This week’s post comes from our social media intern, Kayla Eiffert. She attends the University of Arkansas with a major in Advertising and Public Relations. We asked her to tell us what her first week at Caledon Virtual has been like.
You are here: your home for the next three months. You don’t know anyone, or exactly what you’re doing, but don’t be intimidated. (Right.) But that is what an internship is for, to push you out of your comfort zone and teach you things outside of the classroom, and you just hope you figure out your life along the way.
My first week at Caledon Virtual has been just that. Intimidating, exciting, and full of possibility. Walking in on my first day, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I don’t know if I thought I would just be assigned to refilling the coffee pot, or if I would be generally ignored and sit on Facebook all day, but neither was the case. All the staff members were so welcoming, and it was reassuring to know that four other interns were in my same shoes.
Gaybriella, a fellow intern, had similar feelings of apprehension. She said she even questioned walking in the first day, but after realizing that we are all starting from the same place, she immediately felt more comfortable with our group. These strangers sitting next to us would become our support system for the rest of the summer.
Some of my feelings of uncertainty were put to ease after our orientation meeting when I began to get a grasp on what exactly I would be doing. Getting a working job description helped with my anxiety, but cue the looming feeling of being overwhelmed. As with anything, there is a period of adjustment that has to occur before you can truly feel comfortable somewhere.
My first week was filled with a range of emotions, but each was met with a smiling face and words of encouragement. The work environment proved to be welcoming and comforting, making it easy to wake up and come in every day. Nelly Roach, president of CV, emphasized that she wants us to always have plenty of things to do to maximize our time here.
Gaybriella expressed her struggle to make the connection between classroom knowledge and real world experience, but through her time as an intern, be able to connect what she has learned to her goals for a career in the future. That is really what we are all at CV to do; to grow as people, make new connections, and develop working knowledge of the marketing industry to help us in our future careers. But for next week, my goal is just to survive as an intern.
