I am doing my internship with a marketing organisation that I have worked with for about five years now. I have worked with them as a sales demonstrator as one of their very low-line employees. When I was given the opportunity to do my PR internship with them I was quite excited. It is quite a unique position to be in- having such an in-depth knowledge of an organisation and then being able to apply your degree to make changes that can benefit you.
When I started my internship I was very keen to be at their beck and call. I was prepared to do any job they wanted me to do. I was ready to start at the bottom and be free labour essentially. Early into the internship I was given the chance to voice my own ideas about how I could use PR to benefit myself as an employee and my peers. Having the opportunity to improve your own working conditions with your new skills is quite a cool thing! At first I was a bit reluctant. I thought, I am a 21-year-old university student- what could I possibly offer a successful national organisation? It turns out I can offer them a new fresh perspective!
Feedback from employees is critical to a successful business as employees are the most important stakeholder group. Managers can often get caught up on the overall picture of an organisation and can lose sight of the smaller details. By receiving feedback from those who are immersed in the organisation and it's daily interactions with the outside world, you can learn a lot on how to become more efficient and effective.
My organisation is based in Sydney with no head offices in Perth. It is quite a common joke amongst WA employees that we are forgotten about and we can get away with so much more. We only receive visits from managers around four times a year and often I feel that communication is more targeted towards the Eastern states. We may not be another country with a different culture but the relaxed suburban shopping centres of Perth are definitely different to upmarket Sydney shopping strips!
As I am writing this, I am currently creating a Western Australian employees Intranet where we can share thoughts, solutions to tricky customer interactions and receive up to date information on our client company. I am also writing a bible targeted specifically at Western Australian in-mall activation events. My knowledge from being an employee has allowed me to get really personal with what I am writing and add information and experience that managers may not have.
So even though I am a university student working at the bottom of this organisation my thoughts are important. Have any of you experienced similar situations? Have you been with an employer a long time and thought- I have ideas on how we could become better?
3 comments:
Hi Amelia,
After reading your post I feel a little jealous! I wish that I had that long standing relationship with my placement. I feel that most of the time my experience would have been the opposite. As an intern, I felt that potentially my opinions were not as salient as other employees due to their long standing position. While it was understandable and a humbling experience, I feel that these barriers may have inhibited my ability to contribute my full potential. I must give them credit in regards to their willingness to receive recommendations I might provide in my final report, but I wouldn't be surprised if none of them were implemented.
While this might sound like a negative experience, I feel that the positive is that it gave me a chance to identify challenges and create possible strategy solutions to solve them. I'll take this with me in the future so when I am in a position of more influence I can enact change for the better.
Glad that you're having a positive experience!
Jared
Hi Amelia,
I am glad to hear you and a great experience and got to contribute some ideas! I too was really fortunate be welcomed into such a lovely office during my internship at The Blue Room Theatre. They have a really collaborative organisational culture and were always open to any ideas that I had. We also had a number of brainstorming sessions where we got to all bounce around ideas together about various initiatives and campaigns.
And Jared I'm sure your placement organisation will be able to appreciate the fresh perspective that your report recommendations can offer! But your positive outlook is great, sometimes a challenging experience can be the most rewarding as you are able to learn so much!
Good luck to both of you in your future!
Kaitlyn
1624 3668
Hi Amelia,
Sounds like you've had a really valuable experience moving from your marketing position to a PR position in your workplace.
What a great idea to create an Intranet for the WA employees to communicate with each other as well as your management over East. I'm sure your managers will be very impressed with your ideas and contribution!
I completed my internship at Relay for Life Fremantle, a community event that fundraises for the Cancer Council. Despite being a new and one of the youngest committee members, I too was warmly welcomed by the committee that shared a very supportive and collaborative environment. My PR strategies and campaigns were highly commended which gave me the confidence and drive to implement them successful, yielding great results! :)
Hope you continue to do great things for your organisation!
Chermaine Leo
xx
Post a Comment