A Day In The Life Of An Intern

Blog Post 1:

I began my internship position with Ashville Media Group Thursday, October 1st. It was about a ten-minute walk from my residence, which makes me quite lucky; because many of my fellow group mates’ internship sites are a good distance away.

My first day on the job, I met with my primary supervisor, Mary Connaughton. Shortly after meeting, she advised Rachel, one of the company’s digital editors, to get me settled in. The other co­workers were very pleasant as they all greeted me with warm and delightful salutations. I spent most of the day getting acclimated to the office familiarizing myself with the different publications and magazines, which Ashville composes.

My second day was rather eventful, as I accompanied Rachel and Jane, another intern, to the “Maternity and Infant” awards in Blanchardstown. Ashville has both an editorial department as well an events department. And, the magazine which I will be working with mostly, is the “Maternity and Infant” publication. With that being said, the events department hosted an awards event which corresponded with the editorial department’s magazine.

I spent the day during the awards event assisting the other workers with different tasks; such as, showing several of the award candidates different maternity and infant products, and asking them which ones they favored mostly. This sort of feedback is very important in planning the following year’s awards and events, as well as writing articles which surround the awards and its winners. I truly believe that this internship will provide me with a great learning outlet, where I can apply knowledge which I’ve learned in my classes, and also gain a deeper understanding to the world of mass communication.

Blog Post 2:

My second week at Ashville was a bit more productive within the office than the prior week. I conducted phone interviews for the “Keeling's Gold Medal Awards,” an awards event surrounding Ireland’s most prestigious and popular hospitality sites. After conducting a number of interviews, I then had to transcribe them. After transcribing the interviews, I had to concise the transcriptions to a word limit of 80­­which was actually quite difficult, due to the fact that some of the award candidates were a wee bit chatty. Nonetheless, I completed my first little project successfully and accurately.

Friday, I returned to Ashville unaware of what the day had in­-store for me. I was at work less than three hours while I’m casually scrolling down my newsfeed on Facebook, which is actually not frowned upon in the specific work capacity I work in, and see that a very close friend of mine was struck and killed by a car. Needless to say, I was in total and utter shock. I fled to the bathroom in tears, and then Rachel and Mary both darted in after me asking me what was wrong. I sobbingly told them that my friend had been killed, and they both attempted to comfort me. Mary told me that it was probably best that I take the afternoon off, and that if I needed anything to please let her know. The compassion that these two individuals bestowed onto me was so very heart­warming.

I’m not sure how other companies in Ireland operate; but, at Ashville Media Group, they’re like a family, which is such an amazing and incredible feeling to know. Both Mary and Rachel emailed me later that day to check up on me. It’s been almost a week since the incident of my close friend passing, and I’m back at work trying my best to hold it together. Although, everyone is so caring and comforting; and, it’s so wonderful to know that I’m interning for a company that cares about its employees.

Blog Post 3:

What can I say? I absolutely love my internship: the people, the work environment, and most of all, the experience - there's absolutely nothing negative that comes to mind when I think of Ashville Media Group. The people, as somewhat described in a previous blog post, are absolutely incredible­­. I go to work and enjoy what I do; but, on top of that, there’s not a single person that I don’t like. And trust me, I’ve been there long enough to get adequately acquainted with a multitude of co­workers. To be honest, I’ve had at least three pleasant conversations with just about everyone in the company; and, with Ashville Media Group having three different departments, that’s saying something. The work environment is relaxed yet extremely productive. This is just so different from work environments which I’ve experienced in the states - there have been too many times where I’ve experienced unnecessary conflict with co­workers which stemmed from adolescent and immature behavior from that of my counterparts. But, at Ashville Media Group, I feel that if two individuals didn’t care for one another, they would still able to work together productively and efficiently without having any sort of drama or conflict.

Since my last blog post, I’ve participated in two major events which Ashville has hosted “The 2015 Ireland Blog Awards” and “The 2015 Boots Maternity and Infant Awards”: both of these events were both educational as well as exciting. The 2015 Ireland Blog Awards was hosted at the Tivoli Theatre and was an evening event. This event was one which involved a great deal of 'craic,' with the theme of the event being ‘Burlesque,' there were vivacious Burlesque dancers as well as staff and guests wearing Burlesque inspired attire. But, the awards were the real excitement - there were over 80,000 blog submissions with 37 different awards. To be a part of an event which featured talented and dedicated writers was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

The next event which I participated in was the 2015 Boots Maternity and Infant Awards, which also exceeded my expectations. The event ran as smooth as butter; and, because I showed a certain level of initiative, I was granted one of the more coveted jobs, which consisted of handing the event's emcees the awards and trophies for the many different categories. I mean, there wasn’t really a lot involved as far as physically handing someone a trophy; however, it was the result of the initiative that I took which was most rewarding. Things were a bit chaotic during the preparations for the event­­. I just took it upon myself to bring the different awards and trophies into the area where the event was held and sort them into running order. Then, Tracey Carney, the event’s spearhead told me that someone else was supposed to be giving out the trophies; but, due to proactive and fast thinking initiative, she granted me the position instead.

All in all, I’m learning so much and loving every minute of it. It truly saddens me to know that I’ll only be with the company for six more weeks. Although, I’ve spoken with both my direct supervisor in the editorial department, Mary Connaughton, as well as Tracey Carney, who as mentioned earlier, is the spearhead for the events department’s manager, about possibly coming back to work when I return to Ireland for postgraduate studies. Oh, I must’ve forgot to mention that part. I fell in love with Ireland somewhere along the way since I've been here, and I'm the type of person that believes if you love something, then it's best if you're close to it.

Blog Post 4:

My internship position has increasingly exceeded my expectations every passing week. However, being that my position will soon end, I decided to pursue some additional experience while still at the company. Not that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed the work that I’ve been done thus far, I simply wanted the chance to obtain a bit more experience before my position ends. With that being said, I emailed my supervisor, Mary, requesting to sit down with her and discuss my position with Ashville and the experience which I’ve gained since being there. She immediately emailed me back with a scheduled time for us to sit down and chat. Later that day Mary and I met in the conference room - I told her how happy and thankful I was for the opportunity to work at Ashville, and that I was extremely satisfied with the exorbitant amount of pertinent work experience I’ve gained, as well as the skills and tools I’ve been exposed to while working there.

After discussing everything I’ve learned, she asked me if I was interested in any other areas. I replied by telling her that I would like to write an article for one of the publications before leaving. She thought this was a great idea and assigned me to write a luxury watch product feature for Goff's horse-owner magazine. Needless to say, I was super excited about this new and exciting opportunity. I’ve learned that a product feature isn’t as simple as it seems - my article must consist of six different watches from at least three different Irish stockist, not to mention the high resolution images for each watch. Well, let’s just say getting a stockist to send you high resolution image for a magazine article takes a little work.

After countless emails and phone calls, I was able to obtain two high resolution images for two luxury watches from the Irish stockist ‘Weir and Sons’. I was extremely anxious to begin writing; however, you can’t begin composing an article until you have the necessary images. Reason being, without the images, you don’t have a subject. And, with watches being so innovative and different, it would be impossible to discuss a watch’s feature without having all the details of the timepiece. So, I was finally able to begin writing and finished with those pieces for each watch in about a day. I emailed my first portion of the article on the two watches. I felt very confident that my finished pieces were up to par. However, that was not the case. Mary asked me to come in the conference room to discuss the article. She immediately began critiquing my writing - I felt so disappointed, but by the end of our conversation I had a thorough understanding as to what she was looking for in the feature. She told to re-write the articles, and to have them back to her in one hour.

Back to drawing board it was - I noted her constructive criticism and began re-writing the articles. After emailing the articles back, she responded by saying, “PERFECT.” I was so happy and relieved to have corrected my writing errors. All it took was a little guidance from an awesome supervisor to produce the appropriate output. Having a supervisor who has the patience to sit down and discuss work-related matters in a constructive way is so beneficial.

My Final Blog Post: An Array of Different Emotions

So, I’ve been at Ashville Media Group for approximately twelve weeks, as of today. Next Friday will be my last day at Ashville, and with a heavy heart, this wonderful experience must come to an end. I have learned and experienced more than I could have ever imagined during my time at Ashville, and even though my time with the company will soon end, I will have gained so much. I now possess skills that I may have never been exposed to - any international work experience is beneficial, but to have gained knowledge which applies directly to my field of interest, makes it a million times better.

To be honest, it wasn’t challenging at all adapting to the work environment - the atmosphere which I was exposed to here was much better than what I’ve experienced back home. The culture at Ashville is very much to my liking - people relax and have fun, and enjoy one another’s company while also being productive and efficient. I have learned that this is the sort of people and work environment that I want to be a part of. When people greet you in the morning, it is with a kind hello and a smiling face; and, despite frustrations and stress which comes with any job, people continue to be pleasant and warm.

I have built a great deal of rapport while interning at Ashville - contact and relationships which will prove to benefit my success in the future. Tracey Carney, the head of our events department, told me that if I return to Dublin and did an internship with the events department and did well, she would hire me. This was based on my performance at the different events Ashville hosted, which I participated in.

I think a major part of this experience was to see how a well ran company operates. It doesn’t matter where I work now, I can always take a bit of Ashville with me. That doesn’t mean that I’ll compare the company to every new job I work at, but maybe, by being a good role model, other individuals will perhaps see that doing things in a different way might be good.