Major Change of Plans

It's been quite a while since my last entry, and quite a few things have changed since then...

...such as, I am no longer working at this job.

So, I guess that requires some explanation. Earlier this semester, I had two jobs - one at IP (Mondays all day and Tuesday mornings) and the other at A Wider Circle (Thursday and Friday). On Wednesdays, I had my two classes. Because of all the hours I was spending at work, it was making it really hard for me to keep up with the work for my two classes and my senior honors capstone. So, I talked to my mom and roommate about the situation, and eventually came to the decision that I had to cut some commitment so that I didn't go crazy/my grades didn't slip. Since dropping my classes was not an option, it came down to one of my internships. And, because I am working at A Wider Circle for credit (which I need to be a full time student, and therefore keep my scholarship and graduate), it had to be IP. I spoke with my supervisor, and explained the situation to her. Fortunately, she was incredibly understanding and said that she was glad I let her know what was going on. I was very nervous before talking with her, but now I am fortunate that I did, because I actually have time to do my work for school, as well as a little time to work out and just relax/regroup. Lesson I learned here: be honest with yourself, and about what you can handle. And be open with your supervisors at work, especially when you are a student they are very likely to understand if you need to change your schedule/hours. 

Now, this blog will be about my OTHER internship, at A Wider Circle. Starting next time.

The Economy SUCKS

So, since I interviewed at IP, they have cut about 5 permanent staff members. Now they don't have enough staff to do all the work they need to get done, so everyone is always super busy and they've brought in interns to help make up the gap. However, everyone on staff is so busy all the time that it leads to an issue that I have been experiencing: they do not even have the time to put together projects for me to work on, because they have too much else to work on, and they're stuck doing all the work anyway. This frustrates me like crazy - I want to be of service to them, but it's tough when all I have to work on is the author database (oh, lovely, lovely database) which has been passed from intern to intern for months and really isn't anywhere near completion. Then, when the database I need to use to compile the names/affiliations/contact info for the new mailing list goes down, there isn't anything to do except work on getting that fixed (which I attempted for 2 hours to no avail until it was time for me to leave). Oh, and I also walked 3 blocks to Safeway to get soda for a lunch presentation they were having at the office on Tuesday. I've been using a lot of brain power this week...

Three Weeks Down

This week had me working on much more substantial projects. Monday, I struggled to get the sound working on ANY computer in the office (there are like 5 that I can use, and NONE of them had sound) so that I could do a video project for the Publications Director. This consisted of watching a promo tape for one author and then linking photos to the dialogue from a database she sent me. It was a little tedious, at times, because there was no counter on the video and I had to use my cell phone stopwatch to figure out the time cues, but it was interesting to learn more about the books IslandPress publishes, especially this topic (the main reason I don't eat fish is because of the absurd overfishing practices). After that, I did some less exciting work (making an excel database of people to add to the email newsletter list) for the rest of the day. Then, Tuesday, I did all my paperwork (time sheets, etc), talked with my supervisor (the head of the Development team), and then started on another project for Communications/Publications. This was updating the Pub report (a record that IP keeps of all the "earned press" for the books they have published in the past year). It was crazy to see how many blogs talked about our books- somebody even "tweeted" (oh, twitter-verbs) about one last week! Two days without ANY database entry... hallelujah!

Week 2

Well, this week was a little weird because I was sick on Monday. It was really nice, because the office was super understanding. I made up most of my hours working extra time on Tuesday and working for a little on Wednesday afternoon, as well.

**Tip: If you are saving something at work, make sure you know where you're saving it! I worked on a project for like 3 hours this week, and then when I went back to find it, it was gone. Except, it wasn't. I had just managed to save it in the "temp" folder rather than on the Development drive (like I should have). I was about to start over when I accidentally found it. Learned my lesson with that one!

The other intern on my team is really nice. She's at the office 4 days/week now, so since she knows what's been going on, I've just been working on stuff that she needs for the most part. My supervisor is really busy, so it's been tough to connect and get assignments directly from her. But, this setup works out well for both Jenny (the other intern) and me, I think.

Oh, and the area the interns sit is called "the fishbowl". Weird? Not when it's glass on 3 sides and in the very center of the office, directly across from the kitchen and next to the copier/mail machines/recycling bin. It's a little distracting. The best part was when I looked at the aerial map of the office and realized that it was actually labeled "fishbowl". I'm not sure how I feel about that...

1 (and a half) days down

Working at Island Press has been interesting so far. I'm really adjusting to the "office" deal again, my last 2 years of work have been full of running around the city, etc... (see that blog)

However, it's a small office, which is definitely a plus. And they're all about dressing casually (aka jeans everyday). Oh, and I can basically pick my own hours (as long as I'm there for 10+ per week. Sweet!

So far, the word has been a little... lackluster/mind numbing. They're in transition of interns right now, so they weren't prepared with new projects for me. I've just been working on this author database so that they can do mass mailings to all authors/contributors for all the books Island Press has published since it was founded in the early 80's. Mostly, it's just a lot of copy and paste action.

Next week, they should have some more exciting projects that I can get started with. I'm definitely ready to do something more substantive! I feel that the learning potential for this job is pretty promising- with the economic situation right now, they've had to lay off a lot of their staff, so they're definitely relying on interns even more than usual to pick up that extra work. Good for me!

A New Semester, A New Internship

I am starting tomorrow at Island Press, an environmental publishing company. They publish mostly textbooks, but also other titles that are more geared toward mass distribution and reading. However, in addition to publishing, they also research and propose solutions to environmental issues. Island Press works toward greater public awareness of and involvement in these areas by hosting seminars, teaching courses, and sponsoring talks. As an intern there, I will be working with the Communications & Development Team. I'm not sure exactly what my day-to-day responsibilities will be, but I am excited to get started.