Trying to sum it all – [So Far] Experience overload!

Isn’t it incredible how time flies? I am already at my last week as an intern at Flymates and to be honest I feel nostalgic about leaving the workplace. Without any doubt, my placement has enabled me to develop the Public Relations skills learned at University and acquired real-life experience. But above this; there is also the workplace experience which we sometimes neglect to talk about – the workplace values, ethics and behaviors acquired.

Public Relations tasks done [so far].

•   Newsletter
• Trianon career and guidance fair event plan
• Rose Belle Rotary club fair event plan
• Banners design
• Video creation
• Roadshow event planning for 2017
• E-mailing, phone calls
• Official letters drafting
• Facebook event page creation for Trianon
• Instagram page creation
•   Local press lists
• Media Audit

20 days have passed and I have already contributed in the above tasks.  I remember how calling people were stressful at first or how I was lost when having so much work to do at once.
The Flymates team and my supervisor helped me a lot in planning and scheduling my tasks and apart from the PR skills acquired and developed all along the journey, I now recognize that the key to evolve in a workplace is in establishing a good relationship with the team.

Apart from establishing a good relationship with the team, I recommend everyone to never underestimate themselves due to lack of experience in the PR sector. Do have the courage to propose new techniques , new ideas, new visions and do things differently but neatly.

Happy that my proposal for an Instagram account was accepted 

Tools used [so far]:

• Basecamp
•  Photoshop
• Corel
• Visio
• Canvas

Here are some tools which I used so far. Basecamp is the online project management tools used by Flymates team to communicate. At first it was a headache for me to understand it but now I acknowledge the importance of having an online communication platform between colleagues and would recommend every business to settle one for internal communication.  I have also learned to use new tools such as Corel for designing newsletters and visio for designing procedures. It is always good as a PR person to learn using new tools. And no need to say that Canvas really helped me creating quick teasers for events Facebook page!

Some workplace values, ethics and behaviors learned [so far].

Dedication and commitment.

I learned that dedication to your work is paramount. It is what increases productivity and quality of work.  I learned that commitment to a task reinforces the team and supervisor’s positive opinions about me and makes it easier for them to trust and assign to me new responsibilities.

Teamwork and cooperation.

Teamwork is the key to evolve in a business. At Flymates I saw some clashes between team members but what I learned is that even if some colleagues do not share affinities with each other, they respect their work enough to work in team and makes the most of it.

Integrity and reliability.

An important work ethic which I learned is integrity and reliability. To be honest and to have strong moral principles is paramount and even more in the PR sector. It does not only show dedication but reveal the personality and character of someone making him/her a reliable and trustworthy colleague.

So far, I hope that, like me, you are enjoying your workplace experience and remember: 

The expert in anything was once a beginner – Helen Hayes. 

Doralie Lebrasse.
18044151
CTI

The End Has Come – it’s time to lay all the cards on the table

The final week of my placement with the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre has arrived. The final post is generally always reserve to reflect upon the experiences and achievements obtained across the past 20 days. However, I feel that this post is far more significantly representational as a concluding reflection on the end of my entire University journey, as well as my internship placement. We all have our experiences, our achievements, our skills and our ambition… but where do we go from here? I personally have spent the best part of 18 consecutive years of my life studying, and to label myself as institutionalised is perhaps an understatement. We are no longer safeguarded by outlines of a curriculum, or driven by the timetables of terms and semesters. 

We choose what happens from here on in, with a level of responsibly and accountability that some of us may not be accustomed to. For some, that is an invigorating thought, however for others, perhaps less so. I personally have not made up my mind quite yet on how I feel about this leap towards independence, both personally and professionally. More worryingly, I certainly have not made up my mind regarding the upcoming course of my imminent journey towards reaching my career goals. I have my hypothetical cards all laid out on the table, but deciding which to pick up and use is proving to be a difficult decision.

Upon reflection, I feel deeply appreciative towards both mentors and all that they have consciously and subconsciously taught. The tasks undergone may have been challenging and, at times, stressful, however the internship experience is one that I have enjoyed far more than I could have ever anticipated. At its core, this is a view that is often expressed throughout reflective blog posts, personal anecdotes, and final reports. As a student embarking on an internship experience, comprehending the enjoyment and appreciation is not truly possible until you reach that final day. Realising how much you have learned about the organisation, your skill levels, and your personal attributes within the space of 20 working days can be quite astounding, and equally the most rewarding of achievements.

With that in mind, I feel privileged to have ascertained my experiences throughout the past three years, this internship program being one of the more significant ones. Despite all our inevitable fears surrounding the alternating paths that we will all end up taking, the commonality that we all share, aside from our choice of educational institute, is that we will take what has been taught across the last 20 days, and it will undoubtedly inform our future careers. My internship experience has taught me a great deal across the past three months. However, it has also highlighted how much more I am yet to learn. Upon reflection, regardless of where I choose to turn, it is important to remember that the purpose of my journey is to continue learning. Does this revelation alleviate my fears? I would certainly like to think so. Therefore, my advice to any PR student amidst the cusp of graduation that is perhaps experiencing a similar existential dilemma is to discover your drive and your purpose, and to remember it. Good luck to all of you, regardless of your stage within your degree, goodbye, and thank you for an incredible three and a half years.

Joining the dots between PR and Event Management

I have been fortunate enough to be able to complete my internship between two companies so let me introduce my second intern company, Evolve Events! (Introduction of my first company can be found here for anyone interested – for info will be in my last post so stay tuned!)

Here’s some background:

Evolve Events is more than a national award-winning events management company, renowned for their wide range of training and development services they are recognised for their human development services and coordinating services. Owned and directed by Katrina Bercov who has a great deal of knowledge and experience spanning over 15 years in the training department with background in education, business and psychology. (Find more on their website here). I feel honoured to be working alongside Katrina and Evolve Events and definitely feel that I will be taking with me a great deal of knowledge, firsthand experience and lessons from her and the team.

Evolve Events: Sustainable Events Management
specialising in business and people management

As a part of this internship I am keen to gain hands on experience, experience I believe is invaluable and not something a university degree alone can teach. Working with Evolve Events I certainly feel I will achieve this goal with some of the events that I will be onsite for include the Greens WA Conference (I am actually sitting here typing this during my break!) and the Tenancy WA conference. The conference has been a three day venture full of jam packed days of learning and development along with mingling with guests and meeting probably one of the nicest groups of people you can come across. As the conference is a regular event for most attendees here, they sure are incredibly welcome to newbies (like myself!). My roles here have given me a range of opportunities to gain insight into the wide world of event management and public relations work.

Prior to working at this event and well prior to having the opportunity to gain this experience working with events, I did not really know how great a deal event management and public relations were intertwined with one another, but this conference has been a clear example to me has certainly showed me the connection between the two – and given m e a reason to be grateful for choosing a double degree in both areas rather than just one.

To join the dots so far, I have learnt that obviously events can be successful without public relations and vice versa, but they complement each other which ultimately add to the greater success of one another. I personally understand PR to be related to ongoing engagement with the community and public etc. on a wide level (people management), it is about creating and maintaining a relationship between publics (relationship management) and it is about using a wide range of sources to reach a wide range of people (marketing management). Events management essentially is incorporating those PR elements into the production and managing of events because we all know an event is not an event without people! Ultimately, combining the skills and fundamentals of most areas is the best way to achieve a good relationship between publics and a successful event.     

From another perspective, are there any Green supporters amongst my readers? Find below some information regarding the Greens and more information on how you can get more involved. I will admit I had quite a limited range of knowledge regarding the Greens or politics at all to be honest, but following the conference this has certainly changed – which just goes to show that experiences can really teach you such a wide range of things.

Greens WA information and for those a little more social network savvy as the majority are!   

Reyhan Oz

16167111

Bentley Campus

What I Wish They Taught In Class

Hey all,

Having been there and done that as an intern, there were many times that thoughts of “I wish the school taught me this…” came to me. I believe we have all had our fair share of boo-boos at work and would like to bury our head into the ground every time that happens.

As I mark my last post on this blog, I would like to share the 10 “I wish they taught me…” that went through my head at work in my three months with Touch Communications. Who knows? Maybe one of the lecturers might catch upon this and make it a point to kindly share these trade secrets for potential PR393 interns before they dash off into the real world.

1.       I wish they taught me what a media drop is.

2.       I wish they taught me how to reject cordially.

3.       I wish they taught me when the deadlines for SPH, Mediacorp and other media outlets are

4.       I wish they taught me when the media centres published their publications

5.       I wish they taught me how to squirm out of a tight situation

6.       I wish they taught me how to make intelligent conversations

7.       I wish they taught me how to hold those conversations

8.       I wish they taught me how to introduce myself without a namecard

9.       I wish they taught me the different ways to network during a social event

10.   I wish they taught me how to cope with difficult situations (e.g. low event RSVP even as event is nearing, zero turnout for press conferences, etc.)

Personally, I feel that the theory we learnt in school (except for techniques) is not as useful  for the internship as compared to if the lecturers took time to share with us on more practical examples such as the 10 listed above. It would help to ease transition between school and work, especially for an intern in a fast-paced industry where time waits for no man. 

While I eventually managed to find out how to deal with the above, it is not without hard lessons. If I had the slightest inkling of what to expect, it could have been better handled and consequences may be less dire!

Signing off,
Grace Ong
15230928
Curtin Singapore