Hi everyone
I’m Vincent Thomas a full time student from the Charles
Telfair Institute in Mauritius. I am currently doing a part time internship at
Imagine Communications, a public relations and communication agency. Finding an
internship of 20 days was really difficult. Companies in Mauritius tend to
think that trainee is a liability for their organization especially if you are
like me with no previous job experience.
During the interview at Imagine Communications, the tone was
set that working in the public relations and communication field is very
challenging and we are under constant pressure and should be able to take and
accept critics. I must be honest that I was not that confident heading to my
first day at work. But I must say that on the first day, the team at Imagine Communication
welcomed me like I was a member of their family. I was more like new colleague joining
their team than a student coming for an internship. The first task that my
supervisor gave me was to do a press summary for their clients. This is the
first thing that the team of Imagine Communications do every morning and I was
amaze how everything is well organize and the work is done quickly and
efficiently. This was new world for me as it changed from the traditional
lecture/ tutorial sessions at university.
On the second day I went to an event which was organized by one
of the client of Imagine Communications. My colleagues gave me a very good
briefing about how the event will be conducted so that I did not panic.
Everything went perfectly and my supervisor at the end asks me to do a report
on the event which must be submitted the next day. It was very challenging at
first but I learned so much from this experience about the life of a public
relations practitioner.
Before the submission of the work, my supervisor assists me
and corrects some mistake that I made and it was very useful and a pleasure to
see the evolution of my work. I was asked to monitor the online articles of
their clients on different website in the Indian Ocean. From a journalistic
perspective it was interesting to see the way the how articles are told
different way depending on the country.
Next task of my internship, I did some media clipping. The process
is done in a very professional way and it was very different from what I did in
the module PR 250. I was really impressed by the tool available for work, like
for example a scanner especially designs for newspaper.
On the fifth day, I was back to my first task of doing press
summaries and media monitoring. I reckon that it was a bit boring the second
time. But thanks to the good atmosphere that reside at Imagine Communication,
the work feel less boring.
That’s all for now, stay tune…more to come
Julien Vincent Thomas
Charles Telfair
Institute Mauritius
15625906
2 comments:
Hi Vincent,
I agree with you when you say that it is difficult to get an internship as companies have an overcoming stereotype about accepting intern in their company. Even when you get an internship, the pressure stays the same as it is quite scary to work for a company. The positive aspect is that when the first day is over you start to have your own space and function in the company and you fill valued when you are accepted in the company’s team. I think you were lucky to participate on an event on the second day as I waited for a long time to attend an event in my internship. It must have been a unique experience since you were asked to do a report on the event. I think that g your observation about how articles are written differently is interesting as it is true that even in the public relations field it is important to communicate appropriately with different media outlets. Each newsroom has a different way of communicating information to its target audience and it is important to understand their needs when sending press releases.
Hey Vincent,
By reading your post I said to myself, this boy has a lot of work assigned to him. Well I would say lucky you because sometimes interns do not have such an opportunity. I realise the enormous amount of work that you have been doing but this is the paradox of the work place. In one organisation you can have multiple tasks assigned to you while in other companies you have to volunteer about some work. I guess its all about the mindset of the company. I am wrongly placed to share your hard-work because my internship went through a completely different agenda.
Divya Ruggoo, 15636429
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