I first of all would like to show my deepest thanks to the Imagine team who were present and supported me during my first baby steps in the world of PR.
This semester has been one of the challenging but also the most interesting one.
My internship was a great experience but not solely from an educational/work perspective. From a human perspective, the internship was very enriching and allowed me to gain much experience and knowledge from my colleagues through relationship building and communication.
Those three months as an intern in a Media and Public Relations Communication Consultancy changed my perspective on certain components of my daily life. It has been approximately two weeks since I stopped my internship but some habits still lingers; every day I still find myself looking at newspapers and listening to the radio just to keep in touch with current affairs, or using basic PR guidelines when dealing with my day-to-day deeds.
I believe that much of the work that PR practitioners have to undertake in their professional life starts from home and the boundary between work and personal life remains quite blurred. I remember that in my PR classes we were often reminded that PR practitioners may be called for at any time; to solve crisis, send urgent Press Releases or help on special events. And I now realise how much this profession requires a full-time commitment.
Over these three months, I had the opportunity to experience being a full-time intern for a one month and when my courses started, I switched to a part-time internship. However, being a part-time intern was less self-fulfilling as I had to always catch-up on what happened during my off-days [both at work and in current news] or help midway on some projects. I realised that my focus would always be spread on my studies and the internship.
I will have to admit that it was quite hard for me to balance both at the same time but the overall experience was great.
So once again I would like to show my deepest gratitude to those who helped and guided me during those three months.
Again Thank You so much for everything!!
For now I find myself writing this last post, filled with a mixed feeling of sadness but also thrill as I know that this experience was a great one but is nothing compared to the world that awaits.
Well, I hope that everyone enjoyed their internship as much as I did and got the best out of it.
All the best for each and every one of you in your studies,
And in your life.
Farewell,
Benoit de Lapeyre
4 comments:
Hi Benoit
Your internship has been very productive for you as I can see. You seem to have bonded a relationship with Imagine communication. You experienced the life of a public relations practitioner like me when being called to attend immediately a meeting with an organization with the communication agent of Publico. It is true that being in that profession, is to be constantly available even at home or on public holidays. I completely agree with you about the fact that managing internship and studies at the same time is quite difficult, but we succeed this part. And I would say that it made us become more professional. It was a ahuge challenge for me to stick to my schedule of my courses and the internship because it was not easy everyday to go to class then update myself on the work being done a Publico as I was on a part time basis at the agency.
Hope that you came out with the best feeling like me about the internship! For my part, I really enjoyed being at Publico and to share this experience with my friends.
Kind regards
Hi Benoit,
I find myself commenting again on one of your reflective posts because I can relate to your experience and we both more or less share the same views about PR. I should confess that before undertaking this internship unit, I was never really interested in current affairs and I barely read newspapers or watched the news on TV. Ironic isn't it? I mean aspiring PR professionals are supposed to do those things but that was about to change when I started my internship at Blast Communications. I had to do a bit of media monitoring, so I had to start reading newspapers, like really read them and scrutinize them. Today, a few months after having completed my internship, I might have actually kept that habit. For someone who never liked reading newspapers, I think I've pretty much outdone myself.
I agree with what you've said about the PR profession requiring a full-time commitment. We should bear in mind that the work of a PR practitioner is not an 8 AM till 5 PM job and sometimes PR practitioners have to continue working at home or during the weekends. At Blast, they have this 24/7 availability and service which means that the Senior management and the PR executives should be at the client's never-ending disposal. I remember that when I interviewed Mrs Aisha Allee-Mosaheb, Managing Director of Blast Communications, she told me that once she had to get out of bed during the middle of the night to handle a crisis for her client. Likewise, when she was on vacation in Australia with her family, a client phoned her to discuss about work but she couldn't hang up on the client because "the client is King". So, it gives us an idea of what is awaiting us in the PR world.
While reading your reflective posts, I could tell that you've had a fruitful internship at Imagine Communication.
Cheers,
Houmaira.
Hello Benoit,
It is very interesting to read on all your accomplishments not only at Imagine but also in your personal life. It was quite different from my internship and it is always a pleasure to know about others' experience. I agree that trying to deal with our internship and studies was a difficult task but these are rules set by the university which we have to abide to. You have got the chance to work closely with media content and this has helped you to learn further on the newsworthiness prone in Mauritius. I think it is a good habit adopted by yourself and keep on reading news on a daily basis since this will help you in your future. I myself has not got the chance to go through different media outlets since my company is a French enterprise who outsources its services in Mauritius but we have each and everyone tries to apply the public relations theories in the best way possible.
Regards,
Raina
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