Author: Ayesha

The sky looked at least 30 minutes late this morning. It’s scary when that happens, did all the clocks in the house conspire to trick me today? Did daylight savings or whatnot occur overnight without me realizing?

Silly me. It is Eid today, the most blessed day supposedly, I shouldn’t question the beauty of the sky today.

Honestly tho this sky. I can do ANYTHING today, it’s a sign. Inb4 I’m stuck staring my screen blankly today .

The walk to Pyrmont bridge was very efficient today. I mean, I’ve gotten used to the rhythm of the pedestrian crossing and can stride comfortably without stopping now.

I am sweating as I cross the bridge. Oh boy. I was almost going to have some variety and wear a dress today but I thought I’d be blown away. Should have trusted my intuition.

My worst fears were confirmed. I browsed feedly for 2 hours, at 11am I finally literally was given a job. I created a new job in the BBC system (God knows what that is) created a new job folder on our server and a physical job bag. Yippee!

Clients were here again.

I went to sit beside buddy KB, KB is my everything really, my mentor, my friend, my gay best friend, my imaginary dad. And I think he pitied me and taught me about proofreading.

He then suggested to the account director that I proofread and edit a catalog on my own!

“It’s boring but it’ll keep you occupied”

I never thought I’d hear such beautiful words.

Clearly I was wrong because barely 2minutes into explaining my task, I heard

“Ayeeeeeshaaa, I need you !”

The afternoon went by in a whirl.

KB remarked that I look like I know exactly what I’m doing, to which I affirmed. Yes I do know.

“You’re just about the only person here who does”

Oh KB

I actually had to stay late today. Wow.

Spoke to HF today, just curious, he’s working on a different catalogue to everyone else it seems. He’s envious that I’m in demand now and wishes he snapped me up when I was free this morning. :p

Highlight: Mandee branded me a superstar just before I left saying she wouldn’t have gotten through the day without me. I’m relevant ! I’m relevant !

It was raining this morning, I left home earlier than I needed to so I could walk at an even more leisurely pace because I’m terrified of slipping and falling. I’m puzzled how shoes work. I don’t seem to slip while walking but when I stand still and I slide my shoe along the wet ground, the grip feels nonexistent.

As I walked along Pyrmont Bridge, I observed people with their large company umbrellas. I saw the Bunnings umbrella many times, must be a good sturdy one. Most of the umbrellas are black, grey or navy. I wondered if TBWA had a company umbrella. The bridge could use some colour. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine myself brandishing a large red umbrella with a white forward slash.

Perfect.

There were scrambled eggs and cereal in the kitchen. Kat did say there would be free breakfast every morning. I spot a little brown dog this morning, I’m surprised I haven’t heard any barks or seen the dog from yesterday more than once. I hope little brown guy will come visit me.

I overheard, well it started out as overhearing but became a conversation later, Jade talking to another lady about her experience this morning. Jade isn’t on the little map Timtam drew for me so I’m unsure what department she’s in. Basically Jade was walking to her bus stop this morning and after about 10minutes she suddenly realized oh! I’m not wet. And she looks up and the gentlest of men is there beside her with a large umbrella sheltering them both. Jade starts chatting up with this amazing man and they connect instantly.

cue sizzling electricity noises

However her bus arrives and she panics and jumps on, forgetting to get his name or number or anything! Oh dear. She only knows where he works so she tells her friend she’s going to LinkedIn stalk him. That’s something I didn’t think I would hear – LinkedIn stalking ..

I giggle at her story and Jade laughs embarrassed and says hello to me. I mention I’m the new intern and she says very excitedly “Oh! I’ve heard all about you, in a meeting yesterday!”

Oh boy Timtam, what have you told and to whom?

Today’s been a much busier day, I’ve been taught to check feedback from clients on AdMation and upload new revisions.

OH ! That’s it. Cheebs reminds me of a friend I know back in briz.

We had clients in today. Isn’t it funny how when “guests” or “outsiders” from another company come they whole office has to put on their best behavior. They’re humans too, with their own offices which probably offer the very same facilities like meeting rooms and nice ergonomic furniture and naturally, refreshments. I don’t know. I don’t get it. I for one don’t expect special treatment when visiting a friend or patronizing a shop unless it’s a service like a spa or parlour then of course I’m there to be spoiled for a bit.

Gemini came to me while I was picking up some prints. Honestly I was just wondering who this lady with the wild but pretty curls was. Why was she so concerned -would you be interested in doing some research? I could organize for you to do some competitor analysis perhaps? I’ll have a think. Okay Gemini you do that and alert me at once 🙂

I learnt AdMation today where I could view client feedback and submit prints for revision and approve the studios work. Ehehe. What power !

I left earlier than day 1 today because I really was unable to help anyone 🙁 tomorrow will be better !

Highlight: An excel file got corrupted today and poor Timtam typed her media schedule several times and it wouldn’t cooperate with her and ‘kept dying’ so I redid the spreadsheet.

I recall googling this company a few weeks, completely clueless and skeptical that my father was recommending this place. I was pleasantly surprised to discover what a huge and reputable company this is.

And so, here I am, on my first day @ TBWA.

After some searching I concluded the commute I would enjoy the most would be to walk from St.James station across Pyrmont Bridge. The 30min walk (at my pace) warmed me up considerably and I enjoyed the fresh air and sights of the Darling Harbour. I think I’ll never get bored of this view. I couldn’t help but imagine this walk in Summer and how I’d probably be soaked in sweat and cursing at the sun. To be determined. I do hope I at still at TBWA in Summer.

I sat at the 3rd floor waiting to be received by the HR, I spot a little dog (I now know his name is Keith) running around the office. Oh boy, I think I’m gonna love this place.

My day begins with a tour of the office by the lovely Kitty. I’m glad to finally meet Kitty, the HR who’s been communicating with me. She’s very cute.

In her emails she mentioned that my interview was received well and everyone I met loved me! I decided not to clarify that I only met Timtam, the week before.

The first person I was introduced to was Honey~

I’m assuming she is the office manager, she pushes a trolley around with stationery and snacks and she’s very eager to assist anyone. Everyone gives Honey a big smile when they see her. Hannah gave me a hug to welcome me to the office.

Kitty then took me to lvl 2 where I would be actually working.

I was given a desk beside Anni, the senior copywriter for the David Jones Team. By the way I’m on the David Jones Team, which I will now affectionately refer to as DJ.

Kitty said sit tight I’ll get you a computer.

I sat and looked around the busy office and sure enough, Kitty came back with IT Guy hoisting a 27″ iMac and keyboard. All I could think of as he set it up was how I would ever look at my laptop screen with comfort again.

I was logged in and ready to go!

Timtam came to whisk me away to Sophia. Sophia isn’t a person, it’s a meeting room. She sketched a birds eye view of the office to explain the 4 teams in DJ. Basically a client brief is first sent to the Project Managers (I’m here!), then forwarded to the Creatives who brainstorm the photoshoot ideas and draft a spread probably. (By the way our work is designing the DJ catalogue) The Production team receives it and executes the photoshoot and finally Studio team does all the retouching and printing and publishing.

Ezpz.

My first task was to draw up estimates for hard costs which Timtam explained was not covered in TBWA-DJ’s Retainer contract. When she first mentioned a retainer agreement, I immediately thought of the situation of Rhythm & Hues going bankrupt from working on Life of Pi.

Dangerous.

Basically DJ signs an agreement that TBWA will handle their publications and content for $xx for a year. However if DJ doesn’t approve of TBWA’s proposals and work they’ll be revised and revised and revised and those incur costs. In the case of Rhythm & Hues, the retainer price was not enough to cover the demands of the movie and the vfx company was unable to pay its employees and eventually worked for free. After the movie was done, Rhythm & Hues was no more.

Sad.
But most of the world works that way it seems.

I did my estimates swiftly and was back to having nothing to do. 🙁 Curiously, Cheebs said he hadn’t done an estimate since he first started.

I made friends with KB, the proofreader. He’s a sweet guy.

I helped again later with creating an asset delivery spreadsheet which I tried to take my time to do, but still, I had too much time.

The office is too busy for me to learn right now. Timtam’s unable to show me things.

The day ended with me organising stacks of proofs for Mandee

I like this place. I like the environment, I do hope I get more work to do soon.

Timtam, the hardworker that she is emailed me at 11pm about a job for tomorrow. I replied I’ll do it first thing in the morning to which she hastily quipped oh don’t need to look at work emails at this time !

Highlight of the day: Timtam sending IT support a ticket “Please fix Ayesha’s right-click”