End of my adventure

Mikayla Wearne - 17081270 - Bentley 

Hi Guys!

It has been a few months now since I finished my internship with Go Communications and returned home from Kuala Lumpur. I have settled back into university life and into a new internship with the Curtin Activation team which means I can finally reflect upon my time and experiences with GO.

When I first found out I would be heading off to Kuala Lumpur to work at Go Communications I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I envisioned a large company with lots of employees, I thought the company would be very corporate in the way dealings were conducted and in the way that everyone would present themselves. I expected the internship itself to be extremely organized, with a set plan for me to follow daily. It turned out that all I had envisioned was quite the opposite of what my experience turned out to be in reality.

When I arrived at GO I discovered that it was actually quite a small company that dressed and acted very casually but professionally. Although I had many tasks and responsibilities throughout my internship it was not as organized as I had expected, I was given tasks as they came. Although this was not what I expected it gave me a good idea of how communications companies are run and some perspective on a real working environment.

In my role I completed various tasks including media monitoring, both online and print, composed monthly reports for clients, created blogger profiles for client’s potential sponsorship, wrote documents such as media releases, media invitations, fact sheets and interview questions. I also attended events where I was able to interact with the media there and see first-hand how the company’s hard work had paid off, this also gave me an opportunity to network and learn about traditional Malaysian culture.

A lot of people have asked me recently how completing my internship overseas helped me and the challenges I faced whilst over there. I think the biggest advantage I gained from completing my internship overseas was that I learned about public relations on a multinational level, I was able to observe where practices were contacted the same as at home as well as where they differed. It opened my eyes to just how big public relations is, not only in Australia or the US but in many different countries and cultures and in many different companies, brands and businesses.

Another massive advantage to completing my internship overseas was that I was able to discover and learn about a new culture. I became quite close with my team members who introduced me to traditional Malay foods, one of my co-workers even let me wear one of her traditional “baju kurug” outfits to a traditional feast! I was taken to traditional markets where I discovered many different foods, fresh fruit and veg, electricals, home wears, clothing and knick-knacks.

Of course there were challenges attached to my internship being overseas, one of the biggest challenges was trying to overcome the cultural and language barriers that existed. This issue wasn’t present so much in my working environment but I found that it was a problem outside it. Although KL is a very modern, westernized country I still found that locals often misunderstood me or even ignored me. At times I found myself confused and frustrated with the way locals did things, for example I found that I was getting charged a higher price just for being a foreigner.

All in all, the internship provided me with experiences I will never forget, I have already found that I am more of an asset in my new internship from my learnings with GO. I definitely feel more confident about graduating at the end of the semester and jumping into the real world of PR! Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way and for those of you reading my posts, good luck to everyone who is still in their internship placements!

Kind regards,

Mikayla Wearne