The Impending Internship

(Written on Saturday 27th July 2013)

Hello there fellow PR 393’ers!

Firstly, I think an introduction is in order. My name is Jamie Kho, I’m studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing & Public Relations) and this semester, I only have this unit to complete before I graduate. University has just flown by, which I am sure a lot of you would agree with. I hope you guys enjoy reading my blog and I hope to gain many insights into how your internship experiences went as well.

That's me on the left there - if you ever see me around campus, please come and say hi. I'm a very nice person once you get to know me!

As I have yet to start my internship, this blog post is going to be dedicated to the “journey” I took in securing a placement. When I first decided to search for internship options, I asked myself: “what do I want to do after I graduate?” Many things came to mind; media relations, event management, attending business meetings and crisis management were all things that I wanted to at least experience once.

There were so many options that I really didn’t know where to start. I ended up creating a list of about fifteen possible organisations. From there, I called them one by one. Some said they were not currently looking for interns, others told me to call back at a closer date. The one thing that infuriated me the most was there was one organisation which shall remain nameless as I don’t wish to tarnish anyone’s reputation in this blog, said they were interested and would call me back soon. After a week of waiting, I called back. “Oh yes, we are still interested. We’ll call you soon.” One more week past. “Yes, we will call you back as soon as we can confirm dates.” Another two weeks past and still no response. I called back and once again received the same reply. This made me question, as I had exhausted all other possible organisations on the list, I had hedged all my bets on this one company. Should I have continued looking elsewhere instead of hoping for acceptance here? Or was the organisation to blame for giving me “false hope?”

It soon dawned on me though that they were not going to call me back and after wasting weeks on waiting for this company, I knew I had to continue my search for a placement elsewhere. I know at university we’re taught to maintain a certain level of professionalism in the workplace, especially with external stakeholders and yet, I know that this doesn’t always stand true as I had just experienced. This experience only made me step back and re-evaluate how I wanted to behave in the workplace. Professionalism, honesty and dedication are my three cornerstones that I decided would be the backbone of my work ethic and this is all thanks to a failed internship request. Who knew?! There is always a silver lining!

So as you guys now know, I had to continue my internship search. Stressed for time now, as I really didn’t know what career path I wanted to pursue, much like an epiphany, it came to me. Consultancy! Of course, it was right in front of me the whole time. Rather than attempt to work at a specialised organisation, a consultancy would allow me to experience most, if not all aspects of public relations and put all the theoretical knowledge I had leant at uni into practice. First organisation on my list: PPR. Who could go past it? Being the largest PR firm in WA, I had to at least try to get a placement here. I knew it would be competitive but as they say: you have to be in it to win it! As luck would have it, I secured my internship here and could not be happier. I am going to be able to experience many
different aspects of public relations and hope to gain as much knowledge as I can from the accumulation of years and years of experience withheld by the consultants at PPR. I can’t wait and I will keep you guys posted on how it all goes!

Happy Blogging!

Jamie ;)