Internship Journal - Personal Statement Example

Personal Internship Journal Background I am performing my internship duties at a high rise condominium building. The job duties I have had are to assist a Manager in the building. Assisting them by helping with the daily routines in the office which include; preparing the leasing contracts, the preparation of the monthly budget, paying the monthly bills, filling all necessary and important documents, coordinating any maintenance requests as they occur. Also, helping out with the training of building operations staff and so on. The basis of the job tasks for this internship have been clerical in nature. With that respect, what has been expected as part of doing the job has not been very challenging. The reason behind my choosing to do an internship, is so that I would be able to earn credit through the program that I am in. Credit that would be awarded to me after the successful completion of my duties for the internship and whatever report that would come back to the leaders of my program from my Supervisor at the condominium. Expectation(s) My expectations were to learn about the administrative and managerial skills that come with working in the real estate industry. I hoped to gain some knowledge of daily operations of the building system, property management, as well as the implementation of the budget. I also hoped to improve my communication skills with coworkers in different levels. In addition, I hoped to be able to adapt myself to a multicultural environment. This would have been the first experience for me to be fully involved with not just the language, but also the English culture outside of my personal home. While it was my hope to improve my skills in English and understand the multicultural aspects of the business world, I chose to have my internship be at a site that would offer a vastly different level of learning that had been different in comparison to anything I had ever done before. Week One: Description of the company and my specific job description. What were my expectations moving forward Answer: Answer: I work for xxxx. My position is to be an assistant to operations manager. Most of my job duties are clerical. My expectations are to learn about administrative and managerial skills that come with working in the real estate industry. I hope I can gain some knowledge of the daily operations of the building system, property management, and budget implementation. Also, I hope to improve my communication skills with coworkers in different levels. In addition, I hope I can adapt myself to a multicultural environment. This is the first time with the culture and language directly in English outside of school ad home. While it can be quite an experience to be in a different environment than one I had been personally used to, it was my desire to step outside of my personal boundaries and experiences things which, had it not been for choosing an internship, I would not have known or experienced before. By deciding to pursue my education, I wanted to have the opportunity to learn as much as I can about as many things as I can. To be exposed to a wide variety of events that can be a great learning experience in their own right. Week Two: How is it working with your co-workers Did you have all the skills you needed when you arrived day one.. or are there skills you still need to learn to succeed in your position Answer: All of the co- workers are very helpful and knowledgeable of their job duties. I have the skills to do this job. On the first day of work, I have assisted my manager on writing leasing contracts and making spreadsheets of monthly bills. I also handled calls regarding maintenance and building improvement. My duties are not very challenging because I have done this type of work in my previous job. However, I still have skills which I need to improve on, such as my communication skill in English language. Another skill I feel I need to improve on is to deal with multi-cultural environment. This is the first time I deal with the culture and language directly in English outside of school ad home. Being that all of my co-workers were very helpful and knowledgeable of their respective duties, I found that quite beneficial to the greater goal. That goal being the successful completion of tasks that needed to be done in order to correctly and responsibly run the day-to-day operations of the high rise building that we were all working at. I enjoy working with other people and found it quite interesting to work with people that were very helpful and seemed to know everything that they needed to do in order to do the jobs which they were required to do. The kind of behavior that would be a great motivator for wanting to learn as much as I can, from as many people as I can. So that I would be able to be as knowledgeable as they were. Week Three: Have you had any stressful days at your internship Answer: Answer: I have not had any stressful days yet at my internship, as much of the work is clerical and routine that I have confidence that I can get it done within the day. There are many things really stressful come indirectly by the internship. The intern consumes about 5 to 6 hours of my day including traveling to work. This leaves me limited time for my other classes. I'm taking along with the assignments to this class. I have deadlines and test every other day from other classes, the urgency to study and work on important assignment can create unwanted pressure and stress and I am still trying to perform well. Balancing the time with internship, other classes, family and my own need is stressful at this time. It is important to me, as well as very satisfying, that as of the present time I had not had any stressful days and maintained a sense of confidence as it came to keeping up with the tasks which I had to do in order to complete my internship. With 5-6 hours a day being dedicated to my internship, including transportation time, on a weekly basis that would be a time dedication of 25-30 hours a week, which is 10 hours shorter than what Americans consider to be full-time employment. As a student, with my other obligations, the amount of time dedicated to the internship gave me a restricted amount of time to dedicate to my other class obligations. Like many people, the constant balancing of time between my internship duties, other school responsibilities, as well as being able to spend time with both friends and family, has been something that I have had to constantly maintain a level of balance in, which has been stressful in trying to have everything be as equal as possible. I gave my supervisor an interview this week on time-management. For him, the keys to time-management are setting up priority and organizing them to meet deadlines. Most importantly, he follows the routine and does not allow for extra activities unless really needed. He tries to make best use of his time. Making the best use of time is something that is very important in anything that is done. Whether it is family/friends, school, or an internship, time management is something that many people, including myself, have had to become even better at than I have been before. In the end, I would have to come to realize that the level of stress in trying to budget my time would pay of in the end. Paying off to where I would be able to have the kind of education and experiences that would greatly shape the rest of my life and what I wanted to get out of my life in order to achieve the many goals I had and still have for myself as an individual. The sense that being able to budget time and keep track of tasks is the best way to get as much done as possible and hopefully lower the stress at the same time. Week Four Answer: With many states having low real estate sales, it can be quite slow for many real estate offices. By being in an office that is in the real estate industry, I have seen the level of slowness of the outside industry, but in more indirect ways. A slow business time means less paperwork, less phone calls and overall less tasks to be completed. There would still be paperwork to be done, but the amount of paperwork would vary when it came to how busy the office was all together. Week Five Answer: Answer: During this week of my internship, Halloween happened to come up on the calendar. Like other holidays, Halloween is one that many like to celebrate, including decorating homes and offices. The highlight for me this week was the chance to decorate a room in the office for a Halloween party. Even though it was just decorating a room, it was a nice change from what I do normally. The chance to take a slower pace to the usually busier level of acting that I am and to be able to do something as fun as be creative and decorate a room for a holiday that is fun and has lots of candy and interesting costumes. As a busy student, the chance to do something as relaxing as decorate, was a nice break. This was a nice break for me since I had two exams this week. With the two exams I had, my responsibilities at work, as well as other classes, I was feeling quite stressed. I was feeling tested in regards to how best I would be able to manage my time in order to do as well as I wanted to on these exams since they were very important and also not fall behind on either my other school work, as well as maintaining my job duties at my internship site. Week Six: What ethical issues have you observed in your workplace this semester Is it something that could have happened anywhere or it is unique to your job or industry Answer: I interviewed my boss this week on ethic issue which happens often in this industry. The ethical issue I have observed in my workplace is taking gifts from contractors and vendors. During holidays, contractors and vendors bring a lot of gifts to visit us. Usually gifts submitted are not just to celebrate the holiday but also gain favor over to next year when contracts are up for bid and negotiation. Vendors and contractors want my manager to remember who they are, thus they can obtain or retain business with my company. But my manager refused to accept any gifts from them. I consider offering gift in order to gain an advantage as bribery. From my point of view, bribery could have happened in any industry due to intense competitions. People hope to get some favors by offering bribes to their business partner and influence their partner's decision making. Unfortunately, like my boss told me, there is a issue involving the taking of gifts from both contractors, as well as vendors. By doing so, the behaviors on the part of those who chose to take the gifts in the first place, can be greatly impacted in a negative way, as a way to benefit the needs and desires of the contractors and vendors. Two groups that, by wanting to move forward their own personal agendas in regards to their work, decided to do so by offering pleasing gifts to those people that they thought they could bring to their side of whatever the issue(s) were. In a more pleasant case, gifts to be given are generally considered as a way to celebrate a holiday, or birthday that is coming near. These gifts, to have been given by the vendors and contractors, would not be as positive but a way to gain preference when the time game the following year for contracts to come up for bidding and also negotiation. What I have learned from my internship is that to do such things is not only wrong, but also unethical and not fair to the others that want to do things the right way and responsibly. Week Seven Answer: Answer: Internships are very beneficial for people that want to learn more. Even if they are paid, or unpaid, they can give people the chance to build work experience that can help them get better jobs when they are through. The goal of being in school is to get an education and increase the chances of having a career that would be fulfilling and personally enjoyable. Employers greatly consider previous work experience, including internships, so I feel quite confident that my internship will be very beneficial for the things that I want to do with the rest of my life. Week Eight Answer: Answer: My boss blamed me because he thought I lost a file. In fact, it was in his drawer. He was so subjective on this issue. Like anyone else, to have my boss blame me for something was not the best experience in the world for me to have. Especially since I was well aware that the file which he was blaming me for, was actually in his drawer the whole time. Through the behavior that he showed me, he was more subjective in the way he acted throughout. Subjective, being that he failed to see that there would be some blame on his part for the 'missing' file and to not realize the possibility that the file would not have been lost by me, but rather would have been in his desk drawer the whole time and in that case, would have not been my fault but actually his. Week Nine Answer: Answer: I have not been busy this week being that it is Thanksgiving. Many of my colleagues are leaving during this time to enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday break. At this time of year, many people decide to go home to their families to celebrate the holidays. This is especially busy being that Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, are big holidays for many people who wish to travel away from their homes and jobs. Many companies, including my own, tend to not be as busy during this time in comparison to the day-to-day things that come up in our office during the rest of the year. With the fact that I have had up until this point, a large amount of things to try and juggle and keep up with, the time off for my co-workers and the slower schedule which I had, came as a great relief to me. The slow nature of the schedule would leave more time for me to keep up with the other things that I have to do for school, as well as my friends and family. Week Ten Answer: Answer: My work duties have been as they have been before. On a lighter note, my boss took me out to lunch this week. We went to a nice Spanish restaurant. As a student intern, the fact that my boss chose to take me to lunch, especially to a nice restaurant such as we did, was something that left a considerable impact on me. The idea that they would take the time to treat me in such a manner, was something that I felt to be incredibly kind of them and going beyond the usual behavior of other people in internship environments. Some bosses do not have the time to do things as nice as mine did, so I have kept in mind how kind of an act this way for them to do. By being taken out to lunch, I felt that this was a way for my boss to reward me for something they thought I had done well as part of my internship responsibilities. A reward that I will remember. Read More