The final days under lock-down
Thanks to COVID-19 I worked my last 4 days at home.
This was good, but also a shame. I really like bouncing ideas around and interacting with adults in the workplace after so many years at home with the kids!
It was however a great opportunity to check how I’m set up at home, and work on my communication skills. I had lots of opportunities to work on emailing and phone conversations so the provided a good opportunity to ensure I always remained professional in my distance comms.
This also proved to be a good test of my willpower! I found I was really loving the tasks I was working on so didn’t struggle to stay focused and on task while in my own environment. I may have got a couple of extra loads of washing done but on the whole, I wasn’t tempted to allow myself to get distracted which was a great test.
This week I focused on internal comms for the executive team. MACA is wanting to show a united front and is wanting to get their exec team to modify online platforms to follow the brand guidelines, It was my job to draft an email explaining why, and how they do this. I felt like my non-tech parents prepared me well for this task! I wrote the instructions and then needed to follow with a more comprehensive screenshotted step-by-step guide.
Because of restrictions I only got back into the office today to return my gear and meet up with my supervisor to discuss the placement. We were both happy with how it went and as sad I was to be finishing up I was excited that I’m now starting the journey to employment.
The hardest part for me was learning to juggle full-time work, 3 children and run a house. what I have learnt is I love my kids, I love the work and I really need a cleaner/Gardner/washing person!
I may not have been offered a role with MACA, but I have been approached by a company linked to the organisation. So I am looking forward to meeting with them tomorrow to discuss a possible opportunity which is exciting.
All the best with the remainder of your internships
April x
Partnership Meetings
This week I have been focusing my work on brand awareness. We have been doing a lot in the way of partnership meetings. Recently MACA partnered with the Freo Dockers AFLW Team, so this week I tagged along for a meeting to discuss how we are going to work together to promote our brand and some events we have coming up.
MACA is also looking at how we can add some diversification to the workforce so I have been looking at how to reach our target audience across the state. This has been a really interesting project to work on and I have found it amazing at the lack of information available online as to how to reach people.
I got to go out to a meeting at an indigenous clothing manufacture who we are going to be using to produce some NIADOC week t-shirts for the employees to buy to support a charity. The products they produce look incredible and the story behind them was inspiring. I made sure to keep a business card so lock this little gem of a place away in case I get the opportunity to use their services at some point in the future.
All in all, I’m learning a lot and really enjoying my time on this placement.
One week to go and I think ill be sad to finish up on Friday!
BUT 1 week and I am free to start my career which is super exciting!
April x
Real life crisis comms
I had my first intro to real-life crisis comms on Friday and wow it was interesting to watch how it all unfolds so quickly!
I’m interning with a company that is projected based and they lost a project worth 700 million dollars! EEEEK!
The worst part was they found out from the ASX announcement that was placed by the contract holder!
We went into overdrive! We had meetings to generate internal comms external comms and everything in between.
In some downtime during the day, I thought id have a quick look at how the “crisis” affected us on the stock market, that was also interesting to see a dramatic drop once the announcement was made.
It really highlighted to me how having pre-paired communication plans are definitely beneficial for companies and knowing how they will deal with situations if and when they arise rather than dealing with things as they pop up.
Nearly 2 weeks in and so far so good
I have been on placement for a week and a half now, and my eyes are now well and truly open. Before I started this placement I felt like I was doing it to tick a box and felt outside of my comfort zone as I feel events are my strong point and PR is my weak point. But I think I’m converted! I am loving the work I have been doing with MACA Mining. They are really lovely to work for, this being my second placement with them I was welcomed back in with open arms and they seem just as happy to have me back as I am to be back. I am working with a different supervisor this time but working closely with my old supervisor in more of a team relationship than a boss-intern role.
So far I have done a lot of internal and external communications. Writing posts for the website through WordPress, internal emails through Mailchimp and posts for the company intranet.
Something I have found interesting is how to play with content to suit a range of different platforms while telling the same story. this has really tested me but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to learn while not feeling pressured by a paid job.
I have also done a lot of work with branding. I got to play with InDesign and photoshop to create new email headers for the executive team and used adobe dc to edit and proof the Can Do newsletter which is an internal piece that goes out to all employees in Australia once a quarter. Later in the week I will be sending it off to the printers and distributing it across the organisation.
To finish off I have been working on marketing the raffle we are currently promoting to raise money for the Harry Perkins Foundation who are researching to find kinder cures for Cancer.
Overall my time at MACA has been fantastic so far and I am now looking forward to including Communication roles in my job searches!
Here are some examples of the content I have been working on.
These two pieces are a good example of how I have had to amend content to suit two external platforms. The first one is a comprehensive blog post to the company website and the second is a snippet of the story for the company’s LinkedIn account.
All the best with your own placements!
April
