First World Issues: Chocolate or Vanilla?!

My journey throughout my University life has not always gone quite as smoothly as I may have hoped. As a young, wide eyed, impressionable 17 year old I actually commenced my studies at Notre Dame University destined to be a high school teacher. Needless to say the Gen Y stereotype well and truly kicked in, as I decided to leave that course of study as of a week of experiencing exhilarating explanations of lesson plans, “basic IT” (how to put together a PowerPoint- seriously?!) and the joys of marking hundreds of student exam papers; nooo thank you! 

As a result of my very definite decision not to pursue teaching (funnily enough I know teach adults Pilates- go figure) I chose to pursue what many of my friends considered the safe vanilla option- Business. Lovely, not so excitable (or so it seemed), safe business. Being a bit of a chatty Kathy I immediately chose Marketing then later on PR to major in for my degree and for that I am extremely grateful.

Having finally reached that almost Mount Everest like challenge of ACTUALLY getting to the last semester at University, marketing and PR has served my overactive brain well. A degree that requires a certain amount of drive and dedication seeing as you do only spend around a maximum of 12 hours at Uni, has taught me the integral lessons of absolutely never giving up. Which brings me to my internship. Me being quite the busy lass, I did like so many other students before commit the cardinal sin of leaving the organisation of my internship to the last minute, that’s a big fat woops! My advice to all youngins out there yet to embark on their placement journey; please, please organise yourself early or better yet as one of my class mates did, even complete your placement in the Uni holidays. Shock, horror I know. Completing a placement within the one time period of forced rest and relaxation- seems like another sin. But I digress, back to my mistake. .

I was vey very lucky to have emailed one of my first choice boutique consultancies and hear back from them within the space of a week; they had a position available, brilliant!  However dun dun dun, enter option number two. As Perth people often do, and you will understand this if you are a local, I employed the age-old key PR tactic of networking. Temptingly easy in the place where everyone knows absolutely everyone and I am not exaggerating this (unless you are separated by the river north and south- like separate countries I’m telling you), I managed to secure an interview at the Fremantle Dockers Football Club.  Massive dilemma! It was like choosing from chocolate and vanilla, peanut M&M’s and Crispy, carrot cake and chocolate cake. Both such delicious options but which one to choose?!

In the end my love of fitness and sport tipped the scales and I chose to commence my internship with the Dockers in the Events department as of two weeks ago. So far my experience of the Club has been fascinating. Seeing the inner workings of such a well-known organisation and being to apply the hard earned skills of many years of “back breaking” study (12 loong hours a week…) and endless internships (actually back breaking) has been very rewarding so far. As an AFL Club the Dockers have an endless list of events to execute ranging from the major bi-weekly home game matches, a huge scale operation in itself, to that of sponsorship/ stakeholder lunch functions, the scope and scale of events and PR activities on every level. In saying this the Dockers players have a large list of responsibilities, with a select group of individuals assigned to several off field duties. PR and events involving stakeholder and media management, a daunting task I assure you. That being said it is safe to say that there is never a dull moment interning at the offices! And on that note I will leave you to ponder the mysterious nature of an AFL footballers responsibilities off the field when I discuss my first day on the job; the pre game Starlight Children Foundation stakeholder lunch..   

Until next time,

Lauren