Finally managed to obtain access to start blogging. Shall start with my activities last week to make up for loss time and the fact that this week isn't over of course.
Was actively searching for positions around, both through my peers, contacts as well as through online sites and portals when I was finally offered a position at ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises) for an internship of a month.
I was warmly greeted by my colleagues to-be and assigned a mentor on my first day of work. Since they all seemed pretty busy (which job isn't these days?) and I was new to the job, I was basically assigned the task to read up on the organisation, its activities, council members, etc. and tasked to learn more about the organisation and what they offer and do. For the uninitiated, ASME is a not-for-profit organisation that caters to serve to the needs of small and medium enterprises (particularly local ones) and champions for a pro-enterprise environment in Singapore. Various activities that it conducts includes Business Networking events, Award Shows (Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Singapore Prestige Brand Award), Public-Private collaborations (dialogue sessions, talks with/by government agencies), etc. For more info, please visit http://www.asme.org.sg . I shall stop my advertisement of ASME here. I was also assigned to my desk where I shall work from for the foreseeable future.
(Cubicle? Work Station? Work Desk? Cell? Jail?)
Moving on, what seemed like an uneventful day suddenly changed 180 degrees as I learnt from my mentor that I shall be following the team on my 2nd day to an event! And instead of feeling upset (as a small minority would) or nervous (as a good majority would), I felt happy and excited that I would be exposed to such an event so early on in my internship (and an opportunity to get away from often dry administrative or office duties).
The event turns out to be a talk held at the old SPRING Singapore building (which happens to be near our office) involving SME business owners on the topic of "Workplace Health Promotion", Speakers focused on talking about government initiatives to help SME owners in improving health, fitness and work-life balance at their organisations with schemes and grants as well as talking about general statistics, facts and figures regarding the issue. We thought it would be a good idea to sit through the talk and find out more, but it turned out to be a mistake as other than the first speaker, the rest of the speaker were erm.. not quite inspiring to say the least.
But our job there wasn't just to listen to the speakers and the talk, our main goal there was to set camp and reach out to as many SME owners as possible attending the event to learn more about ASME and reach out to them. So just to prove that we weren't lazing around, here's "evidence" of us in action:
(Our booth at the event. Lady on the rightmost is my mentor, a (so-far) patient lady by the name of Eslyn)
Most of the business owners and attendees that we met there mostly gave us a positive response which is kinda surprising as one would reasonably expect cold responses from one being approached by a stranger trying to "push" or "sell" you things. Perhaps is due to the fact that we are ostensibly a non-for-profit organisation that is mainly there to help SME organisations rather than sell them products or services that they have little need for. I managed to speak to quite a few business owners, some of whom showed interest in joining us as members and participate in our community.
I wouldn't say that my first few days on the job has exactly been a dream job that most would die for, but at least it involved events and some other exciting learning activities or experience that one wouldn't get from a strictly office-based job. Might also get to dabble with more PR-related stuff such as media monitoring next week (as I saw my mentor doing it in the office). If that's the case, I look forward to the next working week with enthusiasm and looking to experience and learn more new things about the organisation, PR-related things and the industry as a whole.
Signing off,
Nick Chia
Curtin Singapore
2 comments:
Hi Nick,
I am currently studying at Curtin Bentley campus in Perth and I am finding there are a lot of students from overseas campuses completing their placements at the same time as me. It was interesting to hear about the organisation you are completing your placement. I have been trying to work out what the Australian equivalent is and I think it may be the Small Business Centre, however this organisation is government run but I am sure there are similar organisations that are privately run in Australia.
I understand the need to find out exactly what an organisation does and what its vital function is in society. I am still finding myself asking questions about how PPR (Professional Public Relations, a PR consultancy in Perth) performs particular functions such as how media monitoring is completed, how new business is introduced to the organisation and how client teams organised. I have also begun to question why the tasks I am performing are important and how they link to the overall goal of the client. For example I was asked this week to find details for a number of food and wine events in Western Australia. I asked the consultant why this task needed to be performed and she explained that her client’s organisation is based around promoting the Australian agriculture industry. Small tasks seem to make more sense when they are put in context of the overall picture.
I do feel some sympathy towards you in relation to the workspace you have been assigned to. It looks from the image posted quite small and cut off from everyone else. I am lucky enough to be working in an environment where everyone’s workspaces are open and there are no partitions separating us from one another. This allows both a flow of communication and ideas from different people in the area as well as the feeling of openness and space. There are some downsides; you can hear what everyone else is doing- whether it be talking on the phone or typing vigorously – sometimes it can be too much to handle.
I hope you get the opportunity to perform less administrative based tasks. If you get a chance to perform media monitoring, it is a great skill to have. I have only just learnt how to value clippings in the last week but already I can see the benefits of learning this skill as this is a key task performed by many public relations practitioners daily and is invaluable to know.
I wish you all the best for the rest of your placement and your future studies.
Deanne
Bentley Campus
Hey all, thanks for the comments (and the support?). Been outdoors and working these couple of days so have only been able to reply now.
Mary > Thanks for your support, i'll post more updates soon later when time permits, this post actually chronicles the first 3 days of my internship (which began about two weeks ago), so its lagging by a week. And i had a good weekend, hope yours was great too.
Deanne > I think there's an Australian Equivalent to ASME, they are called SME Association of Australia, i found out about them because they often posted on our facebook page.
As for my workspace, i guess it was the angle of the picture as well, i am actually surrounded by colleagues (and two managers) in close proximity within a small room. And ya, while the partition may hinder conversations, i actually think it might not be a bad thing sometimes as some of us may need some privacy to concentrate on our work at times (esp when deadlines and schedules are tight). Well, those are just my two cents though, works well for me at times.
I'll try to post more updates and leave comments on both your pages later on. Thank you both once again for your leaving comments here, i wish both you ladies all the very best in your endeavours.
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