The Impending Internship

(Written on Saturday 27th July 2013)

Hello there fellow PR 393’ers!

Firstly, I think an introduction is in order. My name is Jamie Kho, I’m studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing & Public Relations) and this semester, I only have this unit to complete before I graduate. University has just flown by, which I am sure a lot of you would agree with. I hope you guys enjoy reading my blog and I hope to gain many insights into how your internship experiences went as well.

That's me on the left there - if you ever see me around campus, please come and say hi. I'm a very nice person once you get to know me!

As I have yet to start my internship, this blog post is going to be dedicated to the “journey” I took in securing a placement. When I first decided to search for internship options, I asked myself: “what do I want to do after I graduate?” Many things came to mind; media relations, event management, attending business meetings and crisis management were all things that I wanted to at least experience once.

There were so many options that I really didn’t know where to start. I ended up creating a list of about fifteen possible organisations. From there, I called them one by one. Some said they were not currently looking for interns, others told me to call back at a closer date. The one thing that infuriated me the most was there was one organisation which shall remain nameless as I don’t wish to tarnish anyone’s reputation in this blog, said they were interested and would call me back soon. After a week of waiting, I called back. “Oh yes, we are still interested. We’ll call you soon.” One more week past. “Yes, we will call you back as soon as we can confirm dates.” Another two weeks past and still no response. I called back and once again received the same reply. This made me question, as I had exhausted all other possible organisations on the list, I had hedged all my bets on this one company. Should I have continued looking elsewhere instead of hoping for acceptance here? Or was the organisation to blame for giving me “false hope?”

It soon dawned on me though that they were not going to call me back and after wasting weeks on waiting for this company, I knew I had to continue my search for a placement elsewhere. I know at university we’re taught to maintain a certain level of professionalism in the workplace, especially with external stakeholders and yet, I know that this doesn’t always stand true as I had just experienced. This experience only made me step back and re-evaluate how I wanted to behave in the workplace. Professionalism, honesty and dedication are my three cornerstones that I decided would be the backbone of my work ethic and this is all thanks to a failed internship request. Who knew?! There is always a silver lining!

So as you guys now know, I had to continue my internship search. Stressed for time now, as I really didn’t know what career path I wanted to pursue, much like an epiphany, it came to me. Consultancy! Of course, it was right in front of me the whole time. Rather than attempt to work at a specialised organisation, a consultancy would allow me to experience most, if not all aspects of public relations and put all the theoretical knowledge I had leant at uni into practice. First organisation on my list: PPR. Who could go past it? Being the largest PR firm in WA, I had to at least try to get a placement here. I knew it would be competitive but as they say: you have to be in it to win it! As luck would have it, I secured my internship here and could not be happier. I am going to be able to experience many
different aspects of public relations and hope to gain as much knowledge as I can from the accumulation of years and years of experience withheld by the consultants at PPR. I can’t wait and I will keep you guys posted on how it all goes!

Happy Blogging!

Jamie ;)

Information overload!

Over my past few internship days I have been busy learning basic skills on Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and website maintenance – all vital skills for the business world! 

My supervisor asked me to use Adobe InDesign in order to create Bowls WA’s Handbook and Fixture Book. The Handbook is an A5 sized book sent to all clubs in WA to distribute to its members. The Handbook contains all information about Bowls WA and what they offer, general bowls field of play rules, an event calendar, plus metropolitan and country contacts for each club and zone. The Fixture book is a pocket sized book which is also sent to all clubs in WA to distribute to its members. This book is aimed for members to keep in their bowling bags or pockets, as it gives detailed descriptions on competition field of play rules, penalties and winnings. It also gives a more detailed calendar of events.

Each of these books are created and updated over a few months; as the information is only printed once a year, thorough editing is required! My role? Add EVERYTHING to the books and edit! After receiving a quick 10 minute lesson on InDesign my supervisor let me at it! I felt very proud being left with full responsibility, however after 7 hours at a computer, scrolling through pages and pages of writing, I was going cross eyed and couldn’t wait to get home to a glass of wine!  I then repeated this day 5 times over!

When I was asked to use Adobe Photoshop and update the company website, my first thoughts were, “But, I don’t know what to do!?” Once given another lesson from my supervisor, I found the process quite easy. Bowls WA uses an online program called Typo3 which allows you to easily upload photos and information to the website. I have uploaded photos, news stories, and club details. A nice easy change from the tiresome “book” work.

After getting a taste of these Adobe programs, I have only wanted to learn more! Hopefully I'll get a chance to learn more on these programs in the near future!

I hope everyone's still enjoying their internships! 

Kind regards, 

Lauren 

Beginning at the Beginning 

I started looking for placements way back in the winter holidays knowing we only had 4 weeks off, I thought I may as well start getting ahead before the pressure starts again in Semester 2. There were many things to look into before applying for placements and I knew I had to be sure about where I was going as I was going to have to write a long and important report at the end of it and if I was not interested in the place I would not do a good job.

The first question was if I wanted to work in a consultancy or in house operations. I had heard of the benefits of both through my three years in the PR degree but I have never actually done any placements so I could not be too sure of what I would prefer.

The second question was if my resume, references and interviewing skills were up to date. I had to go over my CV with a fine tooth comb and got a few proof readers before considering sending it out into the business world to reflect and represent myself.

The third question was how confident I was in the basics of most PR areas. I started re reading notes and lectures and going through the pre requisite information for this unit so I felt confident enough to interview for a PR position.

http://www.scitech.org.au/

After all of this, eight weeks ago I got a call back from my first choice of placements which is Scitech. A general background about the company is that it is a not for profit science education institution which gets almost 60% of its funding from the State Government and public and private sponsors. I was so excited and after a straight forward interview with my Supervisor and the Communications Manager I got the call back for the job! I soon found out that not only was I the Schools Marketing Assistant but also a Communications Assistant so I was going to be put straight to work and would be juggling a few different areas in the office.

I was so nervous for my first day but I was soon put at ease as I was told that I had to go and experience all that Scitech has to offer so I could get a proper feel for the work they do. I got to play with the toddlers in Discoverland, sit in on a puppet show with a school group, watch the Slime demonstrations in the Lotterywest Science Theatre and enjoy a show at the the Horizon Planetarium. After the exciting day I was excited to get into real work twice a week for the next few months.

My next posts will be on the exciting work I have been up to and looking forward to!
Until next time,

Brooke
14275177