End of my experience

It sounds like such a cliche but I honestly can't believe today is my last day of work experience. It feels surreal looking back on everything I've done over the past 20 days and I can certainly say that I have learnt a lot from this experience. To be honest, the idea of undertaking a work placement whilst at uni was never appealling to me and was something I have avoided doing my entire degree. That being said, it is a wise idea to have this as a unit so that people like me are forced to get out there and utilise what we have learnt. That and the fact that is had been a very rewarding placement that has resulted in a possible job offer.

Over the last few weeks I have done all the typical tasks of filing, data entry and photocopying that are expected of a prac student. However I have also been challenged with more important duties such as writing speeches, organising photos for media releases, conducting interviews, writing newsletters, attending meetings and undertaking plenty of research. The importance of research is now undeniable. I have currently been working on signage for the Kings Park grounds which has expanded from one sign to an entire walkway, and in doing so have conducted interviews with former residents of the park, taken tours of the grounds, dug through archives and read countless brochures. I now consider myself a historian after all that effort. I realised afterwards that this process was critical, as without the research the accuracy and credibility of the literature would be compromised. And there really is no room for that when you are documenting history in cast bronze along a 2km path.

I have found that I have learnt a lot from simply listening to my superiors and have sat in on a few meetings discussing logistics of the festival and quotes. As the festival is now a month long event, an outside consultancy; Happening Events have been assigned several activities to monitor throughout September. These women were true professionals and it was amazing to see someone analyse the site location with a fine tooth comb and come up with every possible problem that could occur. It goes to show that pr practitioners really do practise by Murphy's law.

Today has been concerned with tieing up loose ends and passing on all the work I have done over the course of my placement to the relevant departments. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm sad to finish this placement and will actually miss the work I've been doing. I am most grateful for the encouragement and advice from my superiors, they have been wonderful to work for and I have learnt so much under their guidance.

All the best of luck to everyone for their placements.