Wow. This is, by far, the best unit I have ever taken.
I started my internship back in February and have now been with my company, Onsite Health Solutions, for just over 3 months. Not only am I completely devoted to them, but am constantly reminded why I chose to pursue Public Relations and how lucky I am to truly enjoy something I will be doing for years to come.
Working for a health company that supplies health programs to mine sites would never have been my first choice, however when the opportunity came up I did my research, had my interview and suddenly found myself in the office very much a part of the team 7 days later. Of course, I felt daunted and completely nervous that I had managed to talk myself into a job that barely existed in a marketing department that had never really heard of PR.. the thought of finding myself unable to deliver anything of value to the company constantly played on my mind. However, instead of freaking out and quitting, I decided to give it everything.. "fake it till you make it girl!" Turns out, I barely had to fake it at all.
Thrown into the deep end my internship started with only one week until one of the biggest events for the organisation ever. Having just been acquired by and slowly getting integrated into the Sanitarium 'Health and Wellbeing Division', my organisation was throwing a 'Healthy Breakfast' and tour of some of the sites we work on to announce the new partnership. Hosted by Brett Lee. Oh my god, Brett Lee.
With a whole heap of excitement and a head buzzing with creative ideas, I set about finding out what kind of media strategy the marketing team had put together and how I could help. None. Oh no. So with two days in the office (one working week) until Brett Lee landed in Perth, I jumped in and began trying to find out as much as I could about the organisation, the new partnership, their current programs goals and objectives, and the itinerary for Brett's stay in Perth.
Within one day, I had several Press Releases, a Media Kit and event running sheets for the Breakfast and Brett's tour of an FMG site in Port Hedland. Within two days I had been on the phone and email to several journalists, some nice, some rude, and had secured us some press in a local newspaper in Port Hedland. The event the following week went smoothly, Brett was amazingly down to earth and friendly and our clients were absolutely delighted when we produced our bright red OHS hats to them to be signed by Brett Lee.
There was really only one problem encountered for the week, and that was a small thing called cyclone Rusty. Ah. So I forget about the issues management document, oops.
Luckily cyclone Rusty wasn't too bad in the end, but unfortunately it did mean that the tour was called off and Brett Lee never got to see our sites in Port Hedland, so much work for what felt like nothing. Looking back now though it is never nothing for the experience and huge learning curve I tackled in my first week, and we did in fact get some press. I meekly showed my boss the news clipping from a local paper in Port Hedland (from a journalist I had been talking to in the lead up to the event) very disappointed with the small article that could have been a front page spread, only to have her jumping up and down in excitement at getting some press! Even though it was a small article in a local newspaper, I was suddenly the bright new star in the office, the directors and my fellow colleagues all congratulated me on such a fantastic job. That was the moment I realised just how huge an impact public relations could have for this company, and (more importantly for my nerves) how supportive they would be over the coming months as I set about carving out a solid PR foundation for the future.
3 months later and it just keeps getting better, but you will have to wait until my next blog post..
I started my internship back in February and have now been with my company, Onsite Health Solutions, for just over 3 months. Not only am I completely devoted to them, but am constantly reminded why I chose to pursue Public Relations and how lucky I am to truly enjoy something I will be doing for years to come.
Working for a health company that supplies health programs to mine sites would never have been my first choice, however when the opportunity came up I did my research, had my interview and suddenly found myself in the office very much a part of the team 7 days later. Of course, I felt daunted and completely nervous that I had managed to talk myself into a job that barely existed in a marketing department that had never really heard of PR.. the thought of finding myself unable to deliver anything of value to the company constantly played on my mind. However, instead of freaking out and quitting, I decided to give it everything.. "fake it till you make it girl!" Turns out, I barely had to fake it at all.
Thrown into the deep end my internship started with only one week until one of the biggest events for the organisation ever. Having just been acquired by and slowly getting integrated into the Sanitarium 'Health and Wellbeing Division', my organisation was throwing a 'Healthy Breakfast' and tour of some of the sites we work on to announce the new partnership. Hosted by Brett Lee. Oh my god, Brett Lee.
With a whole heap of excitement and a head buzzing with creative ideas, I set about finding out what kind of media strategy the marketing team had put together and how I could help. None. Oh no. So with two days in the office (one working week) until Brett Lee landed in Perth, I jumped in and began trying to find out as much as I could about the organisation, the new partnership, their current programs goals and objectives, and the itinerary for Brett's stay in Perth.
Within one day, I had several Press Releases, a Media Kit and event running sheets for the Breakfast and Brett's tour of an FMG site in Port Hedland. Within two days I had been on the phone and email to several journalists, some nice, some rude, and had secured us some press in a local newspaper in Port Hedland. The event the following week went smoothly, Brett was amazingly down to earth and friendly and our clients were absolutely delighted when we produced our bright red OHS hats to them to be signed by Brett Lee.
There was really only one problem encountered for the week, and that was a small thing called cyclone Rusty. Ah. So I forget about the issues management document, oops.
Luckily cyclone Rusty wasn't too bad in the end, but unfortunately it did mean that the tour was called off and Brett Lee never got to see our sites in Port Hedland, so much work for what felt like nothing. Looking back now though it is never nothing for the experience and huge learning curve I tackled in my first week, and we did in fact get some press. I meekly showed my boss the news clipping from a local paper in Port Hedland (from a journalist I had been talking to in the lead up to the event) very disappointed with the small article that could have been a front page spread, only to have her jumping up and down in excitement at getting some press! Even though it was a small article in a local newspaper, I was suddenly the bright new star in the office, the directors and my fellow colleagues all congratulated me on such a fantastic job. That was the moment I realised just how huge an impact public relations could have for this company, and (more importantly for my nerves) how supportive they would be over the coming months as I set about carving out a solid PR foundation for the future.
3 months later and it just keeps getting better, but you will have to wait until my next blog post..
