My time in Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations (O&MPR) has been a revelation of sorts.  It was a little hard to swallow that a professional public relations (PR) practitioner had to do it all - from the conceptualisation of ideas down right to the most menial work like assembling press kits.  As an intern, I guess I did not qualify as a PR practitioner, but watching my more experienced colleagues work was a humbling experience. The clue is to not think of yourself as too intelligent for any kind of work.  Otherwise, you will probably be in for a rude shock in your first job.

My life as an intern, coupled with the ever-looming presence of a yet-to-be-done Final Year Project, can be truly difficult and stressful.  Nevertheless, it started well in O&M which is a wonderful place to pick up PR skills for a novice like me.  Since my stint begins from July 1, it has been a relatively endless flow of events of all sorts.  It helped that I was attached to two different departments in the company.  While one - being involved with corporate and finance events - gave me an insight into the world of IPO launches and corporate relations, the other - with an emphasis on strategic marketing for consumer products - provided a new perspective from the side of the marketer.

Without actually naming events, it is still possible to mention the kind of work I had to do in the past few months.  The most common as well as the most important - as my colleagues would have me believe - is the confirmation of media attendance at events.  It is no big secret that PR practitioners organise events so as to garner publicity for clients. The main way that clients judge the success of events is, naturally, from the amount of coverage received in the media which is directly linked to the attendance of the media at the event itself.  So, I have been on the phone for anything from IPO launches to prize presentation ceremonies.  It helped if the event is newsworthy, as IPO launches often are, but when it comes to new product launches and prize presentation ceremonies, it is often difficult to warrant the significance of the events.  This is where you will have to make the event sound as attractive as possible, sometimes dangling as bait a few famous names who will be attending the event,  or making it  a social event where one could network and pick up a few name cards.

I was fortunate enough to have been involved in pitching for new clients for O&M.  It is quite an honour that, inexperienced as I was, my colleagues had faith in my churning out a proposal.  Most of the time, my proposal would have gone through a total facelift by the time it reached the clients’ hands.  But, I still considered it partly my work since I had put so much effort into it and, I must say, it is definitely a great learning experience even if the ultimate product was vastly different from what I had started out with.

The actual event itself was surprisingly relaxed in some cases but nerve-racking in others.  It really depended on the kind of event, how good the preparations were and of course, my level of involvement.  In most cases, I was not assigned any major task other than looking after the registration of guests and the reception.  This may not sound like the job to pick up skills but it does give one an opportunity to observe and learn how different events are set up and the kind of work that has to be done at the actual event by a PR practitioner.  As far I can tell, it seems to boil down to one main thing: to look professional and composed amidst chaos and late-minute problems.  As always, media relations are really important so it is crucial to ensure that the media feel that their needs are attended to.  Being bilingual (in terms of speech and reasonable writing skills) helps too, as I have discovered, when it comes to handling both the English and Chinese media.

I would love to have picked up all the PR tools in this internship, but considering the vast diversity of tasks a PR practitioner has to do, it is never possible to pick up all skills.  In fact, that is perhaps the fun part about this job.  It never gets boring as there are always new events to do and new things to learn.  As with any other jobs, commitment is important to see a job through and to do it well, so it is in this job as well.  And if I have not picked up anything at all here, I hope I have learned to dedicate myself to all jobs and to do them well.