First Week on the Job

The intern. A free worker, normally of college age who scurries around fulfilling the requests of the caffeine and food deprived staff, while also answering phones and filing paper work. 

That is what I had initially believed I was in for before starting my internship search. Of course on several listings for internship openings, there was a nice description of the above tasks but I was drawn to an opening for Bartles & Associates. I believed that if I was going to be running around the city fulfilling errands I should do it for a company who not only specialized in marketing but business strategy as well.

My interview, however, led me to believe that perhaps I was in for a more exciting internship and I was floating down the street with excitement, enthusiastic about starting my work with some interesting people. 

So when I showed up on Monday for my scheduled first day and no one was there I was disappointed and a little frightened that perhaps I had gotten the time wrong... or worse that Ms. Bartles had decided I was no longer needed as an intern. I began to write a note so she would know I had been there. While sitting on the stairs a man came in, giving me a strange look, and informed me that he didn’t think the occupants of the office were coming in as there had been a box outside their door for several days. 

Of course instead of thinking rationally, I let my mind conjure up the worst possible explanations, wondering if perhaps something had happened to my employer or more excitedly that she had left town in order to flee from the authorities for an unknown and mysterious crime. 

I wasn’t going to put anything past the energetic and mysterious woman I had met just three days ago. After leaving I had already been embellishing upon my hypothesis, adding new details that placed Ms. Bartles as a secret agent who was in the marketing field in order to bring down the shady business deals occurring behind closed office doors, when my phone rang and my scenario was shattered by the all too normal excuse of a business meeting gone too long. 

My first day of actually working was not as exciting as working for an undercover agent, but it was pretty close. I was given actual tasks to do that did not include walking to the nearest Starbucks for a mocha frappe with an extra shot of expresso, or whatever people order there nowadays. After leaving I immediately scurried to the comforting embrace of google where I furiously researched the tasks I was given and scribbled down notes while sipping coffee. I felt like a character in Mad Men and had a rush of excitement as I imagined myself pouring drinks for clients while telling them of the amazing discoveries I had made. Though in Mad Men everything seems to be more of a “AHA” moment instead of a man furtively typing on a computer researching for possible prospects and looking through databases, but I wasn’t looking too much into details.

As visions of elephants and their many creative uses occupied my mind, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit ironic that many marketing companies are so involved with creating the look, feel, and flow of their client’s brands that they often don’t ever get a chance to do their own. I was happy that Bartles & Associates was not only working on their image but that they were allowing me to help build it, demonstrating that they were not just advice givers, but practitioners in their field of expertise. 

Well as you may have garnered, its been an eventful week and by the looks of it, it’s going to be an eventful few months for this rather excitable intern.

~Blake