From Little Things Big Things Grow

Looking back to where it all started I remember dreading starting my internship, where do I begin, where do I want to go, can I really do this, were all questions circling in my mind.
I think I speak for a lot of students when I say I was not looking forward to working for free and that some of the intern adverts looked a little dry, not quite as exciting as Samantha's office from the Sex and the City. But could I really be picky? I'm just a university student, and I'm definitely not the only one looking for a placement, so I should just be happy with anything I can get, right? Wrong!
If you start early enough and do your research you can find somewhere that fits you as well.

Fortunately for myself whilst social butterflying around Perth I began talking to someone who worked for Rugby WA and the Western Force. This organisation was the dream for me as an internship, because of all the rugby players walking around the office? Maybe, but mostly because I had always taken extra interest in sport. Throughout school I was always the sport captain and that didn't change when I arrived at Curtin becoming their sports captain in 2014. All my work experience and volunteer work had been with sporting events so Rugby WA just seemed like the next step up for me.
Networking is a handy tool for any students toolbox and thankfully that is how I found out that they were looking for interns for the upcoming season and eagerly asked for a direct contact that I could submit my interest to. After handing in my resume and acquiring an interview I received an email congratulating me on my new role in the partnerships team at Rugby WA and Western Force.

For a moment I had a sigh of relief, the hard part was over, or so I thought. Day one rolled around and I began to doubt my ability to 'PR', the 'what ifs began to appear in my mind, what if I have to write a press release on my fist day, what if I end up sitting alone at lunch, what if I forget how to send an email, what if I make a mistake. But day one interns don't stress, most tasks are simple, like spread sheets and data entry and all my tasks always came with a set of instructions to help me along the way. I also quickly learnt that the ability to ask questions was my greatest ally, no matter how silly I thought my question might have been, my manger was never frustrated at me and never thought my question was stupid. Asking the question helped to get the job done quicker and ensured it was done to the best of my ability.

As my internship continued my confidence built and the more tasks I was given. Towards the end I was able to walk into the office, sit down at my desk and continue working without any instruction from my manager. My what if's had faded away and I realised that every mistake I made throughout my time at Rugby WA had built me up to be a better intern, learning how to fix things myself and how to avoid making future errors.

Now at the end of my internship I realise that I was never working for free. Hands on experience teaches you things that you could never pick up in a classroom and I am so grateful to Rugby WA and Western Force for giving me this opportunity to grow and develop as a PR student. I now have the confidence I needed to take me into the next stage of life beyond university and I owe it to my internship.

'The Interns' and ladies from commercial services, celebrating our final Western Force home game together

Goodbye and Good Luck! Three Winning Tips We Should All Bear in Mind

Hi everyone,

I finished my internship last Wednesday! I spent the morning working again at one of Event and Conference Co’s own events- The Winning Mindset. This was a corporate breakfast held at the Parmelia Hilton, complete with eggs benedict (my favourite meal in the world), journalist Katie Price as MC, and special guest, eagles star Josh Kennedy. Falling on World MS Day, Josh, an MS Society ambassador, spoke to the audience about his life on and off the football field, his business interests and his affiliation with the MS Society.

above (L-R): myself, Josh Kennedy and fellow intern/peer Emily.

The event was a great end to my internship, partly because I too got to enjoy the breakfast and also because it ran smoothly without a hitch. I’ve really enjoyed my time at Event and Conference Co and am sad to be saying goodbye to all the lovely people I’ve met along the way. I don’t know what I’ll do with my Mondays now! If I had three pieces of advice I could pass on to future interns, it would be these:

1.  Have confidence in yourself

Just because you’re an intern and inexperienced compared to others in your workplace does not mean you’re completely incompetent! Have faith in your abilities; you haven’t spent the past two and a half years writing media releases for no reason. An internship is a place to test your skills and build on them; no one is expecting you to get it right the first time. Accept that you can only learn from your mistakes, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You’re there to learn, and to prepare yourself for life beyond uni, so make the most of it and prove to everyone around you that you’re ready to graduate and make it in the big bad world.

2.  Fake it ‘til you make it

This is something one of my supervisors told me on my last day. Working for a small business in the events management industry can be extremely competitive, and the pressure is always on to find new clients or coordinate events that occasionally staff members may have no experience in. Half the time our supervisors may not even know what they’re doing, but they’re confident in their abilities to pull off the event and that they are able to work in the best interests of their client. If you have confidence in yourself and your capabilities, people will have confidence in you. So don’t doubt yourself, and if you are for whatever reason- fake your confidence. Fake it until it comes naturally to you.

3.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help

We are interns and we are learning! Everyone understands that. If you don’t understand the task assigned to you, please don’t spend half an hour staring at your computer screen wondering what you should do or thinking of ways to procrastinate (I may/may not have done this). Just ask for help, no one is going to bite your head off for it. If anything, asking for help shows initiative, and proves to your supervisors that you’re eager to learn and to complete this task to the best standard possible.

This has been an unforgettable experience, and has given me much needed confidence and preparation for life outside of uni. I wish all of my peers the very best once they graduate, and good luck to everyone who is about to start their internships for next semester!

Signing off for the final time,

Clare


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Bentley Campus

last advise and photos

From the last post I had promise to post pictures from my internship, I will get to that at the end of this post. But for now I will write about the whole summary of my internship which has been a great experience one month experience. Here are the things that I have learned from the whole internship:

1. The first impression is very important.
I know this piece of advise is very common in our PR lessons. Lecturers constantly remind us about first impressions of how one must dress, behave and aware of body language. I thought I would do great for my first day of my internship, but I was quite wrong on that note as mistake number one had occur. On my first day of the internship, I was suppose to wait for my supervisor who was the Corporate Communications Manager to come in for work around 2 in the afternoon. Now during that time, the Director of Communications was in the hotel constantly and I was doing media clippings while waiting for my supervisor. On my fourth day in the office, that the director called me in the office. Now let me tell you that I am terrified of her because she has a very strong character to her that I admire until the end of my internship. I panicked for awhile thinking I did something that was a serious offence, but I prepared myself to meet her in her office. She told me to sit down and asked me to introduced myself and my background, so I told her about myself like how I wrote in my resume. She turned to me and said the same advise that was been told dozens of times. As in going for a new job, always introduce yourself to the head of the company or the managers of the company. The reason being that the top managements would remember you as well as they like to know who are working with them. I made the mistake of not introducing myself to my director on who I was on my first day of working in the department. But she told me that next time when I am working in my first job that I should do just that and I would be able to make a lasting impression to my future employer.

2. Don't keep yourself in the background
Another thing the director told me is to not keep yourself in the background when working. Being in the PR industry we have to make the brand we work for stand out against their competition, and to do that we can't just stay behind our desk cutting out media clippings constantly. We should always stand out confidently with ideas and perspective that we can provide in brainstorming sessions or even when talking to your employers. The reason with this is not only you bring out your true potential and ideas, but to be able to reflect the company's image as you are representing the company. The director gave me a choice that day to whether keep myself doing newspaper clippings for the department or offer myself to take on small projects that can be used for the hotel premises. I decided on that day I will be more proactive in taking up tasks that can benefit me and the hotel. I have taken up some projects and tasks that I have mentioned during the past blogs, even though I am a temporary staff. But I understand that by doing that you can remain an impression to your supervisor which can help you find your next job or be your future employer.

3. Be prepared for anything.
Again common tip in life that people pass unto you, either your lecturer or friends in life. But in the public relations context, it is very important to be prepared for anything that can occur during normal business time, which is why we are considered the crisis management team of the company. But lets focus on the smaller things first, being prepared for the tasks that your supervisor or manager lay upon you. The director told me to be part of the MICE video shoot which took placed during the week including the weekends, she told me that to be part of the shoot I need to sacrifice my weekends to work on it. At the end of the day I did went through the whole shoot and I am glad that I have prepared myself to face the challenges and gained a lot of experience.

Overall, I had a great internship where I met different people and backgrounds. I gained experiences that I can apply after I graduate, I appreciate the people who have worked with me and guide me through my internship because without them I would have no clue on how things work in the hotel. I hope that I have an opportunity to work with them again. I would also want to thank you the readers for reading my posts. Thank you all.

That's all for the last tips that I was given during my internship, now for some photos to make this the last post from me. Enjoy the photos.

The Ocean Wing swimming pool and the wing at the background.

Wedding Pavilion

View of the beach and ocean from the Premier Suite

The employee tag

Sneaky selfie of the uniform

The film crew of the MICE video shoot, John (right) & Mitch (left)

Crew selfie

Filming in progress

Photoshoot for training program

Chinese New Year Visit to tour agencies

The end of my internship... and the start of my new job!

Hi guys,

This is my fifth and final blog post. I'd like to think this is more of an overall reflection of my twenty days of placement overall.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, my internship came to an end last week. Twenty days spread over 5 months was a significant, challenging, but very valuable experience for me. I believe the PR internship unit has probably been the most valuable unit I have undertaken during my undergraduate degree and would recommend it highly to all future PR students.

Here are some of the most significant efforts I have contributed to my PR placement:

• Assisting in and being part of the development of 5 events facilitated by the City of Swan with the help of skills and techniques learnt throughout my PR degree. 
• Writing up social media content for these events and more.
• Communicating with internal and external stakeholders of the department.
• Updating and expanding the departments extensive and detailed media list.
• Creating a social media content schedule to be followed by the PR and marketing department for 2016. 

I believe my placement has also provided me with some amazing things too!

• I have developed my skills in communication
• I have experienced working in a real PR office environment 
• I have observed real issues-management and gained knowledge from the experience
• I have developed knowledge in marketing, in the WA tourism sector and in events management
• Finally, I have been offered a paid job in the PR department as a result of the valuable work I have done so far!!

I am so excited to begin my job at the City of Swan. I cannot wait to learn more about the PR industry and build my CV thanks to this amazing opportunity!

Question: What has been the most valuable experience of your PR placement?

Thank you to those of you who have engaged in my blog posts so far. I wish you all the best of luck in your internships!

Greta J

To Infinity and Beyond…..... Or Rather Forward Towards Our Dreams

So all things have to come to an end, the same goes for our internship. Finishing the internship is somewhat a joyous and sad thing for me. On one hand, yay, done my internship next is do the report, finalize it and hand it up this coming Friday 5th of June. The other, boo, as the internship have taught me so much and it ending so quickly feel so unnatural. 

But then, if the internship goes on without an end, that's no good for any of us. Why I say so, it's cause if we continue our internship with no end in sight, then how do we spread our wings and fly towards our dreams in PR-land. Okay, back to topic, internship is a good thing but forever being in internship is not such a good thing as we will always be an intern and not a full time PR Practitioner. So, it has to come to a point where it ends and begin anew in the form of Career. 

Thus, I solemnly bow my virtual head, thank you PR Internship for preparing me on the road to my career in PR. The fun and hardships along the way will be remembered and assimilated for the future. I say thank you to all my PR lecturers and friends out here for all the good things and "bad" things as lessons learnt. I am grateful that this course has internship as a compulsory unit and it has left a good mark on me. I will always treasure the moment I had with my internship and the course of this journey. 

That shall be all from me, signing off with one last:

THANK YOU !

With Regards,

Vincent Teo Rui-Ming

Final days, Trip to the River and Writing for Narelda

I can't believe I've finished my internship at Central. I feel like I have come a long way from when I first started at the end of 2013. My final few days as an intern has seen me do some of the most interesting and fun work I have done. Period.

Starting from the top, I was asked by Mike to take some photos and do a blog story for Central about the Sculpture Walk at Deep Point in Melville. The Sculpture Walk featured former Central student, with some even taking out prizes. I first though great, I get to do another story, but nothing to exciting. Little did I know I would be trusted enough to use a company car a drive down to Melville and take photos and thoroughly sort the story out for myself.

At first I was excited to be given that level of trust by Central and staff not only to do the story completely solo, but also use the company car. Then I felt a lot more anxious as I gave it more thought, what is my photo’s are no good? What if I crash the car? Of course none of what I feared actually happened. I sussed out the car and made it down to the sculpture walk and really enjoyed going around taking photos and formulating the story and the angle in my head.

The trust given to me by the Central staff really made me feel part of the team. The story itself was fun to write, but what meant the most was being accepted and trusted enough to be able to do the story solo and use a company car; certainly not what I expected at the beginning of my internship.

To read the story I wrote Sculpting Success, about the Melville Sculpture Walk please click the link.

The last major project I took part in as part of my internship was the Central Student Awards Night. This night involved all Central department awarding outstanding achievements in their various fields as well as overall student winners. This was a lot of work, like Left of Central but of a very different sort for me.

My task for the awards was to write the student award winners blurbs to be read out on the night. This involved writing individual paragraphs for each winner from a four page document on each. The task sounded easy but condensing all the information down into one paragraph that accurately describe their achievements was more difficult than I gave credit. I didn’t want to simply copy and paste a template filled with clichés and the same slightly re-phrased buzzwords. Eventually I got into a rhythm of writing these blogs and felt more comfortable doing them.

Lisa, supervisor for this task ended up being pleased with what I wrote got me to proof read and add in my part to the MC script for the awards night. I was shocked to get a task of this importance, but I gave it a try and soon got into the swing of it. At first I found changing my style of writing from blogs/ media releases to a speech for an awards night quite difficult. It had to be clear and succinct for the reader and interesting for the listener and was a completely different structure to what I had written before.

Learning that the MC for the Awards night was Channel 10 news presenter Narelda Jacobs gave me a real buzz. Simply knowing that something I had written was going to be read out by a house hold name like Narelda was a great feeling. Seeing it read out at the awards night a week and a half later was even better, especially since it all ran smoothly and my words were a success.

I am glad to report that my time at Central is not over. Kenley the head of the marketing team has offered me a position in the team on a part time basis to help them out and continue to give me experience. This is great news for me; I have had a great time with both the work and more importantly the people at Central. The opportunities they have given me and how welcoming they have been made at Central my time a real pleasure. I’m really excited to keep working with them.

Though this is the end of my internship it’s only the beginning of my time at Central and in PR. I have met great people, learnt new things and got a taste for what the PR industry holds. I can’t believe this is my final blog so from me, thank you Central, especially the marketing team and see you soon.

Experienced the real world!

My final days

As my internship now comes to a close, it’s sad to think I will no longer get to spend my Mondays and Fridays with the people from the office.

I like to think that I have really settled into the work place and become a lot more confortable than my first few days. From the range of jobs and challenges I have been faced with, it has truly given me a real insight into what PR is all about. Although not having to always deal with ‘typical’ public relations work, by doing my placement in a small organisation, it has given me the opportunity to see all things you may have to deal with. Ranging from photocopying, media contact list updates, spreadsheets, editing, photo shoots and agricultural shows, I believe I have been exposed to a lot more areas than you would have to undertake in a larger organisation’s public relations field.

My final day with Bauxite Alumina Joint Venture was just tying up the loose ends, we finished facebook to a manageable level for rest of the staff and I handed over notes about what to do regarding it. We also had a meeting with Clarity Communication to sort out and start planning what social media tools to use. All in all it was a wonderful last day and it’s been fantastic working with BAJV to gain some real world experience!

Here are some photos from the Ag shows and my day as a photographer!

 

Every end is a new beginning.....

My internship at Momentum Forum Events is coming to a close but ended on a high note as I ran my final event, The Melbourne Cup Luncheon.  The time frame between the Pink Ribbon Ball and The Melbourne Cup Luncheon was extremely short putting pressure on the organisation to promote and sell all the tickets to the event. Unfortunately this year we experienced a lower level of ticket sales as there was a huge amount of Melbourne Cup events vying for the public's attention. While this didn't affect the standard of the event it did reduce the amount of funds that could have been raised for Radio Lollipop and The Indigenous Hygiene Initiative. This was disappointing but I still learnt a valuable PR lesson from this experience, which was PR should involve a planned, long term approach to ensure there is enough time to make improvements if a communication plan is not producing results. Completing my final event at Momentum has also caused me to to reflect back on my experiences and the lessons I learnt throughout my time at the organisation.

During my time at Momentum I worked on a number of public relations activities in the process of organising the Pink Ribbon Ball and The Melbourne Cup Luncheon. I am extremely grateful for receiving this opportunity with the not-for-profit organisation as I don't believe I would have received as much responsibility at any other organisation. At times I was overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done but it also gave me confidence in my PR skills. I am currently collating all the work I did at Momentum for my final report and I am amazed that I practiced so many public relations techniques in a 20 day period. However,  I believe the knowledge I have obtained from organising these events is invaluable and will assist me in my future career as a public relations practitioner.

Before working at Momentum I was determined that I was going to work in journalism and not public relations. But Momentum has not only made me consider a career in public relations but also consider working for a not-for-profit organisation. Therefore I can't thank Momentum enough for the amazing opportunity and helping me get my foot in the door of the PR industry.

Thank you everyone for reading and I hope everyone enjoyed their placement as much as I did.

Ashleigh
14843011

Adios Programmed!

With only two days left at my internship at Programmed, I reflect on what I learnt from the experience and reminisce on the best things about my time at the company.

1. No, PR is not like that seen on Sex and The City with Samantha Jones

2. No, PR is not just party planning

3. No, PR is not just spin-doctoring

4. PR is none of these things.

Just kidding. These aren’t really the things I’ve learnt. But definitely are some of the questions I get on a regular basis when I tell people I'm studying PR. I think I'll just start linking that video (as above) to people when they ask me those questions.

Anyways...

Below are some of the things I ACTUALLY learnt from my internship experience that I will take with me into my future in public relations:

• Work efficiently: don’t leave things to the last minute, tackle tasks as they come to you.
• Be organised: stay on top of everything and always know where and when things are so that when you are asked to do something or asked for something you aren’t racking your brain to remember.
• Improve your memory: having a good memory is really important in PR as you are required to be able to recall peoples names, places, ideas etc. on the spot. This was definitely something I need to improve on and my time at Programmed definitely helped to improve my memory.
• Know how to use all forms of social media: prior to my internship I had no clue how to use Twitter or LinkedIn. This is definitely a key knowledge factor in being in PR.
• Multi-task: I am definitely a good multi-tasker, managing three jobs, uni, social life and intern this semester. This internship taught me however, how to multi-task efficiently and effectively as mentioned above.
• Communicate: communication is key in public relations. You should communicate and create relationships with every person you come across (even rude customers), as you never know when you might need their help.

These are just some basic things I learnt and improved on during my time at Programmed. Although they may seem really basic, I believe constantly improving skills in all the above areas is really important when working in public relations.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Programmed, it has really been an amazing experience. Being involved in the Fremantle Dockers photo shoot, creating posters and designs for Dockers/Programmed branding, and writing interesting stories for the Programmed intranet have definitely been some of the best times I’ve had during my experience at Programmed. I really believe that this “real-world experience” internship has improved and helped form my public relations skills and knowledge and I will take this with me into my future public relations ventures.

I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my time at Programmed and hope that you too enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

Bye for now!

Becky