Entering my third year in the Diploma of Arts Business Management, my class was the first batch of students who were placed on internships. I managed to get an internship placement at Helu-trans, one of Singapore's leading arts logistics firms.
At Helu-trans, I spent my first two months attached to the Client Services department. My primary roles and responsibilities are to assist my colleagues in Client Services in job execution and preparation of paperwork. I am also responsible for engaging in basic communication with clients, such as emailing them their invoices or procuring information about artworks from them. I am also in-charge of following up on billing and payment for jobs that I help to assist. I liaise with the Shipping department and the Registrar department to keep track of shipments, create and update permits, and update artwork records in the company database. I also assist my colleagues in filing and archiving paperwork of completed jobs, and provide on-site support when needed. Before joining Helutrans, I was not very clear on what my roles and responsibilities were going to be. As stated in the job description provided by the school and during my job interview, I was told that I would be mainly doing administrative work. At first, I thought that this would be relatively simple as I had experience in administrative work from my time as a volunteer at St Luke’s Hospital and as an Admin member in the planning committee of the Compulsory School Orientation Programme 2018. However, my actual roles and responsibilities are very different from what I expected. During my first week at the organisation, I had to be taught how to use Salesforce and understand the company’s Standard Operating Procedures. I had to understand the services provided by the company, such as the different types of import/export jobs, as each job is unique and require different documents and permits. It was difficult for me to adjust and learn so many new things as this was not taught in school, but my Company Supervisor and colleagues were very helpful and patient in teaching me. I believe that I have learnt a lot from my first six weeks of interning at Helutrans. I have learnt how to communicate with clients properly, manage my time better and prioritise jobs when I am juggling several at once. I have also brushed up my Microsoft Excel skills as I am required to use Excel quite frequently. On a personal level, I learnt how to be more responsible and how to adapt to a new environment. I realised that I can be quite forgetful which could be detrimental as the jobs I handle are usually on a tight time constraint, hence I began logging the jobs that I need to complete and what needs to be done in a notebook. This has helped me tremendously and allows for easy reference when I need to open the job again to add in new documents or make changes and keep track of the tasks I need to complete. Before my internship, I wanted to learn more about the arts industry, how it operates and gain a better understanding of the different sectors of the industry. As an arts logistics company, Helutrans is a part of the industry that is often overlooked. When thinking about the arts industry, the first thing that comes to mind is programmes– such as the planning and curation of festivals, visual arts exhibitions and performances. However, I have come to learn that every aspect of programmes require logistics planning. I’ve gained a better understanding of the art logistics industry in Singapore and its main players, as well as the services offered to aid in the planning and execution of arts programmes. I believe that the knowledge I have gained so far will help me to become a better arts manager in the future as I am more aware of the logistics needed to ensure that programmes run smoothly, such as hiring manpower to install art, transportation and storage of art works and importing and exporting art for museums and galleries.
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“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” — Thomas Merton ArchivesCategories |