Making The Most Of My Internship

Before I begin talking about what I did today, let me rewind back to Monday afternoon.

So, part of my internship program requires me to attend mandatory meetings/lectures/presentations/etc. every Monday. During this past Monday, all interns in the Media and Communications program were told to attend a presentation at a hotel in downtown D.C. This activity was led by Rosemary Reed, President of Double R Productions. Her presentation was focused on, "The Top Ten Rules FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR INTERNSHIP." I won't list all of the rules, but I will mention two that stuck out in my mind the most: #5 Be Ready to Be Tested and #6 Be Interested. When explaining rule #5, Rosemary told us to keep in mind that there will always be the boring "intern" work that needs done, but if you are competent and if you do a good job at it, the bigger and better assignments will come later on. Then, she went on to discuss rule #6, she explained that having the ability to fake interest (in those boring assignments or long meetings) will take you a long way. When one appears to be interested or enthusiastic about something, people tend to notice and remember that. I wanted to make sure I would remember all of her tips and words of advice, that might explain why I ended up with 3 pages of notes after her presentation! The information was so helpful and I really wanted to implement some of these rules into my internship experience.

Now, we can fast-forward to today (Tuesday, although its technically 2:00am Wednesday morning right now). I would like to think that I have already begun utilizing these rules from my first day as an intern, but I wanted to be sure. On my way to work this morning, I kept thinking to myself, "Be aggressive. Be interested. Be ready!" Once I got to my internship, I went around the office and asked some of the staff if they needed any help. One of the account executives, Mike, said that he needed some email contacts for a project he was working on. Without saying another word, I immediately began my assignment. Once I finished that up, I asked my supervisor, Whitney, if she had anything that needed to be done. She explained to me what she was working on and then assigned me to the job. I spent most of my day completing the task, but once I was done, I asked for more work. Each job I took on I welcomed with enthusiasm. Even if the job was looking up an email address, it was still a task that needed to be done and I was happy to do it.

By the end of the day, I was still in a "go-getter" kind of mood. I was energized because I felt that my day was very productive and successful. In my opinion, I really think Rosemary's presentation motivated me and also provided me with the tools I need in order to make the most of my internship experience.