Before attending the Lutheran College Washington Semester program this past fall, I had no experience with interning at a business. From what I had gathered from peers, interning can be a "go here, do this" kind of experience. The associate you are under instructs you on what tasks to perform and sometimes even how to perform them while going off to do work that will actually benefit the business. Personally, I was just looking for a little "real world" experience I could take back with me, if not something interesting I could put on my resume.
I considered the Washington semester a win-win situation for me. Not only does the program guarantee an internship, it allows individuals to experience the lifestyle of living in a city on one's own, from showing up at a job every day to making dinner every night, and all the things in between. The program provided everything I wanted to familiarize myself with before graduating. All I needed was to find the right kind of internship.
When I say "right kind," I am referring to what I envisioned as a proper internship: suits, structure and a sound professional environment. Being an accounting major, I applied to several firms that I thought would give me the experienced I wanted. However, the downed economy saw all my applications rejected, not because I was a bad candidate, but simply because the firms had discontinued their internships until the economy recovered.
I redirected my efforts to finding an internship involving any aspect in the business field and eventually found a marketing associate position at Voice Newspapers, a small newspaper publisher in lower Maryland. Voice was not the kind of businessd I expected to work for, nor was it the "right kind" of internship. However, Voice showed me the obstacles a small company must overcome to keep their business afloat, or in my manager Eric's metaphor, in the air.
His metaphor goes like this: "This business is kind of like fixing a plane while it's in flight." The idea is pretty straight forward. The manager is the pilot, flying and directing the path of the business by maintaining managerial tasks. Since the business is operating, it's "in flight." "Fixing" requires tackling all the seen and unforeseen problems of working with new ideas or a new business environment in order to keep the company from, shall we say, "careening into the sea never to be seen again."
Unfortunately, since Voice had decided to expand not only its physical presence in the local area but build an online news source for a younger readership as well, I witnessed and was a part of several "fixes" to keep our plane airborne. My tasks changed rapidly from calmly building a portion of the website, to quickly researching new online newspaper tactics, to cold calling a hundred numbers a day in order to find just one more advertiser that would be interested in being a part of our paper. To continue with the metaphor, this meant that Eric wanted me to help patch up the hull while constructing another engine and making sure there was enough fuel to keep going, all while in flight. There was a limited amount of time to do things before we crashed, and all of them were high priority.
The ever- changing pace of completing several tasks at once was frustrating and at times exhausting. But this is how the small company operated: by doggedly tackling the unforeseen while trying to maintain the operations that would keep us flying. It was harrowing because I knew that since the business was small, the duties I was responsible for had a real and tangible outcome on its future.
At the same time, knowing that fact ended up being the ultimate reward for me. It gave me a reason to fully invest myself in the internhip. Eric relied on me, not to accomplish menial tasks, but to take on duties that would greatly benefit the company and perhaps even prevent critical problems from dismantling the business. Eric even confided in me a few times, asking how youth viewed social media and what he could do to capitalize on its success.
I found myself donating my time to represent the company in local festivals. People would come up to the tent and tell us how they "loved the paper and how it united the community". And I couldn't help feeling a little pride standing there under a tent, sometimes in the rain, wearing a Voice t-shirt and shouting "support your local newspaper. Check out the Voice" to the passing crowd.
It wasn't the "right kind" of internship, but it wasn't a "go here, do this" experience either. Voice showed me the desperate mechanics of keeping everything air borne while at the same time giving me the opportunity to feel invested in the company. I cannot say that I enjoyed every minute of working, but I can say that I plan on using my experience to help build my future.
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