Communication Is Key
After I secured my placement back in August 2021 after a casual phone and in-person interview at Sub-Culture Productions in Bangor as I described in my first blog post, I was full of excitement, enthusiasm and a sense of hope for the hands-on industry experience I was going to experience as a result of my placement. However, this blog reflects on some of the challenges I faced as a part of my placement process using the Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
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Experience
At the in-person interview, myself and my placement provider discussed me starting my placement in September and what I would be doing, from helping with their social media to getting more hands-on practice on shoots, as well as getting practice with editing in post-production. However, September came and I emailed my placement provider with my availability but I heard nothing from him. No email, no phone call, no text, nothing. At first, I thought nothing of it and figured he must have been busy with the company. Then suddenly it was October. Still nothing. I decided to send a follow up email re-stating my availability and asking if he would like me to come into the office. Weeks went by. Still no reply. At this point I was starting to get increasingly more worried and anxious by the lack of communication. Did my placement fall through? Did he not want to take me on anymore? Was he just busy and bad at checking emails? Suddenly it was November, and I had still not started my placement, despite originally thinking I was supposed to start in September. Then, on a bleak November day I received a Facebook message request from my placement provider. It turns out his emails had been going straight to my spam folder so I was not seeing them, and he thought I was ignoring his emails, just as I had thought he was doing the same.
After we finally got in contact with each other after our many months of technical communication issues, we exchanged numbers to keep in contact with each other and I learned to check my spam regularly if I was expecting an email from him. Finally, my first day at my placement had been arranged. As I arrived at the office on a frosty December morning for my long-awaited first day, I was excited but nervous to be finally starting my placement. I was shown to my computer that I would be working on, and I was talked through what I would be doing for the next 8 hours. My first task was creating social media posts for the companies Facebook and Instagram to advertise the company and the services it provides. I was faced with using Canva for the first time and navigating a software I had never used before. At first, it took a while getting used to and I struggled at first with what type of posts to make as I was given little direction of what to create for the social media pages. I decided to look at the company’s social media pages and the existing posts to get an idea of what I should create. Once I had an idea of the style of the posts, I began creating my first post. I made sure to include the company’s key colours in the post and brainstormed eye-catching phrases for the posts that would attract customers as well as portray the company’s services well. At times I struggled to come up with what to include in the posts, as I was not completely sure what Chris wanted me to include. As I am quite a naturally reserved and shy person, I was nervous at first about asking him about any concerns or anything I was unsure about when given my task, as I did not want to disturb him or make him think I was incompetent at a simple task. However, I eventually decided to voice my uncertainties to him, and he quickly gave me some pointers and was more than willing to help and give advice and tips on how to use Canva.
I spent the next month or so at placement working in the office, sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours at a time in a freezing office with no heating in the height of winter. I continued to make social media posts, schedule the posts and got a little bit of practice editing videos. I found myself feeling unsatisfied and discouraged in my placement experience as I thought I would have been getting a more hands-on opportunities and experience on shoots, but so far I had just been sitting in front of a computer for hours on end, leaving me feeling quite restless. I was unsure what to do about my feelings, but I decided to bring it up to my placement provider. After expressing my feelings to him, he said that he had a shoot coming up and offered for me to come along to help out on the shoot for a more hands-on experience.
Reflection & Outcome
Reflecting on my experience, my placement has been mostly positive and I have gotten a good range of experience of working in the office, on shoots and with post-production elements such as editing. Upon reflection, I have realised that the main challenges I have faced during my placement have been due to communication. As D.D Morley states “Organisations that develop effective communication processes are more likely to both have more positive work environments and be more effective in achieving their objectives.” (Morley, 2002) Despite some communication problems at the start of the placement, I worked through them and became more vocal in expressing my concerns and doubts whilst on placement, and this has ultimately led me to learning more during my placement and has given me more opportunities to try out different things during my time at Sub-Culture, leading me to earn an offer to join the company part-time after I graduate. Ultimately, the biggest challenge I have overcame and the biggest lesson I have learned is that communication is key in the workplace, changing a slightly underwhelming experience into a more positive and rewarding one.
References
Morely, D., Shockley-Zalabak, P. and Cesaria, R., Organizational influence processes : perceptions of values, communication and effectiveness. Studies in Communication Sciences : journal of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (2002)
[1] Crowes Associates Ltd. ‘Gibbs Reflective Cycle,’ Available at: https://www.crowe-associates.co.uk/coaching-tools/gibbs-reflective-cycle/ (Accessed: 24th March 2022)
