The Search for The One

Credit: Anna Ginsburg (http://annaginsburg.tumblr.com/)

People often say applying for an internship is difficult, however I found the search for the type of internship the hardest part. In my first blog post, I wanted to share my experience with the processes involved in finding the right internship.

After interning around town and figuring out what I don’t want to be doing after graduation, the search for the industry I wanted to try next was proving a very hard task. With a PR degree there are so many options! From media advising in politics, to events management in fashion, and strategic planning for the government – the possibilities are endless.

The great thing about interning is that you can try out different fields (with little risk) and see where your interests lie.

After months of consideration (and probably procrastination and some help from this Tedx Talk), a couple of days before semester started I decided on the arts for my industry placement, and narrowed it down to performing arts. It gave me a lot more motivation once I figured out what I truly wanted to pursue.

I researched a little online, but figured that I wanted to work at an organisation that is less well-known in Perth.

With my interest in contemporary dance and the not-for-profit sector, I called up my organisation and asked whether they took on interns (knowing that an admin person usually answers and the standard response is “email us your CV”). In the email that went along with my CV, I pitched myself in a brief summary of my skills and exactly what I wanted from an internship with them, and didn’t beat around the bush.

I think a good tip is to research an organisation and kind of figure out what area they are potentially lacking in, and try and sell yourself for a position that would help with that, as they’ve probably realised they need help in that area too.

Anyway, discussing my role with the executive director was really interesting and has shown me that a lot of people see PR and marketing as the same thing (Maybe I should have shown him this) . It was good to clearly talk about my role beforehand and confirm exactly what I can bring to the organisation, what they can do for me and projects I would be working on within the PR department.  

Maybe you had a completely different process of going about finding your internship? Let me know in the comments! This is just some food for thought for future PR industry placement students, which I hope is helpful for the initial stages of finding somewhere to get experience.

Tl;dr: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t exactly know where you want to go, take time to figure out what interests you, research the industry and pitch yourself.  

- Aimee

Now for some good news...

I thought I would share with you guys some good news ... Fremantle Press, the book publishing company where I have been interning for just over two months, has offered me a part time job! YAY!

Talking with my supervisor Claire a few weeks ago, she was asking me when my time 20 days was coming to an end, and asked if I wanted to continue working two days a week, but now actually getting paid for it. I was stoked! The offer and timing couldn't be better for me. I graduate in the middle of this year, and part time work will allow me to think about what I *really* want to do with myself! I have surgery coming up in a few months which will knock me off my feet, so I didn't want to dive into a full time job only to have to take multiple weeks off... Plus like I said, I don't feel as though I have found my real passion within Marketing and PR, so I think working and getting a taste for the NFP, publishing sector will help me decide if it is an avenue I want to continue down. The people at the Press are lovely, and have made me feel so welcomed. I am learning new things every week when I go in, and I cant wait to continue with what I am doing, making friends and contacts along the way!

At the moment, I am the Marketing and Public Relations Assistant to Claire. I will be taking on an events role, so perhaps my title will change to events and marketing assistant? or coordinator? Im not too sure. I have had previous experience in events, interning in 2014 for a events company in Claremont. This has made me familiar with many processes, but like I said I am learning new things each day!

So I wont be doing a sad final day blog post, but perhaps another update or two on my *now paid!* role!

Has anyone else out there gotten some work from their internships? Or do you know what kind of work you want to do now you have interned? Please let me know, I would love to know whats out there and what you all want to do now our degrees are coming to a close!


All the best and until next time,

Anouka

So, what do you actually DO...?

So what is PR? Is it throwing parties and making cool contacts?

...

Yes. My Interning experience is fun event planning, with endless funds and media contacts, and everything falls into place without any hiccups.

Has anyone gotten these questions before? Perhaps from friends or family members?
Like most of us here, I am in my final year of uni, yet I still find it hard to explain to people what my degree entails and what I am doing as a PR intern!

When I tell people the list of things I do in the day, saying it outloud makes it seem like it isnt that hard/complex/time consuming, and I find myself wanting to ellaborate just to make it sound interesting! Dont get me wrong, I really have enjoyed myself throughout the entirety of my placement, but do you ever have those moments when you are telling people and it just sounds so... mundane?

"Today I worked on a story for our newsletter, sent some questions to an author and am waiting reply, then added some pictures to the website, did some mailouts and had to reply to teachers, booked some even space for an upcoming book launch..."
Wait, how did THAT take up 8.5 hours of my day?!

They all sound pretty straight forward don't you agree?
But all of this stuff takes time! Oh is it time consuming to think of questions to send, get those questions checked by my supervisor and then our editor, wait on the responses... Go through the tedious Photoshop steps to resize and scale an image so it works on the web... Find contact details for event spaces, research and send countless emails sometimes for WEEKS to places when wanting to book spaces, drafting media releases or stories a few times, and then a few more, before getting it edited and checked before it gets the go ahead, waiting on draft images from our graphic designer... I think I have been blissfully unaware of the small details that go into PR and marketing. Maybe its like that with all jobs.. There are so many things, seemingly insignificant and small, that make the bigger picture what it is. The devil is in the details as they say!

This is just a little blog post today, a stream of consciousness if you will, about the daily tasks in my PR placement.

Do you guys find people asking you the same thing about your placement / degree? Is it as easy/simple/harder than you would have imagined? Its funny how small things take such a big chunk out of your day.. but I guess it is those small things that make it all work!

 Please let me know if you guys have had the same questions or experiences as me!

Until the next post,

Anouka

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong ...

Hi everyone

As promised in my previous post, this blog is going to be a little bit about the T.A.G Hungerford awards night that Fremantle Press is involved with.

So firstly, what is the T.A.G Hungerford awards? Administered by writingWA, the award is a $12,000 prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a previously unpublished Western Australian author. Alongside the prize money, the winner gets their manuscript published by Fremantle Press.
The winner for 2015 was Madelaine Dickie and her manuscript, Troppo.

Winner of the T.A.G Hungerford Award, Madelaine Dickie

Held at the beautiful Fremantle Arts Centre, the setting was perfect ... But as many of you know all too well, anything that can go wrong will go wrong for an event! Claire and I were joking about this on the day, exchanging stories in the car as we set off in the car to drop some things off and begin setting up the event.

The Fremantle Arts Centre was the perfect venue to host the awards

Claire hadn't heard from Madelaine all morning, and we were both growing a little worried ... she was coming to Perth from Broome, and we knew that flights had been delayed because of torrential storms up North! This wasn't ideal for any shortlister not to be attending, especially the winner. Her plane was set to land around 2pm, and we didn't hear from her until around 4.30pm ... it is safe to say we were a little relieved when the text came through that she had arrived in Perth.

As we began setting up, we realised that The City of Fremantle hadn't dropped their pull up banner stands off. Seeing as though they were a sponsor, this wasn't ideal. Setting off in the car once again, we had to call them on the way and have one run down stairs at the town hall as Claire raced in to pick it up. Drama averted.

Back at the office we were finalising last minute things, including the guest list, name badges for the board members of Fremantle Press, and the media kit. Claire thought it was a little odd that she hadn't heard back from their usual flower company where they source bouquets for the winner from so gave her a call ... The florist had a wedding on that day and had completely forgotten! With a few hours up our sleeve, she promised to have the flowers delivered in time. Drama averted again.

Getting to the venue, I was posted at the front desk and was in charge of greeting guests and ensuring that all board members got their name badges and the judges had their assigned envelopes with the running order inside. It was then that I realised I had forgotten one of the name badges ... not the end of the world but when there are 8 others and one person missing I thought that it wouldn't look great! I had five minutes before guests were set to arrive .. armed with my clipboard, I raced down the street (thanking that our office was so close!), printed off another name badge, ran back up the hill (easier on the way down may I add) and got to the gates catching my breath and trying to look calm and collected as I rounded the corner and saw the start of our guests waiting at the closed gates... it was 5.58pm, and showtime!

Despite all of these little hiccups in the day, the night was a great success!

This blog post wasn't to criticise or point out or the flaws in the evening ... it was truly a successful night and everyone that came complimented Claire and the team and thanked us at the end of the night. I even got thanked in one of the speeches which was a nice, albeit unexpected little shock, hearing my name amongst a crowd of one hundred plus guests!
We did put time a lot of time and effort into the night, and it paid off.

I wanted to use this post to point out that no matter how well things are planned, there is always something that will go wrong ... it just depends on how well you handle these curveballs!

I remember from my PR Techniques class, writing running schedules and putting together media kits and having everything ticked off the list, thinking 'well this is perfect! Nothing could go wrong'
 - this awards night was a real life example of how you need to be prepared for the unexpected, and that you need to be flexible when things don't always go to plan!

Mayor of Fremantle Brad Pettitt announcing the winner

Madelaine with her certificate

Has anyone had similar experiences when interning at an events company? Or perhaps running an event for the company your interning at like I did? How did YOU deal with an unexpected surprise on the day of something important? I would love to hear about them in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,


Anouka
Interning at Fremantle Press,
Marketing and Communications Assistant

Interning at Fremantle Press- Reflective Blog Post 1

Hey everyone ... first blog post!

As luck would have it, I was just beginning to look for an internship when I got a message from an old uni friend asking if I was in need of one. She was leaving her role at Fremantle Press, a book publishing company where she started as an intern and then worked part time from there. A few email exchanges later and an interview with Claire, the Marketing and Communications Manager, the role was mine. Yay!

Situated in beautiful Quarry St in Freo, Fremantle Press is a small non-for-profit company that publishes Western Australian books. When going for my interview, I was curious as to what the position would actually be. Sending out books to people? Reading? Even though I am in my final year at university, my scope of what jobs are out there for my degree is somewhat limited. A marketing role in this kind of organisation ...? I wasn't sure that even existed. And oh how I was wrong!

My first day involved Kate (who got me the position) running me through as much as she could before I started the following week (my trial day was her last day). Sitting down at a computer, we went through hundreds of folders on the computer, and I was steadily filling up my little yellow notebook aka work bible to remind myself of where to find things that I would be accessing. By the end of the day, it looked as though a four year old had written throughout, reading something like this.

"HOW TO SAVE MEDIA DOCS:
Resources > 2015 Titles > Book Name > Logs > Reviews > March 2015 > Newspaper Title > "

Easy right? And thats just to save a particular file ... for a particular book ... in that particular month.


It hasn't just been computer-based work either! In the time I have been at Fremantle Press, there has been a book launch and an awards night. Some of my tasks have included calling catering companies to organise food for the book launch, sending out bookmarks to schools and libraries, emailing schools and answering enquiries, writing e-newsletter stories, contacting and interviewing authors, contacting journalists and pitching news stories ... and this was on my first official day!

The book launch we had was for Alan Carter's new crime novel, Bad Seed, at New Edition bookshop in Fremantle. Claire asked me to take the reigns and run the event that night, which was really exciting. Picking up the food and heading down to High St, I was greeted by Allan who owns the shop. Together we set up the store, and before long the store was filled with over 120 guests.
The night was a great success, with close to 100 books sold and signed that evening alone.

I have been thrown in the deep end and it's been fantastic. Claire has been great to me, helping me to settle in and answering the 101 questions I throw at her each week whilst simultaneously juggling her 101 jobs.
I feel as though I have been given a fair amount of responsibility, and am not doing the typical filing/coffee runs/errands that I was afraid I may be lumped with when I was thinking the words 'intern'. Having the title as a Marketing and Communications Assistant and being introduced as this when meeting people is really rewarding, and although it has only been a few weeks I am settling in really well.

 Some happy customers with their signed copies of Alan Carter's crime novel, Bad Seed.

New Edition Bookshop, where the Book launch for Alan Carter's new crime novel was held.





Next up is the Hungerford Awards, which I cant wait to write about in my upcoming blog!

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!


Anouka