Reflecting on my experience as a whole, I have to be honest
and say I don’t feel I was able to benefit from what my international
internship had the potential to offer. The
majority of my days were spent on excel updating contact databases and conducting data entry for the monthly reports for various clients. Hours upon hours upon hours of data
entry. After a straight month of data
entry every day, I cannot look at another spreadsheet again!
I understand the significance of contact databases to public
relations and the importance of keeping them up-to-date, but there is much more
to public relations than data entry. I
would have appreciated if just a bit more of my time was allocated to exploring
other aspects and tasks within the profession. Unfortunately I feel I was not
given the opportunity to make the most of being abroad and to learn and
practice public relations within an international context. I probably averaged only one day per week in
which I was able to engage with the outside world - beyond the office and in
person rather than through phone or email.
 |
| Internship summary of work |
Perhaps I wasn't honest enough in my discontent with the amount of my time allocated to data entry. Perhaps I should have asked my team leader for more variety in my tasks. Due to my position as an intern, I struggled to do so. I felt it would make me appear unappreciative for the great opportunity I had been given, to be sent abroad to intern for an award winning agency! I also wondered who would do the work if I didn't do it. Our team was only small, our team leader, one public relations officer and myself. So I pushed through, delivering to the best of my ability.
Yes I am grateful for the opportunity. Yes I did learn a lot. Yes there were times I was allowed to venture
from my desk. And no, I would not have
changed my experience for an internship back home. My team members did bring me along to client meetings,
which I thoroughly enjoyed. I tried to
make the most of these opportunities by contributing to discussions, sharing
ideas and studying the behavior of the professionals on my team and the client
to grasp a greater understanding of client relations in practice. I was invited to attend a client pitch with
the CEO which I wrote about in an earlier post (see Pitching Perfectly) and my
supervisor often took me with her to drop off products for review or scan magazines
in news agencies for coverage on clients.
I felt I learnt much more about the public relations profession in the
short and infrequent interactions with clients and the Malaysian media than I
did completing weeks of data entry.
I chose to study public relations and took on this
opportunity abroad because I am very much a people person. I like to meet new people, share ideas and engage
with others. I had hoped to meet a range
of people and engage in person with others in the Malaysian business world, and
at times I did. However the majority of
people I spoke to were those working within the office and the receptionists I
was calling in order to fill in contact databases. But I really hope eight hours days of data entry is
not what is in stall for me in a public relations career.
Georgia
15560340
3 comments:
Hi Georgia,
I completed my internship at the same consultancy, so I understand where you are coming from. I spend a good few days re-naming computer files into a numerical system!
I agree, I definitely don't regret my experience. It was definitely a worthwhile experience, the more tedious tasks were outweighed by everything I learned.
Some of the tasks I was asked to do seemed pointless at times, but looking back I can now see the value. For example, I had to gather contact details for Malaysian celebrities. (Not an easy task when most of their pages are in Chinese or Malay). This did however develop my research skills, because I had to use my initiative to find these details (a lot of hunting through Instagram and Facebook).
All the best for your report,
Whitney Slater
Hey Georgia,
I also completely understand how you feel about the more tedious tasks when interning. I did a lot of data entry, and mundane phone calls.
There was also a lot of times where I wasn't doing anything at all, and it can be very easy- albeit sometimes warranted- to feel like the whole thing is a waste of your time. But there's so much value in the smaller tasks, and simply doing the time is an indication of your dedication to getting into the industry- so it is all worth it in the end!
Plus at least you got to explore a new city after work for a month!
All the best,
Daisy
Hi Georgia,
It was so interesting reading your post. I must admit if someone had said to me they had done a internship overseas I would have thought they'd have the most amazing time, not keeping in mind that there would been a lot of administration tasks as well. I hope your next job someone is much more exciting for you.
Chloe
Post a Comment