(Written Monday 29th July 2013)
Hello again everyone! It’s that time again… Blog time! As
you should know by reading the title of this blog, it’s all about my first day
at Professional Public Relations or PPR for short. I must admit many nerves
were held by me before I arrived for my first day. The anticipation was
horrible. I didn’t know what to expect having never worked in an office
environment before and being a little intimidated by how much more experience
everyone at PPR had on me. The worst thing that could happen would be that
everyone thought I was an idiot for not knowing simple things that came easily
to them. Shallow as it may be, deep down most people want to be accepted and I
think this is where most of my nervousness and anxiety stemmed from. Of course
I wanted to be accepted at PPR to start building my reputation as well as just
making the work environment more pleasant not just for me but everyone at PPR.
So the first thing I did when I got too PPR, which has very
recently moved from it’s Subiaco location to West Perth was park on the street.
I went to the ticket machine… $4 an hour! My heart nearly dropped to the floor.
I’m a university student who can barely afford a cup of coffee let alone pay
for parking at a rate of $4 an hour. Anyhow, I paid for just one hour and went
up to the office. Here, I asked if there was possibly a staff parking bay.
There was, however, it was reserved for senior members of PPR which was
completely understandable although I did get some tips on places to park where
I could avoid paying for a ticket. Please keep this on the down low though! All
jokes aside, parking was one thing I didn’t think I would encounter. Now I know
why so many business people take public transport and this may be a suitable
option for me in the future.
So when I finally got shown to my desk, I familiarised
myself with PPR’s body of work by reading up on their past projects in a book
given to me. I was then shown how to navigate through the computer system and
then taken around the office to be introduced to the staff. At this point I was
so overwhelmed. As I mentioned before, these people were so much more
experienced and knowledgeable then me and I didn’t know what to do or what to
say. You know what they say that it’s all about that first impression so I
tried to be as professional as possible but somehow I don’t think I left a
great impression. I was told I had to generate my own work and that tasks would
not be handed to me so it was important to build a relationship with each and every
one who worked there to make sure I would be consistently getting tasks to do,
while also building my reputation as a reliable person.
I asked around and my tasks on the first day were all pretty
administrative. I had to contact organisations in order to validate their
contact information for an event that was coming up. I also had to research
advertising data for online websites which included finding specific sites’
unique browsers per month and the advertising rates for them. This would be
used to identify how much PPR would have saved clients on advertising when they
received publicity online. I then had to create a list of corporate advisory
firms for each state in Australia and include relevant contact information for
each. All in all, a very stimulating and challenging day and I look forward to
what awaits me in the next four weeks!
Jamie.
