Showing posts with label internship three. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internship three. Show all posts

Last Day

0 comments Posted by Intern Chick at 11:02 PM

Obviously, because of the (way too short) break between the end of my internship and the start of classes, I'm behind on my posts.  So I'm backtracking here.  My last day at Internship #3 was December 22nd (the day they gave me the bad evaluation) and December 23rd at Internship #1.


Originally I told Vin my last day would be the 18th and I stuck to my guns until he told me he was in a tight spot and that no one would be around to cover the phones on the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas Eve.  If he couldn't find anyone, he was going to have to cancel his flight home and stay in New York.  I felt bad and said I could work Tuesday, but had already told Internship #3 I would work that Monday.  He really seemed to appreciate it and in my book, the whole point of being an intern is to make your boss' life easier.  So if that means shortening your break so they can enjoy theirs, than so be it.  Don't think I didn't complain to my friends about having to work though.
Your "last day" is always nice and you don't even have to do anything except tell everyone its your last day.  Mine was particularly weird though because I was the only one in my department that was there...no Vin, no Big Boss, just me, the phones, and a new book. It was really slow at the office, not much was really going to happen the day before Christmas Eve, but Big Boss insisted someone be there anyway.  I did save the day for one of our producers though, when a royalty check came for him and I went and deposited it into his bank account.  It felt good to be able to handle the whole thing on my own and knowing that my bosses I'd be able to get it done.  The phones probably rang three times the whole day.  The third call was the Big Boss.  She was calling to check in and ask if anyone had called.  No one had really called with anything important so I said no, and she said...do yourself a favor, lock up in an hour and have yourself a merry Christmas.  I said thank you and said it was nice working for her, you know, all the usual courtesies and hung up.  I looked at the clock and realized it was 5:30.  That meant I could leave at 6:30, a whole half an hour early.  
Wow, Big Boss, you shouldn't have!
At 6:30 exactly, I collected my final stipend, closed my computer and cleared off my desk for the last time and walked out the door.  It took me about 20 minutes to hail a cab for Grand Central and I settled in for a long ride home of reflecting and reminiscing.  

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2 Is The Loneliest Number

0 comments Posted by Intern Chick at 2:19 PM

The best part about wrapping up your internship is getting your evaluation.  I take these really seriously because interning is a learning process, and to be able to get honest feedback on what you've done for the past few months is invaluable.  I also love to know what I do best and it's never a bad idea to know what you could improve upon.  I truly do not mind constructive criticism and never take it personally.

With that said, you can imagine my excitement when I brought my evaluation to Internship #1 and Internship #3.  I decided not to do one for #2 because my boss for this job was also my boss last year and is always giving me feedback on my job performance (aka, I know she thinks I do a good job).  Last Friday I brought my evaluation in to Internship #3 and asked that they give it to me sometime before my last day.  They gave it to me on Monday.
I should have known something was up.  Honestly...what else are you supposed to think when you boss asks you questions like "Do we give this evaluation to you directly?  We don't fax it to anybody?" and "We don't seal this up?  You read this?"  I couldn't imagine what would be so bad, I work really hard at Internship #3 and I even braved the snow storm Sunday night and drove to the train station so that I wouldn't be late for work Monday morning.  I brushed it off and continued my work.  I should mention here that none of the other interns came to work on Monday, and not only did I came in, but I was there 2 hours before any of my bosses showed up.
Finally, one of my bosses said she had my evaluation on her desk and told me to pick it up when I left.  I thought that was kind of weird of them  not to go over it with me, but again, I brushed it off and continued my work.
That evaluation was not in my hand until I had my coat on and was ready to walk out the door.  I walked to the subway station and read it once I got on the train.  It was way too cold to have my hands anywhere but my pockets while I waited.  I skimmed the evaluation and saw a bunch of 3s circled.  3 means "meets standard."  I wasn't too happy about that, because, I can honestly say, even when I slack off at something, its still better than average.  I'm just that kind of over achiever.  But then I noticed every single category had 3s circled...things like overall job performance, professional behavior, knowledge of the industry, etc. etc.  There's a space to fill in comments about each category and I think unless you get the highest ranking (a 4, which means, exceeds standard), you have room to improve and filling in the comment section is helpful.  I got to the last page, to the very last two categories...work ethic and supervision, and they had circled....2s!!!  A 2 means does not meet standard.
I will put my work ethic on everything.
I was utterly shocked.  No one has ever, ever said I didn't do good work.  They may not have liked me, or said I am too quiet, or even said I have a problem showing up to work on time, but I do amazing work.  My work ethic cannot be touched!  I was too angry to go home after reading that, so I walked around Herald Square for a little while, hoping the window displays at Macy's might cheer me up.  I finally walked home and was feeling so unsettled.  There's nothing like giving your all and being told it doesn't meet standards.  Who's standards are we even talking about here?!
In the past I've been told by just about all of my bosses that I need to learn to speak up for myself.  I debated this one.  Should I say something to these crazy bosses that think I don't meet their standard?  Is it worth it?  If I don't meet their standard then, their standard cannot be met, thats for sure.  I won't even talk about the countless times I've been given extra work because they didn't finish their own job and needed my help to get it done.  
I got up the courage Tuesday afternoon while I was at Internship #1 and sent the two girls who did my evaluation an e-mail.  I tried to keep it as professional as possible and left my feelings out of it.  I told them I did not understand their choice to give me 2s and that in order for me to improve, I need to understand what I've done wrong.  Immediately after sending it I got two auto-reply responses from each of their e-mail addresses that they will be out of the office until January 5 and to have a happy holiday.
And now, I'm left to await their response.  And I'm wracking my brain over what is wrong with my work ethic..

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Faith Restored

0 comments Posted by Intern Chick at 9:38 PM


There's a certain feeling you get when you find what you're meant to do in life.  I can't explain it, I can only say that it came to me the first time I heard Boyz II Men sing "Thank You" and it's been with me ever since.  I went through a lot of bumps chasing what I'm supposed to do with my life, but I never forgot that feeling and it always, only made me stronger.  Until recently.

You could say I became jaded, you could even say I lost my focus.  Call it whatever you want to call it; the fact of the matter is, I lost it.  I've been looking for it, and wherever I did lose it, I was starting to believe with my whole heart that it was lost forever.  It's not that I wasn't trying to find it either, because I looked everywhere.  I looked for it at live performances, in books about legendary musicians and executives...even in the lyrics to all my favorite records.  
Nowhere. To. Be. Found.
I became numb to everything.  I didn't care when a Hip-Hop icon called my job and I just so happened to answer the phone.  Wasn't impressed when a producer I've been following for years came into work.  Meeting the CEO of a music empire?  None of it mattered anymore.  But on Friday, that feeling came back to me and I'm holding on to it tighter than ever.
Let me explain.  When a new act gets signed to a label, they come in at some point before their album drops for a meet and greet with the label staff.  So on Friday at internship #3 when I was told we'd be having a meet and greet with a new group that I actually do like, I still wasn't really impressed.  It's all the same to me.  This group has been signed to the label for a while and is about to drop their album, so I was kind of confused why they were doing this so late in the game.  I reluctantly went into the conference room with the other intern whose giddiness and overall excitement was irritating at best and we took a seat at the big long table.  Someone started playing the group's video on the big projector and turned the volume up all the way and all I could think was, "Great, this is so incredibly corny."  
Finally the group came in and we all clapped for them and they went around the room and gave everyone hugs and kisses.  I watched one of them hold back tears as they made their way to the front of the room.  When it quieted down, they thanked the staff for believing in them and working hard on their project and that their dreams were coming true.  Then they said that in order to express their appreciation, they would really show us and started singing "Thank You" by Boyz II Men, acapella.  Anyone that knows me knows that I am a sucker for two things and they are Boyz II Men and acapella renditions of songs.  It touched me in a place that had been empty ever since I lost that feeling I mentioned before.  Then they sang another Boyz II Men song, acapella again, and I was utterly impressed by their talent and in awe at how easy they made it look.  The group sounded incredible and really showed that they do this because they love it.
And then I remembered why, since I was a little girl, I want to work in the music industry. Since that first time I heard Boyz II Men, I couldn't figure out why there weren't more artists that sounded as good as they did.  The whole reason I knew I was meant to do this was because I wanted to help create more music like that; the kind with talent, meaning, and soul.  This group I saw on Friday was just that and restored my faith in the music industry, reminding me just how I got to be sitting in that conference room, listening to these guys sing.
My faith in the belief that I'm doing what I was meant to do with my life was restored on Friday and I walked out of that conference room simply elated.

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Internship #3

0 comments Posted by Intern Chick at 2:21 PM

I realize it may not be completely clear what job is what on this blog. So to be clear:

Internship: My original internship that I got in August at a record label. I work in Publishing at this job, and I work for Vin and the Big Boss. I work here three days a week (Tuesday through Thursday)

Job #2: This is the second internship I got sometime around September. I call this a job because it pays me $50/week and because I work from home in my "spare" time to do it. It also requires the most amount of work. My boss for this job is the same boss I worked for last summer, we'll call her Eva. For this, I do internet marketing.

Internship #3: My most recent internship, one that I looked for for quite some time and got hired for back in October. This is also another record label, but I work in the New Media department. This is my favorite internship and one I haven't written much about because I only work here twice a week (Monday and Friday). I have four bosses at this job, two males and two females.


At Internship #3 I mainly deal with our label's website and the websites for all our artists. This also includes their social networking pages. I've worked in New Media in the past, but I strongly feel New Media is the future of the record industry so I jumped at the opportunity to take this job (and they hired me on the spot). There's tons of stuff to be done at this job which is why I like it so much, and I fit in with the office culture much better here. Some of the things I do are update artist websites with news or tour info, make sure the blogs they wrote on Myspace are also posted on their website, create Facebook fan pages, go through every artist site and make sure all the A/V is working properly, and create clips of songs to post online. The main point of the job is to keep our websites accurate and user friendly. I take great pride in working for this company, because they were one of the first record labels to have an online presence and do an amazing job at keeping each website up to date.

All four of my bosses started out as interns and understand what its like to be struggling at the bottom, working for free. This makes for a great boss. They're also young and haven't turned into those typical industry bosses yet. We all work very hard in this department and don't spend a lot of time on bullsh*t (like washing dishes). Overall, Internship #3 was a great find for me and I wish I started it sooner.

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