Alexan­der John­son

Press Pass Cor­re­spon­dent

This va­ca­tion, while many would have lounged around their homes, some per­sons would have tak­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to glimpse in­to the work­ing world by land­ing them­selves an in­tern­ship. How­ev­er, the world of work is a labyrinth to the un­sus­pect­ing up­start. Many in­terns fresh out of school en­counter vary­ing, baf­fling chal­lenges when ad­just­ing to an of­fice space as op­posed to the school en­vi­ron­ment. A promi­nent chal­lenge is usu­al­ly a clash of per­son­al­i­ties be­tween one's self and one's su­pe­ri­ors. An ex­am­ple of this is the like­ly sit­u­a­tion that you would have en­coun­tered - a know-it-all boss who was some­what like the Wikipedia of boss­es, who chose not to en­cour­age you as an In­tern but to be­lit­tle you for your lack of knowl­edge. Let us dub this char­ac­ter 'Mr. Wi­ki'. In this in­stance do not be alarmed, your in­tern­ship is above all else a learn­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty. Al­though, Mr. Wi­ki's ways can in­clude em­bar­rass­ment, ac­cu­sa­tions of in­com­pe­tence and at times be de-mo­ti­vat­ing, so­lu­tions can be sought that would make you a more adamant work­er. This can be a les­son in find­ing al­ter­na­tive mo­ti­va­tion for work.

Build­ing ca­ma­raderie among oth­er staff mem­bers in your de­part­ment by cov­er­ing each oth­er's weak­ness­es and build­ing up­on strengths is an­oth­er mea­sure that can be adopt­ed. As for be­ing em­bar­rassed it is im­por­tant that your work eth­ic and work re­sults speak loud­er than Mr. Wi­ki's voice, be­cause in­evitably your com­pe­tence will be mea­sured by your con­tri­bu­tions to the or­gan­i­sa­tion. Nev­er­the­less, va­ca­tion in­tern­ships should nev­er damp­en your spir­its on the work­ing world. Whether you had to work un­der a Mr. Wi­ki or had a youth­ful and help­ful su­per­vi­sor, ei­ther way, your ex­pe­ri­ence should have giv­en you some in­sight, so the next job you fall in­to, you would be more pre­pared!