17 Nov A Message From Juno
My name is Juno Te’o and I am a Year 10 student currently attending a school in North Sydney. From the 14th to the 16th November, I worked at Double Edge PR as part of my school Work Experience program. The aim of the Work Experience program is to give high school students like myself a taste of what the work force had to offer and what it entailed. This way, we can prepare ourselves fully for the rest of our secondary/tertiary studies and our further career pursuits.
Prior to my Work Experience, I had no idea what a Public Relations company did. Actually, I lie. I had no idea what Public Relations actually was. So when I arrived at 15 Chuter St bright and early at 9 am, I had no idea what to expect. When I walked through the front door, I was met by the owners Simone and Michelle Larmer (one of whom I babysit for) who introduced me to the four person team; Lauren, Sarah, Nelia and Vanessa. For the three days I was there, it was mainly Lauren who supervised me by finding me work to do and giving me general advice on the workings of the office e.g. how to work the scanner, how to mail things off and how to address people on the phone.
During my stay here there was no shortage of work for me to do. I did a bit of everything, from brainstorming to administration to research. Some of my responsibilities included mailing the Nighwave Sleep Product to Vogue Australia, scanning and clipping editorials for clients, brainstorming ideas for Welcome Packs and researching exhibitionists at the AIFF. Although it was interesting performing these jobs, there was a lot I had to do. I was grateful once yoga came around on Wednesday, which gave us all time to relax.
My experience at Double Edge PR has not only enriched my understanding of Public Relations, I also learnt many things about what it means to be a part of the work force. Some of the clients that Double Edge PR is currently working with include Nightwave (a light designed to help people fall asleep), DisneyLive! (a performance featuring Disney characters) and AIFF (showing at The Sydney Exhibition Centre from the 1st-3rd of February). The jobs that the team had to do varied from client to client. For Nightwave, Sarah, Nelia and Michelle looking for case studies, Vanessa monitored the King Furniture Facebook competition and Lauren obtained images of AIFF furniture for promotion. It was through observing members of staff and completing the tasks given to me that I learnt not only about the inner workings of a PR firm, but the importance of cooperation, focus and dedication that is needed when working with clients such as the ones listed above.
Overall, my experience here at Double Edge PR was interesting and enjoyable. The staff was incredibly nice to me throughout my stay and taught me that working in Public Relations can be a very fulfilling job (so much so that I may consider pursuing it as a career path)!