After weeks of difficultly trying to secure a internship that I could start, I finally secured a spot in a small non-for profit organisation called DADAA. DADAA is an organisation that aims to involve people with disability or a mental illness into the arts. After only three days at my internship position I have been having a fabulous time! I have been working alongside their head of communications assisting with day-to-day jobs that need to be completed. Such activities as the monthly newsletter, media releases, social media monitoring(metrics) and updating, annual report writing, visiting studios and liaising with clients. These along with many other jobs are all completed by the head of communications at DADAA. Working as an intern in a small organisation gives me a chance to learn every aspect of communications and discover the broader tasks that accompany public relations.
I found myself asking the question on my first day, if I was put into this position now as a graduate I would not have the necessary skills to complete these tasks. But after being at DADAA now for only three days and working through each of the tasks it wasn't such a daunting idea to think in a few months maybe even six months to a year I could be working in a similar position all by myself.
I have collaborated with my supervisor to write the DADAA September newsletter and a media release for the community newspapers in Fremantle. After she asked me to prove read the newsletter for her we then sent out the newsletter to all of their stakeholders and internal staff only to then find a mistake in the very first sentence!! Although this doesn't have huge repercussions it was a chance to prove my worthiness as an intern as my on of my first completed tasks. My advice is to check once, twice and three times just to make sure everything is perfect. Professionalism is the key to success and spelling and grammar presents as sloppy to future employers, stakeholders and staff. My supervisor then asked me to write a media release for the community newspapers in Fremantle in which I then redeemed myself by double and triple checking for mistake and improvements! I have definitely learned to listen to my university tutors and lecturers now when they tell me to check over my work numerous times as it is one of the most important things you must do.
My three days at DADAA have been a great learning curb. The one thing I felt confident about was social media. I felt I could bring some very help insight into what DADAA could do to fix the unity of their social media platforms. This was a common issue in DADAA's social media and I'm sure across many other small organisations also. Many of the programs that are run by DADAA have people who work independently with artists and wish to create their own social media platforms that are separate from the organisations page. My supervisor gave me the task over my time working with them to think of ways to improve their social media and branding. This was something I was confident I could achieve. The only thing that I felt I lacked from my university experience was social media monitoring or metrics. I had only had one, possibly two units over my entire time at university where I had learnt about metrics. Metrics is becoming a huge way to track and report on the flow of traffic an organisation gets on their social media sites.
Overall, DADAA has been a great opportunity for me and so far I have learnt a lot in my first three days. From day one to day three I can say I have progressed further than what I thought I would, learning some very valuable lessons along the way (must triple check!).
After only three days, I'm very excited for the journey ahead, gaining new experiences and learning new things along the way.
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