Intern Chick

I learned this on my first day.  I was living at home and commuting to New York, so I needed to take the train into the city every day.  My first day, I miscalculated how long this process would take, and I missed the train.  So I called my boss and left a message.  I was almost an hour late, and when I got there, there were a lot of people bustling around and looking very frantic.  They told me to sit down, so I did.  About twenty minutes later, they told me to go home.  I wanted to cry right there in the office, lay down and throw a temper tantrum and tell them I'm not usually late and I'm sorry but please don't send me home.  Plus, the train cost $20 and I wasn't getting paid for this!  But I went home, sadly.  The next time I went back, I was told that my boss had been fired (and by told, I mean I eavesdropped).  The VP had to take charge of me and had no clue what to do with me, so he just threw me on the phones, even though I had never used one of those fancy business phones in my life.  You really have to roll with the punches in this industry because nothing ever plays out how it is supposed to.

Because my boss had been fired, no one had any idea what to do with me.  There were plenty of other interns, and no one knew what my skills were.  So I had to make them see what I was capable of.  When I was asked to do something, I did it quickly and correctly to show them I was a fast learner.  When there was nothing to do, I found something to do--like organize the promotions closet, clean the assistant's desk, update lists of DJs with current information, anything I could think of.  This showed my bosses that not only could I do the work they needed me to do, but that I used every chance I got to make their company better.

My original plan was to live in New York and work in New York.  But I couldn't find a place to live, so I packed up my things from college and moved back into my mother's house.  Every other day, I woke up earlier than I wanted to and took the train into Manhattan.  And on those days that I wasn't interning, I worked a part time office job from 9 to 5 so that I could have some money.  There were nights that I didn't get home from interning until past midnight, and then had to wake up at 8 the next morning to get ready for my part time job at home.  There was very little time to hang out with my friends, but I did it because the rewards will exceed the grind time you put in.  As an intern, there were errands that I had to run that were for the most ridiculous things--buy the president underwear, go to a hotel to burn a CD for the boss' friend, find a car charger for a phone that is no longer manufactured, deposit this check into someone's bank account, buy the boss new jeans and cologne, deliver a Rolex watch to the president at his other office, the list goes on and on.  These were things I hated doing but the more valuable I made myself IN the office, the less they sent me out for things, and the jobs they gave me to do were more interesting.

Like I said, there will be things you have to do as an intern that sound completely ridiculous (i.e.: make 5,000 copies of this promo item, and then drop it in the street), but you never know who is watching you.  When I had to iron the president's clothes for a big event that night, I ironed them like I was raised all my life to iron clothing.  I was pissed that I had to do it (because I could totally tell these clothes had been worn some night before and were still dirty) but afterwards, he came into the office and talked to me more than he ever had.  

This is easy enough to understand.  There were times where all I wanted to do was stay in my bed all day (I don't care who you are, I love sleep more than you do), but I never missed a day of work.  More often than not, I wanted to leave work at 5 like normal people do, but I usually didn't get out of there until 8 or 9.  I knew that when I left, whatever time that was, there would still be three interns there who didn't have to take a 1 1/2 to 2 hour train ride home who could stay later than I could.  I hated getting the 9:30 to the 10:00 train, but I didn't want anyone taking my spot as "super intern" either.  

Every day you intern there is at least one lesson to be learned, if not more.  You just have to recognize them and put them into action.