Hello everyone,
Hope that your
internships are treating you well and you’re making the most of this learning
experience. I'm sure that we’ve all had our fair share of difficulties
during our internships and this is one of mine:
While interning at
Blast Communications, I had to contact many parastatal bodies, embassies and
consulates in Mauritius to obtain the contact details of senior officers for a
list of database. It got tedious at times because I had to talk to 3 people in
order to obtain that information and each time I had to repeat the same
thing. I also had to phone journalists from different media outlets on a number
of occasions to confirm whether they had received invitations for a round table
and call them again 1 to 2 days later to mark their presence. Sometimes I had
to phone the media outlets up to 3 times in order to obtain an answer and I had to do it because I had to provide my supervisor with an updated list of
the attendance sheet.
Well, to be honest, I
found that task quite nerve-wracking because I’m not much of a talker and I
really didn’t know how to make intelligent and constructive conversations with
those people. One of my colleagues has really encouraged me because she sensed
at the beginning that I was feeling stressed and unsure. So, I drafted my phone
call script in advance because I didn’t want to stumble when talking to them
and I found this very helpful. Also, I did my own research and gathered some
information in case they asked me a few questions. I’d sound really
unprofessional and sloppy if I didn’t know what to reply to them. So it’s
important to be well prepared before contacting people.
At times, I felt like
the people on the other end of the line were being annoyed because I had to
phone several times. There were also people who were really rude and cold to me
on the phone, but I still had to keep my cool and stay courteous when speaking
to them because that’s part of the job. It is also an important aspect of being professional which is paramount in the PR Realm. Likewise, certain people put
me on hold for a long time but I had to remain patient. If I hung up on them
which might be considered as impolite, I could face the possibility of not
having them cooperate with me when phoning them again.
That's pretty much it for my third post. Keep me posted with your internships :)
That's pretty much it for my third post. Keep me posted with your internships :)
Until next time,
Houmaira Ramjaun
15102108
CTI, Mauritius
1 comment:
Hi Houmaira,
I perfectly know how it feels as I have found myself calling many persons as well just to get sole information, which is quite irritating at times. You unfortunately have no choices, you have to adapt yourself to the new environment you are exposed to, even though it’s sometimes uneasy.
Also, I have learned that things will not always go the way you want them to be. I have found myself doing some tasks again and again because it was not up to expectation. It’s obviously upsetting but alas, you have to cope with criticism, it’s the only way for you to learn and persevere. So, in the same way, see the positive thing in there, this gives you experience after all.
My best regards,
Wendy
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