What did I do?

My first day at Remarkable, I was shown around by the lovely Emma and introduced to the whole team (a super friendly bunch!) and the excitement of fire drill procedures. Then I was shown to my own desk which, i'll be honest, made me feel really important and professional. I'm 20 and working at a desk still makes me feel grown up, like a 7 year old walking in my mum's high heels! 


Emma designated me my first task, which was to research the local area near a site a client has just received building approval for, so that Remarkable could go and support the local community who may feel unhappy or slightly put out by the future changes. This didn't take too long and soon I was introduced to Gorkana, PR's best friend. I used this database to create a media list of Magazine VIPs for another client, to send press releases too. I used Gorkana more than a few times over the 2 weeks I was there, it seems to be the centre of a lot of administrative tasks.

Of course, I was also given writing tasks to do. Press releases. I enjoyed writing the two Gemma sent me, Cash Converters and Penn Pharma. The former was fun because I got to research a lot of television and World Cup statistics to throw in, and football and technology are two topics I know. The Penn Pharma release was slightly more challenging, I had to ring my parents and get some of their wisdom (having worked 20 and 25 years in the pharmaceutical business). Once I was informed, I was able to write up a full page.
Within my list of tasks, I also had some very daunting tasks, those that (god forbid) involved ringing people. 

From my daily observations here, being able to talk confidently and frequently on the phone is a prerequisite for PR and something that everyone here has mastered. As a serial texter, it's not something I tend to do often. However, as a professional (I have a desk) I swallowed the fear and proceeded to ring magazines for voucher copies, supermarket chains with partnership prospects and the framing company for prices and times. As stupid as it sounds, I actually felt accomplished every time I put the phone down.

There was one large job that pretty much dominated my work experience here at Remarkable, a mammoth task on Excel that spanned a total of two full days (on and off for three). Here's what it involved:
- Compiling email statistics (who opened a specific email and who also clicked a link within) into another spreadsheet
- Collating these statistics from days into weeks
- Laying out these weeks (February to April)
- A lot of mental maths
- Focus, so no employee is mentioned twice
I actually enjoyed this longer task. I could just plod my way through it, and a splash of colour helped liven up the Excel layout a bit!
In the last week, I was assigned a couple more press releases and the longer task of compiling tea and coffee bloggers for a company who want their own campaign to win new business.

It was quite exciting to know that Remarkable worked for Aldi and Cash Converters, high profile retailers! My time here was fairly filled, which I enjoyed. I also always felt that I could do the assigned tasks, which is great, no one wants to feel lost and need constant help. It also wasn't all easy, some jobs required a lot of research and time, which I liked, I was actually contributing to the business.