My Time at Caringa

Discovering Caringa

I first discovered Caringa during my work experience that I did in 10^th Grade. They were a client of the business I was working at; so their name got brought up fairly regularly.

Then, came 11^th Grade where I started my Business Services Course. For this course, I’m required to do a week of work experience in an office environment. They provided us with a list of businesses that could choose to go to. Since I recognised Caringa on the list I decided to go there.

Beginnings at Caringa

When I first arrived, I was given a tour around the building and was introduced to all the friendly faces that I would see in and around the office. Everyone was welcoming and friendly so I was ready for a great week.

I started off getting accustomed to the work environment while helping people out with odd jobs around the place. Mostly organising paper, dumping old documents and running errands like picking up post and going to the shops. All that was until I got to…

The Box

“The Box” as I have dubbed it was a box of probably thousands of printed polaroids and old developed photographs of participants from Caringa.

There were photos of people, events, and places, and my task was to scan all of the pictures so that they could be digitally preserved. The number of photos was huge and it took me a lot of effort over a whole 2 days to complete the task, but it was worth it.

Getting to see all these memories was an incredible experience. Although, my arm wasn’t particularly happy due to all the repetitive strain.

⭐ Note from the Caringa Crew:

The work that Josh did preserving and digitalising some vital memories of Caringa’s history (71 years = a LOT of photos); was above & beyond!!

Working on the Comms team

After I had finished with the “boring” office jobs I got invited to help out on the comms team. I accepted and got to work with Chase and Angela.

The first project I worked on was some logo design for Caringa Spark Radio. Both Chase and I were working on logo concepts for it. It was fun being given full creative freedom to do whatever I liked so I was pumped. By the end, our logos were submitted and the results came back. Chase’s logo was the final pick, which I’m not upset about at all. Thinking back on it his design is definitely better suited. In the end, I didn’t have too much involvement with the final logo, as it was Chase’s work, but I like to think that I helped out a bit by giving feedback where needed 😉.

Colourworks

When I turned up in the morning I was quite surprised to be informed that a commercial was being filmed at Caringa and I would be there to help out with things. The ad was for Colourworks, the company that provides printing and scanning services for Caringa.

While they were here I helped out with carrying things, filming behind-the-scenes content, and eating the muffins that Colourworks had brought for morning tea. Overall, it was great.

Getting to talk to the Colourworks team gave me insight into how businesses have relationships with one another, which was great to learn about.

⭐ Note from Angela @ Caringa:

Here is the final Colourworks video – Josh was an integral part of the Gen Z Team on the day of Chase, Leah, Darnell & Kal to get the finished product!

Finishing the first week

I finished off the week by helping make up some induction packages for newly hired Caringa employees. Because of that, I was entrusted with the ✨company credit card✨ to go buy some paper bags to put all of the booklets that I helped make up in the bag. It was pretty cool being asked to do that, it was the moment that I truly knew I was trusted in Caringa.

So that’s where my week of work experience ended, I finished with the induction stuff, went around and said goodbye to everyone and then I went home.

Back again?

Later in the year, the students in 11^th Grade have to complete a mandatory work experience that we organise on our own.

When it came time for me to pick my business I first went with another business that wasn’t Caringa because my teacher had told me that they were willing to take someone for work experience. I went to their location in person, talked to someone there and they told me to email them to organise it. I emailed them, and I waited for quite a while, then I followed up because I got no response, and then I gave up waiting because I had 2 days left to organise and I was done sitting on my hands.

Since the deadline fell the day after the end of my school camp I decided that I was going to reach out to someone while making our way home from Moreton Island.

It was late and I was on the bus home when I decided to reach out to Angela. She had said to me prior that Caringa would love to have me back again if there were any more work experience times in the future, so I guess they were in luck. I shot an email to Angela and within half an hour I had a response saying that they would love to have me back.

Week Two: Electric Boogaloo

I started my second week with Caringa on a Monday morning with Angela on the Comms team once more.

I got immediately to work, planning up some designs that I would later finish on the Tuesday. Some of these designs were social media posts which you can find on Caringa’s Facebook

(pssst that’s here https://www.facebook.com/Caringaaustralia/ ).

Some of the posts I worked on over the first few days were the Relay for Life trivia night, the Koori Knockout, and the RUOK Day Recap.

It’s really fun to work on some of the more public facing things at Caringa, and it was cool learning how to fully utilize some of the creative tools that they use.

⭐ Note from Angela @ Caringa:

Here are some examples of the work Josh created for us this week – watch out for his work on the Blog and our Facebook page in the weeks to come as future approved and scheduled content!

Throughout the week

I kept working on creative and social media things like thumbnails for the blog and high-quality versions of the sprout.ed logo throughout the week.

One day when I was working I got asked to finish a job interview, at first, I was a bit confused but the next minute I was put straight in. I was interviewing someone for a job at Caringa, which was daunting, but it was really cool being given the opportunity. The person we were interviewing was also really cool and made great conversation.

I later used some of my IT expertise to help people around the office with some tech issues which was a fun way to spice things up. Dan Trickett even suggested that I should get a raise 🤣.

To Conclude…

Now here I am, at the end of my second week of work experience at Caringa, writing this blog post to summarise my time here, to give a little insight into my time spent at Caringa.

If I were to use one word to describe my time here it would be “amazing”! Everyone here at the office is lovely, and the participants here are amazing too. I’m so happy that I got to spend my time in such a great place and I don’t feel like a moment was wasted.

From my time helping scan the photos, the filming we did with Colorworks, designing for social media, to interacting with participants, I’ve been learning crucial skills for use within the office, and I’ve learnt people skills that will benefit me for the rest of my life.

⭐ Note from the Caringa Crew:

😭⭐Don’t go Josh!!!! 😭⭐

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