"You Know You're Ready For Internship When...

At Year Up we talk a lot about being Internship Ready, and what makes a good Intern. As students we have established what qualities and characteristics someone should have in order to be an all-star at their internship. This person should be dependable, willing to learn, punctual, professional, sociable, and ready-to go. During my time at Year Up I have been able to work on developing these skills. So far I've demonstrate my skills by being consistently professional, positive, upbeat, wiling to learn, and punctual. In module three I plan on continuing these behaviors as well as becoming more consistent with my attendance. As of right now I do feel like I could walk into a Corporate setting and be a good Intern  because it is easy for me to adapt to my surroundings. I feel confident in the tech skills that I have learned, but even more confident in my people skills. I know that I have struggled with attendance, and that is the biggest improvement I need to make before going to my internship. I really feel confident in my ability to blend in with the Corporate crowd, and I am sure I have shown throughout my time at Year Up that I can be a consistent professional adult. I have an easy-going personality, and I am determined to be sucessful. I know if I keep pushing myself even harder throughout Module 3 to really focus on my growth areas then I will be 100% ready for my internship.

Dead End Jobs

I have been working since I was 18 years old. My first job was a cashier at Little Ceasar's Pizza. I ended up working there for over a year. I knew I was working a dead end job, so I started seeking out something else. I figured I would enjoy doing something with phones, and or typing since I took some office training classes in high school. Thankfully I landed a job at an answering service, Direct Line. Here I was in charge of answering phones for clients that have paid for our services. Basically I was the person you talked to when the real person you wanted to speak to rolled their phone lines over for various different reasons. I was so excited to have this job. It paid 5 more dollars than my previous job, and I got to be on the phone all day. I also had to type messages, relay messages, and dispatch. I enjoyed the atmosphere because I had a cubicle with about 15 other people in an office. I felt very official and important, and I thought I had achieved an actual adult position. Unfortunately I was let go due to attendance issues. The last full time position job I held was at Panera Bread. I worked on the food line making sandwiches, salads, pouring soups, and consolidating orders. I really did not enjoy this job, only because they put a lot of pressure on us to have all orders out in no less than 1:30 seconds. It was called "Speed of Service Standards". We were constantly told we weren't fast enough, good enough, and we basically could be replaced at any moment. The restaurant was a close knit group of people. We were all young for the most part, and our personalities were very compatible. I stayed in this position for over  a year only because of the close bond that I created with my co-workers. I constantly felt under appreciated by the management team, and was aware that they did not lead by example. I went above and beyond my duties, and I noticed other people getting promoted over me. I begin coming to work late, not working as hard, and some days not going at all. Eventually I quit. I still have kept in touch with a few people from there, and overall even though I hated my actual job, I am thankful for the people I met.