A month can go by pretty quick, can’t it? I
managed to learn so much at PPR, and I feel slightly embarrassed to admit that
I was skeptical about what sort of work I would do. Turns out, it was very
broad.
During the last week and a half of my
placement I was kept pretty busy helping with Percy’s Practice- an East
Metropolitan Medicare Local campaign that is designed to help people find their
nearest after-hours GP. There is quite a strain on emergency services at the
moment, so Percy’s Practice is designed to alleviate some of the pressure on
those services in non-emergency cases, as well as inform people how easy and
accessible going to their local after-hours GP is. Basically, it’s a whole lot
less stressful booking an appointment than waiting at a hospital!
The webpage is a fantastic resource too,
with information for parents and colouring sheets for kids. It’s also a great
design and Percy the owl is very cute!
Here’s a link to webpage: www.percyspractice.com.au
During my time at PPR, I helped create
information packs with stickers, colouring sheets, facts sheets and flyers to
distribute to child care centres within a targeted area. They were much like a
media kit, however we were trying to get the information to parents! It was so
great to see how campaigns like this operate, and even more interesting to see
all the different ways PR professionals can communicate with stakeholders.
Part of my task involved a lot of phone
calls, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m not a fan. But good news- I’m
making progress! The more and more phone calls I made, the less daunting it
became. I found that although I needed a page in front of me to prompt all the
info I needed to say, I found it much easier to not stick to a ‘script’. It
tended to make me tongue-tied, and it’s very hard to get back on track once
you’re off course.
As the month progressed, I really felt like
I was becoming comfortable in the office. Initially, I found it a little
daunting, and I was much shier than normal. So in a way, it was a bit sad
having to leave just as I felt like I had settled in. Did anyone else feel this
way?
To show my appreciation, which is sort of
an intern tradition at PPR, I brought in a massive tray of brownies. They went
down a treat, I got plenty of compliments and felt absolutely no shame in
failing to tell everyone that they were from a packet (haha!). They also proved
a good way to say good-bye and leave on a good note.
Did anyone else bring in a treat on your
last day? Or did they bring in a treat for you?
Hope the semester is treating everyone
well.
Daisy Vogels
14860735
3 comments:
Hi Daisy!
I really enjoyed reading your post. You sound very knowledgeable and professional in your opening paragraphs when talking about the Percy's campaign that you worked on. I find health related campaigns and work quite interesting so it was cool to hear about a real life one you were involved in.
I would be interested to know a little bit about your prompt sheet for the phone calls - I too get a bit flustered when calling people and often ramble a little (probably the worst thing you can do!) so would be interest to hear what type of info you had on the prompt sheet, was it something you developed or a standard tool PPR provided you with? It sounds like a good thing to have handy in your PR toolkit!
Thanks for sharing and well done on what sounds like a great internship! Jessica
ps - packet brownies are the best!
Hi! What an interesting internship you had! I totally agree on the nerves you can get when making phone calls. But I guess practice makes perfect, and in no time we will all be good at making phone calls.
And the owl does looks cute!
Hi Daisy,
It sounds as though you really made the most of your placement experience. I really enjoyed reading about the great variety of tasks you had the opportunity to partake in, and the fact you seem to have made the most out of every one of opportunities. You truly have managed to gained so much insight and developed so many business skills during your placement.
I thought I’d use this opportunity to answer some of the questions you posed:
Regarding the emotions you had regarding leaving your placement – I had the exact same response. Truth be told, I was smiling and tearing up at the same time as I walked out of my placement office on my final day. I find it really amazing just how much you can feel as though you’ve become part of a team after such a short period of time. I guess it means we both were lucky enough to be accepted by a couple of great teams.
Regarding treats – We had a little gift exchange where I got a little gift for each of my girls at my placement, and they took me out for lunch and gave me some beautiful stationary to say thank you. It was funny to note the cards we gave each other had very similar messages written inside… it was then I realised just how much of the team I had become.
All the best in your future endeavors.
Eva Niedzwiedz
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