When I entered this internship I was expecting a rigid schedule in which I come in at a certain hour and leave at another certain hour. To my surprise it was not like that; the hours I work are based on how much work I have. As I am an intern for netlogx from the Indiana Latino Institute, I am limited to working only 30 hours a week which shortens my work day quite a lot. Regardless, I was not given a set schedule. I make my own schedule but I must make my schedule based around meetings, office hours, and other people’s schedules.
I normally come in at 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning and leave at 3:00 in the afternoon or sometimes I leave at 2:00 if I finish or advance significantly in my work, and no longer have any more meetings to attend. I am a morning person so I have no problem coming into the office early. I could come in at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning to get more sleep, but I like to work in the morning and I am already awake by 6:30 AM.
I choose a spot where I want to work, and leave my things when I have to go to a meeting. In the morning I prepare for any project I have to work on, or intern training, and I start to organize my work around any meetings I have and I must be aware if I get invited to a meeting on short notice. I also arrange my work on priority and importance, which means I can’t dedicate all my time to just one project or training activity.
I must balance and accomplish both tasks, but do so by determining the one that is most important; the one with the more immediate need will receive more time and attention. I have also been helping my learning doing some small jobs in I.T. which is something I really like. This takes some of my time away from project work, but learning to be flexible with my schedule allows me to help out in I.T. and still be ready if there is a meeting I’m asked to attend.
Flexibility and time management is something I have learned and have so far taken from this internship. I really enjoy the working environment and also enjoy working here, from the small tasks that I have done to projects which I have helped with. I hope to learn other skills that will help me later on in the future, but for now I am very satisfied to be working at netlogx!
