At the beginning of my third year of university I was uncertain how my marketing major could be used in the future and how theoretical concepts learnt in university could be used in the workplace. I was also confused about how to get experience in the workplace. I then landed a TaurusAcademy© internship, a 3-month marketing and PR internship that exposes students to public relations, marketing, entrepreneurship, operations, building personal brands, and social media practices in a warm culture founded on the highest standards.
I now find myself sitting at the end of my 3-month internship, reflecting on my remarkable experience at Taurus. The Taurus team have supported me throughout the whole journey. From the beginning when I was nervous about the unknown of working in a populous office building, to now where I feel comforted and supported working in a caring team. I can say that waking up at 6am and travelling 2 hours by train to the Taurus office in Barangaroo two days a week was definitely worth it.
At the start of my internship, I had no idea what working in a corporate office was like, as I had only ever worked in customer service and retail roles prior to this experience. Despite this, I was welcomed with warm arms by the team. Right from the beginning I was working alongside Founder Sharon Williams, where she was interested in the interns and ensuring we were settling in well. She taught me many lessons including the importance of building your personal brand. Moreover, the Senior Account Manager, Emily Brex fostered a safe space for me within the entirety of the internship. I shadowed her role and took on daily task lists from her. Furthermore, the Managing Director, Samantha Sakr gave knowledgeable insights and advice to me right from the beginning.
Throughout my TaurusAcademy© internship, I learnt many technical skills, concepts, and elements which make up the corporate world of PR and Marketing. I completed daily tasks of media monitoring for clients. Other tasks included compiling master lists, compiling FYIs for current and prospect clients, draft media pitches, clippings, research tasks, client fortnightly analyses and more. I found it very insightful to learn about these PR and Marketing practices which I was previously unaware of. Moreover, during semester 1 at university this year I undertook a unit titled ‘Digital Marketing’ which had a strong focus on the theoretical concept of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Last week at Taurus I was asked to complete a task involving SEO and finding Taurus’s specific SEO keywords in a document. This was a highlight of the internship for me as I was able to understand how a theoretical concept can be brought to life and used in a practical real life situation.
Moreover, working for Taurus not only taught me technical expertise but also how to navigate the corporate world. I gained many new soft skills which included writing important professional emails and sending them to the team. Along with communicating professionally with team members and managers, and that asking questions is essential if you are unsure of something. Furthermore, throughout this internship I participated in some work from home days, which was an eye-opening experience. As I had only ever done school from home and never ‘worked’ from home before. Working from home has prepared me to be adaptable and for any work from home days/roles in my future career. It taught me how you can work and collaborate with team members even from home, along with furthering my knowledge in communication platforms such as Microsoft Teams. Another non-technical skill I learnt was training new interns. When new interns came into the program I was asked to mentor and train them, which developed my interpersonal, communication and teamwork skills even further.
Now at the conclusion of my internship as I part ways with Taurus and venture into my future career, I take with me the valuable knowledge of PR and marketing processes I learnt along the way. I also take with me the soft skills of teamwork, communication, sending professional emails, and adaptation to a professional office environment, with me as I enter the corporate world. These technical skills, soft skills, and new connections in the PR and marketing industry which I made whilst interning at Taurus have given me confidence and a strong foundation to build on in many rapidly evolving industries. I am eager and excited to use this knowledge throughout the rest of my university degree, and to transfer these skills/knowledge into a range of different industries as I am unsure which industry I will end up in.