Are you looking for a career in Public Relations?

My placement has shown me two key attributes that I believe are essential to pursuing a successful career in public relations. 

I have been studying public relations for almost a decade. During this time I have held positions in fields such as sales and marketing, conservation, taxation, teaching, management and administration. During my degree I have been able to apply public relations theory to each position I have held. University has taught me knowledge of the field, and the theory behind it, but some things are not learnt in the classroom.

I organised my internship with an organisation that places high value on student placements and mentoring. For confidentiality reasons I can't identify the organisation but I can tell you a bit about what I'm learning. My placement team has shown me that I've got the skills and education to pursue a career in a public relations role. They are also teaching me a bit more...... that a career in public relations requires passion and perseverance.

Passion: The first three days in my internship placement have been really rewarding. I have enjoyed using the theory from university along with the skills developed in the workforce. More importantly it has given me the confidence that a career in public relations is the right thing for me. With every job there is some give and take.

I am going home exhausted at the end of each day.

I am required to work some unusual hours.

I have to do things outside of my comfort zone.

Despite all this there is no doubt in my mind that it is all worth it. I look forward to my placement days and the challenges and experiences it brings.

Perseverance: I’ve been thrown in the deep end at work as we received unexpected grant funding allowing us to run an event at less than two weeks’ notice. My role has included producing promotional material, seeking event sponsors and writing a media release.

One of my duties was to produce a promotional poster for the event. I drafted a poster but it was not accepted as it did not comply with the organisations style guide.  My team was keen to use my poster as it was more relevant to our target audience than the sample head office had sent us. I redesigned the poster over a dozen times before finding a suitable middle ground that would be approved.

Normally this is something that would frustrate and disappoint me; however I had been talking to a co-worker in my team. Once graduating she had applied for over 160 jobs and taken over two years to get a position in her field. She was a member of professional bodies and sought assistance from the careers team at her university. Her perseverance to gain a career in her field inspired me. It allowed me to see the drawn out process of getting a poster approved as a lesson in perseverance, staying focused and remaining positive.

The Lesson: Sometimes finding a job might be hard work. It might involve unpaid internships, volunteering, multiple job applications and rejections. The challenges you come across during your internship are similar to the challenges you will face when looking for work or in your chosen career. Finding something you are passion about is a good grounding for perseverance and can help you get through whatever challenges your workplace throws at you.

I would love to hear how your internships are going. What key attributes do you see as essential to getting the most out of your placements and pursuing a career in public relations?
 

The Momentum Isn't Over!

The night of the Pink Ribbon Ball

I can't believe the Pink Ribbon Ball has been and gone! After months of hard work, blood, sweat and tears the night has finally arrived and what a success it was!

An overview of the night...

I arrived at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre at 4pm on Saturday the 6th of October and was delighted to see the Bellevue Ballroom was coming along very nicely and was starting to look like a romantic, Parisian backdrop for a magical night. The volunteers met with Douglas (Barbara's husband) and starting setting up the tables of ten. Each table needed to have 3 menus, 4 auction catalogues, 10 raffle tickets, one envelope for raffle ticket money and one envelope for raffle ticket stubbs and 4 National Breast Cancer Foundation booklets.

The tables looked very pink and romantic on the night

I then went through with Barbara the table sating and made sure she was happy with the room and how everything looked. We firstly went through her table and organised the table seating and put down name cards for the important guests attending. This including the opposition leader Mark McGowan, the U.S. Consult Aleisha Woodward and the Hon Helen McSweeney. We then organised the table next to Barbara's which included the MC's, the auctioneers, the testimonial guest speaker and Kate Simpson representative from the NBCF. I made sure to put the MC's as close to Barbara as possible so they could liaise throughout the evening without having to move around.

I then introduced myself to the floor manager of the Bellevue Ballroom for the night who was called Oma and to the head staff of the kitchen whose name was Peter. I was going to be liaising with these two men throughout the evening about extra chairs and seating problems, the entertainment requirements, opening of the ballroom, extra meals and drinks, refreshments for the band and any other problems throughout the night. It was essential to make my self known to them as I would be the first port of call for any problems on the night as I tried to minimise contact with Barbara so not to distract or stress her out. I also made contact with the AV team as I would also be liaising with them throughout the night. They would be in charge of the microphone volume, audio visual screens and video clips and music played in the ballroom.

I quickly did a last scan of the ballroom at around 6:15pm to check that everything was in place, all the VIP Corporate tables had the company logos and that every table had the correct materials.

Guests started to arrive at 6:30pm in the foyer for drinks and photographs on the red carpet. The first problem of the night I encountered was that the tables of ten print out on a board outside the ballroom was too small in font for the guests to read properly. As there was 57 tables guests had to sort through hundreds of names and with the small font this made it extremely difficult.

We had a few problems on the night with the guest list. Firstly, one couple couldn't find their names on the list but we then realised that their names had been put on the list under another couples name. There was also a spelling error where one of the tables names were printed out for two different tables. The major problem on the night was with two ladies who couldn't find their names on the guest list and I just couldn't figure out where they were supposed to be. Their tickets had been passed on to them through the Sunday Times as one of the ladies worked for Cupcakes for Cancer. I felt extremely worried but we sat them at a spare table for the entree and then located a Scoopon table with two spare seats and eventually moved them to that table. I felt extremely embarrassed for not knowing where they were sitting as I had dealt with the guest list from the get go!

We then had a problem with the entertainment for the night! We were very lucky to have secured Soul Mystique for the night, a ballroom dancing couple with a twist, previously on Australia's Got Talent. As the night was running in front of schedule, by almost half an hour, when we went down to let Soul Mystique know they were on stage soon, they were no where to be found! We were looking all around the convention centre for them, the green room, the meeting rooms down stairs, back stage but we just could not find them. When I was back in the Bellevue ballroom I then heard the MC's announce Soul Mystique and play their opening clip. This was extremely embarrassing as I knew that they were not going to be performing. Someone passed on the message to the MC's so they quickly went back on stage, apologised and said Soul Mystique were not here yet. They then moved straight on into the testimonial speech. We still couldn't find Soul Mystique and were starting to stress as we couldn't get in contact with them and had no idea where they could be! Myself and another volunteer then went up to the MC's to tell them to try and stall by talking about the raffle and auction items as we still couldn't find the talent. The MC's then went on stage and introduced Soul Mystique once again... This was now even more embarrassing and Barbara was starting to get very upset. We then finally found Soul Mystique and they went on and wowed the audience. Although it wasn't a good look most people agreed that there performance was worth the wait!

Myself (6th in from the left) with the Pink Ribbon Ball volunteers, the two auctioneers, Barbara McNaught and guests

Overall the ball was a great success having raised almost $40 000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Although the fundraising target was lower then previous years we think this may have been due to the large amount of Scoopon ticket holders in the room. However the night was still a magical event, raising awareness for an important cause and celebrating victories in the battle against breast cancer. I still cannot believe that I was a part of something so big and powerful and was able to help organise and plan the event from beginning to end!

As part of post-event production, selected professional photographs from the night are uploaded to the MFE website for the attendees to view and also purchase. I chose quite a few of the Kelvin Chong photographs to upload to show off the glitz and glamour of the ball. I chose quite a few of the ballroom setup including the tables and table centre pieces, dance floor and auction prizes. I then mostly chose photographs of guests posing for photos, guests dancing and mingling to ensure the event looks attractive so people viewing the photographs will want to attend next years ball.

As one event finishes, another is just beginning. MFE's next event the Melbourne Cup for CanTeen luncheon is just around the corner and preparations have already begun!

It was been an incredible journey at MFE and even though it is not over my blogging journey is! Thank you for reading my blog entries and I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experiences at MFE as I most certainly have thoroughly enjoyed my time here :)

Thank you again!

Elizabeth Thomas
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