The end of something is just the beginning of another...

Here it comes. The end of my internship.

Indeed, this blog post will be dedicated to my final appreciation on this very short (but intense) professional placement, as well as on the obvious experience I took out from it. Because this internship has brought me a concrete practical experience in the field of communications and especially Public Relations. But even more important - and as I read it here and there on this blog, this is an opinion shared by many others - it has also brought me a real human experience, and allowed me an unprecedented immersion into a life that surely looks like my tomorrow life.

My last week has not been the easiest one. It was actually quite the contrary, the roughest week I had, and one thing I learned is that once you have integrated the "system", or rather, once the "system" has integrated you, you are "sucked" into a world that never sleeps, a world where tasks are never ending and add to each other. There will always be things to do, and you will always have something to do.

My supervisor really wanted me to stay longer. One month is a short period time when you work on a project, after all... Some important tasks I was currently working on will have to be transfered to other people in my department. I was, for instance, in connection with the chief-of-staff editor of one of the most popular French newspapers "La Tribune", to find out about the terms and modality to disseminate one of their articles describing some of our company's Solution Services, on our upcoming redesigned coporate website. Unfortunately, we did not have time to finish our discussions, and further negociations should happened without me.

I knew that the conduct of a project wasn't easy. But this is especially true for an international company which has divisions in more than 80 countries around the world, and moreover, in different sectors. While I was looking for information on the company, I realized the extent of the operations of my business and at the same time, I understood the real importance of my role within such entity. The image below shows all the actors and groups related to the company. The linking lines between them represent a Public Relations-based communication.
This placement was also important for my personal appreciation of my own diploma. I actually had a really abstract opinion of my Bachelor degree's value on the labor market. Through this experience, I found that my skills in Web policies & culture, were as important as my communicator skills. I have been able to give a real value and to enhance my knowledge in these two areas, gathering them for a common goal and mission and I though managed to enhance my professional profile among one of the biggest employers worldwide. I am now sure I will find a job once I finished Uni, or at least, that my diploma will be of interest to companies wishing to combine PR and modernity.

As a balance on my internship itself, and after discussion with my supervisor, I have fulfilled my responsibilities with professionalism and seriousness. It hasn't been always easy, but in the end, my employers thought I did a great and efficient job. And that surely is the most important. I still regret it was so short, but considering I had other important units beside this one, I could not afford to do more than one month.

My work will normally be visible on the Group's corporate website by the 1st of June, when the new version will be entirely developed. I am a little anxious about the texts I wrote and that will be posted on a site that records visits by millions. But after all, almost all the department will proofread and verify my text before it is posted online, so I do not worry. What will be posted will be of quality, and I am proud to have contributed to this big project, at my modest level.

Thus, this is how my internship ends. But increasingly, I am getting closer to the beginning of my professional life. Or, perhaps has it already begun?

The end is just the beginning.

Good luck to all of you for the end of your placements, as well as for your final exams.

In-house vs. Consultancy - Or How New Experiences Bring New Questions

Time flies...

And I am actually just starting to wonder where I'll be in 5 years from now. 10 years. 20 years.
Yet, there is a more important question I should ask myself before imaginating the future. That is: where do I WANT to be, in 5 years from now. 10 years. 20 years...

As a matter of fact, I am now at the end of my Public Relations studies curriculum. I already know my future job will "have something to do" with managing the image and public profile of an organisation, person, group or brand. I already know I'll have to challenge myself everyday, and I know I'll spend about as much time with Medias in my professional life as with my wife in my personal life. This is a choice I already made. The choice of Public Relations, the choice of CO-MMU-NI-CA-TION.

Now, thanks to PR 300 (Consultancy), I have learned more about some of the options I will have once I'll be a gratuated student: either starting a career in a Public Relations Consultancy, or starting a career in a company or organisation's in-house Public Relations department.

Both have strengths and weaknesses, career opportunities and limitations, benefits and handicaps. The work of Katharina Wolf, PR Career Progression - The gap between traditional research and the UK industry's perception (2005), does a great job in helping to understand the differences that both path implied.

As for myself, the internship I am currently involved in raises many questions to my mind. I had the chance to work in a French Public Relations Consultancy during previous semesters, and with this new professional placement experience in an in-house communication department, I can now start to take a step back and think of what I learned and experienced, and in which position I felt the most happy and comfortable.

For instance, if in-house Public Relations departments provide less important (or at least, less evident) career opportunities, they also - theoritically - have the benefit of a less stressful schedule and flexible hours. Consultancy practictioners also feel the frustration of not being part of an entire project, but just part of some of it elements.

Conversely, Consultancy practictioners have more networking opportunities, better and numerous career evolution possibilities. Consultancy work is also referred to as an opportunity to gain a wide range of experiences...

Thanks to PR 393, I think my choice is getting more and more defined as my placement comes to an end. For the moment, I feel like starting my PR career as an in-house practitioner is the choice I want to make.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember - I believe - that it is not impossible to change a career path and going from consultancy to in-house, and inversely. However, Katharina Wolf (2005) in her above cited work, mentions that it is still easier for Consultancy practitioners to move to in-house positions than the contrary, especially when they have arrived at a certain point of experience in their career.

I think I'll still need a few experiences to build-up my final opinion and take a final choice regarding my career path. But this placement and unit has helped me, in bringing me new questions and I am grateful for that.

Now... What about you? Where will you be in 5 years? 10 years? ...20 years? Think about it.

Quality of Daily Life Solutions!

Hello again everyone,

I hope you are all having a great experience with your placement. As for myself, I would say I found the best internship I could possibly secured.

First of all, regarding the several challenges I was tackling in my first blog post. Well, I was expecting a much more complex "integration" in the department I work in. Yet, I have been surprised with how everyone has made efforts to facilitate organisation and collaboration. It is a very diverse department, large and extended. So when you're brand new to the team, it can be somehow difficult to know where to go or who to address to. Even though the context is of course professional, I found that there was a very friendly atmosphere. I'm sure that's because it is a communication department ;) (not mentioning there are only 3 men, including myself, for about fifteen to twenty women).

The "Well'Com" Kit I was mentioning earlier in my posts has really helped me. Especially a department organisation chart that was providing all the details about the people I would work with.

Now, I have started the core of my mission and I have to say it is quite a challenge. For the purpose of my mission I had to litteraly "dissect" the corporate website and several of its satellites (specific websites, country websites, intranet...), in order to retrieve all useful information about the company, its services, client cases, initiatives and programmes it was involved in, testimonials from collaborators and so on.

All of this in quite a short time !

The reason why I had to retrieve and gather all sorts of information is because I will then have to write the online content for several elements that we want to highlight and display on the upcoming redesigned corporate website.

The interesting thing about what I am doing right now, is that I need to talk with lots of people from different departments. As part of my research, I need to interact, send emails and make phone calls. I'm in contact and I love that.

It is not only about writing online content. It is about understanding, living and adopting the company's philosophy and stick to it while addressing readers and users who will see my work (that is, potentially, thousand and thousand of people of which journalists, clients, shareholders but also employees or future clients).

What I write has to respect the organisation's "personality" and identity. And it is not that easy. There are all the constraints related to Public Relations (tone, adaptation to the support and to the audience, the company's PR policy...), but also those of Web Publishing (format, size, copyrights, text calibration, technical requirements...).

Sure, this is not pure Public Relations with external entities. But, I have learned that this is part of the job. As I am preparing content for a website, the contact with the audience is indirect, but also direct, in the meantime, because it is designed for a website. It is intemporal but calls for an instantaneous dialogue between "us", the company, and "them", the user, visitor, reader.

My task is not that complicated. Yet I have to focus and pick out only the relevant information that will be useful for me in my mission. An internship where there is some room for my own initiatives.

That's it for now! I still got some videos and testimonials to analyse.

Stay tuned, more to come in my next post.

"Making every day, a better day"

First week, first impressions.

But before starting off with an introduction about the company I have been lucky enough to be accepted in as an intern, and even before talking about the mission I received for that internship, I will briefly introduce myself to you.

My name is Joel, I'm 21 and I am a final year, exchange student from France, studying Mass Communication at Curtin University (Public Relations and Web Culture & Policies). Now, for several reasons, I went back to France at the end of 2010 and have since continued my degree from here, therefore looking for a placement around the area I live in, Paris (what a great city by the way..). Yet, I believe Australia hasn't leave me completely stony, and I really hope I'll be able to see Freemantle's and Rottnest's beautiful beaches again very soon.

But, that isn't the topic of this blog post (unfortunately). In fact, we're all here to talk about the same thing:

Our first 20 - tiny - steps in the... WORKING life !

So let's break the suspens here. As I said it above, I have been lucky enough to find a placement in a very important company, but what's more, is that the placement completely corresponds to the specificity of my Mass Communication Bachelor, which incorporates both Public Relations and Web streams. I will explain why later on in the post.

It might not ring a bell for most of you (it did not for me, the first time I heard it): Sodexo, a global leader in quality of daily life solutions.

" But... what does that mean exactly? "

Well, that was actually my very first question. And that is also what has kept me busy for most of my first day in the company. What could "daily life solutions" possibly mean? Quite vague, isn't it?

What do you guys think it means at first sight?

It wasn't clear enough for me. I have spent my first days trying to define what exactly were the company activities, how was it organised, who its clients were...

Luckily for me, the manager who welcomed me took the time to explain everything in details, she answered my questions everytime I had one and she gave me what they call a "Well'Com Kit", for all new comers in the company.

That was a great starting point. A USB key containing several essential elements on the company, the Communication Direction department, key figures, processes, what to do, how to do, where to go and who to ask for this or that.

I am sure some of these documents will be very helpful when I will start writing my final report. Of course, it is useless to tell you that they really helped me out at the beginning, as the company's organisation is very complex, especially when you are brand new to this huge unknown universe.

That is an interesting question by the way. Will I be able to integrate the team well? Will I have any difficulties to position my individuality in this very large and complex collectivity of people, groups and services? I will have to find my way around.

I used the expression "huge unknown universe" to describe Sodexo, because I think it is true, when you arrive in such an environment, without having heard of this company before, you have the unpleasant impression of being just a tiny little microscopic thing in front of a giantic and living entity.

But, the best way to learn about Sodexo is when Sodexo speaks for itself. Here is a video describing Sodexo in a snapshot:



Now, for those of you who were too tired (lazy ?) to watch the video, here are some key figures :

"Our Mission: to improve quality of daily life, to contribute to the economic, social and environmental development"

"Our Core Values: service spirit, team spirit, spirit of progress"

"15,3 billion Euro, in consolidated revenue"

"34,000 sites
80 countries
50 Million consumers per day
N°1 Globally in most markets"

380,000 Employees
21st largest employer worldwide

Thus, the first challenge for me will be to "smoothly" integrate the team I will be attached to and get familiar with this whole - new - corporate world. I will tell you how this went in my next blog post!

As for the mission I have been assigned to, it looks pretty exciting though challenging. As part of the Group Brand & Communication Direction team, I will assist the Web Manager in writing and organising content for an upcoming online project.

Like I said it before, this is a great opportunity for me to associate the knowledge I have learned both in Public Relations and in Web units. With a highly frequented corporate website, the content I will write will be visible by everyone: medias, clients, visitors, consumers, suppliers, shareholders, employees, partners...

I will have to make sure I adapt the content to these audience and to the tool, that is the Web.

More to come in my next blog post!

Thanks for reading, and do not hesitate to post your comments and/or questions.

Joel.