Week one: Success!

Hi everyone! I am currently entering the second week of my PR internship at Cannings Purple, located in West Perth. 

On my first day, I arrived at the office at 8.20am, surprisingly feeling much more relaxed than I had anticipated. As I walked into the office I introduced myself to one of the colleagues I recognised from my interview a few months prior. She gave me a tour of the office and pointed out what the different areas were and who worked in which department. I was introduced to a number of people and was greeted with a warm welcome from everyone who passed me in the office.

At 9.00am, the office has a daily meeting which they call WTF, or What’s the Focus. These meetings are designed to keep everyone informed of the daily activities occurring in the office, and give people a chance to put their hand up for extra work when they have capacity. The meetings are usually quite short, but there is always some form of banter going on between everyone and a lot of laughter. I think the meetings are a great idea, as they not only keep everyone up-to-date, but they also get the energy of the office up and create a happy environment for everyone to begin their day.

Once the meeting was finished, I had a brief chat with one of the executives to discuss what I would do on my first day. She directed me towards the Investor Relations area, and from there I was given a research project on dysprosium, a rare earth element that is predominantly mined in China. The reason for this research was to gain an understanding on the future outlook for dysprosium in order to give advice to investors on whether they should invest in a client called Northern Minerals. Northern Minerals is a mining company that is currently set up in the Northern Territory who are the first mining company in Australia to mine the rare earth element. My research for this project is still underway, however I have definitely learnt a lot from it, as it has not only broadened my understanding of the element and its uses, but also on how to conduct effective research. I found this task very interesting, as I discovered that dysprosium is a material used in many sustainable energy innovations, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. As sustainability is an area I am very interested in and hope to end up working in, I found the content that I researched very valuable to learn. 

I was then given my second task for the day, in the area of Corporate Affairs. This task involved generating social media content for a client called Business Foundations. I produced a total of 18 Facebook posts and 18 Twitter posts on a variety of subjects regarding the company and their service offerings. My supervisor was very pleased with my work, which was a big confidence boost!

My second day was very similar and just carried on completing both tasks from the day before. On day three I was given a new task that required urgent research for a client called Landscorp. I was instructed to gather information such as population and economic data for various WA towns. The information needed to be sourced from credible sites and completed by that afternoon. Finding population size and demographics was quite easy, as I gathered most of this information from the ABS website. However I was surprised to find that the most recent data was taken from 2014, and even then majority of the information I needed was from 2011. I began to stress that the client would not be pleased with these outdated results. From there I became more stressed when trying to find information regarding any major projects occurring in the area and really struggled when it came to some of the less well-known areas. Thankfully I sent a draft copy to my supervisor of the work I’d already completed and was told I was on the right track and to continue doing what I was doing. That was a major relief and suddenly the task was much easier to do.

After completing my first week I can definitely say I am looking forward to graduating university and entering the workforce! I know that this internship will be a valuable learning asset towards my career and I am very excited for the days ahead! 

Boosting PR's credibilty - is it as simple as changing its name?

We all know how powerful language can be. But have you ever stopped and considered what damage the term "public relations" might have on our profession? Now, because of my internship, I certainly have. 

When I met the Director of Corporate Affairs (CA) for Alcoa, along with my supervisor (Manager Corporate Affairs), I was quizzed on my education and degree. Both had studied at Curtin University some years ago, my supervisor in Marketing/Communications and the Director in creative writing.

I was asked what my degree was called "these days". When I answered "public relations", the Director let off a little giggle and a look of disbelief as he processed my answer. My supervisor commented that this was a surprise given that spin doctoring is strongly associated "public relations", in which the CA head then agreed.

This had me a little confused. We have been taught that as PR professionals that a major challenge for our profession to trying to gain credibility in the corporate arena and eradicate misconceptions of spin doctoring and press-agentry. However, how can that ever be achieved if key players in our own industry still associate public relations with such misleading terms?

A few days later, in a meeting I was asked to sit in on, a point was raised that the generic contact for the department will be changed from "PR" (before the remaining address) as it is outdated and no longer represented the name of the department (which is now called Corporate Affairs). I agree that "info" or "queries" is probably better suited than "PR", however it  got me thinking even more about what public relations really meant in the corporate world.

It began to dawn on me that maybe the issue isn't necessarily with our profession, but rather the term "public relations" as we struggle to gain credibility for our role in business. Think about it. There actually aren't many jobs advertised with the term "public relations", but rather jobs titles (and even departments) tend to refer to communications, corporate affairs or specific PR fields such as employee or media relations.

It's an interesting question. Should we be advocating our profession as communications rather PR professionals? Does "corporate affairs" or "communications" suggest a more strategic role in an organisation than "public relations"? Admittedly, it probably does.

So maybe, as part of the efforts to improve the credibility and promote a more strategic function of PR professionals, we should look at the language we use. After all, language and sending the right message to our audience is (one of) our specialties, right? Who knows, maybe in 20 or 30 years' time, when we are all experienced  professionals in the field, public relations will be an old term and we'll tell our interns that back in our day, our degree was called public relations.

I'm not suggesting that we should stop calling ourselves PR professionals or any radical action. It's just food for thought. But I am suggesting that you start challenging what you think you know and looking at PR from a different view during your internship. Also, keep in mind the wide range of job titles PR professionals are qualified for when looking for jobs. Chances are, your first job out of university will be some variation of the profession!

Sink or swim

First days in the office generally involve setting up accounts, checking emails, meeting fellow colleagues and getting a feel for the organisation. I, like I'm sure the rest of you, certainly experienced these on my first day. But I was thrown into the deep in with one of my first tasks being to attend a meeting alongside the Senior Communications Advisor with the two of the top executives for the company - the Chairman/Managing Director and President of Alcoa Mining. We discussed an internal video about changing corporate culture that was being filmed later in the week. The two execs were thanking and encouraging positive corporate change which will be used an introduction into a focus group session that will provide better insight into the Alcoan culture. My first day also involved proofreading an internal newsletter, formulating content for a media release, gaining background knowledge on key programs and partnerships, and discussing content for the new website.

My level of flexibility, initiative and time management were really tested straight away as I was in three different offices/locations for the first three days! This is because of the widespread offices and refineries across the region extending from Wagerup (near Waroona) to Booragoon in Perth. I have been given a company laptop which I use at each location and I am found a suitable work area. I think my professionalism and attitude when dealing with this flexible work arrangement was really positive and showed my potential to my supervisor. I am looking forward to see what other tasks require me to ‘step-up’ and provide me with a challenge for the remainder of the internship.

I am back in the original office tomorrow (Booragoon) ready for the filming of that corporate culture video. Wish me luck!