Week 3: Some Help Would Be Nice

I'm staring at the blinking cursor on my laptop screen. My gut is tightening at the thought that I've got nothing. Absolutely zilch to show for these past two hours.

Don't you just wish it would type for you sometimes? You know, come up with the content and all. Usually I'm full of words. I can't stop talking. In fact, my friends always tell me I need to learn when to slow down a little.

But this time, it's different. This time, I've been given a 3,000 word research paper to write, and I don't know where to begin. It has to be something breathtaking. Something that will make the examiner sit back in their seat, put down their glasses and nod to themselves, thinking: "Yep. This girl knows her stuff. I need to give her an HD."

And so starts the month of assignments.

"Andrea! What on earth are you doing?"

Yikes. 8:40am. Time for work.

Twenty minutes later, I'm rushing into our Barcelona office, coffee in hand, my handbag swinging at my side. Within minutes, I've switched the computer turned on and have opened up Google Calendar.

Ok, now let's see what meetings we've got on today...

9.30am: Adobe Design Workshop.

Whoops, forgot about that. Never mind, let's keep scrolling down...

1:30pm: Yoga.

Hmm, might be a tad awkward with my pencil dress I've got on right now. I keep scrolling down...

3:00pm: IA Workshop.

I run a hand through my hair, pulling a funny face. Give me a minute, I need to think.

IA?... IA...

IA... Oh yeah! Information Architecture. Why they've chosen such a fancy name is beyond me. They could've just called it "Website Brainstorming Session". But I suppose that doesn't sound nearly half as important!

Over the next few hours, I scoff down as much coffee as I can in between meetings (yep, now that I've actually learnt how to use the coffee machine, it's admittedly become my new best friend!!), when an email notification pops up in the top hand corner of my screen.

Frowning, I click on the message and read this:

You have been given access to the RMIT Europe Intranet page. Please click on the link below...

I stare at it for a moment. Intranet? I thought we were creating a website...

"No, there's two of them in the works at the moment," my supervisor tells me in our meeting. "The Website's for external stakeholders, so they know what's happening here at RMIT Europe. Whereas the Intranet's purely for our own staff and students."

She goes on to tell me about the different sections of the website - Newsletters, Events, Feedback Form, Contact Page, Global Mobility Options - when I start to realise how incredible this feels, to witness a business grow at the very first stages of conceptualisation.

This isn't another uni textbook assignment. It's a real organisation, our organisation, and I have the chance to help it grow into something big, so that everyone back in Melbourne knows who we are and what we stand for.

Over the next few days, my colleagues flood my inbox with messages about what sections I need to create for the Intranet, and what content needs to be updated.

Turns out, there's an entire document dedicated to RMIT branding. Everything from what size font to use, to the minimum aspect ratio of the RMIT logo. They've even got a full page dedicated to creating our RMIT wedge that sits behind every footer. I bet you didn't even notice it. But the angle measurements are there. One degree out, and you have to delete it. Talk about OCD.

You might laugh, but you need these things to create branding consistency, to ensure you've got the best chance of communicating a strong image to everyone out there. Think about all those big names like Google, McDonalds, Apple. They have some sort of branding toolkit, trust me. If you walked past a McDonalds sign and saw that the "M" was the wrong shade of yellow, even by just a tad, it would make you frown.

It's minor things like this we have to avoid, even at RMIT Europe.

And so I find myself proofreading everything posted on the Intranet. We've created a Google Drive spreadsheet, so we can keep track of tiny mistakes we need to fix. Hyperlinks highlighted the wrong shade of red. Headings capitalised as "Upcoming Events of 2016", rather than Upcoming Events Of 2016". The list goes on.

These are just small mistakes. However, the one horribly plain mistake that anyone would notice, even without this spreadsheet, would be the photo formatting. At the moment, the event photos won't fit properly in the boxes. It's enough to drive any person crazy.

Unfortunately, we aren't just any person.

At the moment, I've got three colleagues madly sending me emails, saying they can't figure out how to fix the problem. If we can't get it to work, we'll have to skype the IT department back in Melbourne.

Everyone groans at their work desks. Skype meeting at 7am. No thanks.

After two hours of struggling with the images, I realise that I'm gonna have to resort to my very last option.

HTML coding.

Biting my bottom lip, I open up the HTML panel, and find this staring back at me:

<div.jimage.fjf><ifdidfgiojdig><omg><srt.html//omgomgomg.imt.dud><djd?>

Ok, that's probably not what it actually says. But to someone who has no basic IT knowledge, it may as well look like a jumble of nonsense.

I spend the afternoon playing around with the coding. Deleting a symbol here, adding a few keystrokes there. Most of the time, it comes up with a huge "WARNING" sign. I just press the DISCARD CHANGES button before it stuffs up the entire website.

Slowly, I realise that life would be so much simpler if I just read some basic HTML coding instructions online. So that's how I spend my afternoon. Reading through HTML coding instruction manuals online. Meanwhile, playing around with the website coding as much as possible.

Eventually, the website starts responding to my requests. I feel like I'm training a young puppy for the first time. I give it a few instructions. I'm patient, adjust my commands here and there. But slowly, we come to some sort of agreement on how things will work between us. Soon, I'm pasting photos wherever on the webpage, and giving it requests to place itself neatly in the corner, with a tiny, red border and a heading. I smile to myself. I feel like my puppy has just fetched me my own newspaper, and I haven't had to move a muscle. Let's just say, life feels good right now.

So, one job completed: formatting photos for the website. The rest, I can deal with tomorrow.

I shut down my computer.

By the time I get home, it's almost 6:30pm. I stuff my bag on the kitchen table and take out my laptop.mBack to my research paper...

Oh, by the expression you just pulled, dear reader, I'm guessing you forgot all about it. But don't worry, I've been keeping tabs on it. In fact, I think I might start typing it right now. Trust me, you'll get bored. It's not very interesting. Plus we can always continue this next week...

Actually, wait. There's one thing you can help me with.

A research topic.

It can be anything. Horses, flying elephants. Just so long as it's relevant to the work I've being doing at RMIT Europe. Should be easy. After all, I've been telling you all about my work these past few weeks...

Hold on, you have been paying attention, haven't you...?

No? You haven't?

Haha it's ok. Neither have I.

But honestly, dear reader, you're already being a huge help. Just by listening to what I have to say, and letting me bounce ideas off you, no matter how stupid they may sound.

Ok... I clear my throat. Here it goes...

Maybe something to do with financial accounting practices in the workplace, or documenting HR processes? After all, I'm here to ensure everything's consistent across all the RMIT Europe processes...

Yikes, ok, that look says it all. Back to the drawing board...

How about marketing perceptions then? I've been jabbering on about brand consistency quite a lot lately. Maybe I could find the links between brand perception and... and... reporting procedures? Or business sustainability?

Hmm, that's ok, you don't have to pretend you like it. We're getting there though...

Hold on. Repeat what you just said?

You... you want me to.... oh. That's brilliant! You've got it.

The links between corporate social responsibility reporting and brand image.

So in other words, you want me to look at whether businesses can use corporate social responsibility reporting to create positive brand perceptions...

Oh, you're amazing, you know that? I could kiss you!!

Well no, I don't think I'll kiss the computer screen, so you'll have to imagine me kissing you, on each cheek in Catalan style.

But for now, dear reader, I have a research report to be writing.

Moltes graciès!