This last project has me terrified. I'll admit it. I came out of the last project needing 50 hours for my internship requirements and notified my site supervisor of the situation. With this final project, I've taken a lot more time than I had in the past. After finding out that the other intern completed the projects with extra time as well, I look back at my timesheet and wonder if I could have taken more time with my previous assignments. I didn't realize I was working quite so fast (relatively speaking, since it always seems to take me ages to actually get the work submitted) on previous assignments.
I think another aspect of 'time management' that hasn't been addressed is the simple fact of managing productivity versus time spent. If x amount of hours are required then it's important to track, from the beginning, just how many hours you're spending on your work and communicate that clearly with your site supervisor with the indication that you would like more work.
As I look to the future (I'll be interning on-site at a library over the summer), I realize I've learned a lot from this internship, not just about libraries and my learning objectives, but also about managing my time in an environment where a certain number of hours need to be completed by a certain time. When I began looking for internships for next semester, I'd already realized the number of hours I needed in order to complete this internship was going to be difficult to achieve and, with that in mind, I planned my 135 hours for my summer internship accordingly with some time to spare so I would finish before the final week. That seems to be one of the greatest challenges of the virtual internship (it keeps coming up), you don't have to 'be there' so you have to make sure to monitor your time because you may never actually leave the house in order to complete your work.
So... the Saturday before my final report is due, I have 10 hours remaining of the original 50. This last report (for better or worse) really has taken a lot longer for me to research (from the AVW website) and write but I'm going through it with a fine toothed comb just to be sure. At some point at the beginning of April, I was ready to admit defeat, take my NC and move on, but I'm determined to make it work. I'll be able to put in a few hours this morning before work and tomorrow after work. And then it will be done.
This last week, I've come to realize the importance of morale boosters. Working for so long on one project by yourself is an isolating experience and I've noticed my mood has been a lot gloomier the past few weeks. I filled my iPod with my favorite songs and they've become essential to my daily routine in order to keep me going.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
It's Already the End of the Week
I'd forgotten today was Sunday. Such is my strange schedule these days.
This week in virtual internship land, I've started work on my next assignment: another trends report. After the first report, I've become a little more confident in my ability to format a report to precisely the way my site supervisor would like it. Admittedly I've taken a few days off to put the finishing touches on some final projects for other classes, but I'm determined to finish my internship hours in the next week as well as the project in order to give myself, and my site supervisor, some time to complete our administrative paperwork including rating and reviewing each other.
An ongoing challenge that I've found throughout this internship that became readily apparent when I began researching and compiling reports, was that the terminology has changed so drastically in the past few years that even looking at information from 2000 or 2002 seems terribly out of date. The rate at which things change and become obsolete is blindingly fast for some of us who still love things from the past. I am perhaps too much my parents' child in this sense. While I like new technology, I approach with extreme caution and I think this internship has been good for me to learn just how fast I have to move to keep up in this new day and age when all my friends are texting and tweeting and pinning and all sorts of other things.
This week in virtual internship land, I've started work on my next assignment: another trends report. After the first report, I've become a little more confident in my ability to format a report to precisely the way my site supervisor would like it. Admittedly I've taken a few days off to put the finishing touches on some final projects for other classes, but I'm determined to finish my internship hours in the next week as well as the project in order to give myself, and my site supervisor, some time to complete our administrative paperwork including rating and reviewing each other.
An ongoing challenge that I've found throughout this internship that became readily apparent when I began researching and compiling reports, was that the terminology has changed so drastically in the past few years that even looking at information from 2000 or 2002 seems terribly out of date. The rate at which things change and become obsolete is blindingly fast for some of us who still love things from the past. I am perhaps too much my parents' child in this sense. While I like new technology, I approach with extreme caution and I think this internship has been good for me to learn just how fast I have to move to keep up in this new day and age when all my friends are texting and tweeting and pinning and all sorts of other things.
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