It's over. Do you think they will notice if I don't go and just stay there?

So my internship has come to an end, in my final week I tied up loose ends and did a few odd jobs for some consultants.
This has been an amazing experience that I will never forget and has given me such a great insight into how a public relations firm works. I was sad to say goodbye to everyone and can't believe just how quickly the past four weeks has dlown by, it seems like only yesterday that I first stepped foot into the building and was greeted by so many new faces.

For my last day I baked everyone some cupcakes and macarons to say thank you for helping me out over the last four weeks and for teaching me so many new skills and expanding my knowledge base.

I'm finishing my internship with the knowledge that I have definitely chosen the right career path and cannot wait to graduate from university and begin the rest of my working life as a consultant in a public relations firms.

I hope everyone had an experience as good as mine and good luck to those who are only just starting their internships!!!

Hey everyone!

I’m sad to say that my internship has finally come to an end and the last two months of my internship went by in what now feels like a blink of an eye.

I truly am grateful that I had the opportunity to do my internship at the Shire of Kalamunda as I know that from it, I have definitely gained and expanded my skills in writing, communication, networking and that I have also further developed a stronger work ethic.

From beginning my internship with nerves and questioning my ability to complete work and perform up to the standards required within the Shire, I can happily say that I managed to pull through and performed to the best of my ability.

One of the highlights of my time at the Shire was being involved in the “Vote NO, Save Kalamunda” campaign, reading articles over the local 102.5FM radio station and proudest moment of all, seeing my works featured on the Kalamunda Shire website for the public to see.

I don’t think that I had always fully acknowledged the hard work and understood the effort the public relations team puts in to the operations of a company/organisation. I also didn’t actually realise how much responsibility resided on the departments’ shoulders especially during times of a crisis. However this all came to light during my internship.

Furthermore, throughout my internship I learned that the future of a company or organisation is not only based on finances, productivity and management… But also how well the company understands and communicates with its stakeholders and the public at large – a vital aspect of great importance.

I’ve learnt that PR is critical and essential in conveying messages and information on serious and also less significant issues.

Having the public relations internship as a compulsory feature of a public relations degree is a great idea for the students and I am glad that I got to be apart of it as it truly gives us, the students, a real feel and real life experience of what the future holds for us. And as a result has made me appreciate and value my degree even further.

To the other students who’ve completed their internship – hope you enjoyed your internship as much as I have and good luck for what the future holds!

To those students who are yet to embark on this final journey of their degree – keep an opened mind; make the most of your experience, as there is a lot to learn and good luck!

- Kiranjeet

Clients, costs and knowledge

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is enjoying their placements.

I have just finished my second week at PPR. I have continued to learn so much from the tasks given to me. I feel like I have become more efficient in my work this week. Once again numerous tasks were passed onto me by the consultants.

One of the main tasks I undertook this week was assisting one of the consultants in collating media clippings and media coverage statistics for presentation to the client. It seemed like a pretty easy task at first; however it turned into quite a beast of a project. I was asked to firstly calculate the annual figures for media coverage and formulate that information into a graph so it could be presented to the client. Each event or campaign that was held throughout the year fell into smaller sub categories and for each sub category the annual figure was also required to be calculated. I ended up creating six different graphs which was quite an achievement as I have never created bar graphs in PowerPoint before. There were some slight calculation errors but for the most part the consultant I was assisting was happy with the work I had done. This is another small skill that could be very useful later on in my career. I was also required to gather all the media clippings from the past year so they would be able to be printed and presented to the client. I found through this task I learnt the importance of media coverage to a client’s campaign and how this information must be presented to the client.

One of the other tasks I consistently took part in during the week was obtaining costs and quotes for different products or services. Firstly I was asked to obtain quotes to print a factsheet for a client. I discovered the PPR has preferred printers they like to use and it was as simple as contacting those printers and getting a quote. I also assisted one of the consultants in sourcing small magnets required for gift boxes for a function. You may say getting quotes or sourcing items is simply, I soon learnt that there is more to magnets than meets the eye. I was flooded by complex mineral names and different grades of magnets. I was unsure of what price is expensive and what is normal. All I wanted was a normal magnet! In the end I successfully sourced the required magnets at a reasonable price, it was a small win for me. I also assisted in obtaining a costing for travel packs for a client sending stakeholders out to a mine site for a visit. This was made quite easy for me thanks to Coles and Woolworths having online shopping now. I learnt that obtaining costs and quotes can be easy or hard at times and you need to know exactly what you need before you start looking.

Three main things I learnt through my past week at PPR;

1. Knowledge – understanding the importance of knowing a little bit about everything this includes knowing average prices for services and products so you can obtain the best price for your clients. Also sharing your knowledge about new products, trends or materials is important in building a strong work environment.

2. Asking questions – taking time out to speak to those people in your organisation who have been in the industry for a long period of time. They have a wealth of knowledge and expertises that you would never find in a textbook. I sat down with one of the Senior Account Managers this week to discuss how PPR runs as a consultancy in terms of client – consultant relationships and a number of other questions. She was more than happy to share her knowledge with me and I feel I am better for it.

Here are some extra tips that may be useful to think about into the future for both common knowledge and perhaps achieving more media coverage. http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10145.aspx

3. Proving your worth it – this applies to anything you do, especially applying for graduate positions. Consultancy is all about the client – consultant relationship and it is important to prove to the client that the money and time they are spending on you is worth it, for both them and their business. A consultant can show this to their client by producing outstanding results time and time again, this is one thing PPR prides itself on.

I hope you are all learning great things that will stick with you for the rest of your PR careers.

Deanne

Bentley Campus