Thursday, December 17, 2015

A Challenging Start with SOPB

Dear All,

Hello! My name is Chung Jia Yiing or you guys can just call me Caslyn! I am majoring in Public Relations and Management at Curtin University Sarawak. During my 3 months internship period, I will keep on update my blog together with Sarawak Oil Palm Berhad (SOPB).

As mentioned above, I am working with SOPB, the key player in the Sarawak’s oil palm industry. Since 1968, SOPB expand their business activities to different fields, which closely related to the oil palm. Throughout these few years, SOPB able to stand still as a market leader among their rivalry with the support of efficiency management team.


Figure 1: Sarawak Oil Palm Berhad in the early morning.

The first day of my internship is the final day of my senior, Jaafar. He finished his 20 days internship and pass me his role as a PR intern. After a short introduction, my assistant manager had a quick interview with me. He raised some concerns on me but both of us seems positive to my performance in the future. I really thankful that they are willing to accept me as an intern because I am not familiar with some professional software. However, I believe that I am a fast learner and able to adopt changes in the fast-pacing environment.

Figure 2: My PR Department! 

The first job given to me was to prepare the Christmas’s decoration wordings as Christmas is just around the corner.
Figure 3: The "Christmas" glitter is everywhere!


We took few days to get ready all the decorations and accessories. The photos below show the different decorations at different HQ.

Figure 4: Christmas decorations made up by recycle materials are placed at HQ 1.


Figure 5: Snowball for sale at HQ 2.

Figure 6: A small Christmas tree on my working desk.



Other than involving the set up of decorations, I also involve in SOPB's Corporate Social Responsibility activities, which are Young Achiever Award and Student Adoption Program. SOPB shows their responsibilities by give back to the society. Students with excellent academic performances as well as the extra-curriculum are qualified to deserve their rewards from the company. I had been assigned to do research on the information on schools nearby our estates in order to enhance the usability of our CSR activities. Besides that, I am glad that have an opportunity to learn photography skills from a photographer with more than 8 years’ experience! I am enjoying my time of acquiring image with professional camera. That’s all the first week of my internship with SOPB! 

December is a month of blessing. I wish you all a very merry Christmas!



Warmest Regards,
Chung Jia Yiing
17136837 / 7e2a1122
Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia



5 comments:

Alina Hazeman said...

Hi Caslyn! I love how when you just started your internship and your first task is to decorate for Christmas! I think this is a good warm-up before you start on something more intense isn't it, you must have had fun there! I wish you all the best with your internship :)

xo

Unknown said...

That's actually quite an interesting start for your internship! I also went through the preparing and decorating process and it is quite fun and challenging although for different events. Thanks for sharing the beginning of your work experience. Do keep us posted for more! All the best for your internship!

Unknown said...

Hi Caslyn! I really love what you guys have done as a preparation for Christmas. The decoration looks great and i can feel the spirit of Christmas when i saw the pictures that you have shared with us. Good job, Caslyn! You sure know how to have fun and managed to do a good work done at the same time. Keep it up and all the best in your internship Caslyn. :D

Unknown said...

Hi Caslyn, how wonderful it is when your internship starts with preparing decoration. I agreed with Alina regarding the task you were doing is just a good warming up before you start more intense work to manage. I hope everything is going well with your internship. Thank you for insights stories, I would love to hear from you more. All the best to you and good luck!

Best Regards,
Melanie Lawrence
Curtin University Sarawak

June Ting said...

Dear Caslyn,

AMAZING! It seemed like a wonderful start to your internship with Christmas mood filling up the entire office. That would be a great ice breaker. What were the concern mentioned by your assistant manager if you do not mind telling us? I guess every manager would carry a certain concern with them as they are not familiar with us. Also, probably we could learn from your situation and it might help us to prepare for our work interview in the future.

I had the same situation during my interview and the concern that Interhill Group's Corporate Communication Manager had for me was whether I would be able to withstand sleeping at their logging camp where the sleeping room are sometimes visited by a rat or two, a couple of lizards and flying cockroaches. It was hilarious but should not be taken lightly as some people do have tremendous fear for these situation!

Nevertheless, I am truly happy for you that you started your day 1 with confident and a positive mind! That is very important to help you walk through the days! I wish you well and a bright future ahead of you.

Kindest regards,
June Ting Mei Jiun