Hazia’s Reflections

It has been a long day. I just got back from the gym, yeah, thought I should go for a quick workout after my client’s event just now.

I was glad that the event went well. I hadn’t been paying attention to it, I was way too busy with something else. In terms of priority, that topped everything else. At least half of my stress is gone now.

Referring to my ‘Speedy Screening’ entry last week, I was shortlisted by the MD for a second interview for their company’s Corporate Communications Head position. I knew I had to do a PR powerpoint presentation for a question to be given later. Well, no problem, I thought, it was just a presentation to their senior management team.

Oh boy, was I wrong! I received a phone call on Tuesday late morning that the presentation was due in 2 days time. And it was more than 1, it turned out to be 1 presentation plus 1 working paper (on 2 different topics). Mann!! I couldn’t take leave because I had a client event today. Any PR person could tell you that it was almost impossible. Even my headhunter was shock and very worried. I told her it was okay, I’d get it done somehow.

The first task was to prepare a rebranding event proposal and budget for the company. To make matters worse, being a consultant, I had to take the long way. I had been specifically trained not to follow orders but rather, to question them. So, when I’m given a straightforward question like that, I won’t proceed to answer. On the contrary, I’d question whether it was the right question to ask in the first place. LOL!

So, I started my presentation with ‘Is there a need for a re-branding exercise?’ Then ‘If yes’, these are the preparations and items that we need to look at before announcing the initiative. I continued with 3 phases of planning and pre-launch and post-launch activities. I finished it off with the launch event and budget - which was what the question was about in the first place - that took only 10 out of 30 slides. LOL! Well, you don’t just hold an event in the middle of nowhere, it has to fit in into the overall picture.

While the second task wasn’t difficult, it was time consuming. I was asked to prepare a working paper on PR programe and marketing programme for the company. Again, I would question the question. The Corporate Communications department doesn’t handle marketing. It either falls under Marketing Department, Sales Department or Marketing Communications Department.

The thing with working paper is that it has to be comprehensive and detail. Unlike a presentation, the person who reads it need to understand it without you being there to explain and clarify.

This means that you need to use full sentences and elaborate every suggestions you list. The formatting was a killer too. You need to use consistent font style and title the content properly, meticulously numbering the sections and subsections. Cosmetic cleaning itself was draggy.

The deadline was 5.30pm just now but because of the client’s event, I had to finish it and send it off by 2.00pm. I felt like I was going to explode.

All in all, I had to say that that was a record for me. Two proposals in 2 days single-handedly, without any help and on top of my daily workload too:D.

The presentation and writing test has been scheduled on Tuesday. I’ll be on leave then. At least I have time to prepare over the weekend. Hmm… I hope I won’t be penalised for failing to follow the instructions. I couldn’t help wondering how the other shortlisted candidate was doing. LOL!