Today was the final day of my placement and I felt both relieved and sad. I used the day to gain as much feedback as possible and I also went over my report and recommendations with my supervisor. I was then taken out for morning tea by the team. It was such a pleasant way to finish off my placement.
Doing my placement in house at a private health fund was certainly an eye opener; I was involved in issues management, internal communciations and event planning. I wrote speeches, media releases and countless question and answer documents, yet also had plenty of days with nothing to do and believe me, it wasn't from a lack of asking. I found that when it was busy it was really busy and at all other times the pace was significantly slower.
That's not to say that the team were sitting around with nothing to do, as quiet patches allowed them to complete other tasks including emailing, developing member and staff magazines etc.
Having said that, the 20 days put everything I learnt in PR to the test and below are the most important things I got out of the placement, which I didn't learn at univeristy.
1. Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions.
The most valuable tool I learn was to be inquisitive and ask lots of questions about PR practices and the organisation that you are involved in. Doing this helped when creating documents, so that I was able to get the tone of the article right and had enough knowledge about the content and who would receive it.
and
2. Don't Rush
When I first started my placement I was so determined to show my supervisor how fast I could finish my the tasks he had set me. This didn't pan out so well as the work weren't well thought out and was just rushed. Over time I learnt to work at slower pace and tweak articles constantly until the wording was just right. Just by working at a slower pace I recieved better feedback and ended up spending less time later down the track making amendments.
I hope everyone's placement went well.
-liz
No comments:
Post a Comment