Hitting a Home Run - How to Finish Your Internship On Top

I'm writing this blog post from my internship desk, on the second last day of my placement. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm devastated to be leaving tomorrow. I have enjoyed my internship immensely, all the while learning invaluable skills and making important connections for my burgeoning communications career. But before I move on to the next stage of my career, I thought I'd write about how I plan to make the most of my last precious hours here at Perth Theatre Trust. Maybe some of these ideas will help you too!

1. Maintain momentum
With a finish date looming, you might find it tempting to 'slack off' - why start any new projects when I probably won't have time to finish them?? Although this idea has crossed my mind, I am determined to at least maintain, if not improve my supervisor's opinion of me. Taking on additional work and ensuring any ongoing projects are finalised before 4:30pm tomorrow is my #1 goal.
2. Write a progess report
So you've taken my first point of advice and started some new tasks you haven't had a chance to finish? Write up a progress report for your supervisor so they know exactly where you left off - don't leave them in the dark. And here's a bonus tip for anyone starting out - practice this every week, especially if you're only in the office a few day each week. This will allow both you and your supervisor to keep on top of things, and at the end of your internship you can look back at everything you've achieved.
3. Schedule a formal debrief with your supervisor
Feedback is a crucial part of the learning process, so schedule a formal debrief with your supervisor. This will give you both the chance to discuss the internship and any areas which you can improve on. It's also a great opportunity to ask for things like references or LinkedIn recommendations.
4. Say thank you!
This one seems like a no-brainer but it's probably the most important tip. Leave a lasting impression by thanking your supervisor and the team you worked with on your final day, and follow up later. As tomorrow is Melbourne Cup day we're already having celebratory lunch as a team, so my baked treats won't do the trick. My plan is to have a bunch of flowers delivered to the office on Wednesday or Thursday with a thank you card - it's something the whole team can enjoy in my absence.

Good luck to any new internship students completing their placement over the summer break, and for all you students like me completing their degree in the next few weeks - go get those jobs!!!

- Kimberley

Negative Nellies - Dealing with Social Media Backlash

Grab your blankets and your torches everyone, I'm about to tell you a scarrryyyy story.

It's a cold, wintery day. The raindrops beat against the window. You shiver at your desk as a chilly breeze sneaks under the crack in the window.

You're at work, happily editing some images to upload to instagram when your phone buzzes. It's a notification from facebook - one of the social media pages you manage has been commented on. 'Great!' you think. 'I wonder what amazing feedback this happy audience member has!' You open the page and scroll down, and that's when it happens. 

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Someone has an issue with the special discounted price for under 30s, and they want you to know about it. What do you do???

__________________________________________________________

Social media management is a relatively new string to the PR professionals' bow, and requires transparency, honesty and quick responses. Social media management is a massive undertaking at Perth Theatre Trust, where we manage one instagram account, six facebook pages (with all the relevant event pages as well) and six twitter accounts. Although social media comes somewhat naturally to us 'young people', I've had to change the language I use on social media to adhere to the strict guidelines provided by the Department of Culture & the Arts (our umbrella organisation). Generating content has proved a challenge (particularly with so many accounts!) but recently we have received a few negative comments on one particular event page. 

Here are the most important things I've learned when dealing with social media backlash.

1. Pay attention

The most important thing when monitoring social media is to pay attention! If you don't know that the conversation is going on, you can't be part of it. 

2. Address negativity quickly

Negativity on social media can quickly spiral out of control. Make sure you respond to any negativity in a timely fashion, otherwise you run the risk of your publics thinking you are hiding or being dishonest.

3. Acknowledge the person’s feelings

Often the person posting just wants to know they have been heard. Make sure you acknowledge their feelings without making it seem like you think they are correct. Consider something along the lines of "We're sorry you feel that way," or "We understand that you feel angry/annoyed/upset..."

4. Ask for solutions

Sometimes the negativity on social media comes from the feeling of lack of control. Ask the commenter how they would like to see the situation resolved. This doesn't necessarily mean you will act on their advice, but involving them in the conversation is an important step in making sure they feel heard.

5. Fix the problem

Once the conversation is over, make sure you let the commenter (and anyone who is following along) know how the situation was resolved. 

Social media is an extremely valuable tool for communicating directly with your audience. Negative comments may even help your organisation offer a better product or streamline a process. Make sure you stay involved in the conversation, as most of the time any response is better than none! 

Happy monitoring!!!

- Kimberley

Stage Fright - How to Deal with Nerves!!!

So you've finally nailed down the dream job/interview/presentation/meeting, how do you manage those inevitable butterflies when it comes to crunch time??

I started my internship at Perth Theatre Trust (PTT) this week, and boy was I nervous! I remember being a little nervous for an interview with my potential supervisor, but that was nothing compared to this!!! I woke up anxious and fidgety after an restless nights' sleep - not necessarily conducive to making a good first impression! Luckily, my background is in theatre and performing, so I have a whole raft of tips and tricks up my sleeve when dealing with nerves.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was faced with a few butterflies on my first day, and it certainly won't be the last time I feel nervous before attempting something. Hopefully these tactics are useful to some of you, even if it's only one or two. These methods are drawn from my many years performing in live theatre, but can be applied to anything - an interview, your first day at a new job, an important meeting or even those dreaded in-class oral presentations!

How to Deal with Stage Fright
1. Be prepared.
This is my number one, most important tip. I know from my experience on stage that the worst cases of stage fright come from feeling unprepared. If there is anything you can do to make yourself feel like you a totally prepared, do it! Whether this means reading up on notes before a presentation, practicing your interview answers or doing a test run of the drive to work to check out traffic, being prepared will help calm the butterflies enormously.
2. Get a good nights' sleep.
This might seem like common sense, but it is SO important to be well rested. Personally I find that I have a tendency to get a little cranky if I'm tired, and that's not what I want a potential employer or my supervisor to see on my first day! This might mean skipping something fun the night before, but at the end of the day we all have to decide what our priorities are. I was in bed by 9pm the night before my first day at PTT!
3. Arrive early
This goes hand-in-hand with getting a good nights' sleep - if you've managed to get to bed early, you'll have more chance of waking up the first time the alarm goes off instead of pressing 'snooze'. Nothing makes a worse first impression than arriving late. It's an easy way to make you supervisor think you are lazy and uninterested! In the world of theatre, if you aren't fifteen minutes early for rehearsal, you are considered to be late, so even being 'on time' isn't enough. And consider this: when you arrive late, subconsciously you are saying to the person you kept waiting that your time is more important than theirs - is that really how you want your supervisor/future employer/person marking your work to feel??
4. Take a deep breath
This tip is the simplest to implement, but a really important one to remember. When I get nervous, I have a tendency to race my speech and end up blurting out whatever pops into my head at an unintelligible speed. The best way I've found to combat this is simply to stop and take a deep breath. This usually gives me enough time to slow down and gather my thoughts so that I stop myself from saying anything unnecessary.

At the end of the day, nerves are a very personal thing, and some people deal with them better than others. My parting advice would be to try some of these tips for yourself, as well as anything else that keeps you calm, and figure out which works best for you. Maybe you perform better after a run first thing in the morning - something to burn off all that nervous energy. Maybe you need to have a leisurely breakfast in order to plan your morning so that you're ready to face the day. Or maybe you're like me, and you just need a few minutes to collect your thoughts and take a couple of deep breaths. Whatever method works for you, once you've found it, make sure you don't forget it! Nerves are designed to make our bodies function more effectively, and they can be extremely useful once you've learned how to manage them. Good luck!

End is Near

If it's one thing I could tell future students when completing their final internship placement is to not stress. Stress does nothing postive for you and I would know from personal experience. At first when I heard we had to complete an Internship Placement, I was not too happy. But after my experience, I am glad that we did. It was one of the greatest experiences I got to partake in, meeting new people, gaining professional experience and learning on the job.

If I could go back in time, I think one thing I would change is to complete more internships but in a varierty of industry's, allowing for myself to gain the knowledge and understanding of that industry and how it varied to the education industry which I completed my time in. Upon the start of my internship and starting this unit, I wish someone could have told me a few tips or secret pieces of advice. So intead I'm going to give you some.

1. Don't Stress
2. There is no need to be nervous or anxious about partaking in the internship placement. It's one of the most rewarding and educational experiences you get to do.
3. Start looking for a placement early. The public relations sector is increasingly growing in competiveness for jobs. To avoid last minute worry, I suggest looking for a placement early on.
4. Start your report early, because let's be honest, no one loves pulling all nighters
5. Even if you don't get placed in an internship that's not your passion, it is still rewarding and can open up your eyes to so much more.
6. You will learn so much more than what you learn at university, and what you learnt at univeristy, you will get to put into everyday practice. On the job learning, has got to be one of the best things!
7. Have fun!

What would be your pieces of advice?

Final lessons from a PR pro

On my last day of my supervisor called me in to her office for a ‘chat’ about my internship. I won’t lie, I was nervous.  In my mind this was the part where she goes through all my intern work and scrutinizes it, evaluating my progress in a confronting finale to my placement. Of course that wasn’t the case. Instead, she sat me down and said she was going to give me the most important advice she could give about a career in public relations.

The first thing she spoke about was organisation. Specifically, emails. She told me that as ridiculous as it may sound, sorting your emails in to separate folders is the best thing you can do to stay on top of your workload. In a corporate PR situation, as it would be with any communications role, there is quite a bit of versatility in the work that you do. You may be dealing with writing an internal article one day and organising a sponsorship event the next, so it’s integral to be able to have each different sector of your work carefully separated. It’s no fun having to search through your inbox to look for an email or to forget to respond to something important. Organisation is key.

 

The second thing she told me was that no matter how much writing you do at university, nothing will prepare you for the amount of writing you do in a real communications role. She told me that you may write 20 PR plans during your degree, but you probably won’t even need that skill until you’re in a high level position. ‘Ninety per cent of my role is writing,’ she said, and now I’m grateful that I studied a few journalism units while I’ve been at university. 

My supervisor finished off our meeting by thanking me for all the work I had done and saying she’d happily write me a reference– this was nothing like the scary final meeting I had envisioned. I left feeling grateful that I had been able to have for such a rewarding and useful experience. 

When I got home that day I opened my email inbox. I had 3,109 emails. Would you believe it, I managed to purge every unwanted subscription and piece of junk until I had a neat inbox with a number of carefully organised folders. 

So here I am. Internship completed. I am now ready for a career in public relations and so is my email inbox.

International for some, local for me!

Hi everyone,

My name is Grace and I'm currently in the midst of completing my undergraduate degree in Curtin Singapore. Having completed all my academic PR modules earlier this June, I'm so glad that it is now time to put my knowledge to the test in the real world. 

As I pen my first entry, I am also pleased to share that I've already completed two of three months with my internship company of choice, Touch Communications. Touch Communications is a boutique PR agency specializing in providing companies with the finest, most personal touch to their media relations, events and copywriting. Specialising in beauty, F&B, sports and lifestyle industries, their area of expertise reaches beyond traditional media and encompasses social media, web development, media training, overseas media junkets, crisis communication, events management and advertising.

The last two months have been a nervewrecking but nonetheless, enjoyable journey! While I'm eager to share everything in this one post, let's not jump on the bandwagon as yet. Instead, I would like to tell you about a meaningful struggle I had when looking for my internship placement.

I knew I wanted to start my internship search early as I was afraid it would be difficult to get a place.While many wonder about the question of doing in-house or consultancy, that was never an issue to me as I have always known that I wanted to gain some agency experience first. Instead, I recall a vivid memory as I questioned myself if I wanted to start my PR career with an international PR firm such as Hill & Knowlton, Fleishman-Hillard, etc. or a local boutique agency. Getting this right is important to me as more than one has advised me earlier that it will determine a large part of the course of my career path going forward in terms of exposure to the right contacts, starting remuneration, scale of work, scope of work, etc.

The default was that many urged me to try for international companies because of the boundless opportunities it may present, a stellar on my resume and of course, not forgetting a fatter paycheck. However, I have also heard of horror stories from seniors about unrealistic expectations, limited learning (everyone is too busy to teach and in a larger company, job scopes are usually more defined) and people constantly jumping at your throat.

On the other hand, there was a nagging thought that tugged at my heartstrings to tell me that I should join a local boutique agency as I wanted to take things slow and be exposed to as many aspects of PR as possible first. Having sat through lectures on the different types and sizes of PR firms, I knew that being in a boutique firm would mean fewer accounts to service but more exposure in terms of work responsibilities as there are fewer employees and job scopes are not entirely defined. 

I made the decision eventually, to send resumes to only local boutique agencies. After all, this is an internship and my first experience with hands-on PR. I would prefer not to let fear engulf my passion in my first job. I am glad to say that I managed a few interviews within the week and by May, secured a three months internship with Touch Communications starting 18 June 2012.

Interning with a local boutique agency turned out to be everything I thought it would be and more. Indeed, job scopes are not defined as servicing a client account meant taking care of their every need, those including PR and those that don't. This can be exceptionally taxing. However, I have a small but supportive team behind my back as well as a very kind boss who constantly acknowledges my presence and work contributions. Deep down, I give myself a pat on the back for making the right decision for me.

Busting the myth of bosses jumping at your throats in international PR firms, my classmates who are working there tells me that they too are enjoying their internship and have good bosses. They did share though, that they have more accounts to handle and more overtime to do. I guess this means that there is no one choice that is more right than the other. Ultimately, it boils down to your personal preference and what you are looking for in your internship.

For those who shares my dilemma, I  hope this entry helped you in some way or another!

Until the next,

Grace Ong

Curtin Singapore

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