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.
