Volunteering As A Media Operations Assistant

As promised, this is my post on my experience on applying to help out at the Youth Olympic Games. When I first heard that we will be hosting the Games, I was happy and excited. When the South East Asian Games first came to this part of the world, I was still in my early teens so did not show any interest on what it was all about.

So it was with the Youth Olympics. I had no interest whatsoever for any sporting events as my own sports genes are downright incapable of doing any sports well.

Then the call for volunteers began. I am always for volunteering because helping out at a major event like this will let me learn a lot and be more exposed to things which I would otherwise never have a chance to be exposed to. So I signed up. But there was no news.

Then my alumni (incidentally the site of the Olympic Village) called for volunteers too so I signed up through there as well. But there was still no news.

These were done last year. Early this year, the school I am currently attending is also looking for volunteers for the Olympic Games. Those interested had to attend a briefing.

So I attended and put my name down. In total, I signed up as a volunteer through three different portals and indicated my interests three different times, but there was still no news.

Until last Friday. Because he also signed up and actually interviews for a post, he received a message on a Volunteer Briefing and Job Offer the next day (Saturday morning). He forwarded the message to me as apparently I was not even on the mailing list.

So we went down on Saturday (yesterday) and saw three different queues. One was for registration, one for confirmation and one for photo-taking. We went to the Registration Booth and was told that our particulars were both in the database. Which means I did sign up bur for some reason they had not matched me to a job yet.

So he gave each of us a slip of paper, and asked us to go upstairs to the briefing room, where there would be a display lists of jobs to volunteer for. We had to indicate our choice, and for those jobs that required interviews, we had to go for the interview.

I saw the post "Media Operations Assistant" and was immediately interested. People know I have always been interested in the medid industry. Because he has a minor in Media Communications, he decided to try out for that role too.

We had to go for an interview for that role and did so accordingly. Apparently, media operations is essentially assisting the media people and coverage. We would be running around and based at the Games area, whereas media communications would be just stationed at the Media Centre answering media queries and vetting press releases.

In short, media operations will enable one to be more exposed to the workings and on-goings of the media industry. That is exactly what I have been looking for! This would be an opportunity not to be missed!

At the end of the interview session, I was so happy that the interviewer agreed to take both of us in! I can hardly wait! We then went down to the Confirmation Booth to confirm our jobs. So this is it! We are going to be Media Operations Assistants!

There would be some intensive training come July and then the commitment would be the actual Games itself. She asked if we have a preferred sport and I said Tennis and he Cycling. She agreed to send in our requests but no guarantees. Does not matter, being able to help out in the media operations is wonderful enough.

Now I can hardly wait for the final countdown to the Games! This would really be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity indeed!