s history, I was left with no knowledge of the organisation
itself, the vision and mission of CSA or the role of
PR/Marketing/Advertising within the organisation.
With this in mind, I was giving my first major and
completely unanticipated task.
Presumably, my supervisor had not intended to make my head
explode on my first day. Or, maybe she had. Nonetheless after watching the DVD
and perusing the City to Surf website, I was asked to create a ‘Marketing
Operations Plan’ for a major sponsor.
I feigned some confidence and gratefully accepted a very
brief document with a list of headings I was to include in this ‘plan.’ They
included things like contra management, sponsorship details, services offered by
CSA, volunteer coordination plus many, many, more. (cue head exploding)
Looking back now, the report seems relatively straightforward. Yet on my first day at a new organisation, I was absolutely lost. Ahem,
Contra management? Yet by some miracle and after many questions, I managed to
create an altogether not-too-shabby report!
To sum up my first day of interning:
- I think it would have been beneficial to both the interns and CSA itself to conduct a formal briefing session before we commenced our internships. Looking back now, there are many things I would have done differently and possibly better, had I received some initial information.
- Being an intern was not as daunting as I had anticipated. The people were friendly and happy to answer any questions I had.
- No one asked me to get coffee or collect their dry-cleaning. WIN
- I LOVE having an excuse to dress corporate and power walk through the city with an air of self-importance like the other business people!
Alanna
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