An Unexpected Upgrade

I was unsure of how my experience at the Independence Seaport Museum as a Marketing Intern was going to go, however I was hopeful because my boss seemed enthusiastic about having me get the most out of my internship.  Her enthusiasm was encouraging, but I realized as the days at my internship progressed that it was masking the mediocrity of the tasks she was assigning me.  I would start research projects for the museum, only for my efforts to be futile as the project would never progress further than the beginning stages.  My days with her were never dull, there was always something to do, but the level of importance wasn’t what I had been expected when I began.

Soon after I began my internship, my boss left the museum and I was left wondering what would happen to me.  Would I even have an internship?  Are they going to just assign me a new boss?  Luckily my new boss was another member of the PR & Marketing Department at the museum who I had gotten to know from the beginning of my internship.  Her workload had increased heavily, because all of the work from my old boss was now on her.  This was great for me because I was assigned tasks that seemed important and more relevant than the insignificant things I had been working on previously.

Since I got a new boss I’ve created and have been maintaining the museum’s WordPress, I’ve edited multiple videos (one that was even featured on PhillyVoice.com), maintained contact sheets for various departments of the museum, and have updated the museum’s website.  One of the more interesting things I was able to do was sit in on a marketing strategy meeting where we discussed the museum’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  It was cool to see something I learned about freshman year being used in a real workplace setting at this meeting.

So although my original boss seemed perfect, it turned out that unexpectedly being paired with someone else was a blessing.  I’ve been able to get a taste of what it’s like in a real workplace setting and feel like what I was doing was having an impact on the museum and how it functions.