Tuesday, April 29, 2003

 
Whoops! Just realized that we -ahem- Miss Chen, ok fine, I'm guilty too...has unwittingly created a wrong impression of interning at TNP :P Much as it appears as if we're leading a life of leisure in the newsroom, I can assure you we slog our asses off too. From answering blasted hotline calls to polling unsuspecting and unwilling strangers to calling up very anal PR people for help with some article, we've done it all. I'm proud to declare I'm the resident expert on hotline calls (the worst job ever, doing this means you're at the very bottom of the food chain in the newsroom. Even irate readers can call you to give you a earful. I now suffer from a permanent hearing impairment in my right ear so speak up!) Mel's gotten the art of polling complete strangers down pat and Elysa's got plenty of experience dealing with this really faggy and uncooperative PR person. I'll leave it to them to tell of their experiences. Hint hint clue clue Mel!
Of course, this is all part and parcel of the induction process to the strange and wonderful world of journalism. You just take it in your stride and do whatever you can. Remember: If you get scolded, don't admit it's your mistake. Always blame The Editor. Note that The Editor has no name. The Editor is simply know as..... The Editor. This way, the annoyed person's anger will get channelled to The Editor who willingly takes the blame no matter what and you escape without ruffling anybody's feathers! Ta-daa!
Ugh I'm supposed to be talking about real work here. Not revealing all my deep dark secrets. Ah well tough. I'll talk about work some other day. It's really late now. Even aspiring columnists need their beauty sleep, especially vain ones like yours truly.
zzzzzzzzzzz

posted by karendoes 9:20 AM

 
Lesson 2: Taxi-Drivers

Taxi-drivers are the bane of any intern's life. Especially when you have to file a story later. ESPECIALLY if that story doesn't make any sense.....even to you.

So. What do you do when you have to take a cab?

1) Try to take a mercedes cab.
2) DO NOT talk to the driver. It distracts him, makes him even more excited, and his driving gets more erratic.
3) DO Take deep, long breaths, however. It helps when he turns off the aircon and winds down the windows 1cm to conpensate for the loss of ventilation.
4) Always make sure you have enough money for the cab ride. There was once I forgot I had a grand total of $3:70 in my wallet and just happily hopped into a cab. All hell broke loose as I fought to find an OUB/UOB (I've stopped trying to remember which bank I put my money with.) ATM thing. Its a long story and a painful memory. I'd rather not talk about it. *wipes tear from corner of eye*
5) Remember to get a receipt. If you have to be put through that kind of torture, at least have the company pay for it.

:)



posted by elysa 5:47 AM

Saturday, April 26, 2003

 
HELLO!

Elysa here. I'm here to give you the first lesson to interning:
HOW TO LOOK BUSY WHEN __________ ( please fill in name of respective supervisor) IS AROUND.

If you have Lotus notes:
1) Send private emails to all you know. Be careful to make it look official. So, no funny face symbols eg. :) / :(
2) Use newslink to check out slice of life articles by your supe.
3) Check out the freebies/good deals on Chatline. (Don't worry, you won't be the only one pretending to be busy. There's a whole community out there. Just see what 'boliao' things they post on chatline.)

If you don't have Lotus notes:
1) Use the internet terminal in front of the offices of the various bigshots to surf, send emails, post stuff here. (don't worry, the big shots rarely wander off to the internet terminal. They're too busy looking busy in their posh offices themselves.)
2) Go bug your friends so that if you do get caught slacking off, at least you won't be the only one in trouble.
3) Go take refuge in the cafeteria upstairs. (The papadoms and milo/hot chocolate is mmmmmmm~ )
4) Go to the gym place. They have nice sofas to sleep on even if the pool table is hogged by the ol' ah peks from the Chinese paper.

BIGGEST TIP: PLEASE CLICK POST AND PUBLISH when you're trying to post something on this blog. tsk. the pain of modern technology. Why do they put enticing buttons like "post" when what they want you to click is really "post and publish" ??? sigh.

well then you have a nice day. remember: its "post and publish" not "post".
posted by elysa 6:54 AM

Thursday, April 24, 2003

 
Hey hey! I have the honour of starting off this definitive guide to interning at The New Paper. Firstly, thanks to Grace who gave us the idea of doing something like this. And of course, to all the interns at TNP, past and present, I'm sure all of us have had loads of fun while working. But I bet none of us have forgotten the first few days when we were just bumming around while the rest of the newsroom zoomed by leaving us choking on the settling dust. So here's lesson number one: Don't feel bad you're the only one warming your seat, everybody else has been there and done that. :)
And now much as I hate to end this tirade of mine, I have to get back to fine-tuning my own very wonky blog. So I'll leave it to the other interns to add more stuff here over the next few days. Cheers!
posted by karendoes 7:21 AM