I arrive on the dot at the door of my new office. Well... the place where I'm gonna be working now.
I don't know what is my position called, probably I'm an Advertising trainee. The company deals with advertising, branding and creating awareness, for brands, corporate companies, products etc. And the latest is for a charity association - the Spastic Children's Assocation (SCA). They're doing fundraising in addition to introducing the assocation to the public. The people who work here often go out (to many places) on their job, except for those on a higher career level.
As I'm waiting, I hear sounds coming from inside a closed room. There seemed to be soo many people inside. And they sounded like they were doing some pep talk, you know, before they go out. I can hear some person shouting out something, then people chorusing in response. And they did something like those chants cheerleaders do, you know like, "Gimme an L! Gimme an O! Gimme a V! Gimme an E! What's that spell? L-O-V-E love!" kind of thing. OF COURSE that's not what they were saying, it's just an example....
The boss came out (he's a really funny person) and introduced me to my trainer. And then I met another girl, so now 3 of us girls went to get a cab to our destination, Tmn Muda. At this point, I still had no idea what was I going to do (I sound like those people who'd get cheated anyday, right?). Anyway... it started raining heavily, and I got an inkling of the first challenge for the job - running through rain.
We had some food when we reached. And then, I found out that my job (at least observing since I'm on orientation) was to collect funds from the public when telling them about SCA. It's like those people who walk around with a folder and approach you when you're eating, whom I had formerly disregarded. To think I was going to do that, well, saying that my heart dropped would be kinda appropriate.
I became so amazed as the day progressed. Firstly, I couldn't even greet people as enthusiastically as my trainer did (and wished I would) even though I was highest on my excitement (which had dulled considerably knowing what I had to do and as I grew more and more tired). And I cannot help but admire the way my trainer kept rambling even when people couldn't have told her to shoo off in a more direct manner. And the way she would joke feebly herself after every excuse they made (maybe more on this later). And the way she even provided them an excuse; when people just said "No..." or "Tak boleh la..." and she would say, "oh, hari ini gaji belum keluar??" (when it was the 21st).
What else... of course I met a lot, a lot of kinds of people. I don't mean it in any insulting way, but if you wanna meet all sorts of characters and attitudes, then bingo! you scored the right job. Seriously, how other way than seeking funds from random strangers as if they were the most helpful people on the earth, can you meet them easier? And wow... I never thought that people would actually last in this kind of job for a day, not think weeks and months. I walked from 10+am, sat for few seconds in between, had a short break for food, walked some more till 6pm. And listened to my trainer "harass" while I smiled at 257 people.
By 6.10, the most joyful event of the day happened - "We need to go back now."
