Which way is the right way.

Everyone has a different working style, some considered productive and others frowned upon. How can we know for sure if there is a right way? Some of the richest and smartest business people are not suited to the traditional definition of a team player or employer. Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple or Jared Vennett who predicted the US financial crash, considered geniuses, and both had unique practices and habits they brought to the workplace. Practices and habits that would not be accepted by any supervisor today.

At the start of my placement, I was self-conscious about which way to work was the right way, fitting in productive tasks whenever I could to impress my supervisor and ultimately be useful. However, sometimes I get stuck on what to do when my supervisor doesn't give me enough tasks to keep myself occupied throughout the day.

Supervisors often want you to work independently and as a team but they want to know if you have thoughts and ideas, the test is whether you have enough confidence to act on them, without someone behind your shoulder giving you step by step instructions.

The role of an assistant or intern is often to learn. This role often implies you are new to the work environment or industry and therefore don't know as much as everyone else. The common thing said to me is to learn from the best by watching. In PR you need to do. Not only to impress your supervisor but that's what PR is, to act for causes, to inform, and to engage.

This may be my supervisor's plan all along, a test to see what I do when it's not listed or handed to me. To see what I can do with that extra free time.

This is a valuable lesson to learn before you enter the workplace, because you will not be an intern forever. Eventually how your career will develop is not how well you can perform tasks asked by your supervisor but what you bring thats different to every other PR professional out there. This will be determined by how you use your time, while at work.

At a young age we a taught that speed is the best, a speedy brain must be the smartest. But its completely different once your in the real world. Speed may be considered impressive but its the creative thinking people with unique ideas, opinions, strategies who will get the job at the end of the day.