Do GSSE students have opportunities to intern in an international corporate?
Absolutely!
Engeng from Cohort 6 has this exact experience that she wishes to share with all of you today. Working in the PTT group—one of the top-tier public companies of Thailand focused on natural gas and petroleum—is not an easy job. Yet with the right adaptations, mindset and constant improvements of skills, she was able to find meaningful experiences in her internship and contributed as a CSR & PR in the PTT.
Read the full story of Engeng’s internship here:
“The reason I chose to intern here is that I got an offer from Mr.Jirayu, who is the head of the CSR & PR (Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations) department and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to experience working here—particularly in the CSR department in ‘PTT Public Company Limited’.
My intention was to know how they interacted with various community groups and how a large corporation manages to give back to the communities.
I had learned a lot about CSR in our GSSE program, so I thought it was going to be a good opportunity to experience these by myself. I also wanted to discover how people in the community perceived this corporation and their campaigns. And as the Khanom gas separation plant will be shutting down in a few years, since the natural gas will run out soon, I didn’t want to lose the opportunity, too.
Initially, I was interested in the CSR department. I was already familiar with the concept of CSR, so it was interesting to see how a big corporation like the ‘PTT Public Company Limited’ implemented them.
However, at Khanom GSP, they combined the CSR department with the PR department. Therefore, it was a great opportunity for me to experience both public relations and the CSR’s intervention in reality simultaneously.
I observed how PTT grew more serious and practical about giving back to the community as the Khanom Gas Separation plant was once accused by the community for causing health issues in locals.
For this particular gas separation plant, the CSR campaign was ‘Care, Share, and Respect.’ It was the concept behind their CSR activities. I could see that my department had consistently put in a great amount of effort to interact with the community. The company cared about showing up at every community event. They also played a big role in all activities—mainly as the sponsor—and made people feel that they were a part of the community
And as soon as I entered PTT, I could feel a little challenge. The challenge, in my humble experience, in some ways was due to the structure. A new project would not take off as easily for the community if the supervisors and the management have differing opinions. There were also needs for paperwork and upper management approvals, just like in any corporate setting.
I also observed that their CSR continued to be carried out with consistency, such as picking up trash, planting trees, and providing scholarships to students. While I am not saying that it was not useful for the community, I just felt we could do more to improve overall sustainability.
Also, the corporate settings could affect my ability to ideate original thoughts. It was indeed less abling for me to think of a new project within a highly systemized structure. At one point, I even experienced a strange sense of being put into a box.
With all points made, I would say that I learned a lot in this internship. I understood their morals better, improved my communication skills, and learned how to be approachable in social events. I was also able to utilize the community communication and observation skills which I learned from GSSE. Overall, it was challenging, as any wrong move I made could have affected the organization’s reputation.
During field visits, there was one thing my supervisor always kept saying: “Meet them and maintain a good relationship.” It has become my awareness that community relationships are their top priority. In practice, I believe it all comes down to establishing a respectable presence in the community and winning the trust of the locals through good, consistent contribution.
Lastly, let me conclude with my impressions. I think this was a good opportunity for me to witness first-hand how a big corporation works and it helped me to discover more about myself, especially about my future plans. The people there were nice and helpful, always ready to answer any questions I had. I had made new friends and met wonderful groups of people. So how about you? Are you ready to go on to explore interesting experiences like mine in an international corporation?”
