A Reflection on Personal Professional Development

I remember at the beginning of my degree when I sat in the introductory lecture for the course of public relations, the lecturer was going through and stating the attributes of an individual that would make a good practitioner in this area of Commerce.

I sat there listening intently, taking notes, and thought to myself that I checked off on most of the attributes, except for one; and unfortunately being one of the most important – time management. I have unfortunately struggled with time management all my life, but have made considerable efforts to improve upon this short-fall.

During my professional practice placement, this experience has also brought to my attention areas of my own professional development that needed improvement; such as time management.

I found that whilst I was completing tasks and projects I was assigned to during my work experience, I was failing to manage my time well and was spending many hours outside of my placement just trying to complete them.  I suddenly realised I was going to have to review the way I was approaching tasks, and the process I would take to complete them.

Whilst at Sinclair Consulting I was also asked to research and then create a stakeholder list of prospective industry employers for surveying company. In particular, of prospective clients in the mining and construction industries, that was involved with or contracted to, large scale projects. As I did not know much about the mining or construction industry it took me much longer than anticipated to deliver what was required of the task.

On review of my work with my supervisor, he drew to my attention that I had actually missed most important objective at hand – the HR details with the direct person of contact. Whilst compiling the list I realised I couldn’t remember the specific details of my task and had not written myself an outline of what was to be included upon delivery. I decided I didn’t want to ask any questions in embarrassment of looking silly (like I didn’t know what I was doing), especially for such a straight forward task.

Luckily my supervisor was understanding and gave me the opportunity to fix my error, however it taught me a few key lessons about time management and the process of my completing work.  From this I learnt that it’s better to ask questions than not to ask any at all, even if it’s for asking for clarity on information that may have already been given. It also taught me much about the processes involved in identifying an organisation’s target market, and where to start when doing research, such as beginning with analysing the client, and then proceeding from there.

It also In turn it has taught me to never assume the complexity of a task, and demonstrated the type of timeframes and workload, I could expect in similar roles of future employment.

Responsibilities that comes with PR: Community Service Day

Whoever said it was easy must have been on the wrong side of Public Relations but again, who said it wouldn't be quite an experience.

During the period I was an intern, I was reminded a lot of almost everything that is PR related that  I have learnt in class. In my placement journey, we dealt so much with corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to (European Commission, 2011) corporate social responsibility is the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. And  to fully meet their social responsibility, enterprises should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders.

In any organisation, key publics matter and should be made to feel so. Since the Government of Botswana is entitled to take care of the nation in support of their vision and mission, Office of the President has a responsibility to the nation and are doing their level best to show they care. This organisation serves the nation hence socially responsible. 

It is not just a matter of good deeds for the nation, but OP also gets feedback through interviews which are normally carried out in a variety of events as a way of finding out how the people of Botswana feel about certain things hence a two-way communication. 

During my fantastic experience, as a PR intern in OP, I have learnt that in every two months there is a community service day event, held in random parts of Botswana as a way to extend a helping hand to different communities. It is with great pleasure to mention that i was fortunate enough to have been involved in the planning of the February 1st 2013 event. The target audience for this event was the President, members of the parliament and communities at large. 

For two weeks I joined two PRO's as we went to different villages in the outskirt of Gaborone (The capital city of Botswana). During these trips we went to Village Kgotlas (traditional law court), Government owned schools, post offices, shelters, charity homes and local clinics. The point was to check if the buildings were in good condition or if workers had any complaints of their working conditions. 

I had the opportunity to see the sufferings and joy of my fellow country men.All this made me realise that being a government employee especially in the PR department could not be easy. Somehow we did not have enough time on our hands so we had to utilize the time we had, so trust me when I tell you time management is one important aspect of Public Relations. 

Since we did not have much time to come up with something big, and two weeks down the drain, we settled for the best option, a park (Tsholofelo park) in Gaborone. The park is where an African of Tswana origin who died in 1830, El Negro, was buried (El Negro's body was stolen and has been displayed for 170years in a museum in Spain before it was discovered and sent back to Botswana for a proper burial). 

Activities of the day were, tree planting, foundation laying, slashing of grass E.T.C. while ministers and the president took part in doing all those. 

Community farmers were encouraged to come and sell their fruits and vegetables as a way of helping themselves. At the end of the day, the job was well done and the event was a success. It was indeed an eye opening experience on the PR industry. I felt honored though to have interacted with ministers but mostly the President himself. 

Until next time, keep reading and enjoying my experiences with me. 

Below are pictures from the community service day: 

                  

                

            Minister of Education, Hon. Mrs. Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi Trimming a tree at Tsholofelo Park

Right: His Excellency the president of Botswana Lt. Genereal Seretse Khama Ian Khama with one of the elders at Tsholofelo Park

                

Some of the Community members slashing the grass at Tsholofelo Park during the community service day

                                      

                                              H.E with some ministers slashing grass at Tsholofelo park

  

         Ministers at work with the foundation mixture during the community service day

                                                                                                                                                             

Not Quite Text Book PR!

The hours go by so fast during my days on prac! I always worried about whether full time work would drag on, but I'm generally busy doing so many different tasks during the day, that the full day actually goes by pretty fast! It wasn't however, until yesterday at the Colosoul office, did I truly experienced a busy day! A day when you feel stressed, and completely disregard the clock, then finally notice that you have missed your lunch break and will still have to stay back late to get something done. But I felt it was all worth it, because I am starting to get more responsibility, and feel like I'm actually contributing to something.

Yesterday, I had the responsibility of helping with the production of a novel that was written by the Colosoul director and would be sold to raise money for the charity, Child Wise. I had been working with her from the beginning on this project, everything from; editing the chapters as she emailed them to me (all 14,000 words!), kindly, but sternly reminding her keep up to date with her writing and send me a chapter every week or so as well as keeping the corresponding blog up-to-date. My job yesterday was to work to create an aesthetically pleasing novel, so I worked with a Colosoul designer and illustrator to compile the illustrations and text together on Adobe InDesign. Trish, the director, very willingly put her trust in me working on this with the two girls while she stepped out of the office for the day. She hoped to have the book almost complete and ready to send to print, right down to choosing what goes on each page and using the right attributions, and corresponding illustration for each part of the story.

While a lot of these tasks aren't exactly what one would list as a duty for a PR practitioner, I can definitely say I learnt the values of time management, communication and a professional employer-employee and colleague relationship. It may be something that I DIDN'T specifically learn in one of my PR units, but know I will most definitely need.

I am so proud this project is nearly complete, it's been great to see the progress and be involved with it it from start to finish, how she was inspired through her blogging, to writing the chapters, to a complete picture novel with amazing illustrations.

Until next time,

Holly

Open day is looming..

In the few weeks leading up to Open Day, everything we'd been researching and preparing for, was being locked in. A lot of time has been spent on the phone with different companies, to make bookings for Open Day. We've been locking in entertainment including bands, roving entertainers, carnival rides and a petting zoo! 

Practical items on the day such as portable toilets, and furniture has all been booked. Asha and I have also met with a gentleman from the company who we've hired the marquees from, and we've made a mud map of where everything needs to go. The marquees are enormous, and because of their size, need to be set up a week out from the event. 

Asha and I also made lists of any signs we would need for the day, and sent them off to the company who would make them for us. Signage for the event needed to be made for Open Day, in order to let people know where certain activities were being held around the campus. It was also my job this week to proof, and proof again, the program, before it was being sent to the printer. 

Other practical jobs, such as making up rosters for the volunteers on the day of the event, as well as meeting with student ambassadors, to discuss their roles on the day of the event, also had to be done in the weeks leading up to the event.

Finally, an important task Asha and I completed, was meeting with the Operational, Health and Safety Officer at Curtin University. She discussed with us any risks that may occur, through the activities, and plans we had for the Open Day. In the meeting we noted everything she said, and we made a document filled with information on how we would go about avoiding these risks, and what we would do in the case that they were to occur. Another aspect of the meeting was to make an emergency response document, that included phone numbers of who to call, if something was to go wrong on the day. 

Doing all these tasks, helped me realise just how much effort, time, and money, goes into preparing for an event the size of Open Day. Our to-do lists never seem to get any smaller, no matter how much we get done, however, lists and recordings of what we have done, and on what days, has helped me to keep track of our progress over the past month. 

Media Kits to Advertising and much much more!

Hi Again!

I hope you have all been enjoying your placements!

During the past few days I have been extremely busy and assigned a variety of advertising and PR tasks comprising of a putting together a media kit, composing a two-page feature article, creating a DPS for the opening of Pacific Blue, and of course not to mention sales and admin!

I was assigned the task of compiling together a media kit to distribute to various media groups. The media kit aims to promote ‘Pacific Blue’ as a ‘hot new entrant in the outdoor furniture industry’ – raising awareness and promoting brand identity. Although I had done this before at university, I have never produced a media kit for a organisation….In the end I was really happy with how it all looked.

Last week I also really enjoyed conversing with various editors from magazines such as SCOOP. In order to get the two page feature article published I had to answer various interview questions.

On top of all this I been working with our graphic designer to come up with the following advert as part of our teaser campaign. The advert will be published in 3x high-end glossy magazines 3-5weeks prior to the opening and is also be placed on billboards.  I can’t wait to get it published!! Hopefully I will have a draft to send you on my last post!

All this has just been in a few days – and there are just not enough hours in a day! For me it all came down to time management and prioritising my work – which for myself, is something I don’t consider I have previously been good at. I have just been doing my utmost at prioritising my workload and continually see each task that I start through.

Until next time,

Courtney

Final Race Time of 26 Days

Well the day has arrived! All that planning will be paid off this morning, Sunday August 26! Been up at 4am may not seem the most ideal situation but it did not phase me at all. I could not wait to be at City Beach Oval! 

Watching people pass the finish line and listening to interviews conducted by the media to the winners felt like a huge achievement thinking ‘hey I helped put this all together.’ It was amazing to see all that planning come together on one day and it was also extremely rewarding, making all those hours worthwhile.

I have learnt so much and I cannot wait to get a job and show off what I have learnt and further extend my knowledge in the public relations industry.

A few valuable lessons I will take away from my internship are:

Planning

Without planning, you are just going to create a recipe for disaster. every little detail for the event was planned and had a team behind it that had worked on it and designed it to work in a certain way. Although during my internship some tasks I did, did not seem as important as others it was all a part of the ‘bigger picture’ Planning for anything and everything that will and could happen on the event day all works to ensure a smooth event to be enjoyed by the participants and the organisers. 

Time Management

The ability to meet deadlines and have a high level of organisation is all part of maintaining strong relationships with both stakeholders and colleagues. As the event was on August 26, there were a series of tasks that needed to be done months, weeks and days in advance and without the completion of those tasks the event would not have gone ahead and would have been terrible. 

Time management and organisation reflects highly on the industry you are in and a part of. 

Verbal Communication

The PR industry relies heavily on both written and verbal communication. Whether you are communicating with your colleagues, stakeholder groups, publics and other industries, communicating confidently, fluently and well is very important. PR is all about messages, 

As an intern it is pivotal that you have a excellent verbal communication to ensure you all a part of the planning and the organisation and your voice is getting heard.

Teamwork

PR heavily relies on working in teams. Who knew all those group assignments with good and not so good group members would be a reflection of the type of team work you would be doing in the industry. Especially working for such a huge event, it would be impossible for only one person to do this event all by themselves and have the same results as if a team were to organise it. 

CONFIDENCE

One priceless lesson I will be taking away from this unit is ‘confidence’. Over the 26 days of interning, I have grown confident in my ability to step into the ‘real world’ as they call it and apply for jobs knowing I can do it, and I’ll be able to do it well. 

I cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed my time at Corporate Sports Australia and help organising the City to Surf and to be a part of such a great community event. I was given some great tasks and felt like I was providing a service to the event. All the little tasks that may seem not so important such as answering emails and phone calls was a huge learning curve as you were interacting with primary stakeholders and aware publics - the way you responded to their queries reflected on the practice of event management and the organisation itself.

I’m also glad to know that I will also be helping out with their next event, the inaugural Suncorp Bank Fremantle Fun Run that will be on November 11. 

I hope you all enjoyed your internship as much as I did and good luck with the final weeks of semester!

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

A Happy Ending Before a New Journey Begins!

I can’t believe the time finally came, my final day as an intern, my fourth and final blog and my final semester at uni. I must say it has all gone rather quick, but I am so thankful for all the experience I managed to gain. In total I completed 22 days as an intern at Linc Integrated, a marketing and communications consultancy, and it was an absolute blast! (If you would like to know a bit more about Linc look here).

My last day came all too soon, even though I started my internship in July it has all flown by so fast. When I arrived at the office I still had a lot of work to finish off, even a few media releases and blog postings that needed doing. I also wasn’t the only one who was a bit sad at the upcoming departure, my supervisor Bec sent an email to all staff congratulating me on the internship and announcing it was my last day. The Managing Director was also a little sad at this news as he used to always sing “Tell Laura I Love her” in the morning (he was a bit quirky like that) and needed to find a new office tune.

As the day drew to an end the PR team gathered together for a happy photo in the office. They gave me a card signed by each of them with messages of thanks and best wishes for my future career. I was so touched by this gesture and realised just how much I would miss coming to the office.  As it was a Friday we all decided to hang around for a celebratory drink with other staff members, and then it was time to say goodbye. I took one last look at the place that had taught me so much (especially that there are no set rules!) and headed out for the very last time.

Looking back I can see that I’ve learnt so much during my time at Linc that I will take away and apply throughout my career. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and I couldn’t have asked for anything better considering the range of work I had. Not only did I learn a lot about PR work, I also learnt a lot about myself and I’d really like to share the most valuable experiences I gained. So here they are! The best lessons from my internship have included:

Event Management is Stressful! – I got a huge insight into event management in my first week at Linc when I got to help manage Bankwest’s Six Days of Happy. This was a huge event and very stressful for all staff. I learnt the importance of micromanaging and that you really need to understand the results the client is after in order to improvise successfully (particularly if anything goes wrong). I also helped to develop a guest list of 300 people for another huge event that is coming up for Linc and found hunting for contact details a painful task to complete. Although events can provide you with a range of great experiences I’m not sure I could become an event planner, but the experience I gained was definitely worthwhile.

Understanding Your Client is Crucial – This was very obvious at Linc and I learnt just how important this is through a range of work, particularly media releases. As I completed tasks for a range of clients I discovered each had their own style (more how they wanted to be presented to the media). Some clients needed their name emphasised in all work, some were less worried about their name and more focused on promoting their achievements. No matter the client they each had their own style and as a consultant that needs to be reflected.

Becoming a Master of Time Management – I’ve always understood PR work involves a lot of effective time management, but wow have I improved at this since my internship. Balancing full-time uni, working and completing an internship is quite the challenge; I’ve never felt so busy! I think this will be a really valuable quality when I enter the workforce.

Creativity is my Biggest Talent – Coming towards the end of my internship I was given a lot more responsibility to generate ideas for a range of work for clients and it turns out I’m quite good at this. The PR team praised me for my ability to be creative and recommended that I possibly pursue a career in a creative environment, as this stood out as my biggest strength. This is definitely something for me to think about now and I am so thankful to have had my supervisors approach me and be honest about this.

All in all, I really do believe my time at Linc has been extremely valuable, and I think overall most internships are. Throughout my own I have been checking out a few PR blogs on the internet from interns and lessons they have learned to compare my own experience. This one here in particular, is a really interesting insight from a graduate who realised Disney was teaching effective PR in all their movies. I also found another interesting article on how to make the most of an internship, which you can check out here.

At my own internship I ended up completed a number of PR tasks including researching, media monitoring, valuing PR coverage, event management, developing ideas, sitting in on client meetings, blog posting and developing media releases (just to name a few!). I not only feel that I’ve been able to apply what I have learnt throughout my degree, but also believe this internship has strengthened my understanding of a lot of theories and concepts. For example I’ve learnt so much more about how PR consultants work and the relationship they have with the client. I’ve discovered there a lot of differences between writing for assignments and writing for an actual job (there is so much more focus on making it appropriate to the client rather than trying to address marking criteria). And I’ve also really noticed the difference and rather the improvement in my own work. Not only am I able to produce pieces in a lot shorter time (i.e. instead of taking a week to make up a media release for an assignment I can now do it in a few hours) but I think my writing in particular, has branched out to become more appropriate professionally.

I’d like to just conclude with the fact that in the beginning I didn’t intend to complete an internship in a consultancy, as I’ve always had more of an interest in-house work. But I am really glad that I ended up spending my time at Linc, as I’ve developed so much more understanding of PR consultancies and the opportunities they present. I have learnt so much in 22 days and I can see pursuing a career in this type of work would be extremely valuable. Most importantly I have come to realise how much I love marketing and public relations and that this is the path I want to pursue (considering I started an architecture degree). I can’t wait to graduate and get out into the world of public relations (whether that be as part of a consultancy or as in-house). As this journey has come to an end I can see how much I enjoy what I am doing and how exciting my career can possibly be!

See you out there in the industry!

Laura Tirli x

Not enough hours in a day!

Hi Again!

During the past couple of days I have been assigned a variety of advertising tasks comprising of a detailed advertising schedule, composing a feature article, creating a DPS, and not to mention sales and admin duties!

I have really enjoyed conversing with various editors from magazines such as SCOOP. I have began composing a two-page feature article, which has entailed me answering a variety of interview questions. I am hoping to proof the article next week to show you all!

I have also been working with our graphic designer to come up with an advert as part of our teaser campaign. The advert will be published in 3x high-end glossy magazines 3-5weeks prior to the opening and is also be placed on billboards. 

This has all been over a few days – and there are just not enough hours in a day! For me it all came down to time management and prioritising my work – which for myself, which is something I don’t consider I have previously been good at. I have just been doing my utmost at prioritising my work load and continually see each task I start through,

Hope you have all been enjoying your placements so far!

All the best,

Courtney

Corporate events.. not so bad

Hi Everyone,


I hope everyone is enjoying their placements and learning lots. I know i am :)

I started my internship beginning of July but I couldn't find the time to make blog entries so here goes for my first one.

I found my placement luckily on Blackboard where Alison posted up the details, I contacted them immediately and just like that I was starting couple days later. CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) is a not for profit member based organisation that runs economic or corporate themed events. They provide a platform that brings together influential peoples from all sectors of society such as business, academics, government and communities to form debate and discussion about social and economic issues affecting Australia.

As this marked my first ever work experience with a professional organisation I was a nervous wreck my first day. As I stepped into the offices I was overwhelmed with everything I have researched prior to commencing my internship, this was a company that are noted for their honorable reputation and professionalism. However all my anxiety was for nought, from the get go I was warmly welcomed and literally put to work immediately.

Under new management since late last year CEDA has revamped itself, holding more events (up to 50 a year) and gaining more members with organisations both domestic and national. The team of four work so well together like a well efficient machine. It was quite impressive to see them at work. I'm thrilled I could work and learn from them, despite their busy schedules and heavy work load they provide me the time to question them about how their experiences with the events industry has bought to to their current situations.

As I said earlier I was put to work immediately, I was so excited when my supervisor gave me my own project, to plan for a huge series event that will be held in early 2013. The task is enormous but I couldn't be happier. I must develop a regional development series that will be showcased in the nine regions of WA. Researching has taken up most the time but its important to highlight all the relevant industries and the issues affecting the region. Finding the right speakers for the topics held, basically putting together an event program, preparing sponsorships and partnerships proposals, are all apart of the work. Along with this project I help around the office working on entering registrations on a database, media monitoring and other tasks that include event logistics. Couple times I accompanied my colleagues to business meetings and simply soaked up how they dealt with clients and negotiated and planned for events to come.

Some lessons I have learned so far basically centres around being organised, it is imperative, one must be organised and efficient if working in events industry. I always thought I was organised but working these girls has opened my eyes.
I have had the best time interning with the CEDA girls, and I cant wait for the rest of my time with them, CEDA has 2 or more events each week with an impressive number of attendees. I've met people you read about in newspapers and see on TV, policy movers and shakers. It was intimidating but I've been having the best time. One thing i know for sure is that I will most assuredly will be pursuing this career path in the events industry. Corporate events was something that was not in my cards but now its not so bad.

I enjoyed reading about exciting and fantastic experiences on your placements, I hope to read more and I will definitely share with you more of my journey with CEDA. Yay for my first blog entry (It didn't seem so hard as I thought it would be).

Hope to hear from you all.


x
Suleeka

Lessons learnt so far...

After almost completing my placement there are a couple of lessons that I have learnt about working in the fashion PR/Marketing industry.

The communication doesn't stop - Everyone I work with has a work phone that they have with them all the time constantly checking emails, answering phone calls and updating social media platforms.

You must proof read everything - I have been triple checking every email that I write not only for the sake of spelling and grammar errors but to ensure that the content is written in a professional manner and has clarity.

Time management is crucial - I have found that time management skills are crucial in this industry and prioritising tasks is so important.

Using initiative when in doubt - In situations where i have been in doubt, using my initiative has proven to be the best option and has worked out well for me so far.

Working hard leads to good things – A lot of the ladies I work with have done a lot of overseas travel with the company and when I ask them how they got to that point they all say 'a lot of early starts and late nights!'

Of course I could write a huge list of exactly everything I have learnt but I feel as though these points are the most important in my journey so far. I have had an amazing time at my placement and made a lot of friends. I am not looking forward to having my last day tomorrow!

#1 The Deep End. The reality of the Events Industry

#1 The Deep End

The reality of the Events industry  

“Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”- Confucius.

I am into the fourth week of my Events/PR internship at Perth Fashion Festival where I have been working one day a week, moving to two days this week. 


To gain some experience and figure out what I want to do when I graduate, I took up some events work experience a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Since then, I’ve continued to work in the field and feel I have found my ‘niche’. For a lot of people, working in Events seems glamorous and lots of fun, but in reality it is very hard work, fast-paced, demanding and often poorly paid. I am learning this now, more than ever, at my internship with PFF, which is why I feel that the above quote is so relevant. The events industry is one of many that if you wish to work and succeed in, you really need to love what you are doing. Even though I haven’t been working with PFF very long, there are a few things that I am learning about ‘the real world’ that really emphasise this quote.


1. The first point is the hours people in the organisation work. This industry isn’t about your standard 9-5 job and defiantly doesn’t offer much separation between your work and private life. PFF employees just about live and breathe the event. In all the days I have worked so far, I have stayed back past my agreed 5.30pm finishing time, with the end of my day getting progressively later and the start time of my day getting progressively earlier. Most people don’t take a break for lunch; they eat at their desk. Possibly popping out for coffee or to pick up some food for 5 minutes when they can. 


2. My second point is the importance of organisation and time management. I am beginning to be given work by employees other than my direct manager, which can often get confusing and make me feel a bit all over the place.  The events industry is very fast-paced, information is often handed to you verbally and deadlines can be short and adjusted constantly. I have realised it will be imperative I write absolutely everything down, make lists, use sticky-notes, anything that will ensure I remain organised amongst the chaos. 


I am looking forward to seeing the result and rewards of an internship that will require great dedication and hard work. “Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”- Confucius. 

Job Opportunity

Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone is travelling along well at their placements.

The company I’m completing my placement with recently gave me a job opportunity and last Wednesday Rebecca Cole director of Networking WA took me out to lunch to discuss the particular roles I would be suited to in the organisation.

Firstly I’m going to discuss some of the issues presented throughout the company, and show how my new position will influence these issues becoming minimised. The structure of staff is a significant issue in the company; staff take up responsibilities and duties that are not specified in their role as there is always so much to do in the organisation, though this causes tasks to become hard to manage or forgotten about due to staff having so much on their plate their priorities become mixed up and mismanaged. The other major issue is time management, when aspects of the events or other tasks needing to be completed are left to last minute it causes stress to the staff and pressure to rush duties that need more time spent on them, this issue happens a lot in regards to events everyone in the office will be working so hard on one event that others are left to last minute and then rushed and not organised as best they should be.

As Rebecca and I both notice these issues she believed I would do a great job as project manager of the company and personal assistant to her as she believes that I am very organised and “bossy” when it comes to things needing to be done. Therefore I would be responsible for delegation of tasks to employees, making sure employees completed the tasks on time and followed up if necessary, this way things wont have been forgotten about or left to last minute and priorities will be in correct order as I will stay on top of everything. As well as this role I will also assist in the marketing and PR of events that the company organises.

In regards to the personal assistant role, I will assist Rebecca with her time management and help with correspondence to clients and customers with regards to email, telephone and meetings.

I am really looking forward to this position at the company; I will be working three days a week while finishing my uni degree.

I am also looking forward to the Fashion Icon High Tea that Networking WA is organising and the fashion festival opening launch luncheon (that Rebecca has kindly purchased a ticket for me) both events held next week during the fashion festival, both events are going to be so much fun and I look forward to sharing them with you all soon.

Tess Edwards

14262807

TIME MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT IN PUBLIC RELATION INDUSTRY

Hi everyone,

I am Doreen from Curtin Singapore. This is mine 1st blogging entry since the start of my internship 2 weeks ago with BSG Communications (a consultancy that offers strategic PR consultation for its client).

My internship kicks off when I met up with my consultant. He briefs me on the 2 accounts which i will be working on during my internship with the company and this is where my hectic working life begins. I have to juggle between full-time job, internship and school work and everything just appear to be URGENT and have to be done immediately but I only have 24 hours a day.

With no time to spare, I started writing out press releases, developing concept paper, drafiting contents for the newsletter and flyers, i started freaking out for a while as there is simply too much work to do and deadline to meet. I take a deep breath to calm myself down, relook on all the duties and deadline given and sort them accordingly. There are crashes on the deadline of work here and there but once they are in place, its less fearful as compare to the inital stage. The next step is simply to fufil the time line set to accomplished the task.

Time management might not be a PR tool but it's definately an important tool to manage our time to meet deadline in such a fast pace industry. It also help me to take away the fear factor for a start for me to concentrate on the important task to complete first.

That's all for now..till mine next blogging sesson...cheers!

Doreen Eng Li Hoe
13304986
Curtin Singapore

But I don't have time to manage my time?!

What happens to the student/career woman who is so passionate about the company she works for that nothing (I mean nothing) takes priority? Well it turns out no matter how much you love your job, when it starts affecting you in ways you couldn’t imagine, it’s time to take a step back and consider the options.

Let me explain the situation…

I started working with Liberty Resources back in November 2008. Liberty is an ASX-listed energy company focused on the commercial deployment of clean energy projects world-wide. It’s an emerging industry that has attracted a flurry of attention, particularly in Queensland, in the last 12 months. The projects will utilise proven technology that will revolutionise the production of energy. We developed an animation that explains the process and the opportunity that you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678wRieNyG0

In June 2009, and I was promoted from an administration position to Corporate Communications Manager – managing everything from investor relations material, to the website to our community consultation program. It was my dream job, and the opportunity came so much sooner than I had anticipated!

So I decided to complete my PR 393 unit at Liberty. The biggest lesson I’ve learnt while completing this unit is that juggling work and study is not always the best option.

I have found that working full time in a communications role has been incredibly valuable as I can implement the skills that I learn in lectures and tutorials into practice…sometimes on the same day! I’ve also found that studying as you work keeps your mind active and you’re always up to date with the latest PR case studies.

However, over the past couple of months I’ve found that juggling a job with study is very difficult to effectively time manage. How do you prioritise your assignment when there’s a meeting with Richard Branson to prepare for? (Seriously)

I’m actually leaving Liberty at the end of next week to move to Karratha. Partly because my partner moved there four months ago, and partly because I’ve recognised the need to slow down and assess where I’m going. My next three blogs will be about the handover I’m doing with my colleague Alex.

I’ve grown so much since starting with Liberty almost two years ago. However, the most important lesson I’m taking away from my time at Liberty is that sometimes you need to make a decision that is in your best interest. There will always be another job, another opportunity. If you’re passionate about what you do and you’re eager to learn, these opportunities are more likely to present themselves.

I’m sure there are many students, especially being in the final year of study, who find themselves in the same position. To you, I say this – you and the people around you are more important than any job.

Bec

Blogging for the Global Good; Workload Fluctuations

Hi everyone,

As the semester is coming to an end, so is my placement at The Global Good Foundation (GGF). I am completing my placement part time (now from Melbourne), and am expecting to finish within the next ten days.

As mentioned in a previous Blog, GGF is a not for profit organisation. Now the thing I've noticed with GGF and have picked up from other students working for NFP's, is that there is either nothing to do... or everything!

For example about six weeks ago I decided to move from Perth to Melbourne. Now two weeks before I left I had full time availability to work on tasks for GGF. Over this period there was literally no work sent through to me.. even when i asked for some! We had just had two more work experience students come on board, and were really on top of things.

Unfortunately for me things did pick up.. just as I landed in Melbourne and began house hunting! I did not have the internet for my first week in my new city, and when I was able to log in from internet cafes my inbox was swamped with requests from GGF.

Now 80% of the way through my placement I am more on top of things. But of course there is still a lot of work to do.. just as i'm working frantically on the final report!

Caitlin

INTERNAL RELATIONS COMMUNICATION ARE VITAL

Hi! Guys

I started works as in internship at a Cleaning and Hygiene company called MODITHITO in Botswana. It is a fairly large company that specializes in offering cleaning services for a quite large number of big companies, numerous government organizations the list extending to even big shopping malls. Modithito is now established and have branches in four different places in Botswana being the capital city Gaborone, Francistown that is another city and two other towns, Selebi-Phikwe and Palapye. Up to today, the company has grown to be an employer of close to 200 employees.

For the company strength, it now partners with other international companies in African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and others which they are still putting effort. I guess it helps the company to acquire any news and keep updated with whatsoever latest technology in the cleaning industry. Modithito offers a number of cleaning and hygiene services, the list includes office cleaning, high rise window cleaning, chemical suppliers, pest control, car wash etc. in most companies Modithito attach cleaners and then supply them with necessary equipment and chemicals at the same time managing and supervising them while attached to their area of operation

I got there at a very critical moment when the company was re-branding itself. They where getting new uniform for working stuff, changing their long served logo design giving it a brand new look. The company was also changing a few things on the operational system and management. It has been like that for a long period of time since its birth, since now they have grown to become one of the largest if not the largest in the country, it has become hard to manage this bigger scale the same way it was done when they first came. It wanted to create a system which a system which will facilitate effectiveness and productivity at the same time giving promised services with guaranteed customer satisfaction placed upfront. The company is going to start by working on organizing and improving internal relations with its employees emphasizing desired work ethics. After it is organized then it will start creating external relations with its publics, as well as strengthening the already existing relationship with its key publics.

However the company PR sector is still young and growing since it is only operates form the headquarters in Gaborone which makes it not an easy task to communicate directly with other branch leaders unless they have to travel to directly address them. Otherwise they rely on fax, phone and email to communicate as the company website is still under construction.

Here I witnessed the essential of communication in the public relation field. That without proper channels of communication you are doomed even from the slightest mistake you might take for granted. Employee relations or internal relations are vital for the company to succeed in the outside world because everything has to be organized. Sometimes you find that the company looses tenders because only one person knew about it then they were not available at the time or that one thinks the job is done while another did not know who is supposed to be doing the work.

Otsetswe Sedimo

LUCT (Malaysia)