A Bittersweet Farewell

Beginning this placement, I saw it for what it was - working in a professional environment alongside my colleagues. But actually having to say goodbye to my supervisor and two intern buddies was more bittersweet than I could've imagined. 

Driving home that last Thursday, I was left with the strangest combination of emotions. Firstly sad that one of the most fun and positive experiences of my life had come to an end and I would never be able to recreate it again. But also elated because I had just finished what I considered to be an internship invaluable to my learning and had gained all these skills, and I had some of the best times with these people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. 

As mentioned in previous posts, my supervisor acts more as a mentor for her interns than an employer. This allowed a much more relaxed environment and positively impacted my learning immensely. It also allowed us the freedom to design our workday - especially our last day.

Having finished all of our assigned tasks, our last day of work consisted of me and my two intern buddies working from our supervisors home office and completing tasks for her health food business. This meant researching and writing, but also chopping up mangoes, styling smoothie bowls for photoshoots, counting and ordering stock. As well as fresh scones with homemade jam, and chicken wraps for lunch lovingly cooked by our supervisor herself - how many interns can say that??

To celebrate the end of our placement, we also finished up early and took the three border collies to the park and played with them, it was a perfect way to wrap things up. 

I wanted to take this opportunity to express how grateful I am for the style of internship I secured and how much it benefit my learning. The creative and easygoing environment we worked in meant I was excited to come to work and push myself harder than before. It also allowed me to make three great friends I would not have met otherwise. 

Thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoyed your placements as much as I did!

Bianca

Cue Reality Check

To say that I have been thrown in the deep end would be an understatement.

But it's not the workload that has me shook, nor is it the environment I find myself in each week. It is instead what I have discovered about myself just four weeks into my placement with Mikayla and my two intern buddies; I have learnt more about myself than ever.

Working at a boutique consultancy and for Mikayla’s own businesses I have been given an invaluable insight into what is actually involved in not only running your own business, but an in-depth knowledge of what PR involves in a ‘real world’ situation.

Aside from what I’m quickly learning about the industry, my placement has also forced me to learn a lot about myself and how I operate in a professional environment after 2.5 years in a classroom environment. The most standout realisation is that I have some serious time management issues, something that I once thought was a strength of mine. This realisation meant a not so productive first two weeks and resulted in only productive weeks from then on, which I can appreciate as it meant I had no choice but to focus, re-evaluate my work habits and make some changes for the long-term.

The dynamic in our workspace is more relaxed than a typical professional environment which means Mikayla is able to work alongside us as more of a mentor and relay her experiences as a Marketing/PR professional which has been invaluable. Her emphasis on the importance of both social media and organisation have helped influences decisions I make while working with her, and everything social-media related we’ve learned from Curtin is starting to make sense to me now. No wonder every assignment involved a social media aspect or we took a unit dedicated to the use of different social media platforms (Transmedia Storytelling).

I’m eager to continue my internship and see more of what I’ve learned in theory come to life in front of me as PR in the ‘real world’. 

See attached: our very cute, very authentic workspace decor. One of Mikayla's brands Broadspace is a communal workspace which is currently where we work.