Today was my last day at Shelter WA!
I had my final meeting with my supervisor and went through everything I did during my internship. My experience at Shelter WA showed me how important having a Public relations field in an organisation is. Especially being a not-for-profit organisation as everything rely on the public, organisations and the government! Before I started my internship, I was a bit confused about the role and the importance of having a PR person within an organisation and how will it be beneficial to an organisation.
However, since I started to write the media releases and created the Facebook profile, Shelter WA's awareness already raised! Past members and founders of Shelter WA contacted the office via email, phone calls or facebook in order to renew their membership!
I also thought that some of the things we have been taught at uni wouldn't be necessarily applicable in a workplace (as a lot of my previous unit will never be useful to me) but so far, from what I have been asked to do, everything I've learnt during these 3 years of PR have been extremely useful to me to complete my tasks. (such as how to write a media release, event management, newsletters and so on).
Moreover, thanks to all the projects I have worked on during my PR study, made me realise how my creativity has expanded and improved. I was able to give new ideas about events and new ways of raising the company's awareness.
This internship was for me a great opportunity as I'm now looking forward to work in a public relations field and I've also gained a lot of confidence in my work and how to express my ideas. It has also been challenging as I've never been really effective to manage my time appropriately but facing the real world change that and I'm now more organised and meet the deadline!
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed my internship at Shelter WA! Hope you all had a great internship too! Goodluck to all for your final report!
Clo
3 comments:
Hi Clo,
It sounds like you've really enjoyed your placement! I finished mine last week, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
I'm sure it's rewarding to know that you contributed to raising the awareness of Shelter WA in some way.
I conducted my placement at a consultancy called the SponsorShop and the vast majority of our clients are not for profit too, so I understand how difficult it can be!
Unfortunately they don't have the financial flexibility to that of corporates, which is why they value Public Relations so much!
I had the privilege of creating a facebook page for our of our clients, 'Albany Gardens', a caravan and camping resort located in Albany.
Facebook users can 'become a fan' of Albany Gardens, however, unlike yours, it has not been very successful in generating awareness.
I believe that social media is such an effective medium in terms of generating awareness...however I suppose it's only applicable in some areas of expertise.
I'm not sure about you but even though I've written countless media releases, I found it such a struggle to string one together!
My mentor often said that I structure it like a backgrounder and not a media release, so I definitely need more practice!
Anyway good luck with writing your final report!
- Laura
Hi Clo,
I completely agree with you about the past PR units coming in handy! It surprised me that I remembered quite a bit that we have learnt over the last 3 years. Plus when you see things in practice, it all comes together and makes sense.
Little things that we have learnt over the years, like time management, keeping stakeholders informed and happy, keeping records of each task we complete and the timeframe, etc. Writing about them in essays and actually putting them into practice are very different.
Anyway, it sounds like you had a great time at your internship.
Good luck with the rest of your PR career!!
Hi Clo,
I was somewhat suprised too at the value of PR theories learnt at uni in the workplace.
Although I have had to 'forget' some of the more practical things, such as fomatting media releases and backgrounders in the uni style, I've found that many of the theories I spent so long reading about actually came in handy when it came to dealing with clients, designing and implementing PR programs.
It's such a relief to know the time and effort spent studying was time and effort well spent!
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