Consultancy or In-house?

Hi again,

Throughout my studies at Curtin I have always pictured myself working in a consultancy due to the variety and scope of work it would provide. Now I’m not so sure. Having just completed my time in-house for a large oil and gas company, I can happily report that the variety of work was great. This post will describe some of the things I worked on during my placement.

Media Monitoring

As mentioned in a previous post, I had to monitor and create a summary of media activity following two major milestone announcements by my company. I took the initiative to include a Twitter summary which is now being implemented in daily media reports emailed to staff. The monitoring included online print, online radio, print and television mediums.

As well as having staff monitor media, Media Monitors, a specialised analyst firm, are outsourced to provide a daily report highlighting any mention of the company or important issues in the industry. This provides a great evaluation tool for determining the scope and reaction following an announcment or during a campaign.

Community Benefits Fact Brochure

This was my major project during my placement. The task was to gather the appropriate information, rewrite it in a more relaxed form, and then format it for an A3 brochure to be published and made available to the public.

The company I am working for have a great reputation for engaging with the community and making an effort to minimise the social and environmental impact the project may have on the surrounding area. I have learnt a lot about community relations and issues management while creating the brochure and it will be an excellent piece of work to include in my final report.

Recording Studio

In my first week on the job I was sent to the recording studio to monitor the creation of the company’s radio adverts. Linc Integrated Marketing and Communications were outsourced to create the script, as well creatively direct the recording of the ads.

Before studying at Curtin I completed an audio engineering diploma so this was really interesting for me. My job was to sit in on the session and make sure all information was recorded correctly by the voice talent.

Intranet Audit

This involved searching through the Intranet and making notes on anything I thought could be cleaned up, updated or deleted. Currently the company is in the process of an Intranet overhaul and the public affairs team oversees any information that is added or removed. I made suggestions for a move towards a more socially orientated site that could feature a weekly staff profile and regular department updates so each team knows what the other is working on. These updates could save time spent at meetings and help staff get to know one another a little better.

Research

As we have been told over and over at Uni, research is extremely important in Public Relations. I was asked to research a number of things, some of which included:

• Researching speakers for a conference my Public affairs manager is chairing.
• Find information on a conference in Korea where the company was invited to make a presentation.
• Research and report if other oil and gas companies mention relevant Government Ministers in their media announcements. This research was compiled in a report and presented to mangers in Tokyo.

Meetings

I have been invited to attend many meetings, some of which included:

• Environment.
• External Affairs and Joint Venture (including Government and Indigenous Affairs)
• Community Issues.
• Public Affairs.
• Social Impact Management Plan committee.

All meetings have been really interesting and I’ve learnt a lot just from listening and taking notes. The people were really helpful and happy to explain anything I didn’t understand.

So that’s a selection of some of the things I did while at my placement. The variety has been great and I have thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of it. I can really see myself working in-house now, but to  things up a little I’m going to do one day a week at Purple Communications throughout my last semester to add some consultancy experience to my resume.

Cheers,

James Clothier

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