The icing on the cake

Baking a delicious cake takes time, ingredients and a little bit of TLC. Making a decadent culinary masterpiece is only complete however, when you finish it with a generous application of icing. Thankfully I can consider myself a scrumptious and moist cake WITH great PR knowledge as opposed to a dry and crumbly mess who might fall apart on the plate, or the professional world as it may be, thanks to my internship. It was the icing on my cake. 

There is no substitute for hands-on experience when you are learning any profession, trade or skill. You can spend hours, weeks or even years in a classroom attempting to perfect the talents needed to succeed, but until you truly enter into that world yourself, you will never have a complete grasp of the learning you have undertaken.

Yesterday I finished my professional placement with the beautiful and helpful people at Clubs WA. After just 20 short days my internal PR playbook has become a proverbial encyclopaedia of communicative knowledge and titbits. The real life challenges I faced were invaluable in preparing me for a transition into the work place upon graduation. Yesterday's challenge however was learning to bake cupcakes for the team as a thank you. Nothing in my past Curtin PR units prepared  me for that! Don't be too concerned though, they were delicious.

In the real professional world there are real professional clients, with real expectations. Real money is being spent on strategies, campaigns and events. Real deadlines must be adhered to or there will be real consequences. Having the safety net of university that cushioned my fall with assignment extensions and strategies where we could only make evaluations based on conjecture or guesswork, pulled out from underneath me was the best possible learning experience the tertiary institution could give me.

I was provided the opportunity to employ my learned skills of professional writing, event planning, graphic design, media relations, market research and a whole range of additional professional tasks – including the joys of administrative work like putting sticky labels on envelopes, and for this I am hugely grateful.

Right at the crux of public relations theory is the concept of communicating with people in ways that they find accessible and appealing. The wide variety of people I was able to interact with throughout my internship has illuminated new ways of communicating with others. From fellow co-workers and clients, to outside media or business we hired to assist in strategies, it was the way I communicated with them that was the key to making progress and being successful.

Thank you Curtin and Clubs WA for everything and thank you all for joining me on this learning adventure.

Blair