Three little words...

     I find summing my internship up into three words extremely difficult.  However, having to choose just three, I would have to go with fun, informative, and social.  I choose fun, simply because have not really had a bad day at my internship, especially while I am at the station events.  Second I chose informative.  This internship has given me a great insight to the inter-workings of the radio industry.  This has helped me assess my original plans for my future career, and tweak them a bit.  Third, I choose the word social.  It is extremely hard to not be outgoing and work in radio.  We must be very social, and talk to anyone and everyone who approaches us.  Overall, we deal with social interactions with the radio station listeners, and get to meet many different people.

     The culture of my workplace is extremely different from my last internship.  At my previous internship, I spent everyday working in an office, on a computer.  At this internship, most of our time is spent at events such as bars, pet stores, or the Philadelphia Convention Center.  While we do spend one day a week working in an office, this too is very different than my previous internship.  The days we spend in the office include us calling listeners, making the bins for the weekends events, and what ever other tasks we are assigned to complete.  The culture is very laid back, no one really dresses up, and we don’t worry too much about what we look like in the office.  On the other hand, when we are working events we must make sure we are the best representation of the radio stations that we can be.

     The gender balance is anything but a balance.  In the promotions department, which I work in, there are twice as many females as there are males.  In other departments however, such as the DJs, there are more men than woman.  It is not fair to say that one department has more of one gender than another, because as a complete station I would make an educated guess to say that we are about equal.

     This internship has provided me with an experience like no other, and I am excited to see where these last few weeks lead me.

Hours Worked:

Friday:               7:30pm-1:30am (event)

Wednesday:     10:00am-3:30pm (office)

LinkedIn and Social Media

     I personally have a LinkedIn page.  The only reason I partake in the LinkedIn experience, is because I needed one in order to conduct research for my previous internship.  Outside of that, I cannot say that I fully understand the point of LinkedIn.  I understand that it is valuable for connecting with people about jobs or internships, however I am always hesitant to contact some one on a social media platform.  Without face-to-face contact, you can never tell if the person you are contact is who you really think they are.  In that aspect, I do not agree with the use of social media for the job market.

     As far as following the advice of Tishgart, I do feel that some of it was relevant, and can easily be applied outside of the use of social media.  You can easily talk to contacts you have made prior through face-to-face contact in order to try and land your next job.  I also find that something similar to what I am already doing with my own website, and personal business cards is an effective way to reach potential employers.  Additionally, I will be participating in an amazing volunteer opportunity in the next fifteen days.  While we have been working hard all year to raise money, I along with the rest of the Habitat for Humanity group at Holy Family will be leaving the morning of March 2^nd for Taos, New Mexico.  This is a volunteer opportunity that may or may not set me apart from other candidates in the job market, but there is no loss in putting yourself out there and attempting something like this.  LinkedIn, is just one way of connecting with potential employers, and call me old fashioned, but I much rather prefer the traditional face-to-face contact.

     Again, I do not agree with the use of social media to obtain a job.  This is not because of what I post on social media, because for the most part I try to keep all of my posts as clean a possible.  However, the truth is that you cannot control what your friends are posting on social media websites.  This makes it difficult, unless you are creating two profiles for each social media site; one that is professional, one that is more for play.  Consider what were to happen if a future employer got a hold of your for fun social media sites, would you still have your job?

     In closing, I do not believe that I will use social media as my main way of contacting future employers, and trying to obtain my dream job.

Hours Worked

Friday:               3:45pm-9:00pm (event)

Saturday:           8:30am-1:00pm (event)

Sunday:           12:15pm-6:00pm (event)

Wednesday:    10:00am-1:30pm (office) [sick, left early]

Be the Best Intern...

     Being an intern is not always an easy task, especially when you are one of 23 interns.  With such a large number of individual striving for the same goal, standing out is that much more hard.  I have always applied the tips given in “How to be the Best Intern” by Matt Brownell, into every job or internship I have been blessed with.  I do believe that this is one thing that gives me the upper hand against most interns.  I believe that having the opportunity and ability to openly ask questions to employees is important in order to make sure I am performing to the best of my ability.  The unique experience that I am having during this internship compared to my last internship at Holy Family is the drives that I take with the Street Teamers.  I have found these drives as a perfect opportunity to ask questions about Wired and XTU, and learn more about the daily operations of the station and the promotions departments.

     Although I have never been asked to go get lunch, I must agree with the statement made in Brownell’s article, not to complain about the duty, rather to embrace it, complete the task, and ask how it fits in to the internship later.  This is a unique perspective, and something that will definitely give you the upper edge over your intern pool competition.  Many would receive the task and immediately complain, thinking that the task is below them.  Again, as stated in the article, be willing to step up and offer to do jobs that no one else wants to do.  I recently had that type of experience.  The head of the sales department needed a task done, and she said it didn’t matter who helped her.  This was while I was there for my office day, when I work with four other interns.  The four of us stood there staring at each other.  I immediately stepped up and offered to help.  I saw this as an opportunity to not only stand out, but also a way to learn another aspect of the company.  It is actions like this that will help me stand out.

     Thus far, I love my internship.  It is a completely different experience from my last internship, so I am gaining the different view of communications positions that I hoped to gain in the beginning.  In addition, it is a lot of fun attending the different events, and it is turning out to be a great end to my college career.

Hours worked:

Friday:                 7:15pm-1:00am (event)

Wednesday:       10:00am-3:00pm (office)

My New Skills!

     My internship is going great!  While there is no true opportunity for short-term, or ongoing projects, we do have our tasks that we completely weekly.  This includes mostly making the “bins” for the weekends events, stuffed with anything and everything we may possibly need for each specific event.  While doing this, we must remember what event is XTU and which event is Wired so we are placing the appropriate items in the bin.

     While there is no true “project” that I am working on, everyday I am working, I am offering suggestions when appropriate in solving problems that occur.  Thinking on the spot, and problem solving are just some of the skills I already had, that this internship is allowing me to build upon.  On the other hand, there are some new skills that I am in the process of working on.  As part of this internship, we as interns need to be outgoing, and willing to interact with anyone and everyone.  While I seem extremely open, and am a very outgoing person, I find this to be awkward.  I am not the best at being able to walk up to someone and just strike up a conversation, or ask to take their photo for the Wired or XTU website.  This past weekend, while working an event, I observed how the Street Teamer interacted with the public at events, and then she turned around, and asked me it I wanted to step in.  It was an extremely hard task for me, but I in no way, shape, or form wanted to say no, because every opportunity I am given is a great one, and one that I need to graciously accept.  I excitedly, but nervously took her up on her offer and began approaching people.  I am not at the point of being 100% comfortable with this task yet, but I am working on it, and taking every opportunity I can to but up this skill and confidence.

     At week three of the semester, being one complete week into my internship, I absolutely love every second.  Each week, I get more excited for the events I work, and the new skills I will learn on the job.  I am very motivated for this position, because I am currently working in promotions, which is part of my dream job when I graduate at the end of the semester.

Hours worked:

Saturday:           7:30pm-1:45am  (event)

Wednesday:     10:00am-3:00pm  (office)

                          4:30pm-10:30pm (event)