Inevitably Grey

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What I did for the week:

1. Competitive analysis for client Lasalle
2. Deliver the Sacoor Brothers' pin for ambassadors: The client wanted the ambassadors to wear the brand's pin on its clothing but things cropped up. Hence, the manager made a quick decision to deliver it manually without troubling the shop assistant. 
3. Transcript focus group responses for client Ferrero Rocher
4. Edited Harry's Bar PR proposal
5. Prepare QATAR Airways' PR presentation slides to be presented before the client
6. Sat through internal meetings with different departments and CEOs to discuss what can be done for QATAR Airways and Pind Balluchi
7. Construct a mindmap for Tanzania to allow a better understanding before coming out with PR strategy for client
8. Meet up with fashion stylists, actors, brand ambassadors, fashion bloggers and fashion magazine editors 

What I'd learnt:

• Competitive analysis are often done before PR ideas could be formed. Hence, it is not just for marketing purposes. 
• Some of the competitors need more publicity to be done because the brand awareness is poor. 
• Public Relations practitioners need to be spontaneous, take initiative and always have stakeholders in mind.
• Perfect is never perfect so editing is common.
• Sitting through meetings are not just about witnessing the entire communication and execution process. Speak up when needed. 
• The CEOs also lead the team by being involved in sharing of ideas and not just demand what they want. <- Good attribute
  

Keeping this short because I’d like to talk about handling office politics.

Politics is everywhere.

There will always be people who like and dislike you even if it is for some reasons you do not know or because you are close to people they do not fancy.

But whatever.

The key is to ignore. Do not confront unless it is necessary. 

In public relations, we learn about handling issues before it turns into crisis. 

Gossips are like issues except that sometimes that issue is not with you.

“So, you’re telling me that I can’t be too close to some people in the office?”

“So, you’re telling me I fancy someone just because we are seen discussing about work o having lunch together?”

Ridiculous as it sounds but yes.

Be who you are, true to yourself and ignore the rest. 

Alike media, they are giving you publicity be it good or bad. 

Remember, "Any form of publicity is publicity itself". 

Don't be depressed. Tell yourself that they just want your attention or are just unhappy how you managed to gain liking from others.

My suggestion will be for them to look into their issues and manage it before it turns into crisis.

My thank you speech:

I am really grateful to have a manager that I can click with and given me plenty of opportunities. 

Our crazy self makes it easier for us to get along. 

Everyone craves for acceptance and we are all unique in our own ways. Therefore, I am glad that some people accept me for me. 

Throughout the months working, I'm thankful that I didn't leave Grey when I initially had nobody to report to. Many people suggested leaving because it did not allow me to fulfill my internship requirements. If I'd left, I wouldn't have met wonderful people who brighten up my internship days, be it an intern in the office, a cleaner, a production lady, a manager, account executives, account planners, receptionist or the creative head. The creative agency also allows me to further embrace my craziness and bring out a stronger me. 

I'm grateful for every opportunity I was given no matter how tough and time-consuming some of the tasks may be. I see it as a learning point and am genuinely appreciative. 

I guess the month of March tested my perseverance and patience in staying on and believing that miracles will happen. I was promised a manager in June but thankfully, my PR manager came in April. It was impromptu decision by the CEO. 

Everything is wonderful. Once again, I am thankful towards my colleagues who made my internship a really fruitful journey. If it were not because my manager is leaving, I'd have considered going back.

Thank you Grey Singapore for the employee welfare and chance to know lovely people. 

To mark the end of this journey, I shall share my internship motto:

"What has to be done needs to be done, regardless circumstances"

PR should be experienced, not just taught

Hi future PR practitioners,

This will be my last post and it will wrap up some of the things that weren't taught and experienced in previous PR units. I firmly believe that a PR degree is just a starting point and as Harrison (2011, 15) has said, “Graduation is not an end to study. It is the start of a lifelong process”. By now, I can tell that only a portion of what I have learnt at university will be useful in the workplace because not only I will always be learning new things as a PR practitioner but also some of these things have to be experienced. Likewise, PR is a fast-evolving profession, so every PR practitioner has to constantly adapt to the changes in this demanding profession.

Things I didn't learn and experience at university:

1. Drafting media releases and communication plans in French (Written communication is mostly done in French in Mauritius and most PR Practitioners need to have an excellent grasp of the French language)

2. Media monitoring – Writing and sending daily Media Alerts to clients on positive and negative articles about them.

3. Calculating Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) for media coverage of PR generated news stories by measuring the dimensions of these articles and multiplying to the newspapers’ advertising rates.

4. Assisting in Press Conferences – Greeting journalists, marking their presence, noting down their contact details and distributing goodies/media kits to them.

5. Contacting and following up with journalists – confirming if they have received invitations for event/media function/press conference/round table and calling them again to mark their presence.

6. Working without a proper brief – Sometimes, we are not given a written brief for a particular task while at university we always had those for every PR assignment that we had to submit.

7. Implementing a PR Plan – We've been writing a few PR plans for real life clients at university although we've never executed any of these and this is the most complex part.

Although this internship is just a foretaste of the real thing since it was relatively short and we didn't experience everything, it actually prepares us to join the workplace confidently. Moreover, I do believe that I've done quite a lot in one month and learnt many new things. If it wasn't for the PR 393 Professional Practice unit, my knowledge and understanding of PR would be limited to only general PR concepts and guidelines. So, kudos to Curtin for having introduced that unit a few years back because it certainly allowed us to put some of the teachings of the other PR units into practice.

Okay fellow PR 393 students, now that most of us have already completed our internships and we are nearing the end of this semester, it's time to move on to other things. It felt great to share my internship experience with you and to read about yours during the last few months. I would like to seize this opportunity to wish you all best of luck with the report writing and for your future endeavors.

P.S: Do you guys have any anything else to add to the list above? You’re most welcome to do so in your comments :)

Much love,

Houmaira Ramjaun

15102108

CTI, Mauritius

References: 

Harrison, Kim. 2011. Strategic Public Relations - A practical guide to success. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan

All the good times must come to an end.

 

These seven weeks has really flown by! Being here at TAC for three days per week has really been valuable and a good learning curve for me. This internship especially gave me an insight into how it works in the public sector. Something that I quickly realised when working in the government is that everything takes a longer time when it comes to proposals and how rapidly those to changes can be implemented. Although I have been making suggestions to the outlook of the website, drafting up a website business plan, organised surveys, drafting speeches for a social media presentation and so forth, these methods cannot just start to get used. These suggestions have to go through a whole process of levels before the decision is made and they decide if it is important to the organisation or not. Sometimes, this might even take between 3-6 months, and if it is approved, it might not even be relevant anymore. I am not sure if I like that when discussing the public sector, I do not know if it is the right position for me to begin my career because it might just be to slow paced to what I am used to. But I suppose, if a position occurs that may suit your qualifications, you also need to start somewhere when you are a fresh graduate from university to gain knowledge in the PR industry, you cannot expect to score the top job in your first employment. In essence, my time at TAC has been a good experience and has left me with serious thoughts about my future decisions.

I wish all my readers the best for the future and I hope you all achieve your future goals.

Final, Everything!

Hello my fellow PR professionals!

Everything is going final today! Final week, Final assignment, Final Semester, Final Blog post, final everything! I guess everyone is now finalising their work and assignment so am I. Tiring and excited at the same time.

It has been a dilemma whether or not should I continue to work for my job placement even though i have completed my 20 days. since my task in the company is incomplete i have decided to stay till my work there in done. hopefully, i could learn more skills and experience more while im there.
until recently then i found out that, working in colosoul is not just about working, it is actually an opportunity for me to explore the industry, it does not only open my eyes but also inspired me to learn from the concept of how Colosoul is operated.

there is actually nothing much to say as I have been busy with uni work and i guess most of you are the same. well there go the last post! Good luck to everyone especially those who has exam coming! And Congratulation to those who are graduating!

xoxo, intern girl

AND i told myself not to cry, yet when my manager Simone gave me one final hug and made me pinky promise i will write to her often, i teared. I guess, all good things come to an end, my internship with the City of Stirling has finally, came to an end. 

With all the things i have picked up during my time well spent there, i emerged with not only more experience of how it feels like to work in the real world and work under the pressure of tight deadlines, 

i was also blessed with the opportunity to meet wonderful warm genuine people (that certainly changed my initial perception of scary bosses and over critical colleagues).

I must confess, i wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to juggle work placement with uni work and project work plus i live an hour and a half away from school and Stirling to Bentley isn't exactly near. Days when i had to will myself and drag myself to uni at 6pm just to attend project group meets after work drained me physically and mentally. I have to check the time constantly too to ensure i do not miss the last bus. Yet now, when all is over, i feel strangely sad.

On a lighter note however, my experience with the City has opened my eyes to many things i thought i knew but didn't really grasp. My writing skills have improved, sharpened under Simone's watchful eyes. (: My reading and analytical skills have been working so hard under useful pressure that they have unknowingly honed and tidied themselves.

I smile, because i know these experiences and skills i have developed during my time with the City will stay with me for life. I know these are the essentials that will possibly differentiate me from job competitors. 

To sum it up, my time with the City of Stirling has enriched me in many ways. Today, before i leave with my last post, i'd like to leave all with this information i've obtained from RMWALKER86"s PR blog:

"PR practitioners are responsible for maintaining relations between a variety of publics, which requires them to possess necessary skills and traits. The top five skills I believe are most important for the success of a PR practitioner in no particular order are: versatility; persuasiveness; relationship management; organizational skills; and of course people skills. If a PR practitioner uses all five of these skills simultaneously, along with various other attributes, he or she will maintain a successful career."

If a career in PR is what you're seeking for, make sure you make every second of your placement count, you'll never know what you might learn during a short 2-3 months attachment.

All the best y'all for your internships ! 

xoxo,

intern girl,

Jolyn Law

14662708

20 Days Fly By

This will be my final post and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best with your assignments, which I hope are proving less challenging then my own.

Out of all the units that we have studied, I would have to say that I have found this one the most valuable to my career outside of university. Should I not be working full time in the PR industry and this had been a real internship then I would have learned more in my 20 days at work then in my entire career at university. Furthermore, I have been shown just how much I have learnt in my years at university and how affectively I can apply it to my work.

During my 20 days there have been many challenging issues from heavy work loads to suffocating time constraints but these have also served as an important learning curve.

Writing these blogs and preparing the assignment has forced me to readdress the tasks that I seem to have just taken for granted and almost begun to just "go through the motions" instead of constantly critically analysing them, seeing how I could better perform them or more efficiently complete them by asking the simple question "What is the real reason behind me performing this task".

This, I feel, is an important thing to remember not only for my work but also in every aspect of my life including university.

I thoroughly enjoy my job at Amplifier Capitol and Metropolis Fremantle and I hope that everyone is as fortunate as I am with finding their dream job in the industry they want to work in.

All the best with the rest of you internships and I wish everyone the best of luck with their assignments.

The last few days - Time to say goodbye

Name: Christoph
Campus: LUCT

One of my last tasks included to write an article for Unisys, one of Maisberger’s clients in the IT sector. The article was aimed to explain how biometrics technology works and how it is used practically, showing the benefits and advantages of the technology. My supervisor gave me a free hand in how to write the article, which was weal and woe at the same time. On one side, I could structure the article according to what I think is the best, on the other side, I didn’t have much orientation and was first a bit unsure how to structure the article.  

But after conducting some proper research, one of the most important tasks in preparation of writing an article, I started my first draft and it wasn’t hard for me to write the article once I started. My supervisor gave me some suggestions and ideas how to improve the article and what to add. Hereby it was especially important that the article, though of course our client Unisys should be mentioned here and there, does not look like an advertisement for or on behalf of Unisys but contains verifiable and objective facts from a different number of sources.

After adding and changing the things mentioned by my supervisor, the article was sent to the Unisys PR department who approved the article and finally in March this year, ‘my’ article got published on searchsecurity.de. It’s really cool to have one’s own article published and yes, I was kinda proud of it ;-).

Here's a link to the article. It's in German language, but if you are interested just use Google Translator or any other translation services.

http://www.searchsecurity.de/themenbereiche/identity-und-access-management/biometrie/articles/353497/  

The last few days brought mixed emotions for me. On one side, I felt happy and relieved that I completed my internship and have overcome all the challenges.  On the other side I also felt kind of sad to leave the place as I enjoyed my work and met many nice colleagues which I will miss. 

This feeling of mixed emotions was also present on my last day of work. I did work as usual till the early afternoon, then I used the rest of the time to ‘clean up’ my desk and gather all of my belongings. Then it was time to say goodbye to my colleagues. They surprised me with a farewell gift, a card signed by the whole team and a huge box full with sweets and chocolates. I was so happy about this as it showed that my colleagues appreciated my contributions to their work and apart from that we also became sort of friends..

So this was my last blog post, thanks for reading and goodbye!

I had a magical time!

Hi Everyone,

I have had so much fun reading all of your interesting blog posts. It looks as though we have all learned a lot from our time in the 'real world' as we so fondly like to label it but really enjoyed this experience at the same time. I am happy to say that I have completed the expected 20 working days at Hollywood Private Hospital and am staying on to help here and there. They can't get rid of me that easily!

It has been a really hands on and fun glimpse into everyday life as an in house PR professional. In my particular placement there was a big mix of marketing involved in the job but that only helped me to understand the relationship between the two and how they can work hand in hand in a very productive way.
Reading about the fantastic placements many people had at PPR, I am also quite intrigued into the world of consultancy. It has the appeal of different clients and exciting ventures that in house PR just doesn't hold.  So these blogs have definitely been helpful in understanding both sides and also not closing us off from the rest of the world of PR as we might have been only seeing one side to it.

It has been a while since my last blog and much has happened. I helped with the launch of Glengarry Private Hospital's new branding which is now Real Magic. Everyday. I was in charge of taking photos once again and had a great time capturing the day as we held a surprise lunch and reveal for the staff. The launch was lead up to by a teaser campaign which consisted of the CEO emailing out elusive magical messages each day to the staff which I had made up for her earlier in my placement. There were also foam asterix's placed around the hospital to pre empt the logo of the brand. Below is one of the designs that includes a chef at the hospital who catered the lunch on the day. It was a nice touch including staff members from the hospital in their campaign as it is a very close knit community they have.

My internship has come to a close now but they are still wanting my help due to a heavy work load. It has been a great experience for me and can only hope to learn more and delve even more into the typical PR elements of the marketing department. 

I am finishing off my report and hoping it all goes well. I wish you all luck on yours and hope you had as great an experience as I did. 

Cheers,

Kate Millar

13643087