Week one done and dusted

So I have just complete my first full week at my placement and I thought I would take the opportunity to tell everyone about it.

I'll start by saying that I am completing my internship at the Department of Transport (DoT) at 140 William Street in the city. Unlike most students I am doing my internship all in one hit, yep that's right four weeks straight. There are a few reasons behind my decision but mainly I wanted to see exactly what people in the industry do on a day to day basis rather than seeing small pieces over 10 or so weeks. Also it means that I’ll be able to get my head around ongoing projects much easier so the work I do complete will be much more in depth. Especially over the last couple of weeks of my placement.

Completing my placement at a government agency was never really something I had thought of but now that I am here it’s really interesting to see just how much goes on, on a day to day basis. My first day was a fair bit of reading and trying to absorb as much information as I possibly could. After that I was put to work straight away updating media contacts and finding new ones for an upcoming media release, sounds boring but I found out just how important it was to do regularly. The list I was given was not that old and many of the contacts had changed so for me it was good to know I wasn't just doing busy work that most people may expect during their internship. 

So far I have been asked to draft Newsflash stories, which get published on the intranet, draft communications plans, review competition entries and improve them where possible, review scripts for travel smart information videos and a number of other interesting tasks. What I have found most interesting though is just how well the team works together. While member of the communications team have their own particular fields they all collaborate and assist each other when ever it’s needed. With a few staff members down at present they are all under the pump but you wouldn't realise. 

So far the team has been fantastic to me and they are always willing to help should I ever need any. It been a really informative first week and I’m looking forward to the next one. All I can say is if anyone has the opportunity to complete their placement all at once, do it because I have already learnt a great deal and I still have 3 weeks to go.