Career Options Magazine

When I was younger, summer break meant beaches, tents, shopping trips, sleepovers, soccer practices and sunshine. Best of all, it meant long, carefree, stress-free, school-free days. Oh, and sleeping in.

Then I turned 16. To me, this wasn’t at all a big deal, but my mother—never-waste-a-minute successful career woman—had plans for my summer break. She wanted me to get a job. OK, I could handle that, right?

I was wrong. Very wrong. After handing in a few applications at local stores, I realized that getting a job this way was not going to work. The stores were more likely to pick a college student over a 16-year-old high school student with no work experience and a very hectic schedule.

So, to beef up my résumé, I took an internship and got to work with a very cool bunch of people (yes, Andrea, you are the best boss ever :). The company’s business is marketing and communications. For those of you who have no idea what that means, don’t worry, I didn’t either. But I thought this would be a good way to spend my summer because I am
interested in marketing, and could see myself doing this as a career.

I learned a lot during my internship—things I’m happy to share with anyone who might be interested in one too. Such as… Work: Based on my experiences, there are at least four major categories of work:

1) The boring, horrifying, scar-you-for-life tasks. My first assignment was making phone calls all day long. Yep, you got it: 72 phone calls a day for two days straight, to various prospective clients, gathering contact information to be able to harass—excuse me offer them our services. But once I realized the worst that could happen was the receptionist hanging up on me, it really wasn’t so bad. Sometimes you have to do work that isn’t the greatest. This is part of any job. Just get going and it will be over before you know it.

2) What I like to call “interestingly boring.” This is the kind of work that is interesting because you are learning something, but is also repetitive and slow (for me, this was researching every single company who placed an ad in a magazine).

3) The “travel” category. Why travel, you ask? Think about it: when you’re in a foreign country, everything is really cool and exciting but you have no idea what the signs say or how to order anything at a restaurant. This was the feeling I got when I was researching Aboriginal land claim agreements (what?) of northern Canada. I imagine there are times on almost any job where you feel in over your head—but that can be exciting too.

4) Lastly, there is the fun and creative work, like writing this article. This was for sure the best thing I had to do, by far. In comparison with the papers I have to write for school, this had a lot less stress and waaaay fewer rules to follow.

On an internship, some of the work you’ll like, some you won’t. That’s just how it is.

Day to day: Make sure you know your bus route or driving directions BEFORE your first day. I missed my bus station because I thought it was farther away, and ended up having to speed-walk for 40 minutes in 29˚C weather… not fun. And make sure you get up early. Seriously, it may not (OK, it just doesn’t) feel good waking up, but it helps a lot with punctuality. Also, stay organized! When I started, I was saving my documents anywhere in the computer, and then I would spend 20 minutes looking for a file. I don’t want to sound like your mother, but keep your room and desk tidy—for real, it helps!

Environment: My experience was amazing! Beautiful office, great people, good smell (more important than you think) and comfortable dress code (no suits, thank goodness). I hope other interns are so lucky. The only weird thing was this life-size cardboard cutout of a Star Trek character in the office next to my desk…

At the office, there weren’t any stressful days where everyone was rushing around to meet deadlines, although I didn’t go downstairs to where the creative staff worked too often. Oh wait! How could I forget one pretty crazy day—the day I maybe broke the printer. If there is one piece of advice I should give, it is this:

Do not—I repeat, DO NOT—break the printer, under any circumstance, any day, at any time, ever.

I’m just kidding, it wasn’t that bad. Well, maybe for me it wasn’t (it was actually pretty hilarious), but I’m sure others had different opinions… Remember, as an intern, you don’t have as much training and experience as others do, and you’re bound to have an “incident” at some point. Handle it as gracefully as you can.

The Future: I took my internship this summer because instead of “flipping burgers or sweeping floors at some restaurant,” as my mother would say, I could be readying myself for the future. My parents are not at all helpful to me when it comes to this career choosing thing, as they both pursued jobs in the science field, while I’m gravitating towards a more arts-related field (don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I’m not going to be an artist and starve on the streets, I promise!).

I learned this summer that marketing is actually pretty cool when you see everything that goes into it. Even though I spend most of my time doing research, I still got to see what a lot of other creative people do. Let me tell you, these are not easy jobs! It was an interesting summer—some parts were fun, others not so much (don’t make me do any more phone calls, I beg you!). But I definitely recommend interning. It was a really great experience for me, and I bet it could be for anyone. It was definitely better than flipping burgers all summer… CO

Editor’s Note: Nicole is referring to unpaid, short-term internships in this article. In Canada, the word “internship” also refers to full time work terms, from 8 to 16 months, often completed after year three of a four-year university program (often, but not only, an engineering or commerce degree program).