Jump Out Of The Book

It is always good to encourage students to undertake internship during their semester break. It provides you an opportunity to jump out of the book, learn from the industry’s expert and have a peek on the real world. I found that in the beginning you might found it difficult to adapt to the workplace as you might feel pressure to work with the expert who are experiences and skilled. However, don’t worry, because you are not the only one. I believe that there are people who are also share the same feelings with you. For example ME. However, when you go through all of these obstacles, it will help you grow better. Working in that environment will always trigger you to proactively in learning fresh knowledge, execute and practice it times and times, so that it get better.

Thaipusam's worship routes

During my internship at Eastern and Oriental Hotel’s Public Relations and Communication Department, my daily job is media clipping, online monitoring, general support and so on. It just like what we had learnt from the university, but are more practical. Monitor on the printed and online media is the things that need to be done by every day. I was assigned to screen all the news, articles, and advertisement that are relevant to the industry. For example, the government policy towards hoteliers, the strategies of other main competitors, transportation situation on festival seasons and others factors that might directly or indirectly influence the hotel industry.

Media clipping collected during internship period

Sometimes I even have the opportunities to participate in media conference, inspection activity, SWOT analysis on public relations’ program and so on. These experiences help me to gain a boarder view on the public relations industry. I had read and learn the words “media conference” or “media tour” from textbook and other journal articles, but after all I realized that I can only and actually learn it when I participate in each of the activities. From these experiences, I learnt that theory is just a theory, but when you involve yourself in these events you can have the chance to have a look on the real life situation as sometimes things can happen. For example, the mismanagement in time will cause kiosk in the media conference. From this incident, you can observe how your colleagues manage on that kind of situation, thus in the future you will be aware of it and gain more confidence in executing on each operation.

I’m very appreciate to have this opportunity to learn from all the expert as it gives me an idea on what is the roles of public relations in hotel industry and how it works. As my supervisor told me don’t be afraid of making mistake, because you are a trainee you have to opportunity (or rights) to make mistake. But after that, we have to learn from the mistake, bear in mind and improve in the future.

Soah Hui Sing

15414748

Miri Campus