They say patience is a virtue. What they do not tell you is that this virtue is not easy to gain or hold on to or practice. In no other profession is your capacity for patience tested the way it is in public relations. I learned this first hand in my search for an internship. And had it reinforced in my very first week of interning at Integrated Public Relation in Kuala Lumpur.
Let me go back a little though, before I really get into the meat of this blog post. My name is Ramsha Zia Siddiqi. I am final year public relations student at Curtin University's Sarawak Campus in Malaysia. I'm an international student from Pakistan and I soon came to learn how much that can impact your internship. Both the placement and the work itself as well as your career on the whole if you are not local.
To start with, I found that securing an internship as an international student was much harder than I thought it would be. Even after applying WELL in advance, I got few and far in between responses. And the responses I got soon turned sour once I clarified that I was not a Malaysian citizen.
I felt discouraged because so far, I have been a decent PR student throughout, with good grades. Why was I not getting snapped up? Why was my academic prowess not enough to get me one decent internship? I felt frustrated and getting worried that I would not get a position in time for the coming semester. Panic soon kicked in. Which did nothing for me because I suffer from anxiety, so there I was, freaking out and feeling really low. My self esteem took a beating and I had to reevaluate my idealistic belief that if you work hard and put in the time, you will get results which will lead to being rewarded.
Yet the entire time I had to put on a brave face for all the potential employers I applied to. I had to remain or at least appear upbeat, self assured and confident. I had to sound like I knew what I was doing even though with every rejection more self doubt made doing that difficult. To convince someone to hire you, to invest time training you, you need to make yourself seem worth the effort. You cannot let the desperation show, that when you ask them to consider you, its not a question but more in the vein of begging.
And this is where patience comes in. All you can do is apply and then apply again. Keep researching and updating your CV. Squirrel out every avenue that you can dig up and basically have all your bases covered at your end. And then you wait.
Let me add in that your own university is a great resource. Your lecturers and career placement office can help you find a position. My own lecturer was very encouraging which definitely helped see me through.
I spent the time online. Looking through job search websites, job portals. Websites that had lists upon lists of tips and how-to's on all topics relating to internships. I looked up samples of effective CVs and learned the difference between a resume and a CV (yes, there is a difference by the way). I became a member of many websites that spouted improvement in chances of getting hired as part of membership benefits.
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| This one actually helped for the record, check it out if you want to amp up your CV! Its a pretty great site. |
Eventually patience pays off though, and I got a yes. I was so grateful I almost collapsed from the relief. The company was new to me. I had not really heard of it before and had applied to it when I was on an application rampage. Yet they were super helpful, accommodating all my inquiries and displaying patience of their own when dealing with the entire process of internship approval.
I learned that Integrated Public Relations is a small boutique firm which has a great client base. They were willing to work with me to make the experience of the internship as rewarding as possible for both parties involved. They offered to help me find a place close to the office to live in, meet my parents to assure them that I was in good hands, and generally making me feel welcome and at home.
I began my internship in the middle of August 2015 and I am now almost a month in. It has been a lot of hard work and a steep learning curve but I am grateful for all the experience so far. The internship experience basically brings to life all the things we read in our notes and textbooks. It's like being in a real life case study! I will be posting more on my experiences so far as well in the coming days.
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| On the way to a press release event in the middle of the rain-forest? Yes please! |
At the end of all of this, to conclude this post, part 1, I will say that the application process was an eye opener for me. I came to learn that the real world is far more difficult and a heck of a lot harsher than we realize while cocooned in the safety of our academic institutions. Sometimes hard work does not pay off instantly and you just have to sit on your hands and wait.
But you will see results eventually. Things do work out if you have done your part. There is only so much that is in your own control, and fretting over things that are outside just making yourself ill. Its easy to say now, I know, and retrospect is a great thing, but really, that is the honest truth.
Till next time readers, when I tell you about my further struggles with patience in the public relations world, good luck and enjoy your internship while it lasts.
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| One of our press release events |
Miri Campus
Student ID: 7e2b1164
