University Life Lessons

Hi everyone,

Coming up to the half way mark of my 20 day internship with the Emirates Western Force and although I’m contracted for the entire 2013 Super Rugby Season and will be here regardless of the completion of 20 days work or not, I thought I would fill you all in with some of the most rewarding lessons I’ve had thus far.

Firstly, I’ve always cursed group assignments for a number of reasons: weak links in the group, insane workload with limited time span, differing of opinions between members... I can go on forever, but I’ve only recently realized how this has translated into the business environment. Every one of these lessons I’ve experienced firsthand in my short time at RugbyWA, these are all issues that come up on a day to day basis, there is always someone absent and unable to contribute fully, there is always a difference in opinion and most importantly: there is never enough time, everything is required yesterday. Those pains in the #youknowwhat group assignments that have been the bane of our university life have been valuable lessons to prepare us for what the real world will deliver. They prepare us how to cope in a team environment and I have to say, if I hadn’t of gone through that, I wouldn’t be working in a major sporting club where teams are EVERYTHING!

Secondly, always go back to the basics; the amount of times I’ve had to refer back to my notes from either PR media or PR techniques is insane. It’s silly how easily you can forget how to put together a fact sheet/ backgrounder, even now when I’m trying to put together my first media release I keep referring back to the ‘Inverted Pyramid’ slide from one of the first lectures in PR Techniques. In fact the only portion of my degree that I STILL haven’t found any use for is Public Relations Corporate.  

Finally you can never be too prepared for a meeting. On my first day at RugbyWA I was told I would be sitting in on a meeting with The Crusaders agent 2 minutes before the meeting started (For those who don’t know, The Crusaders are an opposition team from New Zealand and their agent is the person who basically looks after the team during their visits). I was in panic mode, I knew nothing about who this guy was, his team’s recent form, or even what the meeting was about. In the end I just ended up sitting lifelessly in the corner, unable to contribute anything more than an odd chuckle here and there (talk about embarrassing!). Thankfully for my second meeting of the day, I was given a one hour ‘heads-up’ before lunch that I would be meeting with the Head of the Australian Rugby Union about an exhibition match in June. I skipped lunch and did as much research as I possibly could and am glad to say that I was able to contribute much more than a simple room echo!

It’s amazing how much you can learn/have to learn in 10 days in the working world. Thanks for reading my second blog contribution in as many days, but I feel I had to commemorate my halfway mark in some way, shape or form J.

Good luck my fellow amigos!

Elliott Telfer

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