The hardest thing about starting a new internship is learning the different ways things work. At my previous internship, I had progressed to the point where I could almost work autonomously because I knew my tasks and responsibilities so well I could just get on with them. It was a small in-house team, so our “client” remained the same and the work I did was often cyclical.

Walking in to Skye Gilligan Consulting on my first day, I had to learn how their team does things and what I’d be expected to do from scratch. Interning in a consultancy seemed intimidating at first, as it can be very fast-paced to meet all your clients’ demands. However, after my first day I already felt at ease and knew I was going to get so much invaluable experience.

The first thing I did on my first day in the office was learn about the systems they use to allocate work, such as Trello. I also got briefed on the clients I’d be working with. This was daunting in itself because many of them are from technical industries I was unfamiliar with. However, since then I’ve done a lot of research and have surprised myself with how fast I’ve learnt!

A business meeting with a potential client was scheduled for shortly after my briefing, and I was invited to sit in on it. I instantly felt welcome and as though I was part of the team. It also helped me get a deeper understanding of what kind of work this consultancy does.

Straight after the meeting I was tasked with writing blog posts for a client in the fitness industry. The internship stereotype of getting coffee and photocopying stuff is almost laughable because I started doing meaningful things right away! I’m really glad I’m learning a lot and being mentored by talented people in the industry I want to work in.

Most of my tasks revolve around content creation in some form: blogging/article writing, social media and writing newsletters on Mail Chimp. The most challenging thing for me on my first day was having to wait to be given a task. Since I still wasn’t familiar with the clients and the work that needed to be done for them, I felt a bit lost without being told exactly what to do. The consultancy was very busy and with only a small team of four workers to assist her, my supervisor was flat out. So often we’re told that we should be taking initiative and that we shouldn’t wait to be told what to do; we should be seeing gaps that need to be filled.

I do agree with this; however, I also think it’s important to give yourself a break. No one expects you to know everything on your very first day. Instead of developing extra content, I showed my initiative by reading through previous blogs and social media posts to familiarise myself with the writing styles and type of content that gets published. Of course, I also asked if there was anything I could help with.

My supervisor has already shown me programs such as Hootsuite and Mail Chimp in detail, so I feel like I’ve learnt a lot already. I can’t wait to see where the rest of my journey takes me.