visions of clarity...do as infinity

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Salt Lake City

Ah the pleasures of being stuck in an airport that leaves nothing to the imagination! It's decently large, readily connected across terminals, and offers what I guess they hope is sufficient entertainment for the stranded traveller.

Here in Salt Lake City, the walls of the travellators are covered in Utah related photography and artwork - from beautiful scenic shots of Utah's natural mountainous areas to photos of their local ballet company posing amongst said scenery to paintings of said scenery. Maybe that's what Utah has to offer, exclusively - beautiful scenery, moose, and not much else.

That being said, I can also deduce the eating habits of the residents of this fine area. There are many Starbucks and Burger Kings, as well as the occasional nod to Italian with Sbarros and Pizza Hut. Then there is the sweet tooth to satisfy: Cinnabon and Krispy Kreme along with froyo places. I don't know what this says exactly about this place but it does make me pick Quiznos or Wolfgang Puck Express as possible alternatives to the dearth of interesting restaurants.

Actually I take that back. Even Quiznos looks unappealing. Perhaps I should just sit down and enjoy the mountainous scenery that surrounds the airport. I wonder what it's like outside? The skies are blue and the sun is pouring down on the runways. It looks hot and rather devoid of activity, especially considering how they've made me end up here. I guess that's why flights here leave on time.

And so continuing the wanderings... There's nothing here that stands out in particular - it's a generic point where people gather to leave from. That's by no means bad of course. Just that I wonder how people design airports? Surely they want airports to appear appealing? And somewhere you wouldn't mind spending some time? (Especially if you're stuck. Like I am now.)

But really. I think the most appealing part of just sitting here in the airport is having BBM and a book and no other distractions. ^_^ Yes I did think "damn I should've brought my laptop" but I guess having my bb with me is just as good =) *waves at friends* it reminds me of the new ads being shot in LA now... Can't wait to see them when they launch!!

Time to resume reading my book. I wonder if I'll finish this and buy Steig Larsson's 3rd installment...?

Labels: misc, thoughts

Saturday, August 14, 2010

When You Take Away More Than You Give

Hello,

So finally 436.75 hours of work and uncountable hours of fun later, I am settling in to writing this post-internship blog post. I honestly don't feel like there's anything that I disliked or thought was completely redundant to my life - every moment was something I could take something away from, and to me, what I did was insignificant compared to what could be taken away from it.

This is not to dismiss stuff I did as unimportant and insignificant - on the contrary if there's one thing I learned, it's that everything is part of a bigger whole so nothing that you do is completely insignificant.

Thinking back on this internship, I met so many wonderful people - and then I started thinking about how you are meant to meet certain individuals for a reason. And I was wondering why it was that I was assigned to such a wonderful team with so many amazing people - was it to show me how decent people can be in this industry? That American guys do grow up after college? (Hur hur...) And all the interns! Everyone was different and it added so much variety and interesting dynamics to the group as a whole. ^_^ If I met them now in life, will our paths cross again? What will meeting these people mean to me in future? And what will I mean to them?

Over the course of the internship, I've received so much thanks and gratitude even when I help out with the smallest things - it's made me realize that thanking people more often never hurts and in fact is a great motivator for the person to want to do better and help out even more. But it's not just thanking people for work done I think, I really hoped that they knew I was actually grateful for all the work they gave to me. Everything I did taught me something new. From those damned excel spreadsheets to all the running up and down to get documents printed for meetings to all the digging around the internet for research on the industry... Just a small part in the grand scheme of things but it taught me everything: from being organized and detail-oriented, to planning ahead for any meetings that are coming up and anticipating what will be needed, to utilizing all the resources available to dig out any information necessary...

And on the last day, one of the directors told me that if I do want to go back, I would definitely receive endorsement from the whole team which I was super touched by... xD (And since I'm on the topic...) They also told me that I was smart and a fast learner (I'm touched by this too since I never think I'm smart though I know that I learn fast - something I found out after working at the steakhouse...) and that they would still want to send me documents to work on... (I don't mind but really. -_-") Of course, during my evaluation session with my manager, there are areas to improve upon - such as how I should be more vocal and show more confidence (this is something I really need to work on...) and also be more proactive (which I never knew I wasn't so this definitely is something I will work on) in thinking ahead. Also, I think they didn't realize that I actually don't really like direct interaction but did comment that I love emailing over talking to someone directly which can be improved upon too... Eeps. Looks like I'll have to stop relying on IM and email! X__X

Although many of them gave me this look when they asked if I still wanted to join advertising, I think that maybe I do. I'm not sure. There are so many things out there that I've discovered while being on this internship that I feel like I want to try everything! There's still being on the client side in marketing, planning, brand management, consumer insight research, customer relationship management (which I only recently learned about!)... All I did was look at the whole list of WPP companies and I was like phwoar I want to do everything!

And that doesn't even include any Publicis or Omnicom companies... Eeps.

So what's the point of this post? Overall, I loved loved loved this internship - it only reinforced my love for the agency and its culture and most importantly, its people after the internship I did in Singapore. I learned way more than I contributed (that's not very fair to the agency I guess but... O well. I'm a sponge!) and I couldn't be more grateful for the chance to work in New York and learn more about a different culture.

All the people I met this summer, whether in my internship or not, were wonderful. And gave me renewed faith in people (obviously people in my classes need to have more going for them...) in this country. All the experiences I had, whether professionally or outside of work, were ones I wouldn't want to forget.

If you ask me now how I'm different from the start of the summer, I would say I don't know. Can anyone change that much over the course of just 3 months? But if you ask me how I've changed since my days in high school/JC, it would be a lot. And that's how experiences shape you.

This was a long rambly post that went on forever, but it did accomplish something - it proved that you cannot sum up a summer in a blog post. And I don't mind that at all. After all, can life be summed up in a book? Of course not - it has to be seen and felt to be lived.

To everyone: I can only express the greatest gratitude even though you may never read this, it's ok. I hope these feelings have somehow transferred through other means. May our paths cross again in the future and I hope we all can meet again!

cheers
*[-witchstone-]*

[music : 夏音 GLAY]
[mood : reflective]
[food : beef noodles? =X]
[grateful for : my friends, and the experiences I have had this summer]

Labels: internship, New York, thoughts

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

What Happens When You Work Late?

Hello

So today, as I stayed late in the office typing up that last email for the group project (I always hope that whatever I type is the last but inevitably, something will creep into our attention and we will be forced to find the resources to address it), the only things on my mind were: I should go home and I need dinner.

But of course, as thoughts of food entered my mind and stuck, I started thinking of other things, as my futile attempts at trying to think of a healthy dinner drew blanks everywhere. And this is when I started reflecting on my timesheet. (A weird connection I know, but my brain never really works in a succinct and logical way.) Everyday as I enter in the numbers to my timesheet, I will inevitably understate how long I've worked today and so on, everyday. It might be by half an hour or an hour but without fail, from the looks of my timesheet, I shouldn't be physically in the office so late, or so long.

But yet something in me persists in doing that. And it's really dumb because I get monetary compensation based on what I put down on that timesheet and not based on how hard I work.

So in my state of hunger and fatigue on the subway, my mind wandered over to: why is it that I seem so unwilling to be paid as much as I've worked?

Then the thought: why is it that I want to do this internship?

It's certainly not for the money - considering what I'm learning and who I can meet, I'd do it for free. It's an overly utopian statement of course, that what I want to gain from this is not money but instead I want to learn. (The money's a bonus!) I sincerely keep pestering people on my team in the hope that whatever work they give me will only lead me 2 steps closer to learning and gaining this mysterious thing called "knowledge".

It's worked so far - one of the most terrible things I had to do was transcribe an entire meeting (have you tried doing that? It takes forever and is really labor intensive - I'm sure no one will disagree) but while transcribing it, I was privy to how people in top management think (based on what they talked about). And I'm sure I already know people who can think this way but have never observed at work. So it was interesting to listen to how much these people knew, even though they only have to deal with, say strategy, they knew all the nitty gritty because without that, how would they be able to utilize the resources at hand to create said strategy? I know this is hardly news to the world but it made me realize that being at the top starts with you being at the bottom.

All those kids who complain about menial work haven't realized this obviously. It's GOOD to do menial work and be a little minion for a while. It also allows you the chance to observe people management skills in your superiors.

Another thing I've been working on is an excel spreadsheet of the strategy behind the ads. I'm really just putting in changes and making it look nice but it amazed me how much work goes into this - you'd think that a client would just say "I want this this and this in my ad" but no, there's strategic ways of targeting a product at different groups of consumers. It's fascinating!!! It makes me want to hurry and work my way up to the level where they entrust you with such things.

It's all a process of learning isn't it. You need to do all the laborious tasks first so you know how everything works before you can begin delegating jobs to other people. And because you know how all the little tasks work, you can then strategically make use of all the resources at hand. It's a very fascinating process...

How does something go from a concept or image into an entire campaign? How is a brand built from a mere idea? How can people be so convinced to buy something based on that shadow of a thought? Why am I trying to learn about this? Because it's interesting. And it interests me.

I guess that's all you really need from a job right? Interest. Hopefully. Maybe all this shows is that I haven't quite gained enough knowledge yet ;)

cheers
*[-witchstone-]*

[music : 月の明り伊田恵美]
[mood : distraught - my laptop works again! But I just bought a mac! ARGH]
[food : Kui Tiew Kua Ped!]
[grateful for : airconditioning in the office + meeting all the lovely people there~]

Labels: internship, thoughts

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