After a little over a month at Bailey Gardiner, an award winning creative agency with a talented and wonderful staff, I’m obtaining many new skills and discovering that interning is…
- Arriving for your first day of work at 8:57 AM. You’ve consciously factored in three minutes of extra time for the staircase ascent so you are a) seated at your desk promptly at 9:00 AM (punctual, but not desperate), and b) can walk slowly in those new heals and your best interpretation of “business casual”—“klutz” and “ER girl” are nicknames you’d rather not have the rest of the summer.
- Googling the word “V-Card” after receiving instruction to make one and having no idea what it is, mistakenly getting help from Urban Dictionary.com, and then thinking--what the heck have I gotten myself into.
(Urban Dictionary: "V" stands for virgin, holding the V card means you're still a virgin.)
- Wondering how many people are actually going to leave messages for you when your office voice mail sounds like your eight year old cousin playing “businesswoman”, and you have an email address that explicitly shouts “yes I am the low man on the totem pole”, and “yes I poured the coffee you drank at your meeting this morning”.
- Taking ten minutes to draft your first email to your boss because you just can’t get the first line to read right…
“Dear” (too old school)…
“Hi” (too informal)…
“Why Hello” (too creepy)
“To Whom it May Concern” (no)
…And then finally deciding to just walk the message back to her desk.
- Wishing you had the owners’ manual for the coffee machine, mail machine and copy machine (that resembles something you saw in a recent horror flick).
- Wondering if your “freedom to use the available mugs and dishes in the staff kitchen” is really a freedom, or just a test for how quickly you make yourself at home.
- Paying $14 to park at Rite Aid your first day…and then finding the countless free spots around the corner.
- Feeling like a superhero after obtaining five new identities in one day…@aol.com, @gmail.com, @baileygardiner.com, Twitter username, LinkedIn username…and then discovering your tragic flaw…remembering passwords.
- Becoming a master at iChat status changes…
- 10:00 At SDMA
- 10:45 SDMA take two
- 11:50 third time’s a charm at SDMA
- 1:00 SDMA loves me
- 2:37 Made new BFF at SDMA
- 4:05 Tweet from Blackberry:
Ran out of gas. Camped at SDMA for the rest of the day.
- Taking pictures of a fantastically alluring banner (with an expensive camera you’re saving up all your unpaid internship money for), and trimming the edges on a masterfully created poster (210 down, 90 to go), fantasizing about future aspirations of one day contributing your talents to making something of equal greatness.
- Learning there’s a lot more that goes into an ad campaign then you ever imagined, and gaining a whole new respect for anyone working M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM.
- Researching amazing companies you fall in love with and hope to be a part of one day. Researching the cost of 300 imprinted fly swatters, and 200 clown noses on clownantics.com.
- Licking 50+ envelopes closed, losing your taste buds, and then realizing you could have just used water and a sponge.
- Operation “Gift Bag Delivery”, with your wonderful intern partner in crime, turning into operation “Try to Find the Client”, turning into operation “Make Amends” after you realize the car you accidentally just cut off on the freeway belongs to the client you just found.
- Learning that I.O. and W.O. are not chat abbreviations, and that LOL ;) is not the response the boss wanted to hear.
- Finding out “Special Assignment” means a .5 mile walk, $22 in cash, and a visit to your new best friend Paul—the owner of Uncle Biff’s Killer Cookies (the eighth world wonder and ultimate office indulgence).
- Spray painting 300 fly swatters with red numbers in an alley for 6 hours, and then later explaining to your friends and family, “No, no, calling the police won’t be necessary. I promise they don’t beat me at work.”
- Hopefully the only job I ever have where “pay raise” is nothing more than a cruel joke.
- Realizing you don’t have it that bad when an officemate tells you about her intern experience “pooping the parrot”.
- Showing up to work a week later with the same red spray paint still on your hands, feet, and the upper right portion of your face (see #17).
- Being asked to make a beer run to celebrate the success of a campaign, and then hearing, “Oh wait, you’re not 21.” And discovering, in that same instant, that while past interns have been treated to an evening at an upscale bar to celebrate their time at BG, you will be getting a BBQ and a Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri.
- Looking up the “best way to unsuperglue your fingers” after your newest arts and craft project--making 250 fly pins.
- A necessity. Interning at BG is helping me build a colorful resume, enhance my communication, time management and critical thinking skills, understand office politics, and is giving me a plethora of fabulous conversation starters. Although it has its share of odd jobs, it is helping me discover who I am and who I want to become.
In one sentence what does interning mean to you?
This is hilarious!! Kudos to an awesome first blog post :-) - KJ
ReplyDeleteLOVE it. You are both hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOh and I especially love the part about deciding how to start your first letter to your boss. I think anyone who has ever been an intern can relate to that one.
Luckily, not everyone can relate to pooping a parrot every 25 minutes...
i love how i was the one who questioned why you were licking them instead of just using a sponge. haha! great first blog post!!
ReplyDeleteThe best part about all of these is that you do it all with the BEST attitude! I hope you come back every summer and intern with us.
ReplyDelete