I spent my placement working alongside at least four other students doing unpaid work experience and employees who were barely meeting minimum wage. You might ask why so many people are willing to work for so little? What are they doing? How could they do this? My answer to you is the simply the events industry! With Perth being such a small city with so little events, many students and fresh graduates work for little or no money and do ridiculous hours just to get their break.
Throughout my placement I have come to notice that the importance of simply saying thank you has in some places been forgotten. This was unfortunately the case with my employer and due to that fact many of the staff I worked with will not be going back. The way an organisation treats their staff is so important especially in this day and age where people do not stay in one job there whole life time. This also reflects very badly on the industry because this was the first glance of what many students got.
When you work a 60-70 hour week for someone for very little money and give them your life. Sometimes all you need is for them to say thank you and good job.
5 comments:
Hey Jane....
I think the reason people do work for such low payment probably is because the VALUE of EXPERIENCE.... I assume, everyone want to have smackingly awesome and long CV... :) i think i am one of them.... :)
I have to agree with you, that we can't forget other people's contribution in every way. I believe simple word like "thank you", "good job", "well done, guys" would help BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE and you feel being APPRECIATED. which is important in Working world... :)
Wishing you had a new and different experience for your placement, Jane.... Good luck for the future!!...
Regards,
Cynthia Purnama Sari
Hi Jane.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate your completion of the internship. It is a great achievement to remain in an organisation where you feel unappreciated and overworked.
After working as an intern, most people would feel inspired, accomplished and a bit more confident about entering the work force. However, after reading your unfortunate experiences, I can still assertively tell you that it is fantastic that you endured such an experience.
Through this internship you have learnt that the industry is not just happy faces, kind words and hard work. It is the harsh reality that there are unappreciative employees that do not create the best working experience for you.
Now that you have experienced the down side of the industry, you can only look forward to better experiences in your next internship or PR position. More importantly, you must have developed new skills in handling a situation that you do not enjoy.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I would think that you have learnt how to treat others as an employer one day. This looks like a new important lesson you have learnt.
Once again, congratulations on the completion of your internship. =)
Hi Jane,
I'm sorry to hear that your internship experience wasn't as positive as it should be.
Unfortunately not every employer can be wonderful and supportive. You can only control your own behaviour, and hope that your hard work and polite positive nature will reap rewards eventually. I hope you can shrug it off and push for something more rewarding in the future.
Fingers crossed you can find something that is much more beneficial and inspiring to your PR career soon. All the best! :)
That doesn't sound like the greatest work environment, so good on you for sticking it out and trying to make the most of it. I know I couldn't have done what you did so Congratulations.
It sounds like you learnt a lot though, about the reality of the industry in particular.
I did really enjoy reading your post, don't know if that helps you feel better!? But it was a really fresh and honest look at what it is like working in the events industry so Thank you for that :)
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