The process of getting an Internship

Hi All,

My name is Roche Kwan, a final year student at Curtin Singapore. I chose to do my internship module as my final module so that i give myself the option to carry on with whichever organization i am with during my internship.

Deciding which agency was not an easy task, the popular or larger agencies are always the favorite pick by all students and it is very competitive to secure a place in such an agency. I felt that even if i were to land a job at the large agencies, the learning opportunities may not be there as these agencies would not risk allowing their interns to get their hands on the important tasks. I did not want to do any in-house Public Relations as it would narrow my scope and i would be doing similar tasks most of the time. That left me with the smaller sized agencies, it was surprising to find out that in Singapore there were many small sized agencies, even though most of them were Marketing Communications agencies which had a larger focus on Marketing.

When i sent out my resumes to the few agencies i chose, i was hoping that whichever agency that i would be interning with must have an interesting group of people that i can work with. I always felt that the people around me when i am working is the most important aspect to a job because if the team is bright and cheerful, working hours would not be such a bore and i would always look forward to the job.

3 agencies called me down for interviews and writing tests. When i heard that there was a writing test, the first thing that came to mind was "what do they want me to write?" i remember myself reading up as much on PR writing as i could for three days. The interviews and test went smoothly, and during the interviews, i have made up my mind on which agency i wanted the most. Cohn & Wolfe XPR was the agency that i wanted the most because of their clientele, they have a strong presence in the gaming technology and video games industry. When i received a acceptance letter form another agency i was very reluctant to accept it, i decided to delay my reply for as long as i could, in hope that Cohn & Wolfe would reply me. Thankfully i got accepted by Cohn & Wolfe within the week and i accepted the offer immediately.

When i entered the office for my first day, i was shocked by the work that they have given me, on my first day i was asked to localize a press release and also invited to participate in a brainstorming session that the team was having. During a short meeting with my supervisors, they told me that the company's client volume is growing faster than the number of employees and  that was the reason that i did not have an orientation period and was thrown straight into the work blender.