"Its not over till the fat lady sings"

Hi Everyone!

I have just completed my placement at 32 Degrees South Group and I cant help but feel sad. It has been such an amazing experience especially being part of such a new company. When I finished, my supervisor took the team out for celebratory/goodbye drinks and she asked us what we have learnt from this experience. My immediate answer was ‘confidence’. I said that in University your tutors see potential and they mark you accordingly however you never truly know whether you were just having a good day or whether the caliber of work would be accepted in the real world. Working with people who truly rely on you to do a good job because it involves money and business reputation, and then getting good feed back on your work, just gives you more and more confidence to be able to enter the workforce. No one could every replace that.  I also said it was so incredible to see my work go up online- knowing that it was good enough to be up for everyone to see it and represent the companies work. I was extremely lucky to have a supervisor who gave constructive criticism and compliments that I started to feel were deserved.  My supervisor also asked me whether I felt disadvantaged for working in a small boutique firm rather then a big one. I answered that I could see that each has its positives and negatives attributes. For example, being part of a boutique firm means that you are given many jobs to do and get one on one contact with your supervisor who can mentor you through your internship. However, it also means that you cannot hide behind someone else when you make a mistake, you stand out, every task given to you is something that will be used in one way or another and be a representation of the companies work. When you work for a big firm you can hide behind other people, if you make a mistake it can be easily covered, your work is not always the be all and end all of company and you get the opportunity to work with some big names. However some negatives may be that you do not get as many chances to produce work, your supervisor has little time to communicate with you and you could potentially be given unexciting and repetitive tasks. I have not worked in a big firm so I do not take my word that these negative characteristics are true- they are only assumptions. I would however be very open to working in a big firm because I have realised that you do not have to be a part of every daily task that goes on in the office, merely observing can be very educational. You also have a lot of opportunity to make an impression, stand out and potentially score yourself a paid position.

Over all this was an incredible experience- a lot of work on top of other university studies but every day was worth it. I feel proud to have obtained and completed this internship myself. It is a huge achievement. I think Curtin is incredible to provide us with this opportunity. The workforce doesn’t look so scary after all.

I have learnt that even though your internship has finished, the lessons you have learnt in this unit will stay with you throughout your working career- it is never over, it’s only just begun- and I’m excited!!

            

Thank you everyone for reading and I hope you all enjoyed your placement as much as I did!!

Martine

Xxxx

Two days on, 1 day off and still did so much

This week I only managed to do two days since I was sick for the third day. I, however got to work on website content for the events/projects page and help out at an event organised by our organisation, 32dsg.

The events page content is looking good and I am learning to set it out exactly how they want the web designers to produce it. There are so many skills I thought I would never use from university, especially the units that I started off doing in Mass Communications before I changed to Journalism and PR. For example the skills of text wrapping where you format pictures within the text so that the words move according to where the picture is. The understanding I have from ‘wiki’s’ we did in PR corporate and PR International gave me the knowledge to be able to link documents to the page and realise how all the pages will be connected in the end. There are so many little things you learn in university that can help you so much in real life.

The interns were asked to help out at the oZAPP Roadshow event being held in Perth at Spacecubed in St Gorges Terrace. We were told we were going to do the meeting and greeting, give out nametags and information as well as help out with food and drinks. The manager of the event space did not help out all the ‘girls’ all carrying drinks and heavy glass ware up to the room. It was amazing how this portrayal of rudeness can change the opinion of a company hosting an event in this space. 32dsg’s events coordinator immediately said she would never use this space again.

Although there were a few things that were working against this event such as the fact that there was another event straight after ours, in the same space, and that many of the people registered were not on the list for nametags, no one really noticed anything was wrong. The glassware was hired and therefore we needed to take them home but people for the next event were using a lot of them. However, we managed by kindly explaining the fact that this was for a different event. We solved the nametag issue by getting attendees to write their own names on a nametag. Overall people enjoyed the event and we were able to enjoy it too. I think one of the things I noticed was that there is little time for a person organising the event to actually enjoy it. There is always something to do or something to coordinate and therefore you really have to sit down and debrief to realise what could have been done better or what was successful to truly appreciate your efforts.

This coming week I will be making up the extra day I missed because of being sick and therefore I will be able to do a lot more in terms of website content and helping out with the content writing of a clients website that is about to launch in a couple of days.

Until then,

Thanks for reading.

Martine

xxxx

Facebook mistake!

This week was a week of uploading blog posts I wrote that had been approved as well as writing more blogs and focusing on 32dsg’s website content.

I usually upload Facebook posts about upcoming events, working off my events calendar, however this week their Facebook page was devoted to a competition we were offering for two tickets to Perth Fashion week. I think I have mentioned before in one of my previous posts that I have been made an administrator of one of their clients Facebook pages. Not realising I was on the client’s Facebook page (thinking I was on mine), I ‘shared’ the competition on their page. This has NOTHING to do with them or their target audience and therefore was a big mistake. Luckily one of the girls alerted it to me and I was quickly able to take it down. It just outlined the fact that social media while it is easy to use, free and global, it can be extremely dangerous. Luckily this was not such a massive blunder and was easily fixable but you can see how quickly something can turn into a crisis if it is not handled correctly. I may be able to ‘blame’ it on Facebook since it said I was on my own page when I ‘shared’ the post (not realising I had to click another button to say- switch to your personal page), however this would never stand if you were to argue your case in a crisis. Technology may fail you, but ultimately it is your fault in the end. You controlled the mouse and you pressed enter.

After that mistake was quickly rectified I continued with my work. I uploaded my Sharing Healthy Conversations article- choosing the best photo for the subject (one with the most important attendees included). I had to fix the lighting on the photo first and crop it so that all the focus was on the people in it. I had to link all the important peoples names to their personal pages (usually linked in accounts) and make sure everyone’s names were spelt correctly.

I continued to work on companies that are similar to 32dsg and an events list for their Facebook posts. After looking over what needs to be included in the report I was quite pleased to see that we need to write about our companies competitors. Because I have been looking at what other companies there are similar to 32dsg I have in fact been researching their competitors. I have also been looking at what they are doing differently and how we could incorporate some of these positive attributes into our company as well. By collating all this information 32dsg can take the best of their competitors traits and add them to their list of expertise.

It has been interesting for me to look back at the events the company or the people who work for the company have been involved in organising. From the Breast Cancer Foundation’s illumination campaign to the Grand Prix ball, the people working at 32dsg have a diverse range of skills and networks. It’s a privilege to be around such successful worldly people. The collation of events data that I have been looking at, I will be putting into succinct descriptions to put on their website under the events section. This is quite an important job (in my opinion) since ‘case studies’ or previous experiences are important for those wanting to use the company to see.

My blog post on the Perth Baby Expo got approved at 4:45pm but I wanted to stay until it was up online, linked and positioned well. I stayed on after everyone left however I like things to be done and to be done without rushing. I don’t think I will ever mind staying behind to finish up and do a good job. Once you’re at work, what’s another 40 minutes? I also got to write another post for a Frasers Restaurant lunch that the 32dsg team went to this week. It got approved right away (showing how much better I must be getting with my writing skills) and I put that one up too.

You can read all my blog posts on:

http://32dsg.com/blog/

And my news article on:

http://32dsg.com/?post_type=news

Thanks for reading guys!

Xx

Martine 

Small company, big goals!

Hi fellow PR393 bloggers!

After getting advice from older friends, who recently entered the ‘real’ working world, I fixed my resume and casually searched on Google for ‘PR companies Perth’. I have to admit that I had only heard of PPR and Linc and I was surprised to see quite a few others that I had never heard of.

University has taught me that any experience is good experience and therefore it didn’t really matter where my placement was going to be. Therefore, I continued searching with an open mind. However, as I fielded through the different company sites I realised I wanted to complete my placement in an organisation that dealt with both not-for-profit and for-profit work. If this didn’t work out for me (of course doubt comes with every first timer) I was more than happy to take any experience and put in my best effort no matter what.

Looking at my resume I wished I had taken a university break to complete some other PR or Journalism related experience. I started to lose confidence in my abilities and worthiness to apply at any of the companies I was looking at. However, this was the opportunity to do exactly what I had never had the time or confidence to do.

Since I am doing Journalism as well I learnt that the best way to make a phone call is to be prepared with exactly what you’re going to say to avoid any umm’s and ahh’s or ‘likes!’ I phoned up each of the companies I was interested in and all of them asked me to send through my CV.

I finally got a call from 32 Degrees South (32dsg) and I was asked to come in for an interview. What to expect! No matter what, this was a great time to learn what its like to go for an interview. At university we learn to tell the truth about everything we have done and can offer. Therefore my approach to it was to say:

I haven’t had much out-of-university PR experience, probably because of my total commitment to university work and my casual job. However I can offer you what I have learnt so far and hopefully learn from you and everyone else who works at 32 Degrees South if given the opportunity.

I also prepared answers to questions that they may ask me such as:

Q. Why did you choose 32 Degrees south as the place to complete your work experience?

Q. Why do you think we should choose you to complete your work placement at 32 degrees south?

Q. What do you think is your biggest flaw as a person or as a worker?

Q. Why did you choose journalism and PR?

Q. What skills have you learnt in PR that you could bring with you to 32 degrees south?

A.  (Media releases, events planning, Social Media strategies, Strategic consulting plans, Website design, Sponsorship understanding, Issue analysis. Journalism background (interview techniques, current affairs, writing articles)

Q. What does PR mean to you or how would you define it?

A. PR is the relationship and communication between an organisation and its publics whether internal or external. How a company communicates its vision and mission to its publics and ultimately achieves its goals. And that’s where we come in to show them how to do this in the most effective way.

I was way too over prepared! Nevertheless, I like to feel that way before going into anything I do because then you feel like you can deal with anything that comes your way. As well as the fact that no matter what happens you know you did the ‘best that you could of possibly done’.

I got the placement! And have just completed my first week at 32dsg! (3 days a week Wed, Thurs and Fri)

32dsg is an events management and communication-consulting firm in Shenton Park consisting of three main employees. While a small company their goal is to grow even bigger, using the digital world to their full advantage. The idea they had for me was to be involved in getting their company name out there. They have a lot of clients including oZAPPs (previously WApps), Emergence, Feeding WA, Six Senses and Ngala and therefore do not have time to focus on themselves as a company.

I have therefore come at a good time to create for them a Public Relations Plan for their own company to map out where they need and want to go as a consultancy firm and what are the best methods of getting there.

Working with the Social Media Coordinator I will also be helping out with monitoring, content creating and moving them onto different social media platforms to allow for wider exposure.

This was all daunting to me but I did not let this show! Because of University units throughout my degree I have a Blogger account and a Twitter account (and of course a Facebook account) however I never go on Blogger or Twitter. I went to a friend and she taught me everything there was to know about twitter so I could come into ‘work’ the next week no longer a ‘twitter dummy’.

What I’ve been up to:

Day 1, I worked mainly on researching prominent bloggers and tweeters, developing a database of those who had potential for us to approach them to come and feature blog for 32DSG. I collected and collated them into an excel document (linked below) according to which clients they would suit as well as documenting how many followers they had on twitter. It was quite difficult to find bloggers that suited 32dsg’s client base.

Blogging seems to be such a woman dominated platform (very fashion orientated, and emotional- which makes sense because as you can see from what I have written so far, we cant stop talking or thinking!) I was looking for bloggers who spoke about technology, charity, parenting or adventure. I managed to find at least 12 that were worthy of looking into and by then it was 5pm! Days seem to go so fast here (must be because I’m enjoying it!)

Day 2, I was asked to write an article about the launch of the oZAPPS awards, using my journalism skills to add to the news page on 32dsg’s website. This was the first time I really saw why journalism and PR people don’t get on! PR people do all the work for journalists! All the quotes were available in media releases written by 32dsg employees and all the information on the event and prominent organisers were on the websites. The trickiest part was making the article sound professional, not let it sound like a media release (had to have something newsworthy in it) and make sure it does not sound like a blog! I managed to turn a media release into a journalistic article.

I sent it through to the Social Media Coordinator and the Director and both were extremely happy with it. After a few touch ups it should be going onto their news page on their website! Day 2 and I already start to feel worthwhile and confident in my work. While this was more journalism then PR, I truly saw how they work together and how important they are to each other in order promote a company.

Day 3 and I have begun looking into writing a PR plan for 32dsg. This is a HUGE task since in university we have always worked in groups to produce a plan. However I do have a lot of time here and this is the experience we hope for. I don’t necessarily have to finish it by the end of my placement but I will be putting in my over all best effort!

I am truly enjoying my experience so far at 32dsg and love the relaxed yet busy lifestyle every employee leads.

Gosh, from starting off with thinking ‘what am I going to say’, I have truly over done this blogg! I hope I have not bored any of you to tears!

Until next week!

Enjoy everyone, no matter what were all doing, it’s an experience!!!

Martine xxx

http://32dsg.com/

file:///Users/martinehotz/Documents/Bloggers.htm

(Collection of bloggers)

What I've learnt so far.....

I am now 7 weeks into my internship with Perth Zoo, and still thoroughly enjoying myself! I am just going to warn you all that this blog is going to be a looooong one; I have learnt A LOT over the last few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago I made the daunting transition from completing my internship project from the comfort of home, to joining the Marketing/Business Development Team in the offices at the Zoo.

I have already learnt many valuable lessons from working in an office environment, because it is something I have never done before, this is already one of the clear benefits of completing this unit.

The first valuable lesson I learnt is; bring your own mug! On my first day I really wanted a cup of tea to help me concentrate and to warm me up, and ended up having to borrow one from the kitchen, not knowing who it belonged to. I was worried that someone was going to come looking for their mug and not be able to find it because the obnoxious intern had taken it! From then on, I have been sure to pack my mug in my handbag every week to avoid any possible awkwardness.

The second valuable lesson I have learnt since joining the team at the office is how to stay focused. The Perth Zoo office is a very busy place, there are constantly people coming in and out and meeting various members of the team for different things each day – this sometimes makes it difficult to continue on with my work when people around me are chatting, organising things or making phone calls. I have learnt to try to block out the buzz of the office and carry on with what I am doing and although initially it was difficult, it is definitely becoming easier.

Thirdly, I have learnt just how important it is to stay on top of emails. I was extremely excited when I was given my Perth Zoo email address, which meant I could now communicate with my co-workers much more easily. With this however, comes the task of replying to relevant emails and deleting those that are irrelevant. This week showed me just how time consuming emails can actually be. As I am only in the office once a week, the emails build up over the week until the next time I am there and I found myself spending a solid 45 minutes just sifting through everything I had been sent. I can definitely say that keeping on top of emails when I get out into the ‘real world’ will be a MUST!

My project for Perth Zoo requires me to develop an implantation plan for effective community communications; I have been working tirelessly to research and develop this project, and met up with my supervisor this week to discuss my progress. I was a little bit shocked and scared to find out that I have been a little too ‘academic’ in my approach to this project.

Having spent the last 4 years of my life at Curtin, I have become very accustomed to the way lecturers and tutors expect your assignments and projects to be. It was amazing to find out that I will not (unless I go into academia) have to produce an academic style report once I leave uni. Ceri worked through my project with me, to pull out the parts that were useful and heading in the right direction and helped me to make my project more ‘corporate’ and CEO friendly. Ceri offered invaluable insight into what CEO’s and management will expect of me in the real world, and I am extremely grateful to have had his guidance – otherwise I would not have known that the work I was producing may not have ever been looked at by the CEO and manager’s because it is too ‘fluffy’ (as I was told)!

I am really happy that I have been shown something so useful, something that will benefit me in my career and I would not have been able to learn something like this, without the PR 393 experience. I would seriously struggle to produce something worthwhile in the corporate world, straight out of uni, if I hadn’t had the opportunity to learn and practice the skills I have learnt throughout my degree – as I have had in this internship.

My supervisor also showed me this great website where you can see papers and presentations that people all over the world have done, it’s a great one if you want to gather a broader view on a topic, or you need a starting point for something. The website is called Slideshare (www.slideshare.net) and I have found it to be extremely useful to help brainstorm my project, and help to guide my research.

Overall, the experience so far has been a little daunting, but more than anything, very helpful. Without this unit, and without the opportunity to go into a workplace and see what goes on, and be part of a proper, real life, experienced PR and Marketing team, I think that my experience in my first career job would be a lot more challenging and scary than it will be now. I feel so lucky!

Anyway, I think you have all heard enough from me now.

I’m sure there will be more to report back next week. I hope you’re all enjoying your placements as much as me!

Elle :)