Day One; The Introduction

Today, my day one of practical training in Leo Burnett begins. I will TRY my level best in dedicating myself to blogging an entry a day throughout the 8 solid weeks I will be in LB. Hi, My name is Jenhan otherwise known on the Internet as kaypopotamus. Or Ah Kuah An overexcited Ah Boy sms-ed me last night that she would pick me from my house at 7.30am. I laughed. Work usually kicks in at 9.30am here. Yes, needless to say, we arrived early (tremendously early). We found ourselves loitering about the building at 7.50am. Tomorrow, we shall try leaving at 8am. Or maybe later We then met up with Gogula and decided to have breakfast at a mamak about 5 minutes walk from Menara Olympia. Oh before I forget, for those who are not in the know… Leo Burnett is the agency behind all the Petronas ads you adore, everything about the Golden Arches you see in and out of a McDonald’s store, all your Maxis publicities, and for the ‘happening’ group- the Phillip-Morris and Johnnie Walker advertisements too :) I have been assigned to a department which I am not too sure of it’s name. It’s either Retail Marketing, Branding or Brand Management (which is actually all pretty much the same). I am going to be a slave for McDonald’s for the coming 8 weeks. Ah Boy and Gogula were placed in Phillip-Morris. I’m guessing they assigned us like that by judging their smoker-look and the size of my belly. At 9am, Amin from HR came and assigned us our places and I am seated somewhat in the middle of an open area. Yes, it means whoever looking my way right now can see what I am doing which is blogging. Empty for now. The first person who talked to me was a man by the name of Tanner (spelling unsure atm). He is a big cuddly-looking man who reminds me a lot of Fred Flintstone. I was then introduced to Aliya, the senior brand manager who seems to also be my supervisor. Aliya is pretty and seemingly somewhat in her mid-twenties to me. Aliya told me to just ‘chill’ for the time being as she was a little pressed for time trying to meet a deadline. So I chilled a bit. Then Aliya told me to help her get something done and my first task was to…photostat. She then asked me to help me file some of the messy papers on the table while she finishes up her work. Well, I guess its ok for a first job, plus, she promised to teach me more things soon. Aliya also introduced me to Jas, whom I have to see if Aliya wanted to dispatch items. Jas also was very kind and helped me find files and folders to file Aliya’s documents. Then, in came a lady who exudes dynamism. Her name was Jenny. She appears to me to be a mother somewhat in her late-thirties and she headed straight for THE desk. The desk that I was told my boss would sit. Yikes! Oh by the way, I sit directly diagonal from Jenny which means we see each other almost all the time. I spotted a man seated at my place and he was using my computer. I continued filing at another round table and in my mind I was thinking if Amin had accidentally assigned me to his place. After 10 minutes, the man said hi and he introduced himself only as Wong. Wong was a young Chinese man whom I would say is in his early twenties. Wong told me that he had helped me set up my system, created me an email and configured my login id. Wow! I actually have all those? I thanked him and he showed me where he sat and that if I needed any help regarding the computer or IT, I could go to him. By the time I finished filing the papers, it was already 12pm. Lunch hour. Aliya told me to go grab something to eat. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the coke vending machine here only charges 50 cents per can! I decided not to eat because I was still a little sleepy and lazy :p Then a man called out from behind me. He asked if I was new and I said yes. He introduced himself as Hans and I told him my name. Shortly after that, he established that I was the Jen and he is Hans. Ok, haahaha nice and friendly Hans. Then Wong came back and he told me that I could download things if I wanted to but not to download illegal things which I presume was games and pirated things. He also gave me the best ever first day welcoming gift. MSN Messenger and Winamp and also the knowledge that I actually have 6GB of hard disk to store whatever I wanted. Thanks Wong :) There was someone sitting opposite me. She was a young Chinese girl in her early twenties all dressed in blackw ith a ponytail and spectacles that suited. She had a smile which resembled Harry Potter. Erm, I meant Daniel Radcliff. Well, to me lah. It was nice and I don’t mean it was boyish, well you get what I mean. But she was kind of quiet and sometimes it gets awkward. Jenny then asked “Boy, you don’t want to eat?” I said nah, and then we had a little conversation. She told me that her daughter was also in Taylors and had just finished her exams in TCSJ which spelt freedom for her daughter and trouble for her. After that, she told me to stay for a party at 5pm. Wow wow wee wow! Leo Burnett was having a deeparaya ‘open house’ for all the staff and their clients in the Bistro (a pantry cum relaxing area at the entrance of Leo Burnett) After that I chilled even more, waiting for Aliya’s next request. At about 4pm, Aliya taught me about how job requisitions were supposed to work. It goes from the clients, to branding, on to the traffic department, then to the creative and reverse. I helped her photostat some job requisitions and handed it to Jacky from the traffic department. Aliya also took me for a ‘tour’ around the area and I realized that oddly the creative people are the ones in the most comfortable casual clothes. We then walked past the art directors rooms and then I saw her. I saw Yasmin Ahmad concentrating at her computer. I smiled. Deep down I know that someday I will have my chance to speak with her. I told Aliya about my interest in photography, theater and acting and she told me I was in luck because there is going to be a TVC (television commercial) job coming soon. Well, hopefully I will be allowed to actually see how it is actually done. Then I chilled for a little more and I decided to write about my day since I had nothing else to do and that is how this blog came to be. After that, the ‘party’ started and I went to have my share of ice-kacang, satay, roti jala and pulut. There was also asam laksa which I wasn’t too keen on trying. After eating, Aliya said I could call it a day at about 6pm. That pretty much sums my first day up. My name cannot possibly be anymore abused that it is today. First, the letter of acceptance from Leo Burnett spelt my name as Kuah Jehnan. Then Wong misspelled my name into system as Kuah JenHan. Then when I opened MS Words to type this, I realize that my name was spelt Kuah Jen Han. OH MY GOD! Wrong wrong wrong! My name is Kuah Jenhan. Kuah Jenhan. Kuah Jenhan. Kuah Jenhan. Kuah Jenhan. I wonder what awaits Jehnan, I meant Jenhan tomorrow. See you tomorrow! ~