Lessons I learned from my 3-months internship

Mistakes are opportunities to learn

Every day I wake up telling myself: “Try your best to stay out of troubles. Do not make mistakes at work.” Ya, I’ve to admit that I am not good in accepting criticism so I tried my best to avoid troubles. I chose to do everything in a safe way. I felt relief realizing I’ve survived my day without making any mistakes or getting scolded by my supervisor. But soon it makes me wonder if what I did was correct. And that’s when my supervisor’s words delivered a shocking blow that woke me up completely.

“You’re playing too safe! Interns are bound to make mistakes. And that’s what distinguishes an intern from a full time employee. Treasure your opportunities to make mistakes now because girl, that’s a cruel world out there that you wouldn’t want to step in after you graduated.”

Don’t afraid to ask

I’ve this issue that I like to pretend to be a Miss-Know-It-All at work. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t that kind of person whose ego is over flowing primarily through their mouth and believes they've got the answer to every question. It’s just that I would rather ask Mr. Google instead of getting help from my supervisor. I guess part of me wanted to prove that we Curtin Students are SMART! (What, I’m proud of my school!)

There was a time when my supervisor asked me to draft a Gantt-Chart for the upcoming event. I swear I’ve never heard of this word in my entire life. And instead of telling my supervisor that I don’t know, I said: “Sure, I will have it on your desk before 5pm.” DANG, my stupid ego. Then I spent hours for research and tried to come out with a stupid gantt-chart template by my own, and for sure I FAILED.

So, I say goodbye to my unnecessary ego and turn to my supervisor for help. And that’s when I heard her angelic voice said: “Ohya, I think I created a template last time. Just use mine. All you need to do is to fill in the blanks.”   

So my friends don’t afraid to ask questions. Like what they said, there’s no stupid question.

A good supervisor means everything

One of the most valuable workplace traits that both my supervisor and I share is to enjoy our works. We like to work in an environment that we can make fun of everything and sometimes that even inspired us with some new ideas for the events.

Also, I really want to express gratitude for the trust my supervisor put in me. I was given more tasks to perform after the first two weeks of my internship. As soon as I gained my supervisor's trust and demonstrated my capabilities, she gave me more opportunities to come out with PR plans and also run few of the projects by my own. It was a truly amazing experience for me. 

ARE YOU READY?

 I used to doubt my ability to work because I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the real-world.

But now, I am confident enough to say: “I AM READY.”

For those who are doing your internship, make sure you enjoy and live your internship life to the fullness.

 For those who’ve completed your internship and are in your last semester, good luck with the final report and enjoy the last few months of your Uni Life.

 YOLO!

Yee Shen Yap 

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