By Arwa Khan
RIYADH (SAUDI ARABIA), 1 June 2020: First off, All Praises be to Allah for letting me have this opportunity where my potential and my skills are acknowledged by my fellow lecturers, family and friends.
When I received the text from Sir Aznan, our respected Editor of IIUMToday and my academic supervisor for my internship, about how he wants me to share my internship experience as a guide for the upcoming interns, I was transported on cloud nine immediately. In my head the conversation was something like, “AZNAN SIR, THE EDITOR, WANTS ME TO SHARE MY EXPERIENCE!!”.
Now as we all know that practical experience is the best, and internships give students that hands-on experience they need. I feel that quality internships are essential to develop key skill sets that you can’t get in a classroom. Skills such as multitasking, communicating, learning to deal with diversity, and dealing with deadlines are different when you are working for someone else, not yourself like you do in college.
I felt in the beginning that I would really have a head start being that I am a senior and have taken all my classes already but I realised that I don’t think any amount of classes will ever prepare you for all the world has to offer. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that IIUM did a wonderful job teaching me but I feel that it is most valuable if combined with first hand work .
My internship placement was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a magazine organisation named DESTINATION KSA. On the night before my first day of internship, I was genuinely terrified as I thought to myself what tasks I will be assigned and who are going to be my colleagues, and will I have a good relationship with them considering my open-minded thinking etc. Too many thoughts just kept making scenes in my head that night.
On the very first day, I was completely stiff as I had to maintain my professionalism but thankfully, my on-site supervisor was an incredible person and super friendly with me to the extent that she maintained her professional and friendly relationship with me all the time.
I am not going to deny that after getting into the interning period, I realised that journalism in no easy task. In fact, it’s quite challenging. It’s not about only writing articles or reporting live.
Journalism has a lot of attributes which students need to adhere to in their early stages of education, such as, having a curious mind, will power, being virtuous, an aptitude for presenting information in a precise, and effective manner. A journalist should know how to organise thoughts and express them clearly in both forms of communications- written as well as oral.
Working as a journalism major student in Saudi Arabia’s industry was a very new experience as media in Middle East is majorly dominated by secular people with a very narrow and constricted point of view. However, they do not represent majority of the community but regardless, it was an unusual experience with sufficient lively and enjoyable moments.
The three-month internship period that I had undergone made me attain and get the knack of journalism in depth and from a different perspective. This assistance was derived not only through doing daily tasks, but also from the constant help from the superior editors. Studying in communication department helped me understand my potential and build up my skills in handling technical work in COMM TV and as a writer in IIUMToday. All these activities made me contribute better in my internship.
I must admit that the multiple talk sessions and gatherings I attended in the Communication Department held by our seniors and lecturers provided the means for me to understand quite a lot of concepts which made me feel delighted about having previous knowledge on certain matters.
But working in DESTINATION was more about soft news and features which wasn’t one of my strong attributes but as time went by, I got the trick of dealing with feature articles. With my knowledge of writing and the experience of my supervisor, I was able to learn the art of writing in a softer yet precise manner.
I understood the art of writing for social responsibility, integrity, and excellence. As an intern of DESTINATION, I was meant to work hard to reflect this in my content. I understood how we are meant to respect culture and tradition as much as we celebrate innovation and technology, and how we should strive to strike a balance between the two where necessary.
One of the traits I had to brainstorm and rack my brain off was when it was time to pitch in ideas. I noticed that sticking to the script won’t help me stand out from the rest of the candidates but adding a bit of my own personal flair might just land me where I would want to see myself. The office colleagues were always on the hunt for the next beat and I soon learned that pitching my original ideas had demonstrated initiative.
Alongside, I would check where can I improve and what am I doing well to get a sense of my strengths and weaknesses. For me, this involved sitting down with my editor and having her dissect a story I had written or having my supervisor go over headlines I had written and provide suggestions. After all, the only way to improve is to understand what we’re doing wrong.
The Work From Home (WFH) experience wasn’t a thing I thought I would ever experience but overall it was…different. Not going to deny, it wasn’t something I was looking forward to as it made me feel very distanced from my work and quite frankly, distractions were the major reason for me to feel so. But I made sure that every day I will try to learn something new or write or propose new ideas or even research on stories and topics that I could write about. The deal was, as long as I don’t keep my mind idle, things will go smoothly God Willing.
The major task for me was about doing thorough in depth researches. I realised that researching was important and played a major role in the journalism field because my supervisor told me that research strives for completeness, balance, and accuracy in articles written. Therefore, it’s not an easy task but fortunately, I understood how in depth researches are done and how we can proof check it.
All in all, WFH was an experience that made me understand journalism from a different realm and, per se, do I look forward to working this way? I don’t think so.
The message to every one of my juniors is – internships are extremely significant for each student. It gives you a sneak peak into your future life as a media/journalism proficient. Internships are the best way to get experience. And trust me, while good grades will matter during placements, a practical experience will give your profile a genuine boost. A ton of graduates nowadays suffer because they didn’t have any past modern exposure. With internships you get an opportunity to stand out. Internship is the mechanism that will assist you with making sense of what you truly want in your life. I would like to motivate every single one of you to get as much practical experience as you can.
Also, it isn’t always important to adhere to what’s been given to you. I applied for every one of my internships and got past them. To accomplish something throughout everyday life, you gotta move and work for it!***