There is only two weeks left of my internship at Magenta which i will be spending in a fulltime role as Office and Admin Co-ordinator. Renee who's role it is will be away for the next two weeks so my Boss thought it would be a good learning experience to try and take on Renee's job. I was hesitant at first because i had no experience in a reception or office co-ordination role but my understanding of the team, clients and the day to day runnings at Magenta gave me confidence that i could excel at the role.
The two weeks proved extremely busy and it was a hectic juggling act between working fulltime, still fulfilling my tasks as part of my PR role in the company and completing my other university studies, but i am alot richer thanks to the experience.
Time management - The number one skill i learnt during my whole internship but particularly during these two weeks. I found this article which i thought was very relevant and a great reference to my current situation. CLICK HERE
So with reference to the tips the article gave me i started my day by writing a list of the tasks i needed to have completed by 5pm (Hopefully). A mental list isnt good enough, write a HARD COPY! i cant tell you how good the personal gratification gained from being able to violently cross off tasks you have completed is. It also shows you are getting things done!
I often also felt overwhelmed when sitting on reception, i would be suddenly bombarded with requests from the PR team for support while still answering phone calls and carrying out general office duties. Theres is where tip #2 comes into play, prioritise, prioritise, prioritise. When given a task that wasnt on my list at the start of the day i used to look at the importance of the task and the deadline given to me, i would then calculate how quickly i needed to attend to it. I would crack down on the assignments that had hard deadlines and order the other tasks accordingly.
A PR report that you are given 4 weeks to compile at University needs to be compiled over night in the real world. Everything has a deadline and all projects are time sensitive and when you dont deliver it is the client who pays for it.
One of my jobs as office co-ordinator was to construct and amend the weekly agenda and action plan. Every Tuesday morning the whole team would have a meeting and we would go through this weekly agenda. The agenda detailed the Client, the action (task), the person responsible and the deadline. I would seek feedback from the meeting and update the agenda accordingly. The weekly agenda acted as the road map of tasks that needed to be completed for the week, i thought it was extremely effective having a visual calender outlining each persons roles. It also made it simple for me when people would ring enquiring about certain clients or campaigns to know which PR officer was dealing with which clients and i could put the caller through to the correct person.
On my final day at Magenta one of our Melbourne clients was hosting a Fundraising Soiree, the team had been working hard on planning the event and locking in media coverage leading up to the event over the period of my internship. As one of my roles on reception, i was checking and updating the RSVP spreadsheet daily and was also responsible for liasing with the clients Marketting Manager regarding extra invites that needed to be sent out and following up RSVP's.
(Images from event, Ambassador Jodi Gordon, DJ Didier Cohen, Cheese and Champagne table)
I have since completed my internship at Magenta and cannot explain how invaluable my experience was. I learnt more on a practical level than i have during my degree, but found the theory learnt during my degree was extremely relevant within my role at the consultancy. My intership definitely confirmed that PR is what i want to do once i have completed my degree at the end of this semester.
A huge thank you to the team at Magenta, what an inspiring group of creative individuals!
Goodluck to the rest of the PR393's still completing internships and congratulations to the ones who have finished, im sure you all enjoyed your time in the 'real world' as much as i did.
Tess x
2 comments:
Hi Tess,
Quite an insightful post you have there.
Its impressive how you can manage a fulltime job and study too. And I thought it was hard enough to juggle this internship and my last two modules.
The PR report seems like a daunting task, with all the other deadlines approaching. Nonetheless, congratulations on completing your internship. I've still got 1 week to go and I'll be wrapping up the report.
This post if a great read. Now I feel a little more inspired to write my blog post.
Wish you the best in your future endeavors!
Sandy
Hi Tess,
Sounds like you learnt so much and really enjoyed your experience. I had a similar experience in getting to work in the admin role for a while. I think it was an eye-opening experience and a great way to learn and pick up the basics quickly. It taught me so much about time management skills and how important it is to write things down. I also completely agree with you about prioritizing. I found I needed to ask the importance and deadline for every task I was given so I could make sure the most important things were done first.
Congratulations on completing your placement and good luck with your report!
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