Thrown Into The Deep End

Hi all!

I am halfway through my internship and have recently completed the two busiest weeks of my internship career!

My supervisor recently went on a three week holiday and left me in charge. After only a month of working at my internship I was suddenly thrown into the deep-end. No supervisor to check with, no one to answer my never-ending questions, just me, a little bit of training, and a lot of guess work!

To make matters a little more difficult, three events (book launches) had been scheduled during the time that my supervisor was on holidays. This experience gave me a new appreciation for all those looking to work in the events management field. I had never imagined how much running an event can involve, it seemed to be a never ending line of crises waiting to happen, never again will I underestimate the power of a master checklist!

In running these events I learned a number of things, the most interesting for me was having to create speech notes. Speech notes are something I haven't come across much in uni and so it was an entirely new experience when my supervisor asked me to prepare them for each of our key speakers. It was somewhat challenging trying to work the key messages of the company in to the speech notes, the other challenge was making sure our speakers actually stuck to the notes I created for them. This involved a lot of checking and double checking to ensure the speech they eventually came up with was appropriate and in line with the companies messages.

Having completed these three weeks of filling in as communications manager for my company I can definitely say I have had an invaluable experience. I have learnt so much from being thrown into the deep end, primarily the act of juggling a number of important projects at one time. From finding media coverage for the authors our company manages, to running three book launch events, to simply fielding the diverse range of public relations queries each day, this experience has added a page and a half to my resume. It also gave me confidence in myself as a public relations professional, it let me prove to myself that I really can make it in this industry.

Lastly, what I will take away from this is to never underestimate the power of practical experience.

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

Whirlwind

Hi interns.

Wow, this week I have been extra busy at the organisation* where I am completing my internship. With the Curtin Career’s fair approaching, the marketing and PR team have been busy preparing for the event. My first task was to edit and re-word my supervisor’s company description that was to be provided to Curtin. Although I was happy to be able to write this, it was a little stressful trying to find the right words to say with a 180 word limit. After this I got the exciting task of making goodie bags for the students and graduates. I was amazed at how much promotional material our organisation has. It seems that this material is effective as the organisation is very successful and marketing campaigns are also very well received by the public.

 

My supervisor also asked me to conduct research to collect some good data and statistics which would then be used to create a poster and hand out that would be given out during the careers fair. Little did I know I would also be in charge of making this handout. One of the issues I experienced during this was receiving conflicting instructions from my team members. Initially I felt nervous as I was unsure of which instructions to take regarding the required content and layout of the handout. However this was cleared up for me after a team meeting. This made me realise the importance of communication amongst PR, marketing and digital professionals. If there is constant dialogue between a team, successful communication will be achieved.

This week I was also fortunate enough to attend a special event held for a client from my internship organisation. This involved heading to a site owned by the organisation and introducing ourselves to a number of clients and fellow staff employed by the same company. As I made my way around the room I introduced myself as the “marketing and PR intern” and tried to engage in conversation with as many people as possible.  I found this experience to be particularly rewarding as I not only got to practice my verbal communication skills, but I also was trusted by my supervisor to be a representative of the organisation to a large number of important people. This helped me to become more confident in acting professional in an unfamiliar situation.

Although this week was a great experience, there were times when I felt like I had taken on too much. I find that it is quite a difficult task to balance an internship with uni classes and a part time job. My advice to anyone who is also feeling like this is to talk to their supervisor. My supervisor reassured me that if I were ever in a position where I couldn’t cope with the amount of work I was provided with, then I should let her know and she would make sure I didn’t take on too many tasks. In the mean time I have created a time management and organisation plan – a tool the team I work with also uses. I recommend this to anyone who is feeling a little overwhelmed as it helps to manage and prioritise tasks.

 

Enjoy your day and thanks for reading J

- Sarah

* Please note due to a confidentiality agreement I am unable to publish the company’s name