Last Blog

Hi again everyone,

This is my last blog and as I write my report I am reflecting on my time at BHP Billiton with pride. I hope you are all as proud as I am of the work you have done during your placements.

During my time with BHPB I have written some media releases, put together a full internal newsletter including designing the layout myself and writing the major articles, written articles for another internal newsletter, written a speech for the CEO, written briefing notes for the CEO and more.

The major project that I have worked on in my time at BHP Billiton – which I have mentioned in my other blogs briefly – is the Visitor information brochure.

This brochure was like my baby as no one at Nickel West had done anything similar before and I had to make most of the decisions as to what content to use, and all of the decision about designing the layout.

I had meetings with Julie – the lady who requested the document – and Alison to ensure that I got the document right and on my last day at BHPB I had the document perfect.

As I’ve already mentioned I wrote all the content within the document. I spent a lot of time researching and writing about places I have never been to – it reminded me a lot of the assignments we are given in PR classes where everything is made up, until I went out and saw the places and found out just a little more about the city that I live in.
Putting together this document I found quite a lot of the content easy to write, when designing the document and finishing off those little details I found that PR work could be quite tedious at times. Although I always had fun and enjoyed the things that I was doing, even tedious things like putting dots on maps to symbolise different places, it took time but the final product was worth it.
When designing the layout I found that branding guidelines – though daunting at first – could be your best friend. A little guideline is important in this business otherwise you have too much scope to work within and could either get carried away or not do enough. Despite the folder being massive and my first impression was that it was a little unnecessary, the folder became my best friend over the few days that it took me to design the layout.

The folder is what ensures that all BHP Billiton documents, web pages, media releases, and everything else produced by them worldwide follow the same format.
I had to make sure that I used the right colours and the right fonts and page layouts. This is something that hasn’t been focussed on much in classes but I have picked up on formatting techniques on my own and applied them to my assignments so when it came to designing the layout I was quite good.

I really just wanted to mention here that even when something seems like it goes unnoticed – like the formatting of an essay – it still gives you experience that may be useful at a later stage.
I’ve really learnt so much about Public Relations during my placement and even though I don’t know whether I will ever work in PR and I know that it isn’t my first choice I have found that I really enjoyed it.

This has been a great experience for me and I hope that everyone has learnt as much as I have over the course of the placement and it has helped you to decide whether this is the career for you – or not.

It’s been great,
Jordan Pieterse