Change is as good as a holiday!

After five years of studying part-time and working full-time, I am so excited and relieved to finally be in my last semester of uni. That career change that I have been striving for is just about within my grasp.

I managed to score an internship with my current employer being the Public Transport Authority (PTA). Although I am on annual leave whilst I complete my internship, the saying, "a change is as good as a holiday," is proving to be true.

You would think that having worked for the PTA for over nine years I would have been more relaxed about my fist day in the Corporate Communication Team. Even having met several of the team members prior to my first day, I was still cautious as I wanted to fit in and I was coming from a very different area.

The Friday before I started I received an email from my internship supervisor inviting me to come in early on the Monday so she could show me an email that is only prepared weekly to give me a bit more exposure. It was an offer I could not refuse.

Coming in early that Monday gave me an insight into how other areas were kept up to date and informed of up-coming events. Not to mention the juggling act that can occur with last minute changes to people's schedules and prioritisation of events.

Time management has been proven to be a key point, even I was given a schedule for my time whilst in the Corporate Communications team, which listed meetings for me to attend and time to be spent with various team members and what projects they were working on.  I was very excited and curious to see the meeting scheduled for my first afternoon which was to go over the details of my special project. There were also more time slots allocated to me to work independently on my project.

I will go into details about my special project in another post, but for this one I will say that I have seen how important time management is in this area. With everyone juggling different projects, expectations and meeting schedules it is amazing. For those that need to work on time management skills I would say, see what tips you can get whilst on your internship and hopefully you will find one that will work for you.

I should also mention, I did not need to worry about fitting into the team. They all made me feel welcome and were happy to have someone from the operational side of the business to provide different insights or views on various issues. They were quite happy to utilise the knowledge of the PTA I had gained over nine years.