Half way to somewhere

Hello there,

My internship experience at West Australian Ballet has been fantastic so far! I can not believe how the time has flown. I am more than half way through and it seems like I just began my journey yesterday! The office environment is friendly and inviting, and I believe this is the reason why I am enjoying my experience so much. 

The Ballet has closed  over the Christmas period however I will start up again on the 6th of January. 

I have learned a lot about the industry despite the short time I have been interning. I was unsure of what exactly the role would entail. I assumed public relations practitioners to have strict deadlines similar to that of a journalistic career. I thought I would find myself in situations that were just as hectic. But having entered this industry I have realised that it is actually a quite laid back career pathway. I thought deadlines for media releases, newsletters, clippings and  social media plans would be tight. From West Australian Ballet I have learned that organisational skills and a strategic plan are key to success. Once the PR department is organised (like WAB), staff can spend a week working on a brilliant media release and pass it around to ensure perfection. I found this style of a collaborative approach suits me. I can understand the value of having multiple practitioners overlooking multiple project.

It is interesting to enter an organisation as a young person who had never worked in an office before. I felt as if I had gone back in time after my first  few days within the office. Although systems work reasonably well, I feel that West Australian Ballet could develop more contemporary and efficient business information systems within the office to eliminate menial tasks and clerk errors. This would help to produce more effective services for customers and enable staff to attend to more important tasks. Although the staff ranges from a span of young to elderly people I feel that the systems in place do not cover all aspects of the business and that the systems lack a modern approach. Excel spread sheets are used alongside a computer information system known as ACT. Paper is still used as a primary medium within the office and I believe this should be eliminated. On the other hand, the company has a customer base of mainly elderly people and I understand that paper systems are important for the majority of customer. There is a divide within the business industry. Some offices are embracing change whilst others hold on to older methods. As a young person entering the workforce in 2014 I assumed that more than 90% of offices are paperless and that technology is embraced. This is not the case. To me, this was quite a shock.