Saturday, May 30, 2009

Internship countdown

I return to the working world on Monday and I have to admit, I'm pretty anxious ... not quite up-all-night anxious, but definitely churning-stomach anxious. According to my boyfriend (who at the moment is unhelpfully located in London), this anxiety has made me a bit sensitive; a bit testy. Probably true, but in my mind, totally justified.
For a born worrier, there's just so much to stress out about. First: proving myself. I've spent the past 9 months at Darden working incredibly hard on subjects that were initially quite foreign to me. During my internship, I'm really hoping to prove to myself and others that this was time and energy well-spent. But what if I can't? What if instead of confidently applying concepts and frameworks, I fumble and flail? (See, this IS scary stuff.)
Second: learning as much as I can. During Q4, I took a class called Establishing Yourself at Work. In several class discussions, my peers and I talked about how we could position ourselves to both learn as much as possible, and provide as much value as possible to our summer employers. It's a tough balancing act and I want to make sure I do it right. And again, what if I can't?
Third: adjusting to work outside the newsroom. As I've mentioned a number of times on this blog, I'm a former journalist who is switching to the business side of media. I've been lucky enough to land an internship that helps in that transition, but I'm worried about how it'll feel to work "on the other side." So far I haven't missed writing and reporting, but what if I find that I do now? Or that the skills I used so effectively as a reporter don't translate as well as I'd thought?
Clearly, there is enough here to keep me in a tizzy for the next 48 hours and distraction is in order ... That's my cue to step away from my computer and explore DC.

2 comments:

MechaniGal said...

I'm super nervous about work too... and I start tomorrow.

JulyDream said...

You'll rock it! Keep your head up. I hope week one is going well. And we're Darden students, we survived first year, we can do anything. :)