Well, I'm back. That's something that I wanted to say for a very, very long time. But tho, sometimes, I just don't find time to do so. I'm really sorry for the missing posts that I should have been posting. I won't give any excuses to cover up for my laziness and my habit of procrastinating and slacking all the time.
So, as the title suggested, I am now an Intern. What does interns do? How to do your job better? How to fit to the environment of the company that you are working with? That is what we are going to talk about today.
Let's just discuss the 3 question there. I think it would take quite a lot of time.
1. What does Interns do/should do?
Well, that varies to the job offers that you got for the company. For me, I was being put in the Talent and Leadership Division. Which means, there are a lot of HR Stuff going on where I am working. There are a lot of responsibilities being put under the shoulders of an Intern. For me personally, I don't think it's something hard. But you have to bear with the boring-ness of doing the same thing all the time. Ever since I've entered, I've practically been doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. There are stuff that I can't say here as, well, people know. Working in HR, the information that was given to me is very very sensitive to the company. I won't name any company here. So even if I said something mistakenly for once or twice, people won't know.
Back to the story. So ever since I've joined the company as their intern, I have been doing the Moderation Deck, The Engagement Deck and a lot of data compilation. Aside from that, I also needed to help anyone with anything possible, when I don't even know how to do it. This, also is a responsibility of an intern to learn a lot of things. There are a lot of interns out there, who are lazy and just wanted to pass the requirements of the course, gone for internships. But REMEMBER! That is not the way of working.
Being an intern, you have to keep learning new things every single day. I know I sound very boasting but that is actually true. Even the tiniest bit of thing you learn is very important. You must always respect all your colleagues and supervisors. Well, I kind of have a lot of supervisors around in the company as I was constantly being thrown here and there to help with all sorts of thing. They have so much more experience than you. Things that you can learn from them is practically endless. So ask up anything that you don't know. They will be willing to teach you, if you have the passion to work and to learn.
My colleague once told me that he met one intern, who just wanted to play with the phone and do photocopy stuff. I'm like WTF? You are wasting your own time and you are wasting the company's resources to be invested into you. You even lose the chance of continue to work at the place you worked. Be passionate about what you do. If you are not, why chose that place in the first place? Right?
2. How to do your job better?
Like I've mention, keep asking. Ask all sorts of questions on the job that you are doing. When you are stuck with something and can't proceed, ask your colleagues and your supervisors. Ask your friends if you need. When you ask, the answer you get is always different. If I know well, mostly the interns are being put under one supervisor. So if you have any problems, ask your supervisor. In any case that your supervisor sucks like hell, ask other people.
Aside from that, one have to be very passionate to do their job better. If you are not passionate, you don't even have the motivation to continue working further. To keep up with working all that shit together, It's actually hard. You don't even have the motivation to work, how can you work better and do a better job. Everyday is a new day and it's a new challenge. When you did something wrong, you have to know where you did wrong and try your best not to repeat the mistakes. When you learn from your mistakes and never repeat that mistake, that means you've grown. It's hard for anyone to admit to their mistakes, or sometimes people just tend to point their finger at themselves, but, you just have to know when say I'm sorry and learn the experiences of the mistakes that you have made.
3. How to fit into the environment of the company and the people you are working with?
This, you just have to expose yourself to more situations and you will know. For me, I am working in an entirely new environment. I'm a Malaysian Chinese. So since I was a little boy, I've been in an environment that I was used to. All Chinese, Mandarin speaking, high competition, a lot of politics. But now, I am working in a very peaceful environment. The way my colleagues work, is calm but with high precision. Their speed of working is not like what I've experienced before. So it's somehow good for me as I am those kind of people who are always in a rush, wanting to finish up my stuff quickly.
Not only that, one also have to commit. When you are in that company, you have to know that you are stuck with them for the period of time. You have to work your best to fit into them. So what I did was that I always set a target for myself everyday when I get to work, mentally. Stating that what are the things that I want to get done. So if you can't finish that stuff, you have to stay back and finish up till the target that you are working. Being consistent with your work and reaching your target, it helps a lot no matter in what stages of life you are in.
I think I've spoke/written quite a lot for now. Last piece of advice for all the interns out there. Don't be afraid of trying new stuff. Don't be afraid of going out of your comfort zone. Challenge yourself to do better everyday.
With that, signing off.
Cheerios,
YiXin~