media internship

There has been a constant inundation of job opportunities in my inbox ever since the holidays rolled along, courtesy of the head of journalism department. Unfortunately, none caught my eye. Too boring. Not interested. Nothing to do with my course. Hence, all emails were relegated to the back of my mailbox without a second glance.

That is, until an email sent on the 20th June jumped out at me. A media internship!

I promptly sent my resume along the way, and received a phone call interview shortly afterwards. When the guy over the phone questioned as to how much I knew about the company, I was stunned. Made a mental note to read up on company profiles before blithely sending out resumes. Crapped out something about having a passion for environmental issues, and having the opportunity of being the driving force behind the concoction of such a meaningful global project.

And then came the inevitable: Why didn't I have any job experience in Australia (as illustrated so clearly in my resume)? My response came in the form of informing him that I've only been in Melbourne for a short period of four months, before proceeding to blabber on about my 'impressive' work experiences in Singapore.

The guy seemed pleased enough with all my answers, and an interview date was quickly set up. In the end, the guy called me up again and my interview was pushed back two days, because of the apparently overwhelming response from numerous potential candidates vying for the same position, as kindly divulged to me by the guy over the phone, and later in person as well. Talk about competition. Suddenly, the internship increased its attractiveness quotient tenfold, and I wanted it so badly!

Their office premises is located along the prime district of Melbourne, in a dull grey and nondescript building. The guy who interviewed me was the same guy who spoke with me over the phone. The same guy who for every 100 words he spoke, I only managed to understand 10.

Both our uniquely French and Singaporean accent presented a form of albatross in our awkward and repeated attempts to try to understand what the other was trying to communicate. This resulted in me squirming and writhing (inwardly) and nodding my head in enlightenment (outwardly) at every sentence he said that I managed to understand. He apologized for his accent when the necessity arose for the both of us to keep repeating our sentences.

When the guy asked me why he should choose me over so many others whose interviews he had conducted over a session of three or four days, I cooked up the same shit I did over the phone, about having passion for environmental issues. After the interview, I felt my position as media intern cemented. Got a call back from the guy in the evening, and was informed that I would start work on Friday.

This is not easy. After having cultivated a sloppy lifestyle habit of cocooning myself comfortably in bed till early afternoons (my mornings are non-existent), and basically leading a hedonistic lifestyle, I now have to commit myself to a regimented (albeit normal) waking up habit, not to mention the de rigueur ordinance of the pinstriped working world.

Basically, this spells the death of eyes glued to the computer screen till 7am in the morning, thanks to some soppy drama series.