Look out world here I come

Well now that I have finished my last day of my internship it’s time to head out into the big bad world and see what is in stall for me. I guess now is the chance to reflect of what I have learnt from my time here at the Department of Transport (DoT). More than anything it’s taught me that communications is a very diverse and interesting profession. PR professionals get the choice between corporate communications or consultancy style communications. We can decide to deal with internal staff or external stakeholders. You can coach people in how to deal with the media or you can deal with the media directly and this is just a few of the different areas a PR professional has to choose from. The biggest lesson I learned here at DoT was not to dismiss any of the areas in PR as all of them can offer valuable experience and great lessons.

I came to university three year ago with my heart set on becoming a journalist. Now three years on I have finished my internship in PR and have no interest in becoming a journalist. Before I started my internship I believed I wanted to deal with the media fielding enquiries and making comment. Now I’m not so sure. The process involved in dealing with the media especially in government seems like something I wouldn’t enjoy doing. But like I stated earlier I’m learning that it’s best not to discredit the notion of working with the media as it will no doubt offer me some valuable professional and life lessons. I enjoyed a lot of the internal communications activities I completed during my time here which was again something I didn’t think I would enjoy anywhere near as much as I did.

While it’s great to have an idea of exactly what you want to do in life its best to be flexible in your mind set and willing to accept new challenges and experiences. I am now and never really have been 100 per cent certain exactly what I want to do in life I simply figured I can string a sentence together better than most and have never been shy of putting my point across so communications was a logical step. What university, this internship and my time in the real world has taught me is if you work hard you’ll get rewards and a plan is great to have but an open mind is much better. So look out world there is one more hard working open minded PR professional heading your way.

Who you know isn't the most important thing after all.

There is an old saying “it’s not what you know it’s who you know”. Basically this refers to the fact that being good at something will only get you so far you need to know someone who is higher up or well-connected or just has there foot in the door. The phrase refers to something more commonly known as networking. Networking is something that I'm sure many of you have heard lots about over your time at university and indeed throughout your life and the aforementioned phrase highlights the fact that having a big network will not doubt be beneficial to all of us.

While having a large network of people you know available to you is very important what’s more important is how the people in that network feel about you. There is not point know all these people if they think you are lazy, unemployable or just not good to work with. Your network needs to be full of people who think highly enough of you to do you a favour. This doesn't mean you have to be able to do them a favour it means that they need to see enough in you to suggest that there help may pay off one day. People are often a lot more willing to help than you may think and if your network is full of people willing to help you get better then that is a good first step. During my internship I have seen the benefits of having a network of people who are willing to help you out. My supervisor often calls in favours to other departments for information, a helping hand or simply advice. The advice she gave me was while it’s great to know a lot of people it doesn't really matter who you know if they don’t like you.

Put simply the point of my post is to always think how you handle yourself around people you don’t know. Anyone you meet at any time could be a possible contact in the future so its best that if you ever do need them as a contact that they are willing to help you. When you think about I'm sure we all know a lot of people but how many of them would actually be willing to help you should you call on them hopefully it’s all of them. But if it isn't don’t set out to gain more and more contact set out to gain more contact that will be willing to help should you ever call on them.

Style isn’t universal

Well I have been at the Department of Transport (DoT) for nearly two weeks now and have noticed something glaringly obvious. Style or more specifically writing style isn’t standard at any work place. Sounds silly yes but upon starting here and reading through page after page of policies and forms and style guides and writing guides, all of which clearly outline a succinct and consistent approach to producing written documents, I have found that even with these guides there is still plenty of room for creativeness.

One of the first exercises or activities I was given was to write a newsflash for the intranet here at DoT so naturally I looked at some of the existing newsflashes to see the structure and flow. Then I double checked the writing guide to ensure that I was conforming to the style in that document. Finally I researched some existing media on the topic to ensure I was using consistent language to what had already been produced so as to mirror the overarching communications strategy which the Department adheres to. So with all of that preparation you’d imagine that I would come up with something that resembles a remotely usable newsflash for publication. Well no to discredit my work too much but simply put I didn’t. I had the main points and key messages spot on but what I didn’t realise is that the structure and style guides allow for a little interpretation. Restructuring information and dispersing it in a different order can have a remarkable effect on the way a piece reads.

While I wasn’t too disappointed for my first attempt it was difficult to think that I was able to get it so wrong. However after discussion with my supervisor and more with some of the other staff here I realised that policies and guides are just that, guides. They are open to interpretation and how one person reads them can be very different to another. The guides are produced for a reason so it is still important that you follow them and ensure messages are delivered in a consistent fashion. However what is most important is making sure all of the critical information is in the document. How it’s delivered will differ from person to person and that’s about developing your own style. It’s great to be able to adapt your style and conform but it’s still important to have your own little stamp on things, make them your own. This is a hard art to master but I think it’s one that can set people apart from the rest. Having your own style not only sets you apart but, I think, helps make sure you can still take pride in your work by knowing you have met organisational requirements yet still having a bit of you and your flare present in everything you do.

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.