Throughout my six months at this internship I have learned many valuable lessons that I will take with me throughout the rest of my professional life. Here are a few:
1. A work-life is balance is very important
While I was working at Media.Monks I helped with a campaign for a German client where I was one of the only German speakers. That meant that I was relied on very heavily for certain tasks. A couple of weeks into this campaign, I noticed how stressed I was starting to feel, even on the weekends. I had been working very late every day and even when I stopped work, I took the stress with me. After I realized what was happening, I focused on having a better work-life balance. I stopped working overtime and focused on being mindful on the weekends and in the evenings. I reminded myself that life is not just work and set boundaries for myself. The minute I shut my work laptop, I also shut off any thoughts about work. This balance also helped me at work because I felt better rested.
2. Having work friends is important
I became good friends with the other interns at Media.Monks. Towards the end of my internship most of the other interns finished before me and so there were a few weeks where I had less work friends around me. This really made me realize how important it is to get along with at least some of your coworkers. Work friends motivate you to do better but they also support you when you are having a rough day. It is not the same when you go to work and the people you are used to supporting you are gone.
3. Accept that everyone has different working styles
Early on during my internship I helped out with a lot of different campaigns and so I worked with a lot of different people who each had different working styles. Some were meticulous and focused on every detail. Some were more about the bigger picture and did not want to stress about the small stuff. Some gave me a lot of freedom and responsibility while others wanted to do a lot themselves and monitor everything that was happening. Everyone had different preferences for how they wanted our excel sheets to be filled out and color coded. There is not one working style that is wrong but I definitely had to learn to adapt to how everyone wanted things done. I was also able to observe these working styles and see which ways resonated with me.
4. Put your work in perspective
One thing that one of my managers always said was “this work is not life or death”. I really like that saying and I think I will remember it for a long time. Even though we want to do our best at work and we must work hard and put in a lot of effort, we also have to remind ourselves that in the work we do, no one’s life is on the line. Sometimes we can get way too stressed and preoccupied with a problem or a task and it helps to put your work in perspective and remind yourself that a mistake is not the end of the world. We often make things into a bigger deal than we need to and are too hard on ourselves.
By Chiara Goldenstern (13678132)