{"id":1173,"date":"2014-04-08T15:45:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T07:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iiumtoday.fadhilahwahid.com\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2014-04-29T15:34:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T07:34:22","slug":"kickstart-to-public-relations-of-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=1173","title":{"rendered":"Kickstart to Public Relations of Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Aznan Mat Piah<\/em><\/p>\n

How would you brace yourselves to ensure that you would be readily\u00c2\u00a0 employed by the industry upon graduating from the university?\u00c2\u00a0 Communication and human sciences students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) were recently reminded that they must develop their potentials during their\u00c2\u00a0 university days as the employers would prefer to hire graduates with\u00c2\u00a0 “extra or plus qualities”.<\/p>\n

The reminder came from two\u00c2\u00a0 senior communication executives, Mr. Izad Haji Raya of Proton Holdings\u00c2\u00a0 Berhad and Mr. Nik Effendi Jaafar of Employees Provident Fund in a forum\u00c2\u00a0 session organized by the public relations practicum students of the university.<\/p>\n

The practicum event was indeed a window to the\u00c2\u00a0 internship program, prior to their attachment with the industry, aimed at\u00c2\u00a0 giving the opportunity for the public relations students to demonstrate\u00c2\u00a0 their professional skills and to gain practical knowledge.\u00c2\u00a0 It was also\u00c2\u00a0 intended to expose them to current knowledge of the industry through\u00c2\u00a0 interactive sessions with practitioners from the field.<\/p>\n

Students\u00c2\u00a0 were told that employers would rather go for “the street smart” than\u00c2\u00a0 the “book smart” per se.\u00c2\u00a0 “You might have scored a CGPA of 3.5 or 3.6\u00c2\u00a0 but if you cannot prove that you have the “extra or the plus factors”\u00c2\u00a0 that employers are looking for, you do not stand a good chance to be\u00c2\u00a0 employed”, the speakers said.<\/p>\n

As the industry is becoming\u00c2\u00a0 more competitive, the employers no doubt tend to be choosy and want to\u00c2\u00a0 hire the best graduates not only in terms of academic performance but\u00c2\u00a0 also in terms of their ability and skills, and their personality to\u00c2\u00a0 deliver their work efficiently.\u00c2\u00a0 With the increase in the number of\u00c2\u00a0 graduates entering the job market each year, employers cannot just\u00c2\u00a0 settle for the mediocre, instead they are determined to look for the\u00c2\u00a0 good candidates who have the potential to perform well in the market.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the message driven by the speakers at the forum.<\/p>\n

Some\u00c2\u00a0 120 students who attended the session listened attentively to the\u00c2\u00a0 speakers when they were enlightened on the expectations of the industry.\u00c2\u00a0 The speakers cited examples of the interview process which they conducted where they found students with good CGPA, who logically should\u00c2\u00a0 not have problems to be hired, but failed to convince the interview\u00c2\u00a0 panel. They seemed to be lacking in communication and thinking skills\u00c2\u00a0 and were not able to articulate their minds as to their ability to\u00c2\u00a0 examine issues or to solve problems.<\/p>\n

Students were also\u00c2\u00a0 told they should not be satisfied to learn just about communication\u00c2\u00a0 techniques and theories. Instead, they should be well disposed to the\u00c2\u00a0 content aspects when handling public relations in an organization.<\/p>\n

Public\u00c2\u00a0 relations practitioners need to know the issues that are developing\u00c2\u00a0 within the organization. Therefore, they must have a good working\u00c2\u00a0 knowledge about the organization especially in terms of its core\u00c2\u00a0 business, its involvement with strategic publics and the stakeholders,\u00c2\u00a0 and where the overall interest of the organization lie, which means they\u00c2\u00a0 must have a strong background on relevant matters or subjects that\u00c2\u00a0 influence the survival of the organization.<\/p>\n

This also\u00c2\u00a0 means they must show interest in current affairs and must be prepared to\u00c2\u00a0 work hard to conduct their own study and research about topics related\u00c2\u00a0 or of interest to the organization.<\/p>\n

Apart from the two\u00c2\u00a0 senior speakers from the industry, students also had the opportunity to\u00c2\u00a0 learn from their seniors during the sharing moment session held in the\u00c2\u00a0 afternoon. Ahmad Nazreen Shah from Petronas and Mohamad Rizzuan Abdul\u00c2\u00a0 Razak from New Straits Times Press who have been in the industry for two\u00c2\u00a0 years, had enlightened the students with a number of tips on what to\u00c2\u00a0 expect upon graduation.<\/p>\n

They highlighted the importance of\u00c2\u00a0 having the right attitudes, the secret of managing bosses, the need for\u00c2\u00a0 a conducive working environment, and to serve the organization with\u00c2\u00a0 dedication. They also told the session about the challenges they had to\u00c2\u00a0 go through in their first six months in their job. They mentioned the\u00c2\u00a0 need to prove themselves of their ability to adapt and survive in the\u00c2\u00a0 working environment which is far different from student days.<\/p>\n

I thought the two sessions were very significant where the students were actively engaged in the discussion.<\/p>\n

Another\u00c2\u00a0 session by Puan Sherifah Muznizah Syed Mustafa from Carigalihess on\u00c2\u00a0 interview skills, had also drawn considerable interest, where students\u00c2\u00a0 were given an insight into some of the tips to enhance their appearance\u00c2\u00a0 during job interviews which stressed on the significance of preparing\u00c2\u00a0 resume, creating first impressions, and developing the right mindsets\u00c2\u00a0 for the job. Puan Sharifah has vast working experience in human\u00c2\u00a0 resources management having worked several years in multinational\u00c2\u00a0 companies.<\/p>\n

The practicum event was officiated by former\u00c2\u00a0 rector Prof. Dato’ Sri Dr. Syed Arabi Idid who later gave an inspiring\u00c2\u00a0 speech to motivate the students. Prof. Syed has always showed great\u00c2\u00a0 interest in public relations activities. The head of Communication\u00c2\u00a0 Department, Dr. Che Mahzan Ahmad also attended the event and delivered a\u00c2\u00a0 speech that stressed the importance of applying theories into public\u00c2\u00a0 relations practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Aznan Mat Piah How would you brace yourselves to ensure that you would be readily\u00c2\u00a0 employed by the industry upon graduating from the university?\u00c2\u00a0… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"nelio_content":{"isAutoShareEnabled":true,"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"followers":[],"suggestedReferences":[],"efiUrl":"","efiAlt":"","highlights":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/public-relations.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1792,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions\/1792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}