Hello!
This is me, blogging about my first week of internship, which also happens to be my first ever official job. It's all still very new to me, and so is blogging in an academic manner - so please forgive me if I sound too casual.
First off, since the beginning of the semester, for three consecutive weeks I have been so anxious about getting a placement. I made at least 30 over calls to all kinds of organisations, in hopes they would get back to me before Week 4 comes - which is the deadline for placement approvals as according to the unit outline.
During the first three weeks, I had never hated the weekend so much in my entire life because that is when companies are not working, which means I cannot make any contact with them at all. Every week I made full use of the weekdays from 8am to 5pm, just making calls, and on the weekends I would mope about not getting a call back.
I communicated with Lydia, our course coordinator, during the entire time and she was just the kindest soul to help me out with all of my incessant queries - which I am extremely grateful for. I eventually managed to get a few calls back, and finally chose the organisation of my choice - Identitywa.
The Communications Officer in Identitywa provided me a space right outside her office where she regularly visits and asks how I am coping with the work I've been given. She's nice enough to make sure I am not overloaded with stress, but at the same time makes sure I have been given enough work. She's also very keen with the idea of brainstorming together, and this makes me feel comfortable that I can ask her for help whenever I struggle with a task - whether minor or major.
My first task at work was to design three flyers in Microsoft Publisher, where one of it needed to be printed out in the next half an hour. It was manageable as I can still recall the in-class practices with the software during PR Techniques, and managed to also apply my experience with digital design from the other units I have taken.
Besides that, I was also given the task to write several articles. One article was for the in-house newsletter called Identikite, and another for Emmanuel Catholic College's newsletter - regarding a recent event that took place. I also had to write an article on the NDIS and WA NDIS My Way in relation to their latest media release of the Fourth Quarterly Report. I applied my understanding and experience of writing media releases and articles from all the Public Relations units that I have taken in the past semesters. I also applied my knowledge of writing to cater to specific audiences, which is something that the previous PR units and my current Magazine Feature Writing unit taught me.
I've also been given minor tasks like calling up the house seniors of Identitywa houses (where people with disability under the care of Identitywa are taken care of) to take note of any interesting things the residents are doing, so that I could write an article about it to be included in the monthly in-house newsletter. Those are the things that I have been taught in the previous PR units that I have taken and I am extremely glad that I didn't find any of the tasks a problem.
And since next week is a tuition free week, I have decided to let my Communications Officer know that I will be coming in on Monday to Friday for work! Hoping everyone is enjoying their internship as well! ☻
Denissa Goh
15652315
15652315
