Doing the Small Stuff

When I first got to my internship at PHL17, I got to find out that one of my tasks at my internship would be to watch the front desk from time to time. At first I was slightly discouraged. I never showed it, I just enthusiastically accepted the job, but I wanted to get to the heart of advertising in my internship and fast. Some of the staff even apologized to me for giving me such a “typical intern task” as they put it but I waved away their concern because I knew I would be getting to the advertising stuff eventually (which did happen). After a few minutes of watching the front desk, however, letting people in and out of the gates and answering the phone calls, I was relieved and substantially happy that this was one of my tasks. Why? Many reasons, one of which was that it gave me a great view on how PHL17 was organized. I had a call sheet with extension numbers for when people would call for someone at the TV station, so I got to see how many departments there are and who worked in each. As I answered more phone calls, I understood the hierarchy in PHL17 as well as in each department. I also learned who was not working there anymore, who took over and what roles each person did. In addition, I interacted with numerous staff members every time that I worked the front desk and that way, they saw my face and remembered who I was as well. And because PHL17 is really happy TV Station where everyone is glad to work and interact with one another, it was always fun to work the front desk as well. I was able put a smile on everyone’s face that walked in or out, and they always put a smile on mine. What a small task like watching the front desk for me taught me things that are essential for me to know when working at an organization at a fast pace. Usually these are things that one understands eventually after working there for a few months, but I was able to get it down much sooner. Things like knowing when the UPS man and the mail man are going to come is not something that is mind blowing, but to me, it helped because I understood what was coming in the building and what was going out. All in all what I learned was not to get dismayed at having to do small tasks at your internship. Give it a chance because it could be something that really helps you. When you learn the most you can out of each and every experience your internship gives you, that’s when you become more well prepared for what is in store in the real world.