It comes to an end

My internship at the ISC is now over. It has been a fantastic experience and I was really glad to be involved with the ISC during this semester. Although my 20 days of placement are completed, I will still be in contact with the ISC members for a while. As we have been working together on projects that are not yet completed, I feel really involved and I want to be part of this fantastic team a bit more.

This PR unit is a real opportunity for students to gain real life experience and to understand what Public Relations is about in the real world. I have to say that learning about PR at university and developing PR reports for real life clients are a good help and starting point. However, what you are taught throughout your degree can vary depending on where you work. Different organisations have different practices and place the PR function at a different level.

When reading the different posts of students, I realised that an internship from one student can be totally different from another one. Public Relations in practice will vary considerably depending on what type of organisation you are working with. A tip for future interns who are not sure where to complete their placement: Really think about what motivates you in PR and find a placement accordingly.

Also, make the most out of it. You might find that during the first days or week of your placement, you are not required to fulfil a lot of tasks. This is an opportunity to demonstrate what you are capable of. One important thing that I learnt throughout my placement is that self confidence and initiatives are always well received.

I hope everyone had a fantastic time during their internship and wish the future interns will find the blog helpful.

All the best with your future careers.

Diane

Events and the role of PR

Hello everyone,

I could read that most of you have already completed your internship and I could see that you had a fantastic time during your placement.

I am currently doing my internship at the International Students Committee (ISC) at Curtin University. When I first started looking for an internship, I really wanted to be involved with events’ management and at the start of my placement at the ISC I wasn’t aware of the events they organised so I didn’t expect being involved in any.

I was therefore very excited and enthusiast when I was told that I would be part of the organisation of the ISC’s biggest event: the Multi-Cultural Week held in October of this year.

The first thing I learnt was that organising an event is a huge commitment and can start as early as 5 months in advance. I didn’t imagine that it can take such a long time to prepare an event but I was glad at the same time as it meant that I would be able to contribute.

I also realised that organising an event is not the job of only one person. It might be different when you work at a consultancy, but at the ISC, every member has role to play. The convenor, the event’s officer, the marketing officer and the PR officer work together to ensure the success of the event. I noticed that everyone was working on the same project and although I found it a bit confusing, I realised that it was the best way to produce the best outcome.

The Multi-Cultural week is an event dedicated to promote multiculturalism during 5 days, where each continent is represented. At the end of the week a closing ceremony is held, Pasar Malam, and gathers all the continents together. Pasar Malam means “Food market” in Malay. Different foods from around the world are therefore available during the night, and culturally diverse performances are present to entertain the crowd.

This is a huge event to organise and after being briefed on all the different aspects and details that have to be considered I realised that 5 months were indeed needed to put everything together. In the early stages of the event’s preparation, performances and food stalls for each day and for the closing ceremony have to be searched.

I realised that an integrated team was essential to ensure the success of the event. The Public Relations role at this stage was similar to any other members. Working with other departments and sharing works and ideas is what make a successful event. Communication is crucial and all the interpersonal skills learnt at uni come into play.

Although I won’t be an intern at the ISC during the final stages of the event’s preparation, I will still give a hand to this fantastic team as I found this project really motivating and I can’t wait to see all our efforts come to life.

Where to start ... ?

As I previously mentioned I am doing my internship at the International Students Committee (ISC) at Curtin University. I have been working there for several weeks now and I really think I have been improving my self-confidence.

The main concern I had when I started my internship was that I will be working almost unsupervised and I was a bit afraid that I was not ready to really work on my own in a real work environment. When you are at uni, it is quite secured. I mean, when you complete your assignments, either for a real life client or not, you are supervised by your tutors or lecturers. They are there to give you feedbacks on your work and to make sure you are on the right track.

I work with the PR officer, a master student at Curtin University, who is, like me, new at the ISC. Therefore it is sometimes a bit confusing what needs to be done. The first meeting we had was mainly to introduce everyone and the ISC. After that meeting we were a bit on our own to work on whatever we wanted to. To be honest, I was a bit lost. Where to begin? What to do?

I started to realise that it was much harder to work in the real world. All the reports that I compiled for the PR units were all for specific objectives. But now I was on my own, and basically I could do anything I could think of. And that’s what the problem was. I started thinking about so many things that could be done that it was hard to focus and pick one idea and start working on that. Freedom is great when you know how to use it.

I therefore did what I was used to do when starting a report for any PR units: research! Then I could come up with issues followed by ideas to “fix” them. It might sounds a bit too schoolish but I really needed to have some form of structures to produce a good work.

One of the main issues the ISC is facing is a lack of awareness. This reassures me as I was used to deal with raising awareness for organisations. I therefore knew what can work and what can’t. All the theories and assignments that I’ve done at uni really helped me. However this time it was in a real life context so it was not just about coming up with ideas but actually put them into practice.

I am not always let without any directions. Sometimes the convenor of the ISC specifically asks for something that needs to be done. One of the tasks that I was asked to undertake was to find sponsors for the main event of the ISC, the Multi-Cultural week, held in October. This is still in progress, as finding sponsors is not something that you can finalise in one week. For me it was a good occasion to demonstrate my skills and knowledge, and put into practice what I learned throughout my studies. I have to say I was glad I still had the lecture notes on sponsorship; it was a really good starting point.

What I realised since I have been doing my internship at the ISC is that when you start working in the real world you really have to be confident about you and what you can do. I think it is really important to do a good job. And confidence come with practice so I hope that by the end of my internship I would have improve my self-assurance a lot more

That’s all for now, have a great week!

Diane

A new experience begins

Hi everyone,

I’m Diane from Curtin University. I am currently in my last semester of my Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Public Relations and Advertising. I can’t believe I will be done with uni in a few months..

I am doing my internship at the International Students Committee (ISC) at Curtin. The ISC is a department of the guild and is run by students. It is the peak representative body for international students, their concerns, issues and their voice at Curtin.

I started looking for an internship when I came back from holidays at the end of January. I really thought that I would be definitely fine finding an internship as I started looking around early. However, I just started my internship 2 weeks ago.. An advice for future interns: START LOOKING FOR A PLACEMENT EARLY!! You never know what can go wrong.

As a 3rd year student, I really thought it would be easy to find something quickly but it was not that easy. I am not sure if it is due to my lack of experience or because I am an international student, but anyway it made me realised that it wouldn’t be that easy to find a job once I graduate. One thing I regret looking back at my time at uni, it’s not having enough work experiences. I really wish I could go back and do a lot more during those 3 years. But that is just my personal opinion and experience and when reading the different posts, everyone is having a different journey.

Anyway,
I was really excited when I started my internship at the ISC. I have to say that I didn’t hear of this association before, but I felt that it was a great opportunity for me to get a real life experience as well as to assist an association for international students.

During my first days at the ISC, I met the students I was working with and I learned more about the committee as it was completely new to me. I did some research and asked as many questions needed to fully understand what the ISC was about and what they were doing. It is essential to really know who you are working for to do the best job possible.

When I first thought of my internship, I imagined being in an office all day, supervised by someone who would tell me what I need to do, and complete tasks that no one wants to do. However, at the ISC, as it is a fairly new organisation, there are lot of work that can be done, and lots of place for your imagination. I can come to work every day for a few hours, or just few days a week, or even work from home; it is entirely up to me.

At first I felt a bit disorientated without supervision. I was used to work on my own, but not in a real environment. I was a bit lost the first few days, and tried to do my best to figure out what I could do. As I said there are so many things that can be done, so many projects that could be undertaken that I was not sure where to begin.

Now I am a lot more confident and glad to contribute to the ISC.

That’s all for now, I’ll share more experiences and projects in later posts.

Diane