As we prepare ourselves for our final week/s of our placements, we
shouldn’t consider this as the end, but as the beginning of a very challenging
and rewarding career. The conclusion of our internships, and for many of us our
degrees, is not the closing of one door and the opening of another. Rather, it
is the key that enables us to unlock the door to our future career.
I truly believe that the knowledge and skills I have developed over
the past 15 or so weeks have provided me with a solid foundation as a PR
professional. I now have a taste of what the real world is like, and I can’t
wait to get the full experience. I now have a strong ability to work
independently and take initiative, I have developed my interpersonal skills as
well as got a tremendous amount of writing practice.
One of the most rewarding outcomes of my internship is establishing
a connection between theory and practice. I’m sure I am not the only one who
has found that some things are exactly like what we learn at university, but
often best practice isn’t always used. A prime example that I encountered at
Alcoa is the use of social media. I don’t think there is one of us who would
agree that social media isn’t important in this day and age, right? And that’s
why I was shocked when I learned that Alcoa of Australia don’t have any social
media accounts or actively manage its online reputation. I was even more
surprised when I discovered that introducing social media into Alcoa’s
communication mix is currently being pitched to top executives, who are largely
against the idea. This made me realise how difficult it is to convince top
level management about the importance of public relations activities, and that
you should never assume that basic best practice concepts are easily
adopted.
So as we begin to unlock the door to new opportunities, we must
remember that this is only the beginning. We must continue to develop our
skills and abilities, learning from our mistakes as we go. This is the only way
that we can continue to open more doors for ourselves and continue to grow as
PR professionals. I wish you all the best of luck in your future careers and
hope your experience has been as rewarding as mine.
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