Looking at Life - Pre-sip Talk

Our senior students who are soon to go for internships with companies attended a talk on the topic "Looking at Life" on the 21st June. It was in collaboration with Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS). The speaker Don Lowe shared with us many interesting ideas on how to face life as we are entering a different phase of life. Graduation will approach us next year and its time for us to think about what we are going to do when we graduate and what we hope to achieve. Imagine yourself in 5 or 10 years time, where are would, what are you doing, what have you done. These are things we have to think about now so as to set a goal to target for the future. Don shared with us many thoughts and got us to think carefully about our future. Everyone gained a new perspective and learnt much from him. I believe it was a great learning experience from us especially with his enthusiasm.

Wishing all our seniors success in the future!

Our students standing up for an activity

Don Lowe sharing his experience

Don sharing some quotes about life.

"And in the end its not the years in your life that count, its the life in your years."

Don showing us his family picture and sharing the story behind the photo

Our students listening to his viewpoints and stories

Ms Farida, our lecturer who arranged this and the speaker Don Lowe

SIP Experience from Avril!

Hello all my dear juniors!

Avril here writing on the IMI blog for the first time! The lovely Miss Faridah approached me recently to ask me to blog about my SIP experience and here I am.

For those of you approaching Year 3 and being seniors soon or even freshman and juniors here’s an insight to what it may be like for you. =D

The company I got assigned to was a small company. And when I mean small, its like REALLY small. There was just my bosses and me. That was it. Oh and one other part time admin staff as well.

It’s a tuition centre and a tuition agency. So I was assigned to be their graphic designer. I basically helped to brand the company and give it its corporate identity.

One of the first things I did was to come up with a logo for the company.

And I created many flyers, name cards and helped with the modifications of their websites.

Those were some of the stuff that I did.

During my SIP, I’ve definitely worked hard. Sometimes pulling 12 hours shifts and working on weekends. We’ve had road shows and flyer distributions too!

Being in a small company is a good thing for me. It means that I don’t do just my job scope and that’s that. I had to take the initiative to do things that were new to me and were out of my comfort zone. But I am proud of myself to have achieved that.

So don’t be scared to experience new things during your internship journey. It’s definitely an experience you’ll never forget. Plus you’ll definitely learn many new things during the whole internship. Be it software skills or people skills.

The internship definitely opens up your eyes to the working world and gets you ready for it. But all work and no play makes life and your job a boring one.

During my time with the company, I’ve worked hard and I can definitely say that I’ve had fun outings with the company as well. We’ve gone out for dinners together to shop for Chinese New Year decorations for the office and also to celebrate one of the bosses’ birthday! We’ve even visited pet stores during our lunch break for a little pet therapy!

Here are some of the photos during those fun times.

Playing with one of the cute puppies running around the pet store.

Fooling around the with the Chinese new year decorations while shopping for them.

Standing next to the company’s logo that was created by yours truly.

The birthday boy with his cake

And a group photo of us!

There you go! Pictures of some of the outings we’ve had.

During the Internship, you’ll feel that it’s tiring and tedious to work every day, but nothing compares when you see that you’ve contributed and made a significant change to the company.

So approach your SIP experience with an open mind and embrace whatever opportunities that are thrown to you. Remember to take the initiative and do the tasks that are given to you properly. Make yourself be proud of your work.

Viola!

And with that I’ve imparted my internship knowledge and experience to you and I hope you enjoy yours too when the time comes.

I’m off to watch Gossip Girl now and relax.

Xoxo

Avril





An Enriching Internship Experience

By: Renga Murthi, IMI Senior
SIP company - Optimatic Pte Ltd
Attachment period : July - October 2010

Renga, (2nd from left at the back row), with his team members

Smiles of Success - Work Well Done!

Success always comes with hard work!

I have inevitably come to the end of my Internship. As much as I would want to spend as much time as I can with my colleagues at E27 but of course, the next leg of our Diploma studies is awaiting - Major Project. E27 is under the care of my SIP company Optimatic Pte Ltd.

I would very much say that I had quite of the best time with E27. As an events and social media-centric company that aims at Web innovation in Asia, E27 has come a long way from holding talks and seminars to holding the very recent - Asia's Largest tech Conference, Accelerate 2010.

Accelerate 2010, recognized as Asia's Largest Tech Conference, was done for the first time in Singapore, at the Suntec City Conventions and Exhibitions Centre. Co-organized with SingTel, a major key player with over 3 million user-strong market in Asia Pacific, the conference was a huge success among the major market players in the tech and Innovation field, also seeing attendees such as Developers, Innovators, Business people and Research Institutions.

As an Events Executive with E27, I handled many aspects of the conference, from maintaining the event website for the conference, to arranging Accommodation and other assistance for Speakers of the conference, and also crafting Sponsorship and Exhibitors Package for the conference.

Check out these websites for more details :
-E27 website >E27 – Web Innovation in Asia
-Event Website >Accelerate 2010

Maintaining the website is not much of an issue at all, as we all have learnt about websites and HTML and PHP etc. The challenge came in when I was required to perform tasks which was not taught in school - how to network with delegates, how to liaise with speakers and other guests to the conference, how to arrange for accommodation and transportation, who are the suppliers etc.

However, there wasn't really anyone to guide me along the way. Nevertheless, the work experiences from my previous company as an Event Coordinator gave me the relevant knowledge and know-hows to perform these tasks.

Of course there should always be challenges for us, otherwise life would get boring at times. So without much hesitation, I took up the job of crafting sponsorship and exhibitors packages for the conference. These scopes require a good knowledge of profit and loss when making considerations for the package amounts, such as $100,000.

And after the exhibitors were confirmed, they were put under my handling to liaise with them and arrange for their logistics requirements for the conference. As part of my handling, I had given several walk-through sessions for these Exhibitors to familiarize themselves with the specific venues of the conference within Suntec. I also did the allocation of exhibiting spaces for my exhibitors and sponsors.

And finally, before we knew it, it was the day of the Conference in Suntec! Of course we were all anxious and excited as well, to see how the conference being held for the first time in Singapore, goes. And again, before we knew it, the 2-day conference was over! We were all very busy during the conference. As I was in the Organizing Committee of Accelerate 2010 conference, I was required to oversee several aspects of the conference such as my Exhibitors as well as my Manpower for assistance. So I was just running around and making sure everything was running smooth for my sponsors and exhibitors and also ensure that my manpower is wisely utilized.

Being part of E27 and being in the Organizing Committee of Accelerate 2010 has brought upon many opportunities for me especially in this conference. Networking with top Keynote Speakers as well as other international delegates for the event was really something I really enjoyed. Talking with these people really enlightened me with much knowledge of the Tech and Media field as well as Business Startups and Incubation. It was also good that these guys actually recognized me from my previous conference - Echelon 2010.

It was also a pleasure working closely with SingTel as the main organizers of Accelerate 2010. Working with fellow corporate is something I have always wanted to do.

Overall, the Asia's Largest Tech Conference was a huge success with more than 2000 attendees in total turnover. It was also a huge success for us, the Organizing Committee for having worked without sleep and food several times and putting in so much of hard work. It was indeed a rewarding experience!

Thinking back, I see a lot of changes in me compared to before going for my internship. I have learnt the ways of corporate communications as well as working with Corporate. I have picked up the skills and knowledge of the Events and Conference Management field. I have also enlightened myself with the facts of the tech and Media market out in the world.

Ask me if I am ready to go out and start work in this sector - my answer would be a Yes of course. While I might not be perfect, but I did my best and accomplished what I wanted while being in E27 and having done my yet, another biggest project - SingTel Accelerate 2010.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time and I still do remain as a Part-time employee of E27, still helping them to coordinate other smaller-scale events.

Now, wouldn't you want to accomplish what you wanted to do, out in the working world? Go for it! All the best!

Sharing the SIP Experience!

R Rengamurthi is a yr3 student on his intership at Optimatic Pte Ltd. Here is what he has to say about his experience:

I started my Student Internship a week earlier than the stipulated date - on 22nd June. This had not only allowed me to prepare my work desk and tidbits, but also to get to know my colleagues in the office and most importantly to catch a glimpse of the several projects that I will be working on together with the rest of my colleagues.

I am currently interning with Optimatic Pte Ltd, a media centric company under the National University of Singapore Business Enterprise. We are basically a bunch of tech people who's core objective of the Business Enterprise is Business Incubation. In much simpler words, to help newly started businesses to grow and expand in the IT and Web Consumer Sectors both locally and regionally.

So what then is my job scope? Well, here's a glimpse of what my Company does. Besides Startup Business Incubation, we are also partly an Events Management company. We do big scale events like Conferences and Forums. Some examples - Web 2.0 Conference, UnConference 2009, Echelon 2010. These are big scale conference and forum events that see close to about 2 or 3 thousand major partners, shareholders, Developers CEOs, CTOs, Managing Directors and Media Partners of regional and international Web and IT sectors , in each event.
Sounds big eh? It definitely IS! Being in the forefront and networking with the developers of Facebook and Apple's CEOs and Developers is INDEED a BIG THING.

This is where my Job scopes come in. I'm currently the designer for the Optimatic Pte Ltd. I help to design EDMs (Electronic Direct Mailers), banners and posters for the conference and subsidiary events, brochures and event booklet that will be distributed to the thousands of international delegates to the conference. How cool is that - having thousands of people flipping through the event booklet that you designed and they wearing lanyards carrying the logos that you designed. And also not forgetting smaller entities like the company website as well as the conference websites.

My job scopes also includes marketing the events to our database of corporate sponsors and partners.

Our upcoming event will be a joint collaboration with SingTel - The Accelerate 2010 Conference in September. As i'm part of the Accelerate 2010 Working Team, I am also doing Speakers' Management. Sure you'll see Speakers coming to speak in the conference, and they would need a liaison. So I am the direct Liaising person with the Speakers. Its a BIG thing for me as im establishing a close contact with these people.

Its an exciting experience for me so far. And I can't wait for the conference in September. What more can you ask for - when you are already working with a team of experts and professionals who are all very friendly and helpful when you need assistance and when you are collaborating with big corporates like SingTel and establishing direct contacts with some of the major partners and CEOs of top companies in the world.

I am indeed blessed to have such an Internship experience and I am utterly sure that I would have the grip of experience attained during my Internship!

Sharing The SIP Experience

Left to Right: Ian McKee (CEO), Zulkarnain Sadali (SIP student)

I am the lucky few who got to secure my own internship company and I never regretted my decision. Working at Vocanic has given me flexibility, independence and trust with the people I work with, especially my boss, Ian.

Vocanic is a social media company that helps market companies and brands on Twitter and FaceBook. Yes, you read it right, Twitter and FaceBook. So not everything I do at work that's on these sites are for fun and games, they're actually what I do as work.

I got to know about Vocanic when I was an active member of their project, RippleVox. RippleVox works with brands to promote via word-of-mouth. I got a free Nokia handset for my participation a few years back. Through networking and contact with one of the employees of Vocanic, I managed to attain a spot working here.

The fourth week of internship is coming to an end, and what a rush it has been. Working at Vocanic has been an eye-opening experience. Working in a small, yet internationally known company has given me exposure into many different things far beyond what I expected.

The office is located at Duxton Road, where there's nothing but shophouses with offices and bars (quite a good mix, eh?) and the parking rates are $1 every 1/2 hour. Oh, and that's where I sit, second level, middle window. Nice view...Of a carpark. Currently we're expanding the office to the unit on the left and I get to do the layout of the office. Sweet.

My desk, just like the one at home, is a messy one. It keeps me sane. I sit right next to my boss, who is currently on a business trip in Indonesia, securing a deal.

Thing is, working at Vocanic is great. It's about trust and not so much about how on time you are. It is also about independence. Once given a task, they'll trust that you'll do your work by a specified time. When it comes to weekly meetings or group campaigns, the colleagues show a strong teamwork spirit and work well. And yes, everyone jokes. It's never dull working here.

I've been doing community management for StarHub since I got here and what I learnt was customer relations, hearing their woes and helping them dealt with issues. Other than that, I've also been redesigning FaceBook fanpages for City Square Mall, and CIMB (just to name a few).

Ian, my boss (who is also my supervisor for the internship) has given me two major projects for the company. One is to create a corporate video for Vocanic and the other is to redesign Phantom Model Management.

Sending out EDMs, interacting on FaceBook and Twitter, redesigning websites and brainstorming can take a toll on the employees here at Vocanic. Meeting after meeting, pitch after pitch, it gets pretty tiring after a long week.

Usually, on Fridays, the whole office goes to a little quaint bar a few steps away from the office for some drinks and popcorn. It's not much but it builds good teamwork ethic in the workplace.

Honestly, I'm happy working at Vocanic and I feel that I can offer more, so fingers crossed for an extension! The exposure here is far beyond what I expected. Usually, Ian sends the employees to the other offices in Asia. Here's hoping I get to go to visit their Malaysian office!

Advice to my little juniors and freshies, if you want to work with a company you've always had interest in, get to it early! Self-secured internships means you find a solution that fits you, and personally, for me, it worked out pretty well.

Sharing the SIP Experience!

Syazwani Bte Husin and Noorhayati Bte A Malek from IMI, Yr3 have shared with us their Student Intership experience at Damai Primary School.

Here are some photos of their experience:

From left to right: Ms Noor Faridah (SIP Liaison Officer), Syazwani Bte Husin (SIP Student), Noorhayati Bte A Malek (SIP Student), Mdm Goh (Principal), Mdm Haslina (Head of Dept)

Damai Primary School students getting ready to embark on an adventurous learning journey

Happy children heading to the first station

Up the hill they climb

It has been three weeks since the commencement of our internship. Working with the students and the staffs in Damai Primary School has been enjoyable thus far. We ensured that the trust given by the staffs in the school were proven. We were given tasks and responsibilities such as taking care of the students and also handle some of the school's administrative work. With that, it taught us to be more responsible. We were honoured to be given such a welcoming and entrusted role even though we were only interns in the school. It allows us to broaden our knowledge and exposed us to a different perspective apart from doing things that are related to our course.

Just last week, we went to Fort Canning with the primary 3 students for their Social Studies learning journey. This is indeed an enjoyable journey for us too, as we ourselves, are able to learn about the history of Singapore which we did not have an understanding of. It is a great opportunity as we had never been to Fort Canning and we could explore all the things and facts there. Another interesting task that we were given was to design the school’s year book which the school had decided to create an online one instead. Apart from that, we helped the Mother Tongue teachers to record their voices using Audacity, something that we have learn during one of our modules, and apply the skills taught to us. These recordings were meant to cater to the lower ability group of students who have difficulty in reading, understanding and pronouncing. Here’s to prove that Information Technology is very demanding and essential in the century. As Informatics & IT school students, we are glad that our skills can contribute to achieve what the school desired and this enables us to prepare for the working world in near future.

With the exposure and opportunity given, we felt as though we are part of the team and not only outsiders who came to get tasks assigned done. The tasks given are beyond what we learn in school, thus creating a wide exposure for us to know more about the teaching industry and what the educators are doing now to contribute to the society and mould our future country’s representatives. This makes us feel that we are not only here to work but we are also here to learn something new each day. For one of the weekly task, we were told to invigilate the Primary Sixes for their mock exams. Given this task, we realised that we are now contributing to the upcoming generation. The teachers here believed in us that we have the potential to lead the children here upon this task since we have gone through this phase. We are pleased to be given the chance to be part of this school and contribute to Singapore.

Sharing the SIP experience!

From left to right: Chandra Vasimuthu (Geography and History Teacher), Jomel Ortiz (Business IT Executive), Luqman Hakim (SIP Student), Jie Wei (Customer Service Officer)

Luqman Hakim is a final year student from Interactive Media Informatics. He is currently having his student intership at SmartLab Education Private School and has shared his experience with us. Here is what he has to say about his experience:

In my past three weeks that I have been on my internship, I had a beneficial experience that could not have been possible in school.

The biggest difference would be the change of environment. I had to get myself quickly accustomed to the pace and timing of the working life. I feel that it is apt to say that are a lot of differences from school life. Of course, it is here in the working life where I can see my skills and experiences acquired from school being put into good use.

For example, I have been tasked by the CEO to research on video recording and the tools needed for it, as well as to come up with a concept video for him.

As Informatics & IT School has always emphasized on independent research, I managed to come up with a comprehensive report for the CEO. I had the chance to use the skills I learned in Digital Media Production Fundamentals (DMPF) to produce the video.

I feel that the SIP is a good opportunity for students to realize their potential and to see that their skills are being put to good use outside of school. I hope that everyone enjoyed their SIP as much as I did.

Post Contributor : SIP student - LUQMAN HAKIM B MOHD JAFREY
SIP host : SmartLab Education Private School

Still on internship ...

Haha... some must be thinking why am I harping on SIP/ IP/ OSIP/ MP ... coz it is one of the most important phase in poly life. I saw my student 2 days ago at Eastpoint, he's attached to one of the bigger companies, for a moment, I was afraid he would turn up late for work like he did for lessons (tho not always la). But he gave me "thumbs up" ... and looking at how smartly he's dressed, i think he's really grown throughout the 2 years here. *grin

Anyways, I managed to get Shawn's pics at MIT... "he was the chosen one" to represent IMI due to the wonderful 3D work he did. I WANNA GO TOO!!!!

Their LT ... no sight of powerpoint slides... good old chalk and blackboard

Entrance to MIT

Shawn... obviously having the time of his life :)