Discovering Samson in the lion's den

My name is Phoebe. I'm a final semester Public Relations student at Curtin University. I'm a Capricorn, my favourite colour is yellow and despite the information I've just given, it is impossible to gain a complete perspective on exactly who I am, what I know or what I can achieve.

In the same way, small amounts of information given to the public about a company or firm create a portrait with holes, a dot-to-dot framework left to complete by those who observe or have a stake in the performance. My passion lies in filling those holes, to not only create a sketch but a rich tapestry of colour, ethics and practice that comprise an organisation and its relationship with its publics.

I am passionate about public relations and the effects that a single person may have on business operations and relationships for years to come; the power of the butterfly effect to influence positive change and see a real result in the surrounding community is something that drives deep to my core.

It's a strange thought how three years of theory, tangled with real-life examples of the heroes of our discipline and the villains of poor corporate management, cannot quite express the experience of first walking through the doors of your work experience or internship placement and having that thought of "Oh dear."

After a mild panic when over 15 submitted applications for internships were met with either apologetic expressions of "Sorry, we don't have the resources to accommodate interns at the moment" or radio silence, an opportunity to assist with the rebranding and PR repositioning of Meridian Services, a small private security firm in Burswood, seemed like the perfect way to gain immediate and thorough experience about exactly what complete PR overhaul for a firm entails.

Despite an international reach, the firm itself is small, with the four directors overseeing a local task-force of 20 private investigation, technical and administrative staff. Meridian's resources are divided across four distinct "programs", with each offering benefits specifically for target niches; Chameleon Innovative Assets (CIA) provides a fail-safe way to identify assets and equipment belonging to specific owners or sites; Meridian offers private security and investigative services for both business and personal use; BUSTED! focuses on the reduction and elimination of theft and asset loss from building sites and Space Safe Kidz aims to educate children in primary and secondary education about the dangers of cyberspace and how to be safe when using the internet. The company is acutely aware of its social responsibility, which in turn indicates a willingness to learn and adjust accepted practices should the need arise.

My first week at Meridian Services was roughly the equivalent of taking the floaties off a child's arms and throwing them in the deep end of the swimming pool for the first time. Upon arrival, I was met with an immediate question from my supervisor: "How well can you write?" As an intern, I was anticipating to undertake the 'dirty jobs' at first, such as cold-calling and proof-reading media releases. However, my role involves working besides two experienced public relations practitioners, each with experience in marketing activity and a vast knowledge of the way in which a firm like Meridian can turn itself around.

I left my first day with a stack of briefs, including the framework for the organisation of BUSTED!'s August Roadshow collaboration with Nova 93.7; by the week's end, I was placed in charge of the social media operations and streamlining for both BUSTED! and Chameleon. My active participation in the public relations activities of the firm was not only encouraged, it was seen as a necessity. Glancing at the road ahead, the skill set that I've developed through years of study will be put to the test from the very beginning; it is only in the midst of the impossible that you discover your strength.

Regardless of all challenges ahead, it is clear that the education and experience I will receive will be nothing short of hands on, with no chance of being left in the corner to collect dust as a passive observer. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all and cannot wait to read about the unique journeys undertaken by each and every one of my fellow students.

I'll have a strong latte please.

Day two of my internship completed!

The last couple of days have really opened my eyes into the world of Tourism and PR. Interning at the Tourism Council WA (TCWA) alongside the amazing Julie Wood, Gemma Hunter and Emma Page has revealed the fast-paced, high work-load nature of the PR and communications world.

After completing the induction checklist on my first day, I sat down with various team members and discussed the different aspects of the non-for-profit organisation and the multiple roles everybody takes on. The extensive task lists and events the TCWA compared to their small team blew my mind, how do they do it?

30 minutes later and I had been presented with the almighty Z drive. The TCWA's bible to everything. Contained in the drive was everything, perfectly labeled and easy to navigate. Nothing like a bit of organisation! Within the drive was the procedures manual, a 28 page document on everything, from how mail is sent, to what clothes are worn on what days. This document alone proved how a small company such as the TCWA with a gigantic responsibility is able to organise themselves and ensure consistency in their services. 

Lunch time did not see a casual walk down to the Crown's grounds, which by the way provide for a very picturesque office view. Instead, I accompanied Gemma, the lady of all trades, down to Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre to set-up and host a Leaders Roundtable event with Hon. Albert Jacob, minister for environment; heritage. After running through the event run-sheet with PCEC staff, setting up banners and ensuring every wine glass was sparkling clean, Gemma and I waited for the exclusive big-names and CEOs to arrive. The event was overall very successful and the no-shows were followed up by a not-so-happy phone call!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of about 30 offers for a cup-of-tea or coffee, a bit of office chit chat, and marking of about 40 assessment forms as part of a follow up from an event held by the TCWA last week. 

Ahhh .. another day in the office. Day two, and I almost felt like I was one of them!

I started the morning with a brief from Gemma with my tasks for the day. It was then time to apply my knowledge of PR Corporate techniques. In particular, event launches. It was my job to reword and create a document for the launch of the 2014 Perth Airport Tourism Awards.

Shortly after, five papers were put on my desk. Media monitoring time! The scissors came out and the reading began. What was relevant to the TCWA? What could potentially affect them?

I then had to rewind time back into the days of branding, identity and image. Task three was to create a corporate style guide consisting of fonts, logos, templates, terminology and colours for consistency and enforcement of the TCWA brand in all their communication and documents.

The coffee offer then came, I thought of the big tasks and responsibilities I had to complete for the day ... "I'll have a strong latte please".

Olivia Buck,
PR Intern @ Tourism Council WA

The Start of Something new...

Hello my PR 393 peers,

I’m Houmaira from the Charles Telfair Institute (CTI) in Mauritius and I’m currently studying for a BA in Mass Communication with double majors, Web Media and Public Relations from Curtin University. Like most of you, I’m in my third year and I will soon begin my final semester, hence the last stretch before obtaining my much-awaited degree.

It’s been a little bit more than one week since I’ve embarked on my Internship at Blast Communications, one of the leading PR firms in Mauritius. I chose Blast Communications because I really wanted to conduct my PR 393 Internship in a professional consultancy and I firmly believe that it will be extremely helpful in my PR learning journey and also a good start for my PR career. 

A few days prior to the beginning of my internship, I went through all of my PR 220 slides (media releases, newsletters, speeches, etc...) because I wanted to be well prepared before stepping into Blast's office for the first time. The people there are incredibly nice and they’ve greeted me with the warmest welcome. They have been helping me a lot with my tasks and I’m still learning the ropes. I’m trying to pay as much attention as I can and I’m writing down every little thing that I’m being taught. 

From the very first day, I’ve thrown myself into work and I actually thought that the first week would be “light”, but I was wrong. Work has been keeping me busy and my first week was rather hectic but that’s only because I’ve been assigned a lot of work from my colleagues. I’m trying to imagine working during the midst of my semester; it’d have been extremely difficult for me to juggle studies and work. Anyway, I’m glad I’ve started my internship during the holidays and I’m expected to finish it during my 2^nd week of classes at CTI.

 

I’ve been firstly introduced to the media monitoring which is at the core of Blast Communications. I’ve had to familiarize myself with all of Blast’s clients as well as their competitors before getting my scissor ready to cut out newspaper articles on these companies and make a compilation of media clippings. I’ve been told to write summaries of the newspaper articles, sometimes translating the articles from English to French or vice versa, so as to send media alerts to Blast’s clients and this had to be done in a specific way.

I’ve also conducted extensive research to draft some interview questions, to make a list of database for contact persons of various companies and for a campaign that Blast is working on. I’ve even had the chance to share and propose some of my own ideas for the campaign during brainstorming sessions and my colleagues told me that my ideas were very pertinent and useful. Furthermore, as per an urgent request, I’ve had to prepare a fact sheet of questions asked in the media surrounding a controversy linked to one of Blast’s clients, by monitoring all media portals in the past few months.

For a first week, I believe that I’ve done quite a lot of hefty tasks and I’ve been able to prove myself to my colleagues. So far, I love this internship, thanks to the positive work environment that I’m surrounded with, and I really want to make the most of it. Every day is different; I’m learning new things each and every day and the only thing that becomes monotonous is the daily media clippings.

I have to admit that the PR profession is not that easy and it is indeed really challenging because it requires a lot of time, devotion and patience and you have to be really alert and circumspect but at the end of the day, you know that you’re doing a great job as you can help make a positive change.

Well, that’s it for my first blog post. I’m glad I shared my first week’s experience with you and I can’t wait to read yours too. I wish you all good luck with your internship and hope that you will find it to be an enriching experience. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts!

Houmaira Ramjaun

15102108

CTI, Mauritius

Embarking a new journey into PR industry.

Greetings to all PR practitioners!

Today marks the second week of my PR internship. But first, let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Renee and I am currently undertaking double major degrees of Public Relations and Management in Curtin Universtiy Bentley. However, I am currently having my internship placement at Corporate Communication department in Curtin Sarawak. This is the third internship I have in my higher education life. Previously, I had my practical internship in operational departments of Four Points by Sheraton hotel and Marriott's Resort and Spa respectively during my diploma study. Nevertheless, this is my first time undergoing an internship in administration department.

Entrance upon communication department Curtin Sarawak

Although I had a similar part time job experience in administration department yet being in communication corporate department is far more different than the one I had before. As you can see on the new signboard beside our department entrance, listed out the job scopes of corporate communication department. 

On the first day, I was warmly welcomed by my amicable colleagues and also my department manager, Mr. Nicholas Leong. I was quickly brief through on our department on-going activities and also events in coming weeks. Mr. Nicholas gave some brief yet detail information on the tasks. He also encourages me to partake in any tasks that I am interested to learn in depth. Due to that currently is just the beginning of the year, our department is not as eventful as the time around the year end. Hence, Mr Nicholas suggested that as a fresh starter in the department, I shall start from the scratch --- 

Newspaper for press / media monitoring

                           

Tadaa! Yes, that is the amount of newspapers I read everyday. I need to read through newspapers from different local or national press in three main languages -- English, Malay, Mandarin and occasionally, the native language. This is for the purpose of media and press monitoring. Later on, the articles featuring on Curtin Sarawak will be cut out and use as press clipping. I was told to monitor on the press or media released by our competitors as well. My supervisor taught me how to calculate the value of each news distributed or featured by different press firms. I was also given a chance on drafting a press release as well as monitoring few important information on the Curtin official webpage to ensure accurate information is provided to the web visitors. 

I guess that is all for my first week of internship. I certainly am more expose to the real PR industry. Not only that I manage to apply what I learnt academically into practical use, I also get to learn some new insights from doing different tasks given by my supervisor. I am glad that I have chosen the right place to learn the basic of the PR industry. I am looking forward for tomorrow task and coming Friday event! I will be sharing more of it after. I hope you enjoy your internship as much as I do. 

Till then!

Renee Tiong Ai Li

15621580

Curtin Bentley

Life as a PR intern

Hi everyone,

I am currently doing my internship at Red Army Watches as a PR intern. My company is in the watch industry, where they bring in non-mainstream watches directly from the watch makers. Red Army Watches started in year 2004, it is still consider relatively small company with 3 outlets in Singapore, 3 in Malaysia and 2 in Indonesia. There are plenty of room for this company to grow, with the help of marketing, public relations and advertising they will be able to achieve it.

Before getting a position as an PR intern, I was working as a full time as sales assistant so I am familiar with how the company operates, the brands in the shop and the people I work with. There are three people that will assist me for this few weeks will be the managing director, the general manager and the operation manager. As they are the ones that handle all the marketing and communication stuffs. Hopefully with my help it will reduce their job loads so that they can focus on expanding the business.

The managing director treats me like a full time staff, he got me a new table, new PC, new chair and even set up the PC for me. He also let me choose the colour of my table and I chose green table top and pink legs, now it has Christmas feel in the office. He probably expecting me to stay for long or maybe hiring another marketing and communications staff after me.

The main job scope for the week is to plan for the company end of year, as the boss will be flying off for his holiday. He said that he will prepare a to do list for me, can't wait to see what kind of job he is saving for me. As I am still in the midst of planning the company dinner, I will update on the company dinner and picture of my desk in the next post!

Jieting

First week in the shoes of a PR intern

Hello everyone...
I am Yashni, a 3^rd year BA Mass Communication student studying at Charles Telfair Institute, Moka. I am actually interning in a PR Agency, Odysseus. The agency mainly focuses on public relations and event planning.

As I know that nearly all PR students would be doing an internship in the future, are actually participating in an internship program, or dream of some day working in the PR field, I am going to reflect on my weeks interning so that you can indirectly learn from my experiences.

What would I mainly be focusing on?

Surely not about my day-to-day clothing selection, the food and shopping I did...

 I will be mostly laying emphasis on what I have achieved in my first week as an intern and also about some of my responsibilities within the agency.

I can't really believe it's been a week already since I have started interning at Odysseus. It somehow seems longer, but all in all I am pleased with how the week has gone. The overall feelings I have observed in myself this week have, aside from a sometimes debilitating tiredness towards the end of each day, been mixed and often very exciting, stressful, nerve-racking but constructive.

Unlike the usual first weeks of work in any organisation, my first week has been quite hectic consisting mostly of managing the invitations by contacting all the PR, Marketing, Event and Communication Manager, and confirming the VIP lists in regards to the ‘Salon de la Com’, the first Communications Trade Show in the Indian Ocean which will open its door at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre on the 26 and 27 July 2012.

I cannot deny that it certainly took me some time to really understand what they are demanding from me and becoming more comfortable with the working place. However, my director was very understanding and flexible which eased me a bit. He did find some time out of his busy schedule to discuss the work with me, introducing me to the other staffs, which was great of him. By this point, I think I have met all the members of the team who without exception have been supportive, welcoming and encouraging.

My day at Odysseus normally starts with passing through all the newspapers of the day and looking for news for media clippings purposes. Currently, I am tasked to research and write for the company’s website whereby they are targeting a specific European market. I can say there are plenty of research work waiting for me this week. Will keep you guys informed on the details.

If I were to give you people an advice it would certainly be - When you walk in every day, just ask yourself how you can make the most out of this opportunity. It is high time for you to learn to accept criticism even though at times it can be a tough pill to swallow. Remember that only those who care will make the effort to guide you in the right path. You want to make PR as your career right? So take the maximum knowledge available from your supervisors and use this opportunity to the maximum to grow into a PR Pro!

Well, that’s all I have for today.

I will leave it to you now: Are you planning to do a PR internship soon? Have you started? What is your internship like so far? If you’re not interning yet, do you want to sometime in the future? 

Let me know in a comment...

A "Pre-Show" of what the new beginning feels like!

There is was, waiting anxiously in the HR Department for the officer to lead me to my boss, and it hit me, "this is probably how I would feel like, again, when I start my first job after I graduate." The person that I met, I call him the "HR guy", was friendly, smiley, nice and approachable, best part was that he speaks my dialect, which makes communication much, much easier. He gave me a pamphlet of working values needed to be a staff at Miri Marriott Resort and Spa (MMRS) and my very own trainee tag. The last time i actually wore a tag with pins on it was in secondary school, form 3, and that was like 9 years ago. Goodness, how time flies and things have changed so much.

HR guy brought me on tour of the whole vicinity including the restaurants, shops, gym, offices and the hot shoppe - where all staffs have their meal during lunch breaks. Oh! And lunch is provided. Awesome. 

I finally settled in my boss's office and he stationed me at the table just opposite him. My boss's name is Mr Lian Pasan by the way, and I met the whole Sales and Marketing team, also the PR team. Miss Amanda was the one who brought me to the hot shoppe to have lunch with her for the first time. Basically my first day was an introduction to everything there is in the office. Printers, the password, the resort's regulations and what is in stored for me to do in the next few weeks i'm here. 

The following days went on with new jobs directed to me. I was told to do media monitoring (oh shocker!) and pretty much newspapers were my best friend after that. They did not have an extra PC for me so they advice me to bring my own laptop, which i did. At first i was only told to read and identify news article related to MMRS but after a three days, they asked me to actually do media clippings. Well, that is something that we learnt in PR(Media)250 not wasted. It was actually applied in this job. I had no problem doing that because, come one lets face it, that's the easiest thing to do, true? I also had to monitor any articles or advertisements by the competitors around Miri. Advertisement was a little twisted, considering they have the same advertisement running for a month. What i did was i just took them out, but before pasting anything on the ready made template for media clippings, i chose only one out of the similar ones. 

First week was pretty much media clippings, and reading MMRS staff regulations and the history of the hotel chain. It was interesting to me because Marriott hotel chain has their own certification for PR practitioners. I studied the Marriott bible (that's what i call it, it was THICK!) but a week after, my boss told me the exam can only be taken by staff and not interns. I didn't regret reading it, but it could have been an extra addition to my resume if i had the certificate. 

Updates will be up again soon!

A PR Practitioner to be,

Mea Misnu

Curtin University Sarawak Campus

First week and already putting those theories into practice!

Greetings to all those future PR professionals!!

The first week at my internship has been such an amazing experience! Since the first day at Artsource, everyone was friendly and helpful. Artsource is currently consulting the Shire of Roebourne on a big event called the ‘Cossack Art Award 2012’ (CAA). I am in charge of the PR and Marketing strategies for this event.

On my first day, I was shown the marketing strategies and photographs from the event in 2011. We then discussed what the organization aims to achieve in this years event, especially because it is their 20^th anniversary!

My task for the week was to finish all the media relations such as approving for advertisement, finalizing on the bookings and contacting the sponsors to get their approval.

Talking about sponsors – remember how we were told that two competing companies in an industry will not sponsor for the same cause? This is not always the case, especially in Western Australia. Mining corporations want to show their support in the community and they are willing to collaborate with competitors for a worthy cause. CAA 2012 has a few major mining giants as our sponsors; Rio Tinto is our principal partner (the main sponsor), Chevron, Woodside and CITIC Pacific Mining.

By the third day, I started on the media kit. This was challenging, some of the documented data of the event was non-existent. The documents, photos or media articles from the first year of CAA (1992) cannot be found. I had to do some research, online and through the old school way by going to the library.

This week has allowed me to put a lot of the PR theories we learned in class and from our assignments to use. It made me realize that all those hours spent on creating long PR documents has not gone to waste! It has prepared us for what’s coming ahead in the future!

Looking forward to what’s waiting around the corner!

Daniela