So... most of the summer, I have been pretty unhappy with my internship. I wasn't learning anything, and no matter how hard I tried, no one would give me any work to do. Eventually, I had decided that it was just that I was in the wrong department, I figured the media people just didn't get interesting things to do regardless of whether they were interns or the Vice President of Media.
Then one day I walked in, and my supervisor told me she quit. I have NEVER seen her so happy. Turns out, she actually does have a personality under all that plainness. When she thought she would be working there for years, she spent most of her time on the computer with headphones in, ignoring me. When I would ask for something to do, she would hand me the same issue of media week (in case anyone is wondering, people really do watch those ultra tacky TBS originals). If I went and found work in another department, she would tell me that I have to stick to her department (even if they had me wake up early to spend 20 hours a week sitting in a chair and starring at a wall).
Well, let me tell you what, as soon as that woman quit, my internship became a lot more pleasant. I can't tell if her attitude change was because she stopped caring, or because she was genuinely happy. But I can finally say that she did manage to teach me somethings. First, your attitude can affect all the people around you (yes, pretty much everyone in media has been more pleasant since she left). And second, if work makes you so miserable that you aren't yourself anymore, it's not job for you.
So I say thanks, I may not know more about research, media, reach, frequency, SRDS, or anything that made me agree to be the media intern, but I certainly did learn something valuable about life. So I wish her good luck, and hope she finds something she loves. And God bless anyone who has to work with her if she doesn't
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
It's all about the attitude
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4 comments:
That is an awesome learning experience! I think it is so amazing that you will sometimes learn things that you aren't even supposed to learn and the things that you are supposed to learn never get learned. I hope that you get to also work somewhere that is more enjoyable, if you decide to do another internship. If not, you still learned something about people, and this business is all about people!
Vanessa, check out Catch Your Limit's blog. Jeff featured your blog ... way to go! I'm so proud of you and what you learned is truly more important than any of the technical skills as this stage.
Even though we are a marketing and management consulting company, the majority of our work is focused on people skills. This includes attitudes. Bad attitudes can make or break a team, department and the entire organization. And as you know, bad attitudes can break the spirit of another person. Sounds like you were strong enough to weather the storm and learn something from your experience to boot. You are fortunate. Others don't always fare as well.
Thanks for sharing your experience ... like Melissa said, we are proud of you.
Thanks guys! I really appreciate everything you guys taught us last year. It's amazing how many people there didn't understand how to do business with people. That's definitely something I will never forget.
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