Thursday, June 21, 2007

FITTING IN THE TEAM AND THE DEBATE OF ASKING QUESTIONS

How do you fit in the team as the new intern with slight familiarity of your teammates and the culture of the organization?
Well, working in a team is a bit challenging as we all have different characters and we relate differently from each other. I believe its worse if you are an intern or new in the organization and you are not acquainted with the people around and your teammates. Thanks to the WOW training programme. This is the real situation where am applying the skills I acquired from the session on teamwork and how to fit in. I’m trying to humble myself and work on whatever task anyone from the team requested me to do. I believe that it’s a leaning process and that’s the only way I can fit in the team. I’m trying to be competent in my work and if am not sure I present it to the senior lady in the group to verify it before I submit.

How about the debate of asking questions? As an intern there is always resistance in asking many questions due to the fear of being considered to lack the confidence in yourself or knowing nothing. On the other hand, its important to note that you get the instructions appropriately otherwise you might mess-up the project. I’m trying to avoid asking too many questions. However, I do ask to clarify on some points where am not clear and ensure that I pay much attention to details to avoid asking more questions.

Hey folks! I need more help on this, could you please provide me with more ideas on how to fit in and avoid asking too many questions.

Monday, June 18, 2007

AFTER TWO WEEKS!

Its good to read that Suzan Arthur also received a positive attitude from the people at Brunswick. It is always the case, some people do complain about negative attitude towards new interns at the work place. Just to add some remarks on what Ijeoma highlighted. Most of the students who are serving articles in the Law firms complains of being used as administrators and messengers instead of practicing legal duties. I have a friend of mine who resigned from a Law Firm despite having a good stipend of about R6,500 and join the Legal Aid where he is getting R3000 stipend. He indicated that he was not learning any thing apart from being used as a messenger, delivering files from one court to the other and back in the office.
However, others are lucky to be found in a friendly environment. I’m now clocking two weeks at the work place and all I can say is that some people have been so friendly to me. They are others who are willing to take me around at lunchtime to show me places where I can get food and just to get familiar to the place. Although I was unfortunate, when I started work my supervisor immediately went for a two weeks leave, but he assigned me to the senior researcher, a consultant subcontracted by Ochre to help with the Rustenburg project and his assistant to be working with me and helping where it is required. So far, I have been busy working on the project in Rustenburg. I have been assigned to work with the field workers in Rustenburg, who are helping in data collection from different tourists destinations, which will be incorporated in the Rustenburg tourism route we are intending to develop. This includes the cultural and heritage sites, outdoors adventures, township/shebeens and mining. I have been helping in capturing the data from the questionnaires into the database and analyzing the data. I’m also helping with literature review on other projects, which will be working on next month.

Monday, June 4, 2007

MY FIRST DAY AT WORK PLACE

If I say i was not nervous, I will be dishonest. The night before my first day at work, I was so worried of what was to happen on this important day. I couldn’t stop imagining what was going to happen when I arrived the first day. I thought of my supervisor, are we going to get along with each other, suppose he/she won’t be in a position to help me achieve my goals or targets. I reflect on choosing my mentor but this I thought will happen after knowing some people around. I anticipate finding someone who will be gracious to me and assist me to be acquainted with the people around and choose the right mentor. My most fear was the assignment I will be asked to execute. Suppose they ask me to do something I know nothing about. Being a master’s student I knew that my supervisor would expect me to be competent in my work. Suppose I won’t perform according to his/her expected standards. Anyway these were some of my nightmares before the due day.

But the reality is that, I arrived at Ochre Media at 08:00. There was no one at that time except the cleaner. She opened the door for me and asked me to sit at the reception. After some good 10 to 15 minutes, the receptionist entered, I explained to her who I was and what I was there for. She gave me a warm welcome and asked me to come with her to the coffee bar and have some coffee. While we were having some coffee she alerted me that she starts work at 08:00 and everyone else starts at 08:30 so I had to wait. After 08:30 almost everyone was around. She called the HR manager and told her about me. She immediately came to me and gave me a warm welcome and asked me to come to her office. We had a brief meeting; she introduced me to some documents to read about the company such as the office services and IT induction pack and the list of names, positions, departments, contact numbers and extension numbers of all employees in the organization. After that, she took me around the building, which has five floors and introduce me to all the staff members. After the introduction she showed me my office and asked the people from the IT department to connect my computer and create my email address. After a while my supervisor and his assistant came. We again had a small meeting where they introduced me to two projects, which we will be working on. The one they are currently working on in Rustenburg is called the “Rustenburg Tourism Meander/Route,” which has a deadline on the 25th of June. And the second project is on “Cape Town City Hall Redevelopment,” which we will start working on from next week, and its deadline is on 31st of June. He alerted me that we will be travelling to Rustenburg on Thursday and we have a workshop with people working on the Cape Town project on Friday this week. So I spent the whole day looking at the briefs for the two projects to understand what is going on. I’m looking forward to what the future holds for me. However, I do remember that we are a resource to each other; I might need your assistance one-way or the other.
This was my first day at Ochre Media and I hope that i will benefit from this journey.