Ever felt like you were asking TOO many questions? Or that you were bugging everyone at the office by asking them "was there anything else you'd like me to do?" ten times a day?
I can guarentee you that you are most likely not alone in this. Experiencing my internship at a boutique agency (with only 2-3 staff in the office at a time) during a very busy period was stressful and chaotic to say the least. Sometimes I would be pounded with jobs, and other times I would find myself constantly asking for more and more jobs, but the fact of the matter is people can be too busy to respond straight away, so you just have to sit back and wait.
I found myself sitting awkwardly at my desk looking at my computer, while everyone's stress levels were through the roof, feeling too afraid to ask for the third time if I could do anything to help.
During these busy times and only having 2-3 staff dealing with seperate client accounts, I felt like I was simply being 'annoying' for constantly asking for tasks to do.
The fact of the matter is that we are here to learn and we are only doing what is expected of us - however I have picked up a few PR related things you can do while waiting for a task to be assigned to you or even just if you want to do something extra in between jobs.
Mumbrella - This is something I discovered during the endless minutes of me staring blankly into my screen. It's a website that covers everything under Australia's media and marketing industry. This is very entertaining to read, yet you are still learning at the same time!
Slice - It is always good to do some media monitoring! You can learn a little bit more about what is being published about your organisation's clients - the more you know the more easier it will get for you to complete tasks related to that client. This will also give you an idea of what journalist's like to write about and what is being published about your clients.
Databases - Going through databases and checking media contacts and positions on media net! Of course make sure the database you are updating needs updating and make sure it is not one that your organisation wouldn't want you to touch! I did this with a media database that they actually asked me to update early on in my internship and one that I knew they always wanted updated as often as possible!
This might not apply to most of us as we are coming to the end of our internship experiences. However entering the workforce as a graduate will be a similar environment for us. If you find yourself waiting and waiting for tasks to be assigned to you - then take these points with you :)
Don't get me wrong - I am not saying do not ask for things to do - you should always ask for another job once you've finished something - but if you feel like you are asking maybe 5-10 times in the space of an hour, and you can see you are bothering your leader, then distract yourself with some useful reading while they can approach you in their own time.
Hope this helps!
4 comments:
Hi Sjanna,
I also found that it can be quite daunting to ask for work to do multiple times a day - you feel as if you are annoying the other staff members, especially if they are very busy themselves. I turned to the news for ways to keep myself busy, making sure that I was keeping up with current events and ensuring that I was well informed about topics surrounding my organisation's industry. That way if anyone asked me to complete a task I would be up to date with all the current events and be able to work without much assistance. Media monitoring through the program iSentia was also super useful, as it collated all the main information in one document, which allowed me to do follow up research at a later stage in the day.
This is definitely useful advice to all those that will be entering the workplace soon!
Hi Sijanna,
I myself also had a similar experience to you in regards to asking questions and not always being assigned tasks for completion. This especially happened to me in my first week when the consultants I was working with weren't sure of my capabilities.
Within the first week I found that I had almost memorised the Company's website. I had researched a few of their clients whose names I constantly heard around the office and started to create for myself a 'backgrounder' on the one major client I was working on. This really helped in the coming weeks when I was media monitoring - I knew all the key words that I was looking out for!
I also took the time to go through previous newsletters, media releases and other relevant material that other consultants were writing. It gave me a great understanding on what the team as a whole were working on and what stage we were up to with our client.
Did you find that as time progressed and they became aware of your talents that you were given more tasks? and of much greater responsibility?
Thank you for your knowledgeable advice! Great to hear that other people are going through similar experiences to me!
Dennielle
I found this to be such an interesting read! Fortunately, I was given personal projects to work on throughout my internship so I always felt as though i had a purpose. But I know from experiences at work where I manage a small team, I often have new or junior staff members asking me what else they can do. Sometimes when your busy its difficult to think of something for their skill level. I find there's nothing better than giving someone a job to do for them to say I've already done it! I really value initiative and try to implement it in my own work values.
Hey Sijanna,
It's interesting that so many people have responded to the topic of your post! It's obvious that it's definitely relatable to every student out there during their internship... including me!
There were so many times (especially being new in a workplace) that I needed to ask questions or verify what they wanted me to do- but I just didn't want to ask them. Particularly when we would enter the office it was literally our second question of the day after how are you all?
We would sit down and they would wait for us to ask this. This might have been to assess whether we were eager and keen to go- or simply because they were waiting for us to settle in... who knows, but all I know is for some reason it was such a hard question to ask.
I feel like it's also quite good because maybe the reason we didn't want to ask is because we're quite shy and new to the industry, but asking this question because we HAVE to forces us to break this bubble and become more comfortable.
For me this was a little more easy as I had previous experience in a similar industry to semi answer my own questions, but I can only imagine how daunting this experience would have been for very shy people- but I can only hope that it helped them in feeling more comfortable and preparing them to do that in a real life experience like starting a new job or career. Unfortunately it's just a question that has to be asked, and we should definitely not feel bad or nervous for asking it. I feel like it's expected, particularly being young and new to the industry.
Such a relatable topic that I'm sure everyone has experienced so thank you for the good advice, it will definitely be used for the future.
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