During my time on internship, I've been able to look back on my experience with both knowing and fresh eyes. What has happened well was my ability to adapt to a workplace that was already very much in motion and join in, even though that was also what was very challenging for me. I've been working on my communication skills as well as my ability to take simple instructions and do my best to carry them out. What I wish I would have done differently in the beginning was to stop struggling with the workplace and instead let it wash over me like a river rock. Once I learned to do that, my time became a lot more peaceful and I was able to accept my work a lot better.
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If I were to pass on one bit of information to future interns, it would be this: don't go into it with expectations. If you have expectations about what a work place will be like, you will either be disappointed or taken completely off guard. Either way, it's not good to wander into a dark room and expecting a beast. The best thing to do is to walk in with a smile and embrace whatever is handed to you with fresh eyes. This internship has indeed inspired my college choices. Before, I was thinking of attending NYU to get the big city experience, After my time here, however, I learned that crowds overwhelm me and I would much rather prefer a quiet peaceful classroom with easy access to a big city but not necessarily in the heart of it. Colleges such as these would be Lewis and Clark in Portland Oregon and University of Washington in Seattle. This was an important realization for me to experience because otherwise, finding out later along down the road would be much more difficult for me to handle.
Through working at Quantum, I've actually gained an even greater appreciation for High Tech High International than I would have otherwise. I've gotten to see how project based learning is implemented in the real world and how everything fits together. It's really been a magical and surreal experience. Altogether, I'm really grateful for this opportunity. The amazing thing that I admire about my coworkers is that nothing has ever stopped them from doing exactly what they love. Whether it's hiking in the beautiful mountains or ice dancing past midnight, these people came here purely because of their joy for living. That's what I want to aspire to most. To find something I can truly love and follow it through life.
My process for working on my iPOL has been a very interesting one indeed. How do you describe such an enriching experience in such few words? I have gone through a couple of drafts, seeing as how lots of aspect of my work change from day to day. So far, my presentation consists of a small speech along with a power point presentation. I will be using flashcards and speaking truthfully from the depths of my heart.
So far in this project, I have learned that talking is more than essential. I have begun to make labels for shipping spare parts and I have had to coordinate with my coworker Elena about what item goes where, their tracking numbers, and their serial numbers. Along with this, we have to communicate to Calvin and Jennifer which parts are packed in which boxes and the quantity that they are being sent in. In all, it ended up being a project that required a lot more talking than I would have initially imagined.
Now that I am a little over halfway through my internship, I am able to know the ins and outs of the business (or at least get a grasp on what's going on). The project I am working on - the drawing list - is making its progress slowly but steadily. If I wasn't a pro at Microsoft excel, I am now. What I've learned about myself through this is that I learn through following by examples best and interactive projects. All in all, this is proving to be a valuable learning experience.
Internship here has been a wide ranging experience. In many ways it is much more different from school - higher stakes and different job positions - but in many ways it is also the same. The job I am doing at Quantum is just like High Tech High International in the way that it is project based. But instead of project based learning, it is project based doing. This may not seem like a very big difference but in many ways it is. At school, there is room for error and more relaxed deadlines, however at work the deadlines are set and the work has to maintain a level of professionalism that is vital. Through this experience, I feel like I can bring back that same work ethic to my work at school and throughout my professional career. What I am bringing back from this experience is an important life lesson that the work is never fully done - even if you completed your share of the work - until everyone is done. It doesn't help to just wait around for other people to finish up either and, even if it means working harder, it doesn't hurt to help people out with their share. In the end, we are all working towards the same goal.
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