Name: Sherry

Year: Sophomore

Major/Minor(s): Cognitive Science/BIP, IMC

CFS Concentration: Field Studies in the Modern Workplace

I stepped into the office, still groggy from transitioning between a collegiate sleep schedule to a working sleep schedule. On a typical college night, I may go to bed at 4 AM and wake up at 11 AM (pretty much right before my first class begins). Having to abruptly shift to a 9-5 schedule meant I needed to wake up at 6 AM in order to make the hour commute to the office.

So I was groggy. But the adrenaline of starting my first internship set my nerves on fire.

As I was led around the office and introduced to about 20 people in a row, I desperately repeated their names over and over in my head. I was determined not to have to rely on the fail-safe tactic of “hey you!” Of course, I was so stoked to make a good impression on my end that I often forgot their names mere seconds after being introduced.

Luckily there was a list of contacts taped to every phone in the office. I went over the names in my head and tried to match them to faces. Every time I went into a meeting, I quizzed myself by writing down every person’s name in a rough seating chart. I had even studied their faces and bios on the company website the night before, though it did me little good. Not to mention I had to get nicknames straight too. Was Finke a formal or casual nickname? Would it be expected or unusual if I called him Finke too?

After introductions, I was stationed in a semi-enclosed space called the “Fishbowl” alongside the other interns. One of them leaned over and assured me “It’s okay, you’ll get used to the ceilings after a while.” It didn’t take long to figure out what she meant. The ceilings creaked with every step of the people upstairs. I could tell who was wearing heels and who was wearing boots just by the sound of their clip-clopping. I could tell who was aimlessly wheeling around in their office chair. Just by using my ears, I could create a Marauder’s Map of the movement upstairs. Sometimes the creaking was so loud that conversations were drowned out and voices unconsciously rose louder and louder to compensate. I felt like I was in a giant accordion.

Thankfully the ceilings were quiet when I headed into the conference room to sit in on a client meeting. As the rest of the team entered, Daisy, the office collie and sweetest dog ever, padded in, closely following her owner’s heels. She greeted me with soulful eyes and I gave her few scratches behind the ears. Then she promptly made herself comfortable underneath the table and took a nap as the humans babbled on.

Everyone, including me, was given a packet of presentation slides with the team’s creative concepts and designs. I admired the crisp, glossy paper and minimalist format. I was so excited to see brand strategy and website design in a professional environment. At the end of the meeting I even offered a few suggestions to the team and was overjoyed when they jotted it down.

Though I am just an intern, throughout that first day and the following weeks I have been consistently treated as a valued member of the team. They would listen to my ideas and congratulate me on a job well done. The first time I walked through these doors as a mere hopeful, the second time as an intern, maybe someday I’ll walk in as a permanent fixture within Tom, Dick & Harry.