Apologies for the late entry to the blogging world. The initial weeks have been really hard, trying to juggle between the hectic demands of sales and the desk bound jobs of PR.
Interning in the PR department has opened new revelations on what PR is all about.
Firstly, I learn the importance of being on time. Clocking in at exactly 830am isn’t exactly my forte, it is especially trying when I’ve been suited to coming in only in the late afternoon as part of my sales duty requires me to be out in the field.
Apart from being on time, one of the early tasks was to flip open the numerous newspapers in search for news worthy articles about Pearson, our competitors etc. I have to admit that scrolling through the many pages isn’t the most exciting thing to do, in fact, many a time I felt restless and find myself wishing that I’m out in the field instead. However as days goes by, spotting news worthy articles becomes less tedious and I felt a sense of fulfillment whenever I am able to spot a news worthy article. Reason why we have to constantly keep a lookout for articles relating to the business was because we will be organizing a few launches and also our CEO, Marjorie Scardino would be coming down to Singapore to discuss some major educational policies and direction with Ministry of Education thus the need for relevant information and knowledge of market. Well the good thing is, throughout the search for relevant articles, I find myself learning more and more on current happenings and now I realize that suddenly I seem to have a better grasp of general knowledge :)
Working with the people in PR and Marketing department is certainly an eye opener. Though they are familiar faces, working with them is an entirely different experience altogether. While sales people are more on the go and action driven, I find my PR colleagues a little bit more reserved and will go through a whole lot of thinking process before implementing their actions. Possibly due to the different nature of the result where sales would be more results oriented while PR looks at the big picture as a whole!
Till the next entry which will be soon, I promise :)
4 comments:
Being on time is also something I have been struggling with for my practical. However punctuality is very important in Japan, especially since many of the people I meet have busy schedules themselves. I'm sure doesn't just relate to the Japanese people but everybody around the world.
I actually found that I quite enjoy researching through newspapers or magazines to find news-worthy articles! I tend to find many interesting information from doing this!! But I guess it could be overwhelming when you have a lot to look through but have limited time.
I hope the rest of your internship goes well!
Cintya
HI Fara!
Glad to see you've managed to get your hands on some PR work! It must be doubly hard for you now that you have to juggle between two job scopes that are polar opposites of each other. (And I thought my life was tough!)
I'd have to admit. The early hours are the one thing that renders me inefficient for the rest of the day. Ideally, I should reach the office by 9am. By the second week it was 9.30am, and now - 10am. I feel so hopeless for being utterly tardy because I simply can't get myself out of bed. If only there was a solution to this!
I must also admit that I didn't expect the workload. Not at all. The entire is spent constantly typing and looking at the computer screen and yet, none of us ever leaves the office at 6 sharp. Most of the time, we end up leaving only at 7 or 7.30. Good thing is, FH provides a taxi ride home - but only if you work till 9pm.
Anyways, I wish you luck! :)
Cheers!
Hi Fara!
Good to know that you've gotten your placement settled! I have the same sentiments as Samantha with you have to juggle two jobs and not to mention school.
For me, the location of my workplace is really inconvenient! BANG PR is located at Raeburn park. Thankfully, there's a shuttle bus that brings us in from Outram MRT.
Like you, the first thing I do in the morning is to flip through the papers too! We look out for clients who are mentioned or other news that might be relevant to them. However, we do get the privilege to use Factiva! Do you?
From my experience, there's a lot of brainstorming that goes into a pitch or any work that involves clients because there may be repercussions! Especially when it comes to ethics and consideration of the public.
Good luck with your internship!
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