given this book by a pr officer

As the title of this post suggests, yes, I realise... my job requires a lot... I mean.. A LOT of reading.

There were days when I went for an event not doing any research or readings because I was well, exhausted, from events that I covered on previous days. And so, I'd just wing it. But more often than not, I end up floundering. Cuz I didn't even understand my own material.

The thing about being a reporter is that you're expected to own your beat or area of reporting - to know what you're saying and talking about, as well as ask relevant questions to your interviewees. Unfortunately, I'm so new to all of this that I have very little knowledge about what I'm covering sometimes. Cos we get thrown all sorts of stories on different days - from health, to transport, to education, to even a royal wedding. Then I rely on my editor to inform me of the ins and outs of a subject and topic. But my editor would also chide me for not knowing anything. So it then goes back to me again.

Sometimes, I find research very daunting because I don't know where to begin since there's a whole backlog of articles and reports to read up on - plus, there's the internet!!!! Information overload!!!!!!!!!! My brain often shuts down by itself just thinking of the insurmountable task ahead and mountain of information to scale.

What woke me up was an incident that happened a few days ago - a corp comms person from a law firm chided me by saying, "I'm sorry if I sound rude, but you really need to do your BASIC research before coming to speak to us. Bye. *phone beep*"

And... what's worse is that I make the silly mistake of not doing a background check of all the people that I'm speaking to, especially when I'm more eager to find out what they have to say, that I embarrass myself when they tell me "I'm the President of...". Then when I go back and do an easy search on the world wide web, I'd find myself saying holy crap, that dude I just spoke to was a big ass fella. How is it that he can still be so nice to me even after all my trip ups!!??!

So yes, I have made a lot of rookie mistakes. Been told off a couple of times, but also quite happy to know that there are still kind souls out there who have been able to tolerate my mistakes and still be pleasant to work with (and still are willing to talk/entertain me even after making those mistakes)

Gotta remember to do the same when I become older and wiser.

In the meantime, I GOTTA READ, READ, READ
(never knew your mama was right back then when she told you so eh)