Chicken Scratch

Is anyone else in awe of how many notes they take? I mean seriously, I’ve been interning as an Associate Producer at Digitas Health in Philadelphia for a little more than three weeks, and already have basically filled an entire note book with notes, drawings (mostly relevant I promise), and a lot of arrows. At times as a visual learner I find it extremely difficult to retain any sort of information unless I experience it in some way, so typically I write down notes, then go back through and visualize what I have written. When you’re sitting through a multitude of meetings a day, this process can become daunting.

Luckily for me however, my manager is also a visual learner, so whenever she explains something to me, she either is showing me, or writing it out for me. On the first day of my internship I was writing constantly, I could tell that the other interns thought me taking notes during the orientation was pointless, but I now know how to do a lot of the basic tasks that others have to ask questions about. I think taking notes is beneficial, not only because it helps me to remember information, but also tends to teach me new things as well. For example, during my first week I had tons and tons of one on one interviews with people from various departments, and naturally took a ton of notes while speaking with everyone I met with. Now when going through projects I have such a more clear idea of who does what within the agency. I also can look back at any time and see something scribbled in the margin that tends to answer questions I have, but also questions my peers have.

Though sometimes I hate that I can’t just see or hear something and remember it, I feel like the habit of taking notes is something that will always work in my favor. What if I end up working in a similar agency in five years, I still could have something physical to refer back too, not just memory. Not to mention being within the Project Management department dealing with timelines just makes sense in my mind, I can see what needs to be completed before something else can begin, and it just clicks. So, while I’m probably seen as the intern that’s always taking notes, at least I’m taking note, absorbing information, and getting the visual and literal understanding!

3 Comments

  1. Megan,that’s so true! I definitely agree with you on taking notes and lots of them! It helps you remember what was discussed and is something you can always refer back to when you need answers. Plus I feel like you have to record all the information that is thrown at you daily because it gets pretty overwhelming fast.Definitely don’t feel bad about taking notes, I know I don’t!

  2. On my first day at my internship, I brought in a little black moleskin notebook “just in case I need to jot something down.” Within a week it was exiled to a shelf, and I was using a real deal, big ole’ industrial looking notepad, lugging it to every meeting, filling up pages like crazy. I like to keep scribbling too, and like you said, have a sort of roadmap showing how your mind starting going down a certain path. It really can help you out later, and sometimes an idea you sort of skipped over will shine later on.

  3. Hey guys,

    I totally agree with the taking TONS of notes. On my first day of interning at a full service ad agency called Siquis, as a junior account executive, I brought a little notebook to jot a few things down. The president of the company was showing me around the office when he noticed my little notebook and said, “that’s cute”, and walked me to the office supplies room and handed me a giant notepad. I’ve been at at Siquis for about 7 weeks now and I’m on my fourth notepad!!!!

    At Siquis there is one other intern and they don’t take much notes…. My mentor is always telling me to make small jokes at her to start using a notepad. Because of that joke between my mentor and I, I realized that I wasn’t looked at as the intern who’s just takes notes all day, but as the intern that is showing dedication.

Leave a Reply to Cole JohnstonCancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *