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

Challenges I Faced & Questions I Have

As my internship comes to an end I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss and reflect upon my exciting experience at gtmedia. This includes insights into the consulting side of PR, challenges I faced, and questions I have.

After three years of studying PR and Web Communications, I was not completely sold on a career in the PR industry. The work I had done in class was somewhat practical, but still very theory based, and I had reservations about whether I would enjoy a job in this field. I also had very little confidence in my writing, getting average results most of the time. Truthfully I enjoyed the Web Communications half of my degree more, and was leaning towards finding a career in social media. However, after spending some time interning at gtmedia this is no longer the case. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my time at gtmedia, as working in a consultancy, no day was the same. I was also exposed to a wide range of clients, from property developers to contemporary dance companies, which I really enjoyed. 

I did face some challenges throughout my industry placement. As I mentioned before, I had very little confidence in my writing, including issues with tone and formatting. Receiving one-on-one feedback from my superiors helped me pin point areas I needed to work on, and their encouragement made me want to keep improving. I also faced challenges to do with confidence in my professional communication. A successful PR professional must be able to network and build strong relationships with clients and journalists. I was still not overly confident with my conversation skills, but I found that learning from my superiors on shoots, I was able to build on these. They still need improvement, but I am drastically more confident than I was before and I believe these skills will continue to grow with time and practice. 

My internship also helped me realise the importance learning PR theory at University. When applying it to my work at gtmedia I was able to recognise how a good strategy must start with a solid base of PR theory. I also saw it in the work of my superiors. My application of PR theory then lead me to understand the concepts I was learning at University more comprehensively, and I even found my marks improving. I faced many personal challenges during my internship, but with the encouragement and support of my superiors, and a bit of confidence in myself, I was able to overcome these. 

The real word of PR was nothing like I thought it would be. Prior to my internship, my knowledge of the industry came from a textbook, and I also was subject to the general public perception that PR professionals are 'spin doctors'. After seeing gtmedia's ethical approach to work, and their healthy relationships with clients and journalists, I was puzzled as to why these negative public perceptions existed. For an industry that works to build strong reputations, this raised the question for me as to why the PR industry had a bad reputation itself. Even people like Mumbrella CEO Tim Burrows were pleasantly surprised when working with the top people in the PR industry, as like many others, he had reservations about the moral compass of people working in the PR industry. From my research whilst completing my final report, it seems PR consultants get a bad name from inexperienced people in the industry. So as person just starting in this industry, I ask the question: How can I, and others in the same position as me, correct this negative perception? This is a big issue for the industry and I would definitely like to work alongside other PR professionals to help implement ethical practice and correct this reputation problem. 

My time at gtmedia has been an experience I am incredibly grateful for. I absolutely loved working at a consultancy amongst like-minded people, and I hope I can use this experience to help gain a position in industry once I have graduated. 

With the gtmedia team at the HeartKids WA Gala Ball 2015

A future for Media Relations?

In class, we learnt about the importance of media relations, and after working in the field I understand the vitality of a good relationship with the media. Particularly building a relationship with individual journalists.

Throughout all my units at university, in particular 'Media Relations', I learnt about how best to communicate with journalists. When pitching a media release we were taught to email the journalist first, and follow up with a phone call. This was exactly the case in industry, as I experienced. Advisors at gtmedia would normally email a pitch to a journalist. If they already had a good relationship with the journalists, they would normally call and pitch the story in a more casual manner.

In class we also learnt about how social media can be a great way to interact with journalists. Again, this theory in practice proved very effective at gtmedia. Advisors would use Twitter to talk with journalists in a causal manner, perhaps commenting on a news story, and build on pre-existing relationships. However, it was never used to a pitch story like it was suggested in class.

Behind the scenes with client Gage Roads and
The Sunday Times

Throughout my internship I had opportunity to attend four shoots for a vast range of clients. These shoot were for The Exercise Therapist on Today Tonight, Psaros in the West Australian, Gage Roads in the Sunday Times, and Breast Cancer Care's Purple Bra Day in WAtoday.

They were very exciting to experience, but I also learnt that shoots could be quite tedious and hours long for a few minutes of TV or one photograph. One of the advisors asked me why I thought we attended these shoots. I had assumed it was for the client's sake - to help coach them and be a common link between them and the journalist. He told me that this was one of the reasons,  but another was to create a relationship with the journalist. There can be a lot of standing around on shoots, so there are plenty of opportunities to talk.

The end result.

 Media training skills was a large part of our media relations unit. This involves teaching a client about how best to interact with the media, especially in interviews. In class we learnt media training was all about preparing your client and knowing your audience. Preparation includes going through the main objectives and key message with your client. gtmedia believes these skills are very important and offers media training to all its clients.

I saw media training in action at the Today Tonight shoot for The Exercise Therapist. Before being interviewed, my advisor talked about a clear key message with the client. This was to establish her business, The Exercise Therapist, as the only one of its kind using cognitive movement to help with physical injuries and mental illness. It was particularly important the client delivered a key message because Today Tonight wanted a short snippet to include in their advertisement.

Behind the scenes with client The Exercise
Therapist and Today Tonight.

The interview went superbly, which was cemented when I watch the end product a few weeks later on Today Tonight. For a whole day of shooting, the segment was about four minutes long. However, in those few short minutes the client was able to deliver the key message and other important supporting points. After the segment aired, the client expressed their gratitude, especially with her media training which enabled her to promote her business in the best way possible.

Everyday at my internship I learn the importance of good media relations. In class we discussed the future of media relations, looking into valid arguments that media relations is loosing its place in PR. Using my experience at gtmedia to answer the question I posed in the title, I believe media relations will continue to have a very important place in industry. Perhaps media relations is less formal, with social media becoming more prominent, however media training for clients and relationships with journalists are still very important.

Until next week.

Social Media in PR

At university I am completing a major in Public Relations and Web Communications. As a result, I have learnt a lot about the theory and benefits of Social Media, and it was very exciting for me to see these in action in the real world. I learnt how social media could help develop a well-rounded client strategy, and how social media helps establish an online presence for the consultancy.

gtmedia holds a strong online presence. Currently they have a Website, Twitter and Instagram. One of the tasks I completed as an intern was to find content for these social media sites. A pattern I came to realize, was that the more we kept our accounts updated on a regular basis, the more followers we gained. Ideally, we post to Instagram once a day, and to Twitter three times a day.

It was imperative we be selective about the content posted, as it is ultimately a reflection of the company and a method for interacting with current and potential clients. We wanted to maintain a professional reputation online with a light sense of humour. For Twitter, I found content like articles relating to the PR industry, what our clients were up to, or a lighter piece like the top 10 Jimmy Fallon moments. On Instagram, we post photos of things happening at our office. Like a team dinner, or a TV shoot with a client. By using hashtags on our photos like #pr101 and #Perth, we can take advantage of the Instagram platform and get our posts noticed by the right people.

gtmedia also runs the initiative @project_thankyou on Instagram. It is an account that celebrates gratitude by posting photographs of everyday people with a caption of what they are thankful for most in this world. Another of my tasks was to find content for this page by talking to people, finding what they were thankful for, and capturing the moment. It was an initiative I really admired and enjoyed helping out with.

A little while ago, we worked with client Breast Cancer Care WA to develop a unique strategy for Purple Bra Day 2015 that had a heavy emphasis on social media. The client had told us they wanted to use the hashtag #PutYourBrasOut, similar to the hashtag #PutYourBatsOut that trended in memory of cricketer Phillip Hughes. The strategy invited people to put their bras out in recognition of the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Part of our PR plan was to instigate this hashtag and gain some traction across social media platforms in order to promote Purple Bra Day.

One of our goals was to target Perth bloggers like @pegasusunicorn and @lovethread because of their large followings on Instagram. Blogs hold niche markets as well as an element of trust with their followers, and therefore can effectively promote a message. These bloggers were lovely to work with and helped us promote a message for a good cause.

Something I had not thought about before was the importance of measuring reach and engagement of social media. Because it can generate a lot of publicity for a client, social media needs to be taken into account for billing purposes.

Social media is a massive game changer for the Public Relations industry.

Until next week.  

The Real World

It’s not unsurprising that in the past few weeks I have made the discovery that the real world of Public Relations is quite different to the one we were taught in the classroom. Coming to the end of third year, I have learnt to apply PR theory to lots of situations. But, I am certain that northing could have prepared me for the experience of working for a paying client. It’s incredibly nerve-racking and exciting all at the same time. What if they don’t like my work? What happens then? Did I mention they were paying? Luckily I was able to work with a team of wonderful and very experienced experts at the Strategic Communications consultancy gtmedia. As a consultancy, gtmedia works with a very large scope of clients, from property developer Psaros to diary experts Brownes. Over the coming months I look forward to being able to apply the PR theory I learnt in class to a range of clients and situations.

On my first official day as an intern my task was to write a mock media release for the not-for-profit Western Australian organisation HeartKids. After looking through old documents to see how gtmedia structured their media releases, and giving it my best attempt, I sat down with one of the advisors to go through my work. She explained to me the skill of active writing, correct tense and avoiding cliché language. Later when I wrote my next media release, about a new Chicken Treat store opening, she noted how my writing had already improved significantly by putting her advice into practice. Even though I have quite a few media releases under my belt now, I still refer back to the advice she gave me on that particular day. Being able to sit down and talk through my work with a professional was fantastically beneficial.

The real world of PR teaches you that honestly, more often than not, things don’t go to plan. Countless times in class we have devised a PR plan for a client. These are normally real clients, but unfortunately we don’t get to put our plans into practice and see if they would work in the real world. A PR plan that I contributed to during the first few weeks at the company was to do with Chicken Treat’s launch of their Royal Burger. There were many parts to the plan, but one of them was to deliver the burger to different media stations. Thankfully in the end it was a success, but we did have to overcome a lot of obstacles under time pressure. For instance, one of the media stations pulled out a couple of days before we were going to deliver their burger and we also had to figure out a way of keeping the burgers warm while transporting them. In the end, we found a replacement for the media station that had pulled out, and all burgers were delivered warm and on time. PR-wise it was a great success with lots of publicity generated over social media and in The West Australian newspaper. 

I can safely say, the real world is much more exciting than sitting in a classroom, and has cemented for me that this is the industry I want to work in.

Until next week.

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

Publicity for Perth International Jazz Festival and STYLEAID 2015

Throughout the past semester I have been undertaking two internships - one at Magnetize, the online marketing company in Subiaco, and one at Muse Bureau, a Public Relations consultancy based in Mount Lawley.  These have led to me partaking in very different roles as time passes, and in doing so I’ve realised that I find the umbrella of public relations very enjoyable and definitely what I hope to be involved in with my career.

Muse Bureau handles the public relations accounts for some major events in Perth coming up, like the Perth International Jazz Festival 2015.  I have been working on the publicity for this with my supervisor Megan Knox, and part of my work on this involves contacting various media outlets and pitching the event, then finding out if they would be interested in a feature on the festival or even an interview with any of the artists on the bill.  I have then liaised with the artists themselves, and been able to organise the interviews at all levels - location, date, time etc.  

I have enjoyed this work because of the interaction, both via email and telephone, with the various names in the industry, including features writers for The West Australian and Community Newspaper Group, and also talented musicians and the artistic director of the entire event, Graham Wood.  It was then very pleasing and exciting when the May edition of OUT In Perth (Perth’s queer community paper) published an interview that I had arranged with the artist and editor!  I love when tasks you have been working on for a long time come to fruition.  It is an incredibly rewarding feeling of success - so I can’t wait to be further involved with even bigger accounts.  See media clipping below.

Muse Bureau handles the public relations for STYLEAID 2015, which got onto the front page of the West Weekend magazine with a headline on the front page of The Weekend West and a double page spread inside the magazine.  As this is a charity event raising money for the West Australian AIDS Council, this sort of publicity is great for the cause, and I will be involved in calculating the publicity values of the coverage the event receives. 

I still find myself writing little scripts for the first couple of times I make phone calls, which I find makes me more confident and at ease - this is a simple thing to do but it makes my life so much easier!  Does anyone have another trick up their sleeve that helps them in their interning?  

Not long to go in the semester - keep your heads up!

Laura

Come Away With Me ... Next Destination? (5)

Every great journey must come to an end, but you must then welcome opportunity!

Reflecting back on my experience as an intern at Go Communications in Malaysia, I can confidently say that every experience i've had, has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally. Before commencing the internship i was a naive PR Students with confused expectations, but coming out of it, i feel that my perspective has greatly shifted and I understand the field of PR better.

I had the incredible opportunity of experiencing the following aspects of PR in a real-life environment:

• Workplace Culture
• Media Relations 
• Time Management, and 
• Ethics

Of course, there's so much more to learn, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me in the field of PR.

(Photo from newgrids.fr)

I can't say exactly where I'll end up in life, but I can tell you that this experience has sparked my interest in working for a PR consultancy. This is the career route I'll most likely pursue after graduating, but I'll also ensure to keep my options open.

Now, I'd like to sign off with a great quote I recently came across;

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are” (Joss Whedon).

Therefore, my PR Placement journey was another significant step in my personal and professional self discovery.

Thank you for reading my blogs, and the best of luck to you all.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me … PR And Ethics (4)

This is going to be a short blog on an ethical issue that I encountered during my PR placement at Go Communications, in Malaysia.

"Ethics" is a term imbedded into the very practice of Public Relations. Ethics are the "moral principles that govern a person's (or organization's) behaviour or the conducting of an activity"(Thank you Google for this fine definition)!

My work colleagues were very humble, respectful, and friendly people. I also rarely came across ethical misconduct issues in the work place, it was always smooth sailing. however, i can recall one occasion where i felt a little on edge, or perhaps i was just overreacting, I'll let you decide.

I was working on a project for one client (who i choose not to name). This client had strict guidelines about the types of people they wanted to sponsor/involve in their project, and they purposely chose not to include other, but similar, types of people/organizations. My role was to research potential sponsees in the assigned field, and present my recommendations to the client.

Even though I stuck to the guidelines and though my recommendations were excellent, my first attempt didn't go so well. I was kindly told to steer away from some organizations, I gathered that it was because there weren't  perceived as 'important enough' or 'beneficial enough' to the client.

In the end, I understand that the client has the ultimately choice of who they want to associate with. However, this makes me wonder about the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and whether it's actually the defining criteria for businesses when they chose to "give back"!

(Photo from divvela.com)

I could've been entirely overreacting like i previously stated, however, I'd like to pose this question to my readers:

Do you believe that businesses give back simply out of goodwill, or is the decision still  strictly BUSINESS with a CSR overlay?

Thank you for your time and contribution.


Also, watch out for my final blog on my PR journey to Malaysian.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me ... The Art of Time Management (3)

Allow me to start with a little honesty here, "time management" is a concept that is outside my vocabulary. Perhaps I've exaggerated a little, but seriously, this is one of my weaknesses both professionally and personally.

(Photo from kaibizzen.com)

This third blog is going to discuss how I struggled with time management during the course of my Internship at Go Communications, in Malaysia, and how I eventually overcame this.

Even though the working hours were longer (9-6 pm) in Malaysia, I often struggled with getting everything done by the end of the day. My workload was a lot, as to be expected as an intern, however, the root of the problem was that I fell victim to the following two mistakes;

1) Spending too much time on one task, and forgetting to attend to other tasks.

2) Jumping from one task to another, and forgetting to complete the initial task.

I know what you are thinking! These are two completely opposite problems, and how could I possibly struggle with both at the same time! well, let me enlighten you.

Firstly, I found myself spending too much time on research projects (i.e. finding contact details of firms and schools that would be interested in Ricoh Malaysia's 3D competition). This was an ongoing project that I should've done little by little, but I put too much time and focus on it at the beginning, and this led to me neglecting my other tasks.

The second issue started to occur when I realised that I was spending too much time on certain tasks. I therefore tried to juggle all at once, but this wasn't any better! In fact, I was more stressed and confused!

The solution came in the form of a WIP (Work In Progress) Timetable! My supervisor encouraged me to set up a weekly timetable, and record everything that I needed to complete by the end of the week. I also went the extra mile and constructed a daily 'to do list' in my notepad, with a time limit on everything.

(Photo from ineedmotivation.com)

My time management skills began to improve after this, and I now feel like I can add "time management" into my vocabulary, even though it's still a working progress.

Stay tuned for my next blog for an update on my Malaysian PR experience.

Thank you for your time.

Naomi James

Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me... On A PR Adventure to Malaysia.

Malaysia was good to me, and I had a fantastic time working as an Intern for a PR consultancy named GO Communications.

(Photo from Go Communications LinkedIn)

The staff at the office were very welcoming and quickly helped us settle into our new roles! I remember that first day, nervously walking into the office, only to be met by the kindest smiles and greetings all around the room. They even took us out for drinks after work on our first day  (Mind you, it was a public holiday the next day).

I had the honour of enjoying this amazing opportunity with two fellow Curtin PR Students, whom I was able to build great friendships with (another bonus)!

Coming into the internship, I wasn't really sure what the next 4 weeks at Go Communications would entail. I've always felt unsure of what the day-to-day tasks of a PR Professional included. Yes, the past three years at University taught me things like writing media releases, event plans and PR plans, but honestly, I was still confused on how to apply these skills in the workplace! Would I walk in everyday and get handed a media release to write? Was the structure the same as what I was taught? and how long did I have to write one?... The answers to these questions, and many more, became clearer throughout my journey at Go Communications.

In my first week, I observed the workplace culture at Go Communications and how different this was to Australia. Firstly, the working hours were 9 am to 6 pm, as opposed to 9 -5  in Australia. We also worked in groups ('Elite' was the name of my group), and each group was assigned different clients to manage (some of my group's clients included Ricoh Malaysia, Tourism Victoria and Nippon Paint). Another important distinction was that Go Communications operated around 3 different languages; English, Malay and Chinese. Media monitoring therefore revolved around coverage done in all 3 languages (this meant more work, but Challenge accepted)!

By the end of my first week at Go Communication, I'd already begun to feel like a true PR Professional, despite the fact that I hadn't written one media release yet! I learned that there was more to PR than just writing media releases everyday.

To find out more about my PR Internship adventure in Malaysia, stay tuned for my next blog.

Thank you for your time.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

So what's the point of it all?

Hi everyone,

So as I'm now at the end of my placement and getting stuck in to my final report it's got me wondering what exactly the impact of Public Relations has been on Cancer Support WA.

After these years of study I was already of the opinion that Public Relations is an important component of any successful organisation. However, it was only after working at CSWA that I came to realise the integral role it plays in the success of not-for-profit organisations in particular.

With a limited budget and a number of other departments taking financial priority the promotion of the organisation and the services it offers is expected to be done through the acquisition of media coverage and stakeholder communication free of charge through Public Relations techniques.
This strategy being adopted out of necessity means that the organisation is dependent upon the PR department to perform.
 
As Grunig and Hunt put it "Public Relations is the management of communication between an organisation and its publics", and it is clear to me now that if PR was overlooked at CSWA there would be no effective communication between the organisation and its stakeholders which would inevitably lead to a huge decline in the number of new clients as well as donations and volunteers. Since CSWA is a charity and not profit driven this wouldn't just jeopardise their earnings, it would ultimately mean less people in need would receive assistance. 
The hard work of all of the other departments is backed up by effective public relations to make the most of the organisations potential to do good.

Well, that's about it. 20 days didn't sound like long going in, but I have learned SO much during my time with Cancer Support WA. I couldn't be happier with my internship experience and am thankful to have spent my time within such a fantastic organisation. 

Kelsey

It’s the final Countdown

Hey! It is so close to the end! The countdown has finally begun for last semester of my degree (and possibly a lot of you too) to be finished!

So, here I am, my final two days and I am feeling two conflicting emotions; deflated and excited.

Let’s get the negative out of the way shall we? Deflated, reduced and disheartened is my emotion towards my time at HBF coming to an end. Throughout my placement I learn a diverse range of industry skills and knowledge and also made many friends whilst doing so. I have gained a high level of confidence not only in myself to pull through in times of pressure but in my writing skills, established my drive and my passion to make the most of what I can achieve and make a career for myself.

Onto the positive (my favourite mindset!) my final days have been simply marvellous! It started with writing some more internal communications articles for HBF’s intranet page ‘The Pulse’. Internal communications has proven to be an area of Public Relations I am finding myself drawn strongly too. I adore the idea of aligning and engaging staff through interesting and inspiring articles as well as internal initiatives.

One such example is the HBF Wellness Launch; an initiative put in place by HBF to increase the health and wellness of employees in the workplace. To effectively manage the launch Jodie and myself held a meeting with the Wellness consultants to develop efficient execution of the launch across all branches and the head office.

The meeting was interesting revolving around the launch event for HBF Wellness Program ‘HBF Balance’ bringing health and wellness to all HBF employees across 6 planes: Physical, Mental, Relationship, Social, Financial and Career health. The launch involved preparing a healthy breakfast to provide employees an idea of what constitutes as healthy and help them on their way to leading a fuller, healthier lifestyle. The breakfast bags were delivered throughout all of head office and all the branches with about 500 employees collecting their breakfast bags.

From my experience this simple equation sums up how I feel towards my future PR career:

Health Initiatives + Public Relations + Internal Communications = Where I want to be!

Straight after my meeting with Jodie and the Wellness Team the girls took me down to the HBF café (all 100% health food might I add – made on the premises) and surprised me with a PR team morning tea to say farewell and thank you for all my hard work – I feel truly blessed to have been a part of such a wonderful team of inspiring young women, and man - my manager Andrew! Women truly do dominate the PR profession haha.

Completely unrelated to PR in any way, shape or form, was that I made mini baked cheesecakes for my team to say thank you for helping me. The reason this is so exciting is that:

1. I eat sugar free; and
2. I eat gluten free

BUT, despite my mini cheesecakes being sugar and gluten free, I had each team member personally come over to thank me for such a delicious tasting dessert, my manager Andrew claimed they were “Sensational” and very well presented! Just another skill to add to my LinkedIn maybe?

Anyway catch you all later – I’m off to enjoy some more cheesecake!

Kiara xx