Exceeding Expectations

We all went into our internships knowing what the overall aim was - being to develop our professional skills and prepare us for a career in the 'real world'. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the experience has done more than improve our skills, but instead has improved our  overall confidence in a way that never would have been possible in-side a classroom.

Granted we do work in teams for assignments, and we know how to interpret a brief and work toward an end product or goal. But the variety of jobs we undertook and the initiative we had no choice but to develop and use showed us that, combined with the theoretical knowledge we gained during our studies, we are more capable than we thought. 

Jobs I had never done before, and as such had no plan to follow or experience to derive information from, forced me to think critically, research, analyse and formulate a working style that allowed me to get the job done. For example writing for someone other than myself was challenging,  but had I never done so before entering the workforce, I wouldn't have developed the skills or work ethic that are now so valuable to me.

Some days I would come into the workplace and my supervisor would have new jobs for me that hadn't been previously set out in my brief, forcing me to think on my feet and work effectively - previously a weakness of mine. 

Working on jobs outside my industry or typical job description also helped me feel confident taking on jobs I wasn't normally used to or comfortable with. E.g. researching/tracking down tech equipment for the business and photography.

And of course no internship would be complete without its fair share of 'crappy jobs' as my supervisor liked to call them - which included invoicing for two of her three businesses. 

Interning definitely exceeded my expectations and benefited me in more ways than I anticipated, how about you?

Thanks for reading!

Bianca

Beyond this internship – CTI

The semester is almost over and I’m finally going back home for the holidays. This module has motivated me to pursue another PR internship instead of laying around for the next four months. It would be another great opportunity if I would get the chance to work within the same industry that is aviation or tourism while the skills and knowledge from my current workplace is still ‘fresh’ in my mind. Unfortunately there is only one aviation headquarters in Seychelles; Air Seychelles-Etihad Airways, which means that the chance of working within this industry is very limited. My goal for this internship will hopefully to secure a job placement when I complete my studies in July 2017.

My internship is still ongoing after the 20 days and I am grateful that my Supervisor wants me to back after the holidays that is from March-July 2017. I said yes because I was proud of myself for getting the call back and felt appreciated for my work but now that I have time for myself, next semester will be my last and I don’t want added stress or having to juggle multiple assignments both for work and university. The past month and a half was really stressful and I found myself indulge in work and neglecting school work compared to the attention I use to give.

So what do you think I should do? Any advice on whether I should do both or stick to school?

My current pros;

·        • Work experience is of more value nowadays during job interviews

·        • Many students are part timers, I can do it too lol

·        • It is my dream industry and I love working for them

Overall I was pleasantly surprise with this module; PR Internship, from my placement to the tasks I completed and lessons learnt. I remember the first day like it was yesterday, I had butterflies in my stomach the whole morning of because I was thinking of the worst scenarios. This internship has also reassure me of my decision to be a PR practitioner and think beyond being merely an employee. The excitement of having to brag to my next interviewer about all the skills and tasks I am capable of doing, especially since some PR tasks were for international brand names such as Air Asia and Air France. This was really the chance of a lifetime to have my first ever work experience in a prestige company and I am thankful to Curtin for initiating such unit. My CV, LinkedIn profile and my professional reputation is finally starting to be of value within the PR industry.

Don’t forget to leave some advice in the comments below and all the best with the report. x 

Adulting during this internship - CTI

This post is about things I find myself doing differently ever since this internship initiated. I am an international student, living on my own hence I know the daily mundane routines of the stereotypical ''grown up''. This infographic presents an overview of the professional routines I've grown accustomed to during my internship hence shaping my adult self.

Different PR approach within different Industry - CTI

I am privileged to work with one of the leading pioneer company within the tourism and aviation industry in Mauritius that is Rogers Aviation (RAV). It was difficult to find a suitable placement because

     •Little PR acknowledgment in Mauritius’ firms

    •I am not Mauritian so it was difficult to find and initiate the internship earlier

RAV is the parent company to numerous organisations and a partner to a list of well-renowned national and international companies such as airlines Air Asia and Etihad Airways. The PR/communications aspects of the company is led by the Marketing department, fortunately my tasks are tailored to encompass the PR criteria. This internship is putting into practice what we have inculcated over the years but customized to meet each organisation's wants.

Currently within the first week and a half I am working on;

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLcpqNXhXVH/?taken-by=curtinpr
• the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) which is the crisis management plan for RAV and their sister company in Mozambique.

• quality check on RAV’s website and subsidiary organisation resaplanet

• press releases for their website and Mauritian press

• writing blog articles and social media posts

• work on the event - Le Salon du prêt-à-partir 

For these tasks I had to adapt to alternate terms for example BCP instead of crisis management plan, multitask for different organisations and adapt to different working environments.

To highlight my first ever work experience in the world of Public Relations, here are some tips for your successful start.

Basic tips for first-timers as a PR practitioner

Searching for Placement: Approach organisations that you know already has a PR department or what appeals to you as PR aspects within their organisation. Note some firms are clueless about the functions of Public Relations, take this opportunity during your interview to pinpoint their current work and reference as a PR feature. In your CV or cover letter elaborate on what you want to cover (PR-related) within their organisation referencing potential and their existing PR work. This gives your supervisor an overview and understanding of what is expected from you.

Internalise jargons: Prior to initiating the internship, familiarize yourself with not only your company but the industry’s abbreviations and idioms. A PR practitioner has to adapt to an industry’s ‘culture’ and this differs from industry to industry.  Ideally, the language spoken within the Health sector would be different from that of aviation/tourism. For example, abbreviating all flight destinations is common semiotic within the aviation industry furthermore, the ‘Cockpit’ is the name given to our company’s intranet. This also extends to the company’s font preference for documents. Internalising these basics will facilitate interaction and note-taking. However, be careful not to use these technical terms in official documents such as media kit or interacting with other stakeholders that may not be aware of these terms.

Jot down everything:  Public Relations functions encompass a wide range of activities from multiple press releases, events, blog posts and planning which is bound to numerous meetings sometimes in one day.  Organisation is vital and investing in multiple planners, agendas or notebooks is ideal to keep track of future events and note taking. It is ideal to jot down information whether it is from meetings, online and traditional (newspapers) media relative to your industry and tasks. This will give you a better understanding of the organisation by gathering as much facts as possible. Since we write/blog a lot in PR, these notes will inspire your final content and give you more information to work with.

Self-taught PR skills: Aside to the academic knowledge it is essential and beneficial to gain some skills to better your professional capabilities and reputation as a PR practitioner. Familiarize yourself with these self-taught online tools and list them on your CV.

Surveymonkey.com – design surveys and generate creative/organized presentations.

Canva – simple photo editor, include a blog illustration or social media tile with your article and await approval from your supervisor. Also create and recommend a letterhead to your company if they do not have one.

Photoshop – most common photo editor which is requested by employers.

InDesign - to create company newsletters or flip information files for both online and offline.

Radius6 – social media monitor which compiles all mentions of the organisation or key words online. Learn about implementing keywords used in SEO and paid search.

These would not only impress your employer but facilitate your work in a creative way.

Build a PR network: Include/add a PR-related account to each of your personal social media presence. Recommending; @PRPERFECT account on Twitter, PR lifestyle for the fashionistas on Pinterest and most importantly networking and interacting with PR content on LinkedIn. Aside to social media, use RSS feeds or applications such as Pulse to stay-up-to-date with the PR industry. Consider becoming a member of PRIA or other relative PR organisation. You’ll get to say a thing or two or at least understand these corporate ‘lunch’ conversations.

Feel free to add some more tips for first-timers in the comment section below!

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

Looking within and beyond!

Internal communications is of upmost importance during a time of change within an organisation; effective communication at all levels ensures employees are familiar with organisational strategic imperatives and that they have the information required to perform effectively in their roles in support of these changes.

In the beginning of the year, the Australian arm that operated international denim brand G-Star Raw known as Denim Enterprises (DE) entered voluntary administration. Across Australia, DE operated 21 mono brand stores and had approximately 200 staff within their business. Although stores functioned as per usual, on an internal level there was apparent disruption in communication during the handover to the administrators, and subsequently to new partners.

However by providing constant communication to the employees during the administration through the use of formal tools such as 'RAW news', the company's weekly newsletter, and top down communication from state managers to part-time associates, a sense of community was formed and more than 80% of the employees stayed on. In the next couple of months, G-Star Raw acted upon the change and took it upon themselves to continue to operate the Australian stores; similarly G-Star approached Denim HQ (the company I work for) to run the WA stores. To sustain the change and continue building relationships with its employees by encouraging a sense of community, they recently conducted the first of a series of training nights around the country. During my last days as an intern with DHQ, I was fortunate enough to attend one of these trainings and witness how the company has managed the change through communication points.

These points were:

1. Background of G-Star Raw in Australia and changes during administration
2. New operational teams and points of contacts
3. Communication points to convey to customers
4. PR and media campaigns
5. New products
6. Q & A

Denim HQ training night with G-Star representatives

Therefore it is with great sadness that my time as an intern with DHQ has come to an end, however nonetheless I am grateful for all that I have learned with this start-up company and incredible brand. Until next time! 

Kim 

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

Stop and Listen

So, I’m currently nearing day 10, and I find myself thoroughly immersed in office life! At the moment I am responsible for the task of composing a detailed proposal document. This document outlines the suggested plans for the facility’s exhibition space. The proposed suggestions detail the goals, outcomes, and risks associated with each pragmatic idea. The document also contains an audience analysis, which details the importance of each goal and proposed idea in relation to the audience group and their importance to the facility, followed by realistic event proposals, their costs, benefits and risks for the organisation. It is then presented to the organisation’s managing director for review…

The completion of this proposal document proves to be a challenging task, as it requires the accelerative knowledge from areas of sales techniques, creative event proposals despite the space and resource constraints, stakeholder analysis, risk analysis and crisis management analysis. Given my lack of experience in the nature of events within the WA science community, proposing event ideas and the subsequent facility, versus audience outcomes proves to be a challenging task. Judging the appropriateness and feasibility of space suggestions proves to be a tricky task than one may originally think. Without the context to consider the successfulness or unsuccessful components of past events, and adjust ideas accordingly, making realistic suggestions is challenging. It has become quite apparent to me that we graduate with the ability to communicate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know what we need to be communicating. Working within the computational sector has shown me that we, as communicators by trade, have to be adaptable.

From what I have read from other blog posts, it is not uncommon to observe that one of the perks of working within a small department is that my internship experience is particularly hands on. I feel a deep sense of privilege that my experience is shaping up to legitimately prepare me for full-time PR work, and that my supervisors have the level of faith in me to trust that I have the capabilities to construct this document. I suppose after three years of study, it shouldn’t come as that much of a shock to me that I possess the capable skills set. They value my opinions and my perspective, despite my inexperience within the communications industry, let alone the science sector.

If interning has taught me anything, it is that those within the communications industry need to have a broad range of communications skills, outside of PR and marketing. We need to know how to communicate, but more than that, we also need to know how to stop and listen. Communicating comes easily to us. We wouldn’t be here if it didn’t. But understanding what you’re really writing about, now that takes some skill.

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

“Make us famous: P.S. there’s no budget”

How to become a nationally recognised organisation: with absolutely no budget

The first question I asked my supervisor was where they want to be in five years time?

Answer: We want to be recognised by the industry, government, members and community as the leader in this industry in Western Australia and we want our training business to be recognised nationally as the leader in hospitality training. 

My second question asked what our marketing and public relations budget is, in order for us to reach these goals. 

Answer: There is no budget. 

.........................................................................................

I began my internship with Clubs WA in September 2013, after I was mid-application for a vacation program with a Western AUstralian mining company. During filling out my application I realised that I had no real-world experience working in the public relations industry and apart from the marks that I had earned from writing essays and participating in speeches, the recruiters would have no idea whether I would actually be any good at the role I was applying for. 

The next day I scrolled through the internet looking for internships and found a small advertisement on Gumtree looking for 'Marketing and Event interns' at a small not-for-profit based in Cockburn Central. 

Here begins my entry-level position within the public relations and marketing sector. 

Clubs WA is one of the largest membership based not-for-profit organisations in Western Australia and is the governing body of licensed sporting and community clubs in WA. It represent the interests of licensed clubs to relevant WA ministers and governing bodies and its goal is to be the 'voice of the club community'. 

Each state has a sister organisation in each state and its parent body is Clubs Australia. Western Australian clubs have extremely restrictive legislation placed on them compared to other states and the purpose of Clubs WA is to give member clubs advice and information on how to work with these restrictions to ensure their clubs remain successful and viable. 

www.clubswa.com.au

From September 2013 - June 2014 I worked at Clubs WA writing copy for the monthly magazine and website, sent out media release about events, and helped the Marketing and Events Coordinator with two big upcoming events, the Annual Awards of Excellence and the Annual General Meeting and Trade Expo. 

Both events were hectic to work on and all I had to do was the simple tasks that my supervisor asked me to do, including putting together PowerPoint presentations, hundreds of invitations and the promotion of the event through our various communication tools. 

At the end of May 2014, my supervisor left for a six-month African adventure and asked me to step in for her for whilst she is gone. I am now the Marketing and Events Officer and love every single minute of it. While my title is marketing, the role is much more PR-orientated. 

So I have given myself a six month timeframe to do all I can to achieve the goal my supervisor gave me, on my very first day - to make Clubs WA famous (in a great way). 

However, like most not-for-profits we don't have a lot of money to play around with. 90 per cent of my budget goes towards our events and what is left over goes towards marketing and PR efforts. Everyday is a challenge and it's great. 

The majority of our funding comes from the hospitality training courses that we provide through our training portal, Hospitality Alliance Training (HAT). HAT is a nationally recognised leader in training courses throughout Australia and has successfully trained more than 50,000 individuals. 

The rest of our funding comes from membership fees, sponsors and some government grants. 

www.hospitalityalliancetraining.edu.au

So I am two-and-a-bit months into my new role and while it's insanely challenging, especially whilst still enrolled in a full course-load, I love every minute of it. 

I look forward to sharing more of my adventure with you over the next few weeks, and good luck to each of you in your own internships! 

Holly Hazel