Photo by Karisma Karunakaran
Almost everyone has heard that by enrolling into mass communication, their job scope in the future will be more comprehensive. But the question is, how wide can it be? Is there a real-life example of how someone has taken advantage of the course and implemented it into their career? The answer is yes. Let me introduce you to a multi-talented woman who has made good use of the opportunities offered by her mass communication studies. Karisma Karunakaran, a degree-holder, has pursued a variety of professions with all the skills she was taught in college. She finished her course at Taylor’s University and is currently expanding all the business ventures she dived into.
From a young age, wildlife photography was always something she had in mind; she got the inspiration from watching the National Geographic channels. When she began her mass communication course, photography was an elective subject in which she learned some handy skills. She explored the field of editing further by watching YouTube tutorials. Through that endeavour, she launched an official Instagram page called ‘@clicks4lyf’ which means, clicks (as in, photography clicks) and its ever-lasting representation in our lives.
While exploring the photography field as a freelancer, she had the opportunity to work with models and even got help from some talented make-up artists. This skill birthed a new inspiration; to start learning how to become a make-up artist. With the help of family, friends, and even using herself as a canvas, this helped her improve her skills. As time went by, she slowly got the hang of it. She invested in buying more make-up products and ventured to give client makeovers at a reasonable price. Through recommendations from her good friends, she got the opportunity to get hired as Sunway Lagoon’s Night of Fright. She worked as a make-up artist and unsurprisingly, the manager there loved her work. And a while back, she even launched her make-up brand called ‘Lashes by Karisma’. This career move was inspired by her favourite American make-up artist, Huda Kattan. She sees launching new products on the horizon and does not plan to stop developing this project.
Later on, she had her internship at the BERNAMA News Channel, which was one of her best experiences despite the many struggles it had. She was never a broadcast person, per se but was interested in the technical aspects of it. To her advantage, with the knowledge her course gave her, she managed her internship well through the hard work.
Through all the effort put in, she did stress out during her work journey. Her battles were confronting the tight schedules, going from one location to another; or even interviewing a guest, editing and finalising the segment on the same day. However, she learnt how to be more organised and punctual with her work. She also managed how to handle different types of people during interviews so that the process would run smoothly. Plus, it was a huge dream come true for her to announce the news and appear on the television while imagining the proud faces of her parents tuning in.
Even with her talents and professional startups, every phase she went through had a lot of struggles; whether she was a student or freelancer. What was at the forefront of her mind was making sure that her work and performance was well-organised and up to par. Mass communication enhanced her communication skills, and it helped mould her to be independent. The advice that she wishes all students in this field to heed is to think about how the things taught by our lecturers could benefit us in our future jobs or businesses.
By Dhineswary Sreedharan