Complementary for PR

I am half way through my internship at Communities, and looking to start writing my final report. I am really thankful for a great mentor and really awesome colleagues at work. They are often ready to give constructive feedback, and I really learnt a lot from it. I remember how Katherina used to ask us what additional course or workshop should we take to prepare ourselves, and with this internship I did wish I had taken up a couple of workshop beforehand.

Re-constructing the General Media Outlets database made me realise how handicap I am without the skills in working Mircosoft Office. Over the last few days, I have learnt how to import and export documents, work with Excel and Outlook. I will also be learning how to merge and set up comprehensive distribution lists. While I am confident I can build a database from scratch by myself now (which is a really huge task), I cannot help but notice that such skills can be so easily overlooked. I would definitely recommend all PR-to-be to take up this life-long skill. More than the knowledge of technical skills involved, you can be independent when faced with this task. I believe at some point of our career, we will come across it.

Altogether it is a tedious task, I understand the importance of the database. All these are not taught in uni and as my first office job, it is an experience I can use. My mentor encouraged me construct my own database, starting with those around me. After all in PR, it is who you know!

Another workshop I was inspired to take up is graphic designing. To be able to design your own poster, newsletters, brochures would cut a lot of cost and you can have more control over the end result. It would be great to see a product that is wholly yours published.

Finally, I would want to take up workshops concerning the use of social media and their outcomes. Even as an intern, I can see how technology and association of social media comes into play in various aspect of work. Communities had the founder of Minti.com over to talk about social media, and the terms used were simply jargons even to me. As a GenY student, I believe it will be assumed that I know all about social media and it's influence in the world of communication cannot be denied.

So yes, the above are the top three workshops I would and should have engaged in. I am sure it is not too late to start still!