A peek into the life of a PR practitioner

We always hear people describing Public Relations (PR) as a dog’s life, and it being a very tough job. In Ms Mabel Phoon’s words, “One year of working in PR is like two years of your life.” Having worked for 18 years now, Ms Phoon, newly returned to Singapore after a three-year stint in Weber Shandwick, the PR giant of New York, is a well-known veteran in the field of PR.

Torn between the choice of studying journalism and PR in school, Ms Phoon chose journalism, only to realize later on that PR was more suited for her. “PR is a more diverse course of study.” Ms Phoon then goes on to explain how she thinks of PR people as “transformers”.

“The only constant in my day is going to work and coming home.” Everyday poses a new challenge for Ms Phoon, and she emphasized on how PR people have to access every part of their brain, and become different characters.

One day she might be asked to research on a product, and that’s when she has to access the researcher part of her. To understand clients, she has to access the psychologist part of her. As PR is multi-sector, she has to “keep abreast of many issues”, and constantly be up-to-date on what’s going on. “It’s the best way to know when is the right time to do something.”

PR is definitely not an easy job, and it’s one that requires you to be always on your toes. But if you’re as passionate about your job as Ms Phoon evidently is, then even the toughest challenge won’t feel as much of a chore to you. 

First layout: Done!

After a lot of handwork, consults and changes made by one of our designers Dewi, we finally have our first (among many more to come, of course) layout for our magazine!

Out of all our stories, we did the Haji Lane one for the layout first as we had a rough idea of how we wanted the layout to look like from the very beginning when we started on this article. However, there were still many changes made, and the articles had to be cut down a lot, even cutting out on one article entirely. 

The result is this layout that everyone (including our teacher!) was satisfied with, and Dewi is especially proud of. But as our teacher constantly tells us, nothing is finalized till the day we go and print our magazine. Till then, it's not uncommon for more changes to be made.

We absolutely can't wait to see how the rest of our layouts will look like! :)

Route test: Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Last friday the 12th of July, the NOSH team decided to go down to Mandy's house to bake red velvet cupcakes, according to a recipe Mandy got online. As this was the first time baking for some of us, we were all very excited!

After being greeted by Mandy's super cute dog (who was just as excited as us, if not more) and getting the ingredients, it was time to get down to work!

Our dear editor Scott, who was so enthusiastic to bake that he was so happy to just sift the flour

Wei Sze and Dewi concentrating on sifting the sugar (it's really very tiring!)

Our sub-editor Pamela, who is trying to be funny with the eggs

She finally cracks the eggs into the bowl!

A mixture of egg, red food coloring, and a lot of oil (it doesn't look appetizing now but wait!)

The mixing begins

Wei Sze slowly adding the flour into the mixture while Dewi watches amusedly

Final mixture!

And into the oven they go! (You can see how excited Scott is)

Waiting for these babies to bake!


In the meantime, we got started on the cream cheese...

This is Mandy, hard at work creaming the cheese together

It's starting to look realllyy yummy!

And 20 minutes later... YAY THEY ARE DONE!!

Scott and Claudia putting the cream cheese into the piping tube

Mandy concentrating very hard on perfecting the cream cheese topping


THE FINAL PRODUCT

Much to our delight, our red velvet cupcakes tasted fine! In fact, they tasted really good. The inside was moist, but not too wet unlike some cupcakes which taste really soggy. However, we added abit too little red food dye, as our cupcakes turned out a very deep shade of red, and not the bright red color we were aiming for.

We were really proud of our cupcakes, and we couldn't have done it without Mandy. She kindly offered to lend us her kitchen to bake in, and as she often bakes as a hobby, she guided us patiently through the steps to make these cupcakes. We couldn't have done it without her expertise!

It had been a really fun day, and the NOSH team had a great time of baking together and spending time in each other's company. Definitely looking forward to the next time we get together to route test yet another recipe :)

Eating at JEM

by Pamela
Good day, we're sure many of you have heard of the newly opened shopping mall, JEM at Jurong East. This new mall includes new eatery concepts such as Vietnamese restaurant, So Pho.
Wei Sze and I have decided to check out the fresh eats today.

Wei Sze (above) taking photos of carrots for her Superfoods article

Me looking delighted as I tucked into the fresh salmon sashimi

So at So Pho, we ordered the Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef noodles) and the renowned Vietnamese Highlands drip coffee, the taste is so authentic that it brings back memories of my holiday trip to Vietnam last year.
So Pho is located at B1-08.

It's indeed a fulfilling trip today and I shall work on my review now.

Be Intern Ready

by PAMELA

As internship is nearing, I'm getting anxious as I don't know what exactly to anticipate and most importantly, what do employers anticipate and expect in an intern. Especially an intern who has never worked in 19 years of life, me. Amidst their busy time managing their recently founded site, Ms Deborah Tan and the Material Girls have made a trip down to school to give a tip and share their experiences as an intern, as an employer.

A little takeaway with relevance to our magazine project: 
"Before a magazine is sent for print, each page is read 7 times."
In order to write well, you need to meet strangers, walk out of your comfort zone.
Write as you speak, do readers hear you?
Don't just write, expose yourself to wide range of reading material.
Expected to do everything: besides writing, the writer has to know how to direct photo shoots

For soon-to-be interns:
Personal presentation is important, first impression counts.
Learn from everyone, anyone in the industry, be open-minded.
Do things with integrity.
DO BE: Hyper, initiative, reliability, enthusiasm
DO NOT BE: Tardy, irresponsible, retarded, self-entitlement, diva
Emotional intelligence is obligatory.

After the talk, I know how to prepare myself mentally on how to tackle interviews and embrace internship with an open heart and mind. Of course, hopefully I'll meet approachable and understanding employers / supervisors like Ms Deborah Tan and the Material Girls.

Prepping for Internship

By MANDY

Today we had the great pleasure of having Ms Deborah Tan and the Material Girls speak to us. They talked to us about internship readiness, and it was incredibly enlightening.

One thing that struck me the most was to "not expect to step into the shoes of the big guns immediately". It was a rather humbling experience, hearing their "horror stories" and their advice. I learnt that an intern should always be open-minded and to make the full-timers lives easier.

I've been nervous about internship for quite a while now, and today's talk really made me feel a little less anxious. I realized that everyone makes mistakes during internship, and it's okay to be scared, but as long as I show up to work with passion and spark, with a drive to learn, my internship experience will be a fulfilling one.

Everyone starts from somewhere, and even at the bottom, it will be an enriching experience and take you far. After listening to their talk, I hope to be invested and interested in whatever I do when I intern, and learn as much as I can.

Nosh Update: Layouts

By DEWI

So the Nosh Team has started doing mock story layouts for our magazine!

Mock layout using two of our backgrounders 

This is the first draft of a layout I did and it was my first time using InDesign to do up a magazine layout. Let's just say I was experimenting with InDesign. I admit I was struggling because I have no prior knowledge of it. This layout it pretty plain and boring at the moment so there's still a lot to work on. I am rather embarrassed of it, to be completely honest. Here's to many sleepless nights googling up InDesign tutorials and trying to figure out how to use it.

I am now currently working on a two page layout for the Haji Lane spread, using food magazines like Appetite and Flavours as inspiration. I'm intrigued by the minimalistic yet sophisticated feel of these magazines. They're just so pleasant to look at. 

Some of the pictures the Editor has selected to be used in the magazine

Special thanks to Pam and Wei Sze for helping me out with the Haji Lane layout today! :)