When I first started my internship it was
noted that there would be a period of about 4 weeks when I would be left by
myself in the marketing and PR department, “no worries” I said at the time
“I’ll hold the fort”. Then suddenly it was the beginning of April, and I was
left alone.
In the week leading up to my manager’s trip
to Europe and the marketing assistants trip to America I tried to get as much
information from them as I could and we compiled a long list of action items
that I could work through whilst they were away. At first I was nervous at
being left alone, but after my first day ‘holding the fort’ I realized that
after almost 15 days over 2 months working at the company, I had learnt a lot
more than I realized and gained a confidence in myself and my abilities that
was not there before.
Whilst my supervisors were away I worked
through the action items and tried my best not to email for help instead taking
the initiative and working through things myself or with help from others in
the office. The month went smoothly and I came out the other end with an almost
complete list and even a few additions.
When meeting with my manager and colleague
the week they both returned, I was proud to show them a list of completed
items, some new ideas, a printed advertisement and the media release that would
be printed the following month for which I had interviewed one of our clients, a major Oil and Gas company in WA.
Overall, as daunting as it was to find
myself so abruptly left alone, it was a necessary learning curve that saw me
work independently to a deadline and enabled me to gain confidence in myself
avoiding reliance on others. It also saw me begin to create my own presence within the company as I met more and more people and took on more responsibility.
