It was early October when I first set foot (virtually) on Maverick soil, marking the start of my two-month-long work experience. I was both excited and daunted by the opportunity; excited to venture into an activity that I’ve never experienced before and daunted by the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about the world of communications and strategic consulting. If someone were to ask me what people do in communication and consulting, my answer would be limited to “people who communicated things to other people”. But although I had little to no experience in strategic communications consulting or any work experience for that matter, I was still eager to gain both knowledge and experience with Maverick.

During the two months I spent riding the Maverick roller coaster, I learned so much about not only the functionalities of a workplace environment but also about strategic communications consultancy as a whole. I was able to receive insights from training modules and also by talking to other people at Maverick who were more than happy to explain the different roles strategic communications consultants play in bridging communication for their clients. 

I also learned a lot from the people I worked with within the respective teams I was assigned to. Whether it would be the Gold Diggers team, Community Outreach team, or the MavSocial team, I was always learning something new from the people in my team who were always patiently guiding me and teaching me how to function and communicate in a team. 

Darrel with the MavSocial Team (Lina, Gege, and Ucan)

As a whole, this was a wild and insightful two months. Prior to deciding to go through with this experience, I was very worried as it was something I didn’t know whether I was ready for. It turns out, it helped me gain an interest in strategic communications consultancy and helped me a lot in truly understanding what I want to do because frankly at this moment, I still have no clue (still only 18 and clueless, unfortunately). But at the end of the day, I would not trade this experience for anything. This experience was a lot like eating Martabak – sweet, delightful and surprising. And I love eating Martabak.

A thank you to everyone who helped me throughout this experience!

Darrel and everyone at Maverick went out to the #Cinemav

Written by Darrel Jovan Taniel, Work Experience Staff