SurfAid - Final Blog Post

It is hard to believe that I have come to the end of my internship at SurfAid! Writing my placement report I have been overwhelmed by the amount of skills I have learnt during this time and how much I have developed professionally.

I have been extremely fortunate to have been provided with such a diverse range of tasks during my placement. Not only has this taught me above and beyond what I expected upon entering this placement, but has shown me further insight into areas that I would potentially like to work in. During my final weeks I was given greater responsibilities and helped work on tasks such as post event sponsorship reports that I really enjoyed and also learnt a lot from.

This internship has taught me that I LOVE working in events. Having some experience working in events management prior to the placement I knew that this was an area I wanted to explore further, however being involved in such a large scale event at SurfAid has proven to me that this is a career I want to pursue.

I feel that there is always something new to learn from every job, especially in PR and events, and that given a new internship I would probably walk in and learn a whole range of new skills and approaches. However, I feel that open completing this internship I now have the confidence to go into an entry level position knowing that I can rise to a challenge and apply the techniques and theory that I have learnt throughout my degree at Curtin University.

I would like to thank both my lecturers and the team at SurfAid for proving me with this opportunity that will hopefully leading the way to landing me my dream job in Sydney!

Must.....meet.....deadline!!! So much research, so little time!

If there’s one thing I have learnt about working in a consultancy it’s that there is so much research to do and so little time to do it in! If you’re working in a non-for-profit organisation or a particular corporate industry then most often than not you will know your organisation inside and out.

Working in a public relations consultancy on the other hand means you have many clients and many organisations. The negative thing about this is that there is so much research to do especially if you are working with a completely new client!

On Tuesday at my prac placement at Shine Communications, I had the task of creating all the information to go on a website for one our clients. This client was a high end fashion and hair stylist who has a salon in Subiaco called Jas International. Our client wanted to create a website to create more publicity for his clients and give people more information about what he does.

Now I thought this was all very interesting but the only problem was I knew nothing about this client and knew nothing about high-end hairdressers! And I had to send everything to my supervisor to read by that afternoon!

I was given a list of things the client wanted included in his website such as information about the salon, where it’s located, style trends, products they offer and how to buy online.  I only had about 4 hours to do it all so got cracking right away because I didn’t want to let my supervisor down.

I started at 9:30 in the morning and straight away researched high-end salons in Australia, New York, London and Paris to find out how exactly they worded their information and the kind of style of writing they were using. I then had to research lots of different hair products, hair extensions, fashion trends, popular hair colours and styles, you name it - I researched it! I then had to try and take this knowledge and put it into sentences with a posh or luxurious flow to it due to the nature of the high-end salon – very difficult!

I had to use a lot of descriptive and creative language to position the readers of the website into feeling they would be in a high-end fashion and beauty palace if they were to visit the salon. I had to set the scene to give clients the idea that the treatment you’ll receive at this hair salon is like the treatment celebrities would receive if they were in Paris or Milan or New York.  Using descriptive language in everyday sentences is very hard but thankfully having done feature writing in one of my journalism units at university the task was a little bit easier.

Safe to say after those 4-5 long and stressful hours I pretty much knew everything there was to know about the latest fashion and trends in hair and beauty. I sent everything off to my supervisor about 2pm and she was happy with it, which I was stoked about. There were a few things that needed touching up and so I spent the rest of the afternoon chopping and changing bits of information until my supervisor and I were happy with it. I finished everything about 5:30pm and realised how exhausted I was.

My supervisor is a one-man show. She runs her consultancy all by herself with the help of only one other employee who is leaving next week. It just made me think “I don’t know how she does it!”

People that work in a consultancy must be bombarded with copious amounts of research they have to do before they are assigned any work for the clients. I have always wanted to work in a consultancy simply because I think I would get bored working for just one organisation. I like a bit of variation in what I do. However today showed me just how stressful working in a consultancy can be, especially when you are working with brand new clients!

At the same time though, consultancies normally only take on as many clients as they can handle. Receiving a brand new client is stressful at the start trying to find out everything you can about them, but I guess once this is done, and if you do a good job, they can potentially be one of your clients for many more years to come. Overall I guess working in a consultancy is pretty good, but today definitely made me think more about my future career choices!

Au revoir WACOSS

Hello Everyone,

This is my final blog post for this unit. It was also my final week at Western Australian Council of Social Service.

I must say I have really enjoyed my time at WACOSS. I have been able to learn a number of different things. I am also intrigued by the fact that looking back on it all I have not just learnt about Public Relations, I have also been able to learn about communications, internal communications, Not-for-profit industry, stakeholder relationships, members, reputation and much more.

The wonderful team at WACOSS have treated me with such respect and have trusted me to take on tasks that most work experience students do not have the priviledge of. My Director and Membership and Communications Manager have taught me so much in writing skills, communicating with others and the way WACOSS works on a wide range of levels.

I have also had the ability to work across the different deparments which has provided me a scope of what WACOSS does for the community sector. It is an organisation that works to ensure our communities are well looked after and given a voice in society.

My most favourtie thing about WACOSS is that I have made friends and connections that I know will benefit me in the future. It has given me the skills and knowledge that I know I will use later on in my career.

My final note is that I have been given the chance to come back to the organisation on a casual basis and perhaps have some opportunities to take advantage of in the coming future.

My 2 pieces of advice is to all of those who are completing this unit and there degrees...

No matter what you do, always do your best, make a good impression, listern to your supervisor, learn from them (even if you do not always agree with them), go out of your way to help the organisation and prove yourself that you can be what they need you to be (make sure you are passionate about what you do as well).

Secondly, it doesn't matter where you start, if you can get your foot in the door then you have pretty much made it. Use your first job regardless if it is not soley in PR or Marketing  and look at the skills you can learn in your position and build them! These skills will help you later on. You can take these to your next job and make you an even better PR practioner or something similar. And hey if you can get a job that is always a little different from the one before then that will keep you interested and give you the ability to overcome challenges and broaden your knowledge. That's what I love about PR nothing is ever the same it is constantly changing and there is so much variety out there!

This picture below was my last day at WACOSS!

It was a sad but great day as we had a morning tea with the rest of the WACOSS team.

Carly, Carla and Bree and WACOSS the wombat! 

It has been wonderful being able to share my experiences with you all and I wish each and everyone of you the best wishes and luck in all your careers! 

Thank you! 

Carla Lo Presti 

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Bentley Campus

I am never going to graduate....

A few weeks ago I started my practical placement. Getting here was not an easy task however. Over the summer I kept thinking about my practical placements and where I would like to go. I had already done quite a bit of work experience for PR with the Fremantle Dockers last year and also over December and January working with PR goddess Rosita Stangl at the 2012/2013 Hyundai Hopman Cup Both were absolutely amazing experiences and ones I would never forget but of course both concerned sport and so I thought about doing something a little bit different. And so my journey began…

I probably sent out resumes and cover letters to about 10-15 different public relations consultancies and organisations around Perth. All of the people I spoke to either already had an intern or didn’t have the time for an intern at that stage. It got to the point where I thought to myself: Am I ever going to complete this unit and graduate? I didn’t care where I wanted to go at this point, I was just desperate for a placement and that experience! So I put looking off for a while and decided to let fate handle itself as it was still January and a lot of consultancies were still on holidays.

A couple of weeks passed and I still hadn’t heard anything. So I went on blackboard and saw a few positions posted on there and thought I would give Shine Communications a go.

That following week on the exact same day I heard back from three different placements saying they were interested and wanted me to come in for an interview. One was Shine Communications, and the others were Muse Bureau and Professional Public Relations. I decided to go to all of the interviews and then if successful pick which one suited me best. I did that and ended up being offered a placement at all three! I went from being really desperate and wanting anything to now being faced with having to decide between three! And they were all so different.

Muse Bureau is a real artsy consultancy whose clients mainly revolve around theatre, music, fashion and culture. I thought it would probably be interesting but the arts isn’t really something I want to focus my career on and I personally thought my strengths would be better elsewhere.

Professional Public Relations is a much larger consultancy whose clients range all over Australia and the world. I was really excited to be considered by them seeing as they are based not only in Perth but also in the eastern states, and because that had such a large and broad range of clients ranging from Emirates to Bunnings. They were only offering four weeks full time however and because of university this deemed pretty much impossible so to my regret I had to turn them down also.

This left Shine Communications, which so far has everything I have been looking for. Run by Ruth Simpson and Samantha Mills (who was actually a graduate of this unit just over a year ago), their clients include non-for-profit such as the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Western Australia, but also more corporate ones such as BHP Billiton and Shell Development Australia. I’m very lucky Ruth took me on because she already had another student from Curtin working with her but said she’d be more than happy to have me on board as well, which was great. Being a very small consultancy Ruth runs things from her home where she has an office for herself and her interns. At first I was a bit scared about this because I wasn’t sure what it would be like to work from home or whether I would struggle as I thought I would be thrown in the deep end straight away.

Since starting a few weeks ago however I have to say that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Working in a smaller consultancy means there is more to do which means more experience, and I have definitely been gaining on experience! The very first week I was off to a meeting with the Motor Neuron Disease Association of WA then back to her house writing up a media release for her pro bono client – the Shenton Park Dogs’ Refuge Home.

Every week I go to the Refuge Home to supervise in a photo shoot and filming for one of the dogs of the home in the hope it gets them adopted. So far the majority of my work has been for the Dogs’ Home and I’ve had to chase up interviews and write media releases for them about three times a week. At first this was daunting but I’ve written so many I am now very used to it and Ruth has been absolutely fantastic and teaches me as I go making sure I’ve got everything down pat.  I’ve also written a few pregnancy blogs for client Mercy Care and think I can safely say I am now prepared for parenthood – though I’m not planning that anytime soon I can tell you!

The other great thing about working from a business from home is that Ruth is very flexible with my practical hours. Some days if I have a lot of study to do Ruth will send me work which I can work on from my own home. I have been doing that for the past two weeks and it’s been different but great – there is just something so satisying about not having to put on business pants or a business skirt to have to go to work, I can just work in my trackies! The hard part however is not getting distracted, but deadlines help me with that and it’s been good so far.

I now can confidently say I am pretty sure I will graduate! My posts from now on will be more about the work I do at Shine Communications but just thought I would share my experience with you about how I went about getting my practical placement and wondering if anyone else experienced difficulty (or frustration) when finding their placements.

For now, adios! 

Confessions Of A 'Volly'

So these first few weeks at Colosoul have absolutely flown by; I can't believe how quickly things happen at this organisation. The work place at Colosoul is such a fast paced environment, thanks to all the hard working vollies (volunteers). Already, I have helped at an event, begun planning a social media strategy, transformed a pre-existing blog and made it more current and appealing, and helped in discussions of another upcoming event. All in the life of a volly I say!

For those of you not familiar with Colosoul; it is a not-for-profit media and arts organisation which aims to support and enhance the experience of youth and to bring Perth communities together so everyone is involved. Tricia Ray is the founder of this fantastic organisation, and I believe it is thanks to her that there are so many opportunities for Perth youth to kick-start their careers by offering them first-hard experience in their industry of expertise. Not only in the area of public relations, but also from across all other areas such as fashion, graphic design, event management, music, writing, photography and many more.

What I have found in the office is a real team environnment, which contributes to the many successful projects running under the Colosoul organisation. Everyone in the office, including Tricia Ray, are unpaid and volunteering for the organisation, which really creates this non-competitive environment. Being a volunteer for Colosoul, and any other organisation, is about everyone pitching in. I learnt this at the Lights Out Arts Festival event held at The Bakery last weekend. While it was the assigned project of only a few of the Colosoul team members, a great number more attended to help out in any way they could, to ensure the event was a smooth-running success. This is important to understand for any organisation; be it not-for-profit or not, as it is about creating or maintaining a positive awareness of the brand name.

All in all; my first few days at Colosoul have run smoothly (so far!) and I am excited to getting deep into my first project assigned to me; updating and creating a social media strategy/presence for Bird On A Wire (a project underneath the Colosoul name). Updates to come in my next blog.

Signing out,
Holly Broockmann
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What makes writing so important?

Hi all, 

Looking back at my 20 days spent at Woodside, I’m realising how important the writing skills of a PR consultant are.

The Oxford dictionary defines writing as the activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text.

Writing is therefore the vital means of communication within an organisation as it is the primary basis upon which our work is expressed.

Always paying attention to the grammatical errors, to the tense you use and make sure you use the active rather than the passive voice is essential.

I paid lots of attention and time proof reading my work when my mind was refreshed to make sure I didn’t left any basic errors behind.

Good style and quality writing is an essential PR job skill, as most of our tasks require writing convinced and effective documents. I’ve done a multitude of re-writing tasks, and found it quite hard sometimes to keep the meaning but change the structure of a sentence or paragraph. Use different words, find synonyms, keep the information and change the orientation of the sentence. That’s the magic skill of a good PR consultant.

I believe that experience and practice are the only way you can improve your writing skills, and I thank Woodside for the great experience opportunity I had.

Happy writing throughout your careers!

Cheers

Alice

Finishing up at my placement

My internship at Colosoul is coming to an end but I have decided to stay on in order to gain further experience. Event organising is a huge aspect of what Colosoul does and as it is a not for profit organisation they rely on donations and support from local businesses. We organised a movie fundraiser to raise money in order to move into a bigger office and to continue to provide a magazine to the youth of Perth. There is so much more effort required when you are relying on donations, everything takes twice as long. I underestimated the amount we needed donated and what types of things that we had to source. From the venue, to the equipment, to the lolly bags and popcorn. It gives you a strong appreciation for those working in the not for profit sector and the extra work they have to do to organise an event.

I have learnt many things at my placement which i thought i would share:

*Working in PR you have to be organised, as soon as you get an email make sure you reply ASAP. It makes life a lot easier.

*Make lists and lots of them. Event organising requires making lengthy lists, without them it is highly likely you will forget something.

*Double check emails and documents to ensure that there are no spelling mistakes.

*Be ready to be a problem solver, I spent most of the night at the Fair Tradie Ball solving issues with tickets, seating and raffles.

I really have enjoyed my placement and as it is my last semester of my degree I found it a great learning experience, preparing me for the business world. It allows you to put into practice everything you have learnt over the years whilst studying at university. This blog has also been extremely beneficial as everyone has had such different experiences and learnt different things. Sharing our stories and experiences gives everyone an insight into the different areas of public relations and what every individual enjoyed.


Lauren Trevaskis