Why a PR major will actually be relevant

Hello fellow interns. 

Today I'm basing my blog on the reason we've spent the last few years pulling all nighters to complete assignments, spent hours at the library studying for exams and spent endless dollar bills on coffee. AKA, that little thing we refer to as Uni and since this is the last unit for PR I am going to assume that majority of us will be finishing this semester. Can I get a amen!

There are so many students out there who question how much knowledge that they’ve learnt in university will be applied to real life situations. A Public Relations major is definitely a course where all units undertaken have some sort of relevance. Direct or indirect, every assignment or topics learnt come into play in the workplace. In my first week at Go Communications, I had to call up some previous lessons learnt back in Media Relations for ‘Media Monitoring’. As an example, media monitoring at ‘Go’ includes collecting client related newsclippings, social media posts and Instagram photos to name a few. Each article is then scanned into a soft copy for filing purposes and also sometimes a hard copy depending on the client. Its very time consuming (just like the media clippings assignment) but I can now understand its relevance! 

One unit that definitely came in handy whilst on my overseas placement, was International Public Relations. Working in a different country and amongst a different culture was as I imagine to be completely different to working in Australia. Malaysia has a predominantly Muslim culture and whilst I was over there, some of the population was participating in Ramadan. Even during client meetings, it was respectful to make sure that none of the clients were Muslim before offering them coffee or providing food. Even outside of the period of Ramadan, it was important to also cater for Halal and non-halal food for client meetings. There are many other considerations to consider when working amongst different cultures and International Public Relations prepared me for this. 

So next time your sitting in class thinking 'Will I ever need this?' (Unless its accounting or BIS 100. Gross) then just remember that one day you might! 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Rebecca