The Hidden Value of Reception

I’ve interned at Tierney for almost a year now and many people ask me what the most beneficial part of my experience has been. Since my internship has been so amazing I give them a long list of things I’ve enjoyed including summer intern projects, brainstorming sessions, secondary research and reception. That last item often confuses people, how can sitting at the reception desk for an hour every few days be one of the coolest parts of the internship experience? Well here are the top three reasons that sitting at the reception desk has been one of the coolest parts of my internship one.

1) Getting to Know Everyone: Sitting at the reception desk allows you to see every person in the office and they come in the door. This allows you to learn the faces of everyone in the agencies. This can be helpful when you run into those people in the halls. If they know your face from your sitting at the reception desk then it is easier to strike up a conversation and learn something new about what they do at the company.

2) Honing Your People Skills: Communication skills are vital for anyone wanting to go into advertising. Reception is a great place to practice those skills. Answering phone calls, dealing with deliveries and interacting with clients provide opportunities to get more confident in speaking to a wide variety of people.

3) Practicing Professionalism: The receptionist is the first person seen when someone walks into the agency. Because of this it is incredibly important that interns doing reception look and act professionally. Doing reception every few days is a great way to develop professional working habits.

Lots of people talk about the useless tasks interns do and at first glance reception might seem to be one of them. However, in my experience at Tierney I’ve found that reception has had a tremendously positive impact on my social, communication and professional skills and I’m very grateful to get the chance to do it.