Every good thing comes to an end...

It seems that my internship placement has come to an end.

I'm a little disappointed as I'm not able to organize the seminar due to unexpected events. The main reason that the seminar was cancelled in the end is because one of the guest speakers refuse to invite his clients to the event saying he do not feel comfortable sharing his clients. This has caused other speaker to be unhappy as they felt that it is unfair, as other speakers have to invite their clients and share them while that particular guest speaker does not. This has caused a dispute between the guest speakers, which they have not yet resolved the problem. What an unhappy ending for the intern...

Nevertheless, I have learnt a lot more than I could have during my internship placement and I'm very grateful for that. After my placement, I felt more confident and more ready to work in the real world as a PR practitioner.

Overall, I'm really satisfied with my placement and the work that I have conducted. To me, PR393 is the best unit that I ever had as it allows me to meet different people, learn different stuff and is also beneficial to me in every way. There is no doubt that the knowledge and skills that I have learnt from this unit is a good stepping stone for me. I wonder where it will lead me in my future career.

Ever good thing comes to an end, but for every end is also a new beginning. 

That's all for today. I'm going to officially end my internship placement now! Ciao!


Leong Chee Lek

16316641

Busy and working hard...

It has been several weeks since I last wrote my blog. How's everyone doing?

I had been preparing for the seminar and there were a lot of work that were needed to be done; however, the seminar has been delayed as one of the speaker's daughter was sick and was admitted to hospital. Due to that reason, my colleagues and I needed to reschedule our plan and informed those who were involved in the seminar.

After settling what needed to be done, there was nothing we could do except to wait for the speaker's news. In the meanwhile, I was assigned to media reading by Tris. There were heaps of newspapers and homes & lifestyle magazines prepared by Tris for me to find out news that would affect our business as a property management company as well as the prices, promotions and advertising strategies that our competitors have been using recently. Media reading is not enjoyable at all. In fact, it is really boring, which I almost dozed off reading those news and articles, but endured till the end nonetheless.  

For the fun part, I get to send E-mails to the company's stakeholders (not only clients but also the contractors) for testimonial. In property management business, testimonial is the most critical part that clients based on to make decisions as they are unable to evaluate our service in prior to their purchase, and a good testimonial means a higher chance of getting selected by our clients. To increase credibility, I'm required to get signatures, contact details and photos from the person who provided the testimonial. However, it was really difficult to get photos from them. There were only a few who provided me with complete information but the rest of them procrastinated or gave excuses when I started asking them for photos. 

Besides all those stuff that I'm doing, I'm also required to design a logo for the 20-unit apartment that has been built in Victoria Park, which is called King's View and Homes Property Management is in charge of its sales. I felt quite happy because my work will be created into a real logo and one day I'm going to see my logo on that apartment. It took me quite a long time to come out with a design that is appealing to every stakeholder group, but while designing the logo, I felt that it is less difficult as my Photoshop skills are getting better and better.

King's View logo design

Throughout these weeks, I have learnt a lot of skills and knowledge about being a PR practitioner. Moreover, I could see myself improving in many areas and more ready to join the workforce. I will keep up the good work!

It is a very busy but a very meaningful week for me. Until next time.

Leong Chee Lek

16316641

Prepare, Prepare & Prepare

Hello everyone!

I would like to share my experience and what I have done in my internship this week.

This is the third week of my internship and we are getting busier as day passed.

In order to increase Homes Property Management brand awareness, I need to design name cards for the company’s employees as name card is the first impression clients get from the company. A well-designed name card would reflect well on the company’s culture and professionalism, whereas, a poorly-designed name card would not be appreciated by clients. I referred to few of the formats of name card on the Internet and without further ado, I worked on it.

I am very satisfied with the work I have done; however, the design still needed to be checked by Tris. Fortunately, without any further editing, the name card was sent for printing. I was delighted!

Name card design (front)

Name card design (back)

The next day, my colleagues and I worked on the steps needed to organize a seminar. The seminar was held to educate investors on how they could maximise their return through property management. We forecasted the amount of guest, the capacity of the parking lot etc., to search for the most appropriate venue. We contacted the selected venue to make bookings and Tris contacted two of her friends to be the speaker, which they agreed. Everything went smoothly.

For refreshments, I suggested to Tris that we could organize a buffet at the end of the seminar, as it will attract a huge amount of crowd. However, due to limited budget, buffet is out of the question, and for now, we could only afford refreshment such as snacks, sandwiches, or cakes. Therefore, I was assigned to do some research on catering service business nearby the venue which the seminar will be held and luckily enough, one of them agree to work with us.

Through this task that Tris has assigned to me, I have learnt how to work within the budget and limited resources as well as developing a practical plan to achieve our goal.

Preparation is the key to success. Working in the real world, I have learnt to plan very well and get used to anticipating potential downfalls as well as preparing backup plans for every possibilities forecasted. I felt that by preparing, I am able to get more organized to carry out my plans effectively.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin

Until next time.

Leong Chee Lek

16316641

A Very Busy Week for the PRs

This was just my second week of internship and we had already carried out our first strategy. The first strategy is to redesign the company’s brochure as the previous brochure is a bit cluttered and the Chinese translation is inaccurate.

Original brochure (English Version)

Original brochure (Chinese Version)

The strategy was carried out under the observation of Tris. Before we began, my colleagues and I double-checked the parts of the brochure that needed improvement to make sure that we were working on the same page. Then, we distributed our work and I was in charge of the brochure design.

As I used Photoshop quite frequently on assignment and stuff, I got the brochure done in a short time. When I took the completed brochure to Tris happily, she shook her head and told me the parts she needed me to edit. She also requested me to emphasize strongly on the company’s theme color. I was a little disappointed at that time as I was confident in the work that I have done. However, I did what I was told and edited the brochure.

Brochure design 

On the next day, I got an E-mail from Tris saying that the printing company were not able to print out the brochure due to poor resolution and I need to edit it again. I was a bit frustrated, but still did what I was told, and learnt the lesson that by paying attention to even the slightest detail, we could make our jobs easier.

On Wednesday, while we were working, there was a sharp rap on the door. Tris went to open the door, collect the parcels from the deliveryman and open these parcels in front of everyone.

That is when I saw our fruit of labor.

Our improved brochures printed on glossy cardboard paper. Amount: 2000

We distributed our brochures at Thursday and Friday. As most of our consumer demographics are Asian, we targeted a few places which has higher amount of our target customer, which are Canning Vale Market Centre, Batemen Centre, Melville Food Centre, Collins Road Willeton, High Road Street and Victoria Park (we did not cover Northbridge as that area exceeded our area of maintenance, which we only maintain properties that are within 15 km radius from Willetton).

Some of the passers-by were very kind to us as they greeted us politely and chat with us, whereas some of them were very rude and even gave us a dirty look. To prevent this from happening, Tris taught us to read some of their body language and then to decide whether or not to approach the potential customer.

Besides, the fun part was that we were also able to select some shop that has the most Asian customers within that area and discussed with the respective business owner whether or not they have the interest to do a “cross promotion” with us. For those who agreed, we exchanged our brochures with some of theirs, and required them to place our brochures at a stand or on their counter, which we will do the same with theirs. We were able to persuade a well-known bank and few of the famous restaurants in that area, which is a great achievement for us, and I felt that it worth our every effort.

Not to mention, in the end, everyone got a box of chocolates for their effort!

Chocolates from Tris, best boss ever!

This is a very exciting week for me, looking forward to next week.

Leong Chee Lek

16316641

One Big Step to the Society in Perth

I am very excited when I first enrolled the internship unit as I planned to work as a PR trainee at GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) Singapore. However, things did not go smoothly as I expected.  Most of the positions were either filled or unavailable.

Knowing that I am not able to find an internship position in GSK, I immediately did some research online and sent out my resume to as many companies in Perth as possible. As days passed by, least, if not, none reply were given. As an international student overseas, I have anticipated the difficulty of getting an internship position in Perth and I am not going to give up just yet.

Finally, lady luck smiled on me and I got an internship at Homes Property Management in Perth.

Homes Property Management Logo

On my first day to the workplace, I went with two of my friends, Su Jia and Yee Ting, which was their first day working there as well. Tris, who is the Managing Director of Homes Property Management, came to greet us, show us to our desks and provided us with working laptops.

Without any delay, Tris told us that her company has just getting started and wanted us to develop a complete PR plan for the company to get the company brand out. PR plan is what we have learnt every year in every PR units and it will be very easy once we paid full attention in class and work hard in every PR assignment.

We scrambled all the materials we need (company backgrounds, newspapers, magazine, etc.), and asked Tris for Homes Property Management’s current websites, promotional tools and strategies to see whether it needs improvement.

The most difficult part, which the part we spent most time on, is the media placement strategy. For that part, my colleagues and I spent almost a week to look through every article and evaluate the news angle from different print publications. Besides, we also need to state down the contact details (phone no., E-mail and address) of most of the editors to store it for future use and not all the contact details could be found. For those that their contact details were unclear, we did some research on the Internet to look for alternative publication options.

At the end of the week, we managed to get the PR plan done. However, Tris needed us to modify some of our plans as she wanted to focus on gaining free publications due to limited budget. We then change most of our strategies to collaborating with other businesses and finding sponsorship, which she seems satisfied with it.

It has been a busy week for us, not to mention that we worked from 9am to 4pm every day except weekend for the first week. By developing the PR plan, I have learnt more about the company and its cultures, as well as their existing and potential competitors. Moreover, I have also gain insights on how the company operates to maintain its effectiveness and efficiency and how our PR plan facilitates it. This is a whole new experience for me and I hope that our plans will be carried out successfully in Perth.

My colleagues and I (first from the right), Yee Ting (middle), Su Jia (second from the right) & Tris (third from the right).

Leong Chee Lek

16316641