During my second week of co-op, I got to experience more
hands-on work…. not what I really meant by hands-on though. On Monday, I had to
stuff 1000 gift-card sleeves with 1000 gift-cards, but before the gift cards
were put into the sleeves they had to have a sticker attached to them. The gift
cards were giveaways that were going to be used at an event Michelle was
organizing. Michelle, the executive that I report to, and I thought it would
take all day long, but with the help of another intern, Sarah, it only took a
few hours. The task was so mindless and boring, but it was nice to get a break
from press clippings. Sarah and I were stationed at the break table (that no
one has ever sat at) far away from everyone else. We were soon ushered away
from the table because it “was not built to have people sit at it, and the boss
would be angry.” It reminded me of Devil Wears Prada. It scared me to say the
least, but I rolled with it.
After we moved to a desk, it was nice to be able to talk to
another one of the interns and listen to her opinion on the internship. She
explained how she doesn’t think her executive gives her enough work…. I wanted
to ask if she wanted to trade places. She said sometimes she sits there for
hours with nothing to do. I thought that was crazy! I’m glad I am getting more
experience and Michelle is willing to give me more work.
When I came into work on Wednesday, I was informed that the
gift-cards that I had stuffed into sleeves had to be put into gift bags…. I
wasn’t very happy. After the gift cards were put into the gift bags, the extra
gift bags were stuffed with other goodies like make-up and perfume. There were
over 1000 bags and it took a long time. However, it was really cool to see the
whole behind the scenes aspect of the process. I didn’t know someone was responsible
for putting the stickers on gift cards, but now I know that it’s all done by
interns.
Emma, I can really relate to what you said about some less interesting tasks that you now know are done by interns. I don't know if you feel this way but when I look at my first two weeks the first was so packed with trying to ajust to the company but now that things have calmed down some of the tasks can be somewhat mindless. It is great to hear that your executive is keeping you buzy even if it is just with stuffing bags or other basic tasks. I hope you get to see more of your company and the event you were stuffing bags for! It would be interesting to hear about other aspects to planning and preparing for an event put on by your company if you get to experience them.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the fact that you're not sugarcoating your experience. Last night I went to a volunteer meeting for an MKDA event and 20 or so of us packed a couple hundred goodie bags for an event. I can't even imagine what 1000 giftcards would be like between two people. I'm glad that you can see the silver lining in what would otherwise be such a boring task!
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