Interning abroad

I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the students to complete the internship unit abroad.  I am interning at a Public Relations agency based in Kuala Lumpur.  I hope to make the most of this experience.  I hope to work for a multinational company or in an international position, on completion of my degree.  So I hope the contacts I make and the experience I have interning abroad will open up desired opportunities for me in the future.

In the couple of days that I have been here at the consultancy I have already met so many people from various backgrounds and noticed things that differ from the typical Australian working culture.  The working days are quite a bit longer here.  Our hours are 9am to 6pm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you go home at 6pm.  Most days there is still plenty to do after 6pm and no one is ever in a rush to get home.  I am always impressed by the work ethic of all the employees.  My team leader usually stays past 7pm to miss the traffic and finish off the days’ many tasks.

There is a nice working culture at the agency.  There are four separate teams that work on a handful of clients each.  My team consists of the team leader and one other member, both PR professionals and now myself. 

My team

 Each team takes an hour lunch break together, rather than going one by one.  It is a good way to develop relationships with co-workers and I feel this beneficial for the team work required during work hours.

Staying in Kuala Lumpur for a month and working 9 – 6 Monday to Friday, I feel as if we are getting the real experience of full time public relations work in a different country.  Unlike university, where you have three other units, part time work and a private life all obscuring your focus on an assignment or task at hand, the benefit of working full time have been a more refined focus specifically on the handful of clients your team is responsible for.

Georgia
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When Things Don't Always Go Your Way

Crisis management. 

Two words I had heard a million times throughout my degree. These words came to mind; definition, meaning, use, reality, past cases. It's all-great in theory right? Wrong. As it turns out, once faced with the daunting thought and realisation of a legitimate crisis in PR it becomes a lot harder to judge what is right or wrong, how you should carry out a task and what is the first thing that needs to be done once a crisis has occurred. 

Muse Bureau experienced a mini crisis recently which affected everyone in the team. It was not so much the exact crisis that impacted us but the events to follow. I now have an understanding of what I learned in public relations principles that it is the steps and recovery, post event that are the most important. 

We were no prepared for what happened and as a consequence, were unsure of what to do next and how to delegate the tasks. Confidentiality in this example was vital. Everything had to be kept within the agency and no information was to be released into the media or spoken about to anyone. I began to form an understanding of how imperitive it is to have trust between the client and consultancy. Without that a time of crisis would be very tough and taxing for both parties involved. 

The book "Public Relations: contemporary issues and techniques" delves into the importance and theory behind crisis management with in-depth examples of it within the PR industry. Crisis management isn't just something we were taught at University, it is happening every day in all kinds of workplaces and situations. I just didn't think I would be involved in one so soon. In saying that, I have gained so many skills and extensive knowledge about what to do in this particular kind of crisis and even what is expected of you as an employee.

The crisis was resolved and handled by my bosses but I couldn't help thinking, will we be as prepared next time?

Georgia 

A Whirlwind Week

Its been an exhausting week, probably the busiest since I started my internship at DDB PR eight weeks ago.

The good thing about working in a PR agency is that the work is never dull. We have to deal with many clients, often simultaneously, and attend events or meetings outside the office. The pressure, however, is intense - we're pressured by our bosses to perform, by our clients to deliver, and by the media if they don't publish our stories, or worse, publish them inaccurately!

Here's a rundown of my week:

Monday

We were at the launch of Citibank's "My Passion, My Rewards" contest at Menara Citibank. The clipping above was taken from The Star, January 23, 2010. Citibank credit card users can now win prizes in these four categories: dining, travel, fashion, and home furnishing. You can read the full story here.

Upon returning to the office, I immediately had to start a round of media calls to ask if journalists were coming to another event the next day, this time to launch the partnership of AirAsia and ExxonMobil's "Discover Travel @ Asia" promotion.

Now, the difficult part is that each media outlet has a different assignment deadline time. Newspapers, for instance, assign reporters for the next day's activities between 6-7pm. TV stations, on the other hand, do it after 8.30pm. Some stations told me to call back after 9pm, but when I did, they were already closed! To top it off, different newspapers (and different sections within the same paper) have their own assignment deadlines.

I left the office at 10pm.

Tuesday

We had to be up early in order to arrive at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) on time. As usual, we were in charge of the media registration and distribution of press kits. I met Fatiha, fellow intern and classmate, because she was interning with AirAsia.

It was not smooth running, however. The media and guests had to be checked and registered by the airport security before they could proceed to the event venue. It didn't help that the media started arriving in droves!

Alas, we were able to organise ourselves and made sure each media representative got his or her press kit and goodie bag. The funny thing was, an old man, probably a tourist, asked for a press kit! When we told him it only contained a press release, all he could say was, "Oh."

It was stressful, but we pulled it off. The clipping above was also taken from The Star, January 23, 2010. Click here for the story.

The rest of the week...

We are currently occupied with our pitch for a new client. Wish us luck!

Adios,
John.