So long, NMAJH

Over the past three months I was lucky enough to hold a position interning at The National Museum of American Jewish History (Known as NMAJH to the workers there). Over my time there I learned that although I am a young college student, I should not be too scared about facing the real world. Yes, the world of having adult responsibilities and wearing button downs on a daily basis is not ideal while also juggling a college schedule, but it was an experience that I would not have traded for the world.

First of all, I learned that although you must keep a professional mentality with your coworkers it is ok to befirend your coworkers while keeping those relationships professional. Most of my coworkers are in their late twenties and early thirties and share very common interests with me. Being in this situation, it was not hard being able to befirend my coworkers since they knew what it was like being an intern as well as being in college and were interested in my ideas about life and world issues. It was interesting put into this type of atmosphere because I learned how relationships in the professional world work.

Since you spend most of your time at work it is very important that you at least get along with your coworkers. At the museum they put together many different events in order for workers to be forced to interact with one another and help to try to get them to get along with each other. One thing that the staff does is they get a catered lunch together on the third Thursday of the month with the CEO of the company. This was set up to show that the CEO was interested in what the workers had to say about their jobs, what they liked and didn’t about what was going on at the museum. Another thing was that all the workers were encouraged to go to our gala in November which had a bunch of movers and shakers in Philly show up, leading to a great networking opportunity to all who came.

While it was a lot of work balancing my internship and college I know that I am a stronger and more prepared person for the professional world when I do enter the cold world in a year and a half.