First Day

Today is my first day of professional attachment. Although I am glad that I managed to land myself somewhere near, there is apprehension when I know that I am the only intern there.

0815
I am walking down the corridor of ITE HQ looking for the correct room to report to. The rooms were empty. The staffs inside, my would-be colleagues looked unfriendly, giving me cold stare when I peeped into the office. Finally, one came forward to open the glass door for me. After telling them the name of my reporting supervisor. They said: "Chong is no longer with us. He left a few weeks ago!" I am dumbfounded. You are telling me only now that he resigned? I started to panick. How am I going to do my PA when my supervisor is gone?

0820
I was brought to another office to wait for the contact person of the organisation for my PA. After a few minutes, she was back from the washroom with a pail of water to clean her desk. She asked if I was the intern she was expecting and explained that she has found another supervisor for me called Debby. Ok, "Debby" sound nice and sweet. I hope she is so in person. I was told to wait a while more since the office that I belong to was empty.

0828
Yeah! One of the colleagues from the office that I belong to appeared and I was asked to follow him next door. Ok, I saw Debby there. She looked friendly *phew*. Then i was shown to my desk which belonged to my former supervisor. It looked like he left in a hurry and had no time to pack all his belongings with him. The area around the desk was littered with files, loose sheets of papers, empty and half-filled bottles and a pair of shoes(??!!). A laptop was there waiting for me. I started to worried again. How to use a laptop?! I was told that I have to see the General Manager at 9am.

0910
I was brought to the GM's office. He was in NTU for his undergraduate studies. Scary - 自己人. He bombarded me with why he could not be my supervisor and how I am supposed to come up with the marketing framework, broucheres, ppt slides etc etc. I was in cold sweat by then. How can I manage all these by myself? What he wanted was covered in 3 different marketing modules this semester! I could only nod and nod and nod, while taking down his words.

0925
Meeting with GM ended. I am back at my desk with the Prospectus 2006, broucheres and laptop to do my own digesting of company's knowledge. Went to shakehands with colleagues from offices next door. Read... read... read... read... reeeaaaadd.. reeeeeaaaaaddzz... reeeaaaddzz... readzzzzz... zzzzzzz...

1220
It was a busy morning so my supervisor and 2 other colleagues in the same office had no time to "entertain" me, except asking me along when they wanted to visit the washroom. They visited the WC quite a few times in 3 hours time. We went to the canteen which look like those in secondary schools for our lunch after my supervisor came back from her meeting. Lunch was simple - chinese mixed vegetable rice and some frozen fruits blended ice-cream.

1310
Back in the office again. Busy finishing my ice-cream. Checked my sms, oops, 3 smses.

1330
Read... reeaadd... reeeaaaddd... z... read... zzz... read... zzz. Looking out for anyone who would see me in slumberland.

1650
Yeah! My supervisor finished her meetings and sat down to discuss my job scope. And I finally discovered something dreadful. There is no marketing department or staff there, I am supposed to be the one with the expertise other than the GM who is a MBA holder. Their intention was to get an intern to work out SOMETHING for them. Feeling sick now, I should have predicted something was not right when the GM gave me job scope which sound general and broad. How can a company survived without a marketing department? Remarkable! I must report this finding to all marketing professors that I meet.

1745
Discussion ended. I am back at my desk to fiddle with the laptop waiting for 6pm to come.

1800
Finally. By the time I realised it was 6pm, I was left in the office with my supervisor. The 2 others were gone. Wow! How fast they respond.

1805
Bade my supervisor goodbye and headed to the bus stop.