This first post marks my first month in my agency - Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Singapore.
The
first two weeks was full of ups and downs, with me struggling to adapt to the
new working life.
A
lot of learning and training took place in the first week. At the same time, a
lot of mistakes were made too. My four weeks of experience, inspired me to list
the following things that a bachelor degree does not teach us.
1.
Yes, your superior is allowed to raise his/her voice at you.
2.
You get to leave on time, yes, if you’re lucky.
3.
Public Relations (PR) is not for the weak-hearted.
Last
minute changes take place anytime, anywhere, and when people need something,
they mean now.
4.
Your superior is not your friend.
Your
manager, or superior is different from lecturers, parents or friends. They
expect you to deliver quality work, good working attitude, and meet their
expectations of you.
5.
The real world is cruel, indeed.
People
come and go, no one is indispensable, don’t expect the company to fall apart
without you. Everyone can be easily replaced. The solution is probably to be an
asset, make yourself valuable, value-add to the company and strive to
constantly improve.
Four
weeks later, today, I can say that I am indeed better than four weeks ago.
Working on media monitoring, meet the challenging expectations of my clients
and superiors. Calculating 1001 Advertising Value Equivalent (AVEs)
and reports after reports.
I
hope that the next four weeks would be a more pleasant, enriching one.
A
learning lesson that I picked up from these four weeks of experience:
“When
the going gets tough, the tough gets going”.
Be
eager to learn, be daring to try, not to fear making mistakes.
Only
then, you can be better than yesterday.
Joycelyn
Foo, Curtin Singapore.
2 comments:
I totally agree that the working world is cruel, Joyce. However sometimes it's difficult to even want to make mistakes as the top management might not even want to give us the chance to as it poses a bigger problem to them; clearing up our mess. Moreover, in the world of PR, mistakes are rarely tolerated. Nonetheless, you are right to say that we should persevere as that's how we grow and improve =)
Like you said being pro-active is really the way to go, at my workplace I constantly offer my assistance at in every situation so as to capitalise on any possible learning opportunities. As such, I have since managed to learn how to pitch to the media (the real-world way) and how to write an effective corporate blog. Of that, I must say I am proud and glad.
Hi Joycelyn!
Your post was really speaking to me.I have been interning in Perth for a while now and I'm finally about to muster all the courage and post about the up's and down's of my internship.
But your points 1-5 are 100% true. I think no matter where you work, there is already a preconceived expectation of your abilities. However, the wise thing to do is to also realize that this is all part of some learning curve. I hate using that to cushion the blow of my mistakes but we have to keep our chin up high. Like you said, PR is not for the weak hearted. The working world is waiting to chew us up. It has definitely taught me a thing or two about picking myself up and learning from mistakes.
As for me personally, learning from mistakes is only part of the challenge. Part two is walking away from it as a wiser person.
So keep at it Joycelyn!
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