I have been accepted as an intern into the
In-House marketing team at Hames Sharley in Subiaco. This a national
(previously international) architecture, interior design, urban development and
landscaping company with branches in each state with the exception of Tasmania.
The marketing department seems fairly young as it only consists of the National
Marketing Director who has been there five years and her Marketing Assistant,
both stationed in WA. Therefore, the marketing department also handles all PR.
With such a small team, I get the attention and heaps of hands on experience I
probably wouldn’t get in a larger organization because they can allocate larger
responsibilities when they are busy going about their job which is quite often
under the pump.
Over the past two weeks I have learned the
following things:
1. Two days at an internship makes it
extremely hard to complete tasks in their entirety.
2. Unforeseen circumstances on the way to
work can really dampen your efforts for a good impression
3. Being the new girl on the block has its
pros and cons when it comes to getting things done
Despite a full on schedule of part time
work two days per week and full time studies at Curtin, I decided two days of
work at an internship unpaid, would work out. So far it has, but it’s not easy.
I find myself saying, it is so frustrating only being in here two days per
week. It sounds crazy with all of my pre established commitments but the reason
for this, is that when your organization provides tasks that have a one week or
two week deadline if you’re lucky, 15hrs isn’t enough when you spend most of
the time trying to figure out where you left off the previous day or week. It
also makes it difficult when you’re learning new skills. Without continuous
repetition, I found myself asking the same questions, making myself feel like
an annoyance distracting them from their work.
On my third day (a Monday), I decided to
leave my house about 10-15 minutes later than usual as I had been around 30 –
40 minutes early. It’s hard to judge when you take public transport from
Kwinana to Subiaco. Several factors have to be considered such as train
parking, train times, connecting train times and the walk to work. This means, even
leaving 10 – 15 minutes later can cause disaster which is exactly what
happened. A car accident on Beeliar Dr backed traffic up so far down the
freeway, that by the time I got Cockburn train parking, I would have been lucky
to have been on time without the issue of no parking anywhere I went. I then
had to wait until 8:30 to call and explain my predicament which they couldn’t
solve either so I had to turn around and go home. I gave the worst impression
for it only being my third day.
The other challenge I found right off the
bat was simply being the new student on the block. With the marketing
department already fairly young and small, it was hard enough for them to get
the respect and open communication they desired in a room full of serious
architects and designers. This just puts my role into perspective. They threw
me in the deep end with tasks of drafting media releases that required gleaning
information off directors and project leaders. This is harder than you think
and so time consuming referring back to my first point when you play email tag
trying to set up a good time to speak. It is also very intimidating in a new
place, speaking with senior colleagues who don’t necessarily take you seriously
when they have many other matters at the top of their priority lists. Needless
to say, it took my first release about a month until actual completion.
No comments:
Post a Comment