An example of the ever changing world of PR Deadlines at Go Communications

Deadlines. The fact that the word contains the word 'Dead' must mean its bad right? Its true, deadlines are a pain 99.9% of the time. Especially during them hectic weeks at university where every assignment is due at once and your losing sleep to make that 11pm turnitin deadline. One of the best things about university is deadlines are often given to you with a fair amount of time, I  mean its written on the unit outline. Even then, you can ask for an assignment extension! As much as we hate it, deadlines follow PR students from the classroom and out into the real world of Public Relations.

In my second week at Go I was unfortunate to not have a futuristic deadline as a luxury. In a week of work I had learnt that deadlines can change dramatically. Take for example, a proposal was given to Sarah and I for us to prepare a client presentation. We had till 4pm Monday. Perfect, it was still Friday morning and we aimed to start working on it after lunch Friday and finish it off Monday morning. Little work was achieved after lunch as media monitoring became a priority and by Monday morning we were only really just starting the power point. All good though because we had till 4pm right? . Wrong.  At 10:55am Monday our supervisor informed us of a change of plan and it was due at midday. Frantic, we pulled together a presentation (yes, we did it) and managed to have it completed by 12pm. The pressure was surprisingly a good thing, where we had to think quickly and smart to complete it.

To my fellow classmates completing their internships, the world of PR is constantly changing (as I'm sure your already aware). The media will change their deadlines, the bosses will change their deadlines and the client will change their deadlines. While sometimes stressful, being organised and being on top of your work at all times will ensure a smooth transition for when the workload due is moved forward a few hours.

Bec

First Day of Internship

Today was my first day at work, FINALLY!

I have been waiting for this since three months and here I am, in a place that I didn't even know existed in Mauritius. The environment is quite relaxing, no noise pollution or whatever, a bit too relaxing for me, in other words you just want to sleep under a tree and appreciate the nature.

As it is a very small company, (6 employees only, including me) it was quite difficult to feel comfortable as they already knew each other and I was the only new intern. Frankly I wanted to run away from this place but thank God, I have a very good friend who told me, “You've got to pull yourself together and take control of your emotions!”

She was right, it’s not the work that sucks, it’s the way you relate to the work itself. Everything depends on the way you see things, I decided to take it positively and do the work seriously, I did what I could and even my boss was impress by my work.

At this precise moment, the day went out quickly and smoothly. I was asked to find specific costing for an event that the company is supposed to organised. I was asked to find different venues, caterings, photographers and book publishers for the event.

What I learned from my first day at work is that good contacts are essential in public relations, without them, organising an event is impossible.

Thank you for reading my first blog entry and stay tuned :)

Anne-Laure Ferry
15886512
CTI (Mauritius)