Working in an New Environment!

Last Tuesday 9th August 2016, it was my first day of my internship at Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC). WAEC is a Government department where it deals with election enrollments. The office is located in St Georges Terrace.

On the first day there were three interns Ed, Isabella and me. The first thing we started with, was knowing all the staffs at WAEC, we got introduced to them and also we had a tour around the office, as we got introduced to the staffs, we also got explained how things work and also have the knowledge about the areas and where they are. There are 2 levels of WAEC and we were located on level 2 and we were settled down in an area called the 'ROLOs', where it is in the middle of all the areas/departments which includes State, Federal and Local. Those areas are very important as each different areas we might be working with during the internship. And also we have to work with our individual project and we will be helped by those areas.

As WAEC is a Government department, we were given mil keys so that we can access through the office because security is very important in the office as the department deals with personal details. First day of intern was pretty full on because we received a lot of information such as staffs' names and roles and what thing we have to do. I found it full on as I have to adapt to this new environment as it is my first time to work in a proper office for a 7.5 hours. But I found it very interesting and I really like it, especially the staffs are very nice which means me feel very comfortable working there. One thing I didn't know is that working in an office can also be so flexible.

Throughout the first day, all of the interns, worked together so that we can give ideas and help each other with our own projects. Our supervisor, Sotear organised us to work together as a group on some broader engagement strategies before we get started going off doing out individual projects. The engagement strategies workshop, we brainstorm a lot of ideas about the project that WAEC will focus on before the next State Election and we worked out what kind of strategies we can consider. The workshop was very useful and working as a group does help with the ideas. I love working as a team/group.

Thursday was my second day of the intern, when I arrived to the office my task was to work on my project and using the information that we all worked out on Tuesday as a guideline to start researching. Sotear wanted us to prepare a project brief, in the brief thing that we have to include was the objectives, outcomes, deliverables, how it should be done and what resources we need and also who we should contact. As Sotear said this brief will also be a guideline for us to use during the internship.

After the first two days of the intern, learnt about how to work in an office environment, and I found it is very interesting working in this environment. After the first week, I know that working in a PR industry, planning and research are very important. Also working as a team is very useful as more brains have more ideas.

From only the first 2 days I have already been gaining experiences and knowledge on how the PR industry works. I really enjoyed the first 2 days. Also me and Ed figured out how to use the printer which we thought it was a great improvement.