Written by Mandeep Singh Sokhi, an aspiring Public Relations professional from Seneca College.
Augustine Fischer had 14 years of experience in the communications field working in various sectors like public, financial, energy, retail and logistics in Europe and Africa before he moved to Canada in 2019 to receive a formal education in Communications and Media Studies from Humber College. The article explores the challenges he faced and how he successfully overcame them. He gives us an insight on how to leverage a management degree in communications.
Augustine was introduced to the field of communications by his friend, who was recruiting for an internship position as Communications Officer in First City Monument Bank. Being a fresh graduate he applied for the internship and got selected. “I did my internship for six months, and I was like blown away, I was like, Wow! This is where I would love to be and that’s how I found myself in communication.” says Augustine. That’s how he fell in love and decided to pursue his career in communications.
While he was working with Acorn Petroleum, he decided to upgrade his knowledge and skills and decided to do an MBA with a major in Marketing. He always believed that communications is a part of marketing and learned the impact communication has on business earlier in his career. That was the sole reason he went for an MBA in Marketing to align communication objectives with businesses so that communication can add value to the organizations.
Augustine added that the country’s culture does not have any effect on the communication or how the communication is done. He believes communication across the globe is similar but the language may differ. “The principles of communication never change, there would always be a sender, there would always be a channel, and there would always be a receiver.” Says Augustine.
While working for a subsidiary of Maersk in Nigeria, Augustine was promoted to be the head of communications for Africa which paved the way for him to move to Denmark with further promotion. He did not face any major challenges during the process of moving to Denmark as he already had the job but moving to Canada was a challenge he faced as he had to resign from Maersk to start fresh in Canada. He thought of getting Canadian education first to help him make up for the Canadian experience. He wanted to make use of the internship after the graduate certificate as that would help him get into the system.
The pandemic did not help him with the internship and there was not much of a job opening during the period. Disheartened, as he could not get a job of his liking, he decided to get a survival job as Client Advisor in RBC. With access to the company’s internal job portal, he started applying for communications jobs. After applying to the job, he would write a note to the higher manager demonstrating his experience in the field of communication. This helped as he started getting interviews aligned. This further gave him confidence, and he applied to the communications role in the City of Mississauga and got selected; his resilience paid off.
On advice for someone graduating, Augustine says:
”You need a network, you need a network of friends, you need a network of mentors, you need a network of senior colleagues to help you out.”
He emphasizes knowing the audience, the field and the principle for someone graduating as a communications professional. Stakeholder management is another skill that one should have when graduating.
