Roses with thorns.

In my previous entry, I exclaimed that I was excited and happy when I found out that I could do my internship with The Powerful Self Workshop as I felt that it would be fun. Most importantly, I would be able to complete the internship within a month and I would not have to extend my semester if I were to do a full 3 month internship in a Public Relations firm. In addition, I thought doing an internship with an event would be fun but I was wrong when I was summoned with a huge load of tasks and responsibilities.

For this blog entry, I will talk a little on the challenges I have faced before the event happened.

The first challenge I had to face was to successfully find 300 participants to attend the workshop on both 1st and 2nd June. Initially, I thought it would be easy to find 300 participants as it was a complimentary workshop but I was proven wrong when all the friends that I had approached rejected me on the spot. I was faced with tremendous pressure when Kylie said that she wants at least 200 confirmed participants as soon as possible.

The second challenge was the search for sponsorships. As my dad is a businessman with lots of business contacts, I approached my dad for help. I had high confidence that my dad would be able to gather a substantial amount of money due to his connections but I only managed to get a total of $2.5K at the end of the day. This was because most of his connections were in the oil and gas industry and The Powerful Self Workshop obviously had nothing to do with the oil and gas industry.

The third challenge was having to deal with school and the event. As I did my internship last semester, I had to deal with managing the assignments of four subjects and work needed to be done for the event. It was extremely tedious as the work load for last semester was intensive and I remember having to spend countless late nights trying to rush through assignments. As there were loads of logistic work to be done for the workshop such as the designing and printing of marketing collaterals, the buying and preparation of items for the event, the giving out of flyers and pitching to schools. All these work took out a lot of time and I definitely had a hard time trying to struggle with school and the work needed to be done for the event.

The fourth challenge was when the group dynamics fell due to the intense pressure that the four of us were facing. As Kylie was authoritative due to her pressure for the event to go as accordingly as planned, she was sometimes blunt and insensitive with her words. This caused all three of us to feel extremely demoralized and thus, instead of being a group of friends working for a cause, it plunged to a boss and subordinate relationship. After two weeks into the internship, the group dynamics and working conditions turned cold and it was hard for us to work together.

I however felt that despite the challenges I faced, it shaped me to become an independent individual, now ready for the working world. Just like all interns, it is inevitable that I will face numerous challenges. I am glad that I managed to overcome all the challenges and the event was in my opinion, a successful one despite all the hiccups along the way.

With much chutzpah,
Chan En Ning Charmaine
15741912
Curtin Singapore