Look beyond the surface, and you might find that there’s more than meets the eye.

Greetings to one and all, alas, my first blog post! I have since commenced my internship for quite a while now in a fashion and lifestyle-centric public relations (PR) consultancy. Time has been moving at a whirlwind pace; case in point: in a twinkling of an eye – five events had gone by, in addition to the office’s relocation. As I paused to take a breather, it became apparent that it was definitely due time to get my post underway.

This experience has been an exhilarating one thus far. I have to admit, it is infinitely delightful to work in an organisation that walks in tandem with my interests: art, music, food and fashion. Since my commencement, I have been involved in an array of tasks, some of these include the customary media monitoring, research and writing – to the consolidation of press clippings, photocopying and scanning. Classically, certain tasks may seem more piquant than the other, and sure, as us interns, more often than not we are known as the team’s gopher. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you a unique piece of advice I received back in the day, which left indelible mark in my memory.

One of my previous lecturers shared with us, her very own experience during an internship where she had a simple, yet repetitive and monotonous task of photocopying amplitude of papers for her superior. Whilst others viewed the task as one of no relevance, she begs to differ – elucidating that every minute errand allocated to you can possess a significant value, the question is how you decide to make of it. Consequently, instead of obliviously copying the items, she capitalised on both the task and time by also reading through the contents – thereby broadening her knowledge on information which many others unless the intended for, are restricted to. Additionally, if you are tasked to make copies, she quipped that you had better be the best copier there has ever been.

The intrinsic value from this advice is that there should be no task that is beneath us. Should a superior assign us something as immense as executing a press conference, or as little as mending the database – we should not shun at the very sight of it, but perform it with a mental note asking ourselves what are the takeaways we can gather? At the end of the day, an internship provides us a platform for learning, and in turn our responsibility is to make the lives of those we work for easier, by helping to complete even the smallest of tasks.

So the next time you are told to update a media list, you might consider employing the time to also familiarise yourself with the individual’s name, title, and address – which will prove handy during the later stages of your career, and that is how you can stay ahead of the game.

I now leave you with some images of what I had been busy with, and I anticipate sharing more of my experience with all of you in the next post. In the meantime, here is to a lovely internship!

Cheers,

Jac

15115009

"The launch of an Italian trattoria – OTTO Locanda."

"Absolutely stoked to have Seafolly as one of our clients."

"The result following the preparation of press kits."

"...unboxing begins!"