As a student who just finished her GCE O-Level Examination, marketing is all Greek to me. So when I was offered an internship by Jai Financial, I was apprehensive initially. I was not sure if that was something I could manage. In school we were trained to solve problems by practicing and we learn by heart what were answers to problems we encountered before. But it is not the case in real life as we have to be flexible and adapt to the situations and learn on the job.
On my first day, the people were all very warm and that helped me to settle in. I learnt that Vinotech was relatively new in Asia. They have very interesting products for preserving wines. I learnt from the website and talking to my colleagues that the products help to improve the quality of wine drinking by helping to store the wine after opening. Hence the task at hand and which was assigned to me was to raise the profile of the company. I was assigned to reached out to various merchant in the wine industry, restaurants and bars.
I contacted many wine companies in Singapore and Hong Kong. To my surprise there were so many wine merchants, restaurants and bars. The market is certainly huge. I learnt the various ways of connecting with potential clients e.g. via emails, Instagram and other channels. To do that effectively, my colleague gave me suggestions on who to contact to start me off.
One of the highlights was visiting the restaurants and bars around Singapore to take pictures to post on Instagram. The number of bars we visited were a lot and basically many of them clustered around the few areas like Boat Quay, Dempsey and Clark Quay. Not only I got to explore parts of Singapore that I never knew existed but I got to learn about the food and beverage industry, their demands for wine accessories etc. One of the products that fascinated me most was Winesave which uses argon gas to preserve the wine after it has been opened.
It is a very enriching experience to learn about the business, products and most of all a peek into what working life is like. I was really thankful for the opportunity to intern as I got a glimpse of what the working world is like.
I am super proud of my first ever email newsletter too, also the first Vinotech newsletter:
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I am now back to school but with a much better idea about the world of work!