Sound Advice’s latest fifth-birthday post from a past intern, is by Raluca Maier, who arrived to complete her post-graduate diploma in PR.
My story at Sound Advice started in early 2011, when I had the chance to work next to Caroline Carswell on many projects. Sound Advice was launching its Facebook page, organising its workshops for teens and was teaming with a Young Social Innovators group, to promote the need for newborn hearing tests.
Working with a student group from Our Lady’s Dundalk, who entered the YSI contest with a project on deafness, helped Sound Advice a lot. Apart from being deaf for a lunch-hour and subtitling YouTube videos, the students created a Facebook Causes Page for UNHS (Universal Newborn Hearing Screening).
As Sound Advice was working to inform parents and the national health service of the importance of UNHS, this was a big help and I loved being in the project.
What did you like best about working with Sound Advice?
I had a lot of autonomy and initiative – writing website content, developing the Facebook page, organising workshops – but I was also helped and understood when I felt lost or scared by doing things for the first time.
This is why the experience with Sound Advice helped me grow and learn that almost anything can be solved with patience and a professional attitude. And that you don’t have to be afraid of mistakes – they are inevitable and that’s how you get things right next time. It also showed me that when there is passion for what you do, you can build a lot from almost nothing.
What did you find most challenging about working with Sound Advice?
It was fun and exciting, but also challenging to get to work with and to be surrounded by people with hearing issues. As a communications graduate, it showed me communicating is not all about words, talking (and hearing), but about finding new ways of communicating with others, no matter what.
Did working with Sound Advice shape your work after moving on from here?
Having the chance to work on the PR and events management side of Sound Advice made me clarify my goals for my future career and what I really want to do. Also, seeing Caroline do such amazing things with Sound Advice developed my entrepreneur instincts and made me want to create something that I believe in and that I’m passionate about, when the right time comes.
I am very grateful to Caroline and the Sound Advice team for giving me this enriching opportunity and wish them a very happy birthday and many more in future!
(compiled by Raluca Maier)
Further Reading
- UNHS: Obligatory, Voluntary Or Not Necessary?
- Drogheda YSI Group Reaches National Showcase
- Newborn Hearing Tests Start In Cork This Month
- Publication of HSE South Audiology Review 2009
- Cork University Maternity Hospital Begins UNHS
- Sound Advice Shortlisted In Elevate PR’s €10k Campaign
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