My take on adulting, self-doubt and the many (un-said) mini-struggles of being an intern.
Today marks my last day interning at be as you are (BSUR) as a brand strategist. An average weekday is getting ready to venture the public transport system in Amsterdam to hopefully be at the office by 10 AM. No one ever tells you how hard it is to plan 3-5 days of work outfits. One that’s comfortable, a tad stylish but also does not look like you’re repeating it for 5 days straight. Also, planning what you want to eat at work (without breaking the bank) is quite a challenge. Maybe that’s a course for the future.
After getting my first sip of tea done, I usually look at any emails I missed overnight and get started on the day’s activities. Tip: I usually plan a to-do list one day early so that when the day comes I can review and update it if needed. Most of the time, the first agenda of the day is getting to have a brainstorm session with my supervisor on the ongoing projects and what’s needed for them.
As a strategist, I helped the team with creating brand concepts. The two ongoing projects were refreshing the branding of a tech company and creating a new concept for a city. In my time here my days are filled with:
- desk research
- creating presentation decks on market conditions
- developing initial brand essence ideas
- brainstorm on initial deck intros, brand values, tone of voice and more.
And in between them, I’d join the team’s internal brainstorms, client presentations and of course the most important of all, lunch time. Also evident in the picture below, I got to explore my side hobby of decorating my desks.
I think one personal lesson that I experienced is on self-doubt. At times I felt quite like an imposter because here I am touting an enormous title “brand strategist” yet I’m just a 3rd year college student. Many thoughts often cross my mind, will I live up to the title, am I falling short in this team meeting, did I contribute enough, am I pestering the people around me, am I carrying my weight in the team, did I write too little (or too much), did the thing I say land well? My tip to overcome this is to feel my way through and know that everyone at some point has felt this way – it’s part of this universal yet uncomfortable process we call adulting.
Being at BSUR has been a short but sweet period that thought me so many invaluable things about being a strategist but also memorable interactions with my colleagues. It’s a place that has allowed me to grow my skills and be the gen-z intern (with all her pop culture references) in the midst of senior colleagues. If my time here is any indication of what’s to come next, I can’t wait to see where my budding professional career will take me.