The Intern Girl

Tomorrow is my last day in the office! For the next week and a half I will be working remotely from Athens. I am very excited to move back to school, but I will miss the little family at the office.

Today was very busy. We were low on manpower so I took on slightly more than usual. I like staying busy though! We had to prep for volunteers, get ready for the camp day, and of course stuff folders. We had some great volunteers come in today and assist the campers with science experiments. Everyone had a really great day! I got a lot done (took photos, prepped and cushioned HootSuite, made flyers, got a start on sponsor thank-yous.) And I even got a little something for putting in a good day.

Oh ya. A reusable Lilly bag was well deserved.

It is my last week actually being the office. For the remaining few weeks of my internship, I will be in Athens and strictly tele-working. So my last Monday putting on fancy, working, grown-up clothes went like this:

• I have a routine down now, once I get into my office and boot up the computer. I open a Google Chrome browser and about 7 tabs: personal email, work email, HootSuite, Facebook, Twitter, Pocket, and Word Press. I was working on HootSuite messages most of the morning.
• Then I was off to chat with the campers! Like I mentioned, I am trying to get them excited about writing an essay for a scholarship. They were engaging and spoke up with questions, which made my job easier. The hardest question I got was how to spell intelligent… it took me a second.
• Stuffed folders! As interns, we do the work no one else wants to do or has time to do. I stuffed about 100 folders for volunteers, with 15 pages each. Oh my, this is a tedious task. Then I put each folder in its own reusable Lilly Pulitzer bag. The bags were so cute! I wanted to take with one me so badly! I will be keeping an eye out for any extras. 
• Then I worked on the website for a bit and got ahead on various little projects.
• We also had volunteers in today to help the girls with science and math experiments. It is STEM week for the campers. I took pictures for the blog and other SM. All I could think about were the lucky volunteers going home with a Lilly bag. I’ll have to look into doing some more volunteering.
• Downloaded pics, finalized minor details, and the day was done!

Going to work out now! As much as I love working, I can only sit still for so long!

My office shares a wall with the common room for the campers. I hear girls laughing, running, singing, and playing all day. Not a bad set up I’ve got here.

I discovered some cool things today. To help filter what we find on the internet as far as content to retweet to the world, I added Pocket and Klout to the company’s Twitter feed. Both apps are free and have been really fun to play with so far.

I especially like Pocket! It lets you “pocket” articles that look interesting for you to read later. It creates a pinboardesque type thing, organizing all the links you save. Klout gives everyone on your twitter feed a rating of sorts. A higher number means the content is being reached and received by more people. In other words, this is someone you should continue to follow. CNN has the highest Klout rating on my company’s feed, so I see who is following CNN and see if I can get them to follow us. It takes some practice and twitter etiquette to get Klout to work just right for you, but its worth it. I am seeing all my work pay off, which is nice too. Ratings on most of our social media are increasing, some of them at their peak since I have started. It is a good feeling. 

Woo Hoo I made it through my first week (weekend)! We just finished up one campaign, and now we are on to the next one. I am discovering new tools on the web, all geared at facilitating effective social media practices. EdgeRank was my project today.

I also wrestled with a video, and haven’t won yet…. The video looks great, however the sound is going slower than the movie. How do I fix this? I’ve been exploring Google all day, and will have to resort to the User’s Manual tomorrow. That’ll be my number one priority. 

The other intern wasn’t in today, so it was kinda lonely and quiet. But I did get a lot of work done. I think I checked off a record-breaking seven things from my to-do list for the day. I’m shocked.

Just proof it is possible to complete something during the work day. Who knew?

Friday afternoon was very pleasant. HootSuite finally cooperated with me, we got a new computer in the office, and I remembered it was Cow Appreciation Day (free chick-fil-a!). I closed up my little work space and beat the Friday traffic rush. Not a bad ending to an excellent week.

Now weekend! But you better believe I am staying busy. This weekend will give me a chance to catch up in those lingering, almost finished projects. I’m thinking I can work out some kinks and read through a few tutorials to set myself up nicely for week 2. Maybe I can sneak in some time for my personal life? I am starting to understand why people (especially my mother) tend to take their work home with them. It is never done! Is this what the real world is like? 

Weekend to-do list:

- Finish the important things; the things you know how to do and do them well.

- Take time out for self. aka sleep.

anyone have some advice for this amateur intern? See you Monday!

I completed my first week woo hoo! My suprevisor is pleased with my work this week, and I am happy with it too. This is one of the few jobs I’ve had where I enjoy making the hour drive! It is cozy here, and the people have made my first week very inviting. Time just flew by! Yesterday I was at the computer all day, except for when I got to venture out and go to Wal-Mart to print some photos. It was nice to get out and move around for a bit. I had some technical difficulties later in the day, though. We have a new video camera and it just will not cooperate with my Mac. Even today I was still struggling with trying to transfer a video. How hard can it be? I guess we will have to resort to actually reading the how-to manual.

But my technical difficulties do not end there. I was introduced to HootSuite.com. Is it just me, or is this website hard to figure out? I agree, it is a great resource for managing multiple social media outlets, but it is just not working the way I want it to. I am having fun learning though! That’s what this interning business is all about, right?

Some things are not as simple as 1 2 3.