An Experience at the Workplace - Essay Example

Personal Reflection: An Experience at the Workplace My first job was as an internee in an advertising agency. The company was relatively new and it had a total workforce of 16 people. The company provided both ATL (above the line) services to its customers and BTL (below the line) also. ATL activities are those in which an agency promotes a company (its clients) by advertising on television, newspaper, radio etc. BTL activities are those in which an agency promotes a company by direct selling, sales promotions, personal selling etc. My first day at work was very strange. I had no idea what to do and who to ask. For the first time I had been in an advertising agency and I had no clue how it operated. While I was sitting in the lobby a man approached and asked me to follow him. The office was small so it hardly took 20 seconds to get to the room where other office members were sitting and planning out something. I was quickly introduced and asked to take a seat. My job for the first few days was just to observe how other members handled and went about with a project. The company had many clients and different people were assigned different projects. I was involved in a team of 5, including myself, and the team was working on an outdoor shoot. I was explained about the project and it looked very exciting. I was told that it was an ATL activity as the advertisement would be placed on a billboard once completed. It was a car photo shoot and the job was to take few pictures from a professional camera and by a professional photographer. That was the first time I came across ATL, BTL and some other basic terminologies of advertising. I showed a lot of commitment in understanding what was going on and just within 2 days I was assigned a job. My job was to communicate with the company that provided us the car for the photo shoot, the model who would be driving the car, the hair stylist and the photographer. I was given their phone numbers so that I could stay in touch with them and keep updating them on changes made on the project. I still remember how excited I was just before the night of my first shoot. I had never witnessed anything like this before and I knew it was going to be some experience (Moon, 2004). I left early for work on the day of the shoot and soon realized it was the kind of day everyone panicked and made sure they all did their part. My part was probably the easiest and just 2 hours before the shoot I started making calls just to make sure the photographer, stylist and model knew where the location was. I left with my team to the location which was a little far off from the city area. We were the first ones to arrive and at the location. My team members started discussing about the location and I actively listened. Soon the photographer reached followed by the stylist. The company that rented us the car also sent it with a driver. So almost everything was ready and we were just waiting for the model. I got the first stare after 30 minutes had gone by and there was no sign of him. I quickly called him and to my relief he said he would show up in another 15 minutes. It was not until 12 in the afternoon that he showed up. That was the first time I discovered the importance of time in this profession. Though the model did eventually turn up, he also brought another trouble with him. The company wanted a clean shaved man for the advertisement but the model had grown a French beard, within a week, since been hired by the company. A conflict arose and the model was not willing to compromise. He was not willing to trim his beard and his response was that no one told him that he could not keep a French beard. That was when I got the second stare from my team. I was feeling the unluckiest person on the face of earth that time. This was what I had studied in my management class, this was called communication breakdown. The leader of my team made a few phone calls and the company agreed to the terms of the model. I felt sad and I thought I was pathetic the way I handled and let my team down (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). I could not sleep that night and I knew I would be asked a lot of questions in office. The next day I was not too eager to go but I managed to lift myself. To my surprise, everyone from my team came and shook hands with me. They congratulated me on my first project and said I did a wonderful job. I knew I had not and they were just saying that to make me feel good. I talked to the leader of my team and told him how sorry I was but he assured me it was not my fault. He told me these kinds of mistakes were very normal and everyone, including him, makes it every now and then. He told me that the important thing was not to ponder upon the mistakes made but to learn a lesson from them and try not to repeat it again. I still remember his advice and since then I have stopped cursing myself after making mistakes that are conceived to be normal. The snap shots from the photo shoot turned out to be very good. I was explained the next step and asked by my team to do it. The next step was to take the snap shots to the creative department (a department within the office limits that edited and cropped the photos on a computer to give it the needed final touches). This way I also got to communicate with a different department. I took the snap shots, in an USB, to a person in the creative department. I sat there while he started cropping. I learnt that most of these professional editing was done on software called freehand (Moon, 2004). Soon after this project I was made to work on other projects. I was given the same team to work with. It was a very motivating and encouraging team. Though I was just an internee, they treated me very well. After six weeks my internship was over and I left the job. I must admit I learnt more than what I had expected especially during my first photo shoots (Moon, 2004). The most important thing I learned during my time in the advertising agency was to value time. Time stops work if one cannot value it. On my first outdoor shoot the model turned up one hour late and because of him the work could not start and everyone kept waiting for him. Each individual is important and should take up his responsibility. I also learned not to keep everything for the last minute for example if the shoot was to be scheduled for 12 in the afternoon then it is always advisable to call everyone by 11. Each detail is important for the event to make it successful. The company had suffered because of me when I did not properly follow up with the model. It was my duty to make sure he had a trimmed beard but I negligence caused conflict. So I learned to be careful with every single detail. I also learned that in the time of crisis, when something goes terribly wrong, one must not lose his mind and work towards a solution. It is very easy to blame things on others but it takes a lot of courage to come up with a solution. The importance of team work and coordination cannot be ignored. One has to be very active and supportive. I used to observe the solid chemistry my team members shared with each other and that is the reason why they were successful with their projects most of the time. If one used to make a mistake then the other was always available to cover up that mistake. They were so well connected to each other as if they knew what was running behind each one’s mind. Working with one another made them familiar with each other and each one knew the other ones capability. This is the best part I liked about team work. In future I would try to do the same. One thing that really touched my heart was the motivation I got after I did my first project. I thought I was hopeless but my group members put their faith in me. It lifted me up and motivated me to perform even better and pay them back for the faith they showed in me. If they would have showed their disappointment on me I would have never recovered from that failure. This teaches me to show trust on others though they may take a little time to adjust (Johnson et al., 2005). List of References Johnson, G., Scholes, K. & Whittington, R., 2005. Exploring Corporate Strategy. 7th ed. Essex: Pearson Education limited. Moon, J., 2004. A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning. 1st ed. london: RoutledgeFalmer. Trevino, L. & Nelson, K., 2011. Managing Bussiness Ethics. 5th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More