Dear Alicia and Ryan

This internship was not our first time meeting and definitely won't be our last. I've known both of you  since my early teens and haven't been truly able to appreciate our relationship.

You both have moved from my coaches, to my employers, to my mentors to my friends. I know the both of you well enough to understand that sappy letters are not your thing- so I'll keep it short.

I have learned more from the both of you on how to handle difficult clients, coworkers, employees, and bosses. I've also learned how to appreciate clients, coworkers, employees, and bosses. The days that I also assumed would be the longest and worst always seemed to turn in to the best days with inside jokes, memorable moments, and laughter. 

I have picked up on how to be a great manager and an even better leader because of you two along with how to enjoy the little things and the occasional long lunch.

Thank you,
Alison

Then and Now

The thing about my internship is that it's been going on a lot longer than just five months. I've been working for the cit for about three years now, and this internship is only just a small window to the time I've served for the City of Tempe.
However, at the start of this internship I was handed several new and very important responsibilities in order to keep my job but use it as an internship. My boss had to pull a few strings within our company in order for me to meet my requirements to pull this off as an internship for the school to accept it. In the end, I was given some pretty brutal grunt work and office work. 
A lot of it was physical. Lifting, refilling, storing, dragging, repairing,  and finding equipment, gas, boxes, boats, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and coolers filled to the brim with ice has been my life for the last five months. It's been pretty rough. I've definitely gotten some serious muscle mass due to this job. Luckily the internship started in the winter so the outside work wasn't that bad until recently. When the heat starts to pick up, work seems to drag on outside and becomes harder just because the sun seems to make everything heavier.

The office work I was suppose to pick up started out well, but soon got difficult because I wasn't in the office often enough to be consistent with my work. Projects that were supposed to last a day or two turned in to a few weeks. In the beginning I was supposed to work a lot with filing rack fees, registration dues, and making sure everyone was properly registered with classes and events before they occurred. In the end, I worked mostly with making sure people renewed their storage fees, emailed out participants with event information, cleaned up the office and help maintain the online website and social media pages.

I think it was a good semester. There was definitely a few long weekends because a special event was going on on the lake that I needed to work or the event needed to be set up. But in the end I learned more than I ever could have imagined just by working close with my bosses and working close with participants and other board committees that put on special events that happened on the lake. Experience is definitely the best tool for me. Learning first hand helps me understand what I'm doing wrong vs. what is right.

Resume Writing- Career Service 2

For my second Career Service Write-up I chose to attend a resume writing session that the career service had put on at the Tempe Campus.

The reason why I decided to go to this was because I was down about the lack of interest I got from people when I was applying to summer internships (see previous post). I felt like my resume was underwhelming and that's why employers showed no interest in my for their positions. So I attended the resume writing session with high hopes.

The class was short and pretty much to the point. They had a lot of helpers, ensuring that everyone got attention and were able to see each resume. I worked with a grad student named Quin on my resume. He said that I had a lot of really good work experience and the fact that I had been committed to all the jobs I have held (working there for 6+ months) shows a lot to future employers. Quin also pointed out that the level of responsibility I have had at those jobs is also very impressive and will get someone's attention eventually.

He did notice one glaring issue though. In my resume I used very mundane wording. A lot of "very," "exciting," "hardworking," and "smart," - generalized words. Quin gave me a sheet of paper with a list of replacement words that are more descriptive and aggressive than the words I had chosen to use.
I found this extremely helpful and he didn't make me feel bad about the original resume- just that it could be better.

I feel like that style of teaching is always best and encouraging. We rewrote my resume there during the session and it did seem more descriptive then the original. Hopefully now I can start getting more attention when applying to jobs after I graduate.  I think I'll also go to classes that ASU offers on interviewing and professional conversation...so that if I do get an interview, I know what to say. 

Driving the City Car

Driving the city truck is so much fun.

I can go over all the side walks, take short cuts through parks, not have to worry about the gas tank, or where I parked it. The only down side to driving a city vehicle is that you're not allowed to touch your phone- period.

You're not allowed to look at it while you're driving (obviously), but you're not allowed to check it at stop lights or call and keep it on speaker- nothing.

I understand it, because obviously if you get in a wreck using a city vehicle because you were being a negligent driver then you are in some serious trouble and will probably be fired. But, today, I was driving and my phone literally would not stop vibrating for ten minutes because I was receiving so many text messages.

The group chat was not that exciting and once I was able to check it, I kind of got annoyed with it, BUT- the suspense of not knowing what was going on while I was driving was unbearable.

Internships

So, even though the job I currently have counts as an internship for school...it's been my job for the last two and a half years, I've just been getting more responsibilities as the semesters have come and gone which is why my job was accepted as my internship.

I started out as an assistant coach, to head coach, to boating assistant, to border line assistant boating coordinator (been learning skills/doing heavy shadowing during work). For two years, I've worked at the lake. For 8 years, I've participated in programs and classes on the lake (I started rowing for Tempe Town Lake when I was 12). So you can imagine how trapped I feel sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I love the people I work with. I love the opportunities they give me and the memories I've made with them and the memories that I have yet to make with them. But I'm getting tired of Tempe. Most of my friends went to out of state colleges, or at least ones that allowed them to be more then an hour and a half from home. I've seen countless people come and go from the lake and yet I remain.

I applied to a couple internships that I posted about earlier, and did not get any of them. One did call me back, but I soon found out that it was not what I originally thought it was and I had to turn it down. I guess I'm just upset that I'm still waiting for my turn to leave. Now that I didn't get an internship over the summer that would allow me to leave for a couple months during the off season I have to wait a little longer until I graduate.

I graduate in December, and my parents want me to go straight in to my Masters but I don't think I will. I'd rather wait a semester and see if I can apply to a university in another state. My boyfriend graduates next May, and I plan on seeing where he ends up before I make any head strong decisions. If we both get jobs that we are very passionate about we have already agreed that we will go our separate ways... but in the mean time we'll see if either of us gets a job and if one of us a job than the other will follow.

I don't want to do my masters because then i'm stuck here for another year and a half and have the possibility of having my boyfriend, yet another person, leave the lake before me...and that just upsets me.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The department I work with is small. There is only three of us (Ryan, Alicia, and myself) so I feel like there isn't much weakness in our department because the three of us communicate so well and get along.

 Ryan and Alicia are in charge of other employees too. We have a decent sized coaching staff on hand that help run the programs and classes that are put on in our facility. I believe that our biggest strength in our department is the pyramid of authority that we have. There is definite structure, and everyone has someone to look up to in a time of need.

 The coaching staff does the bulk of the grunt work. We coach, teach, handle the equipment and make sure everything is tidy after a session. If something goes wrong or we need assistance we look to Ryan, who handles both facility and office duties. He creates the work schedule and makes sure that everything is covered. If something goes wrong during a class, he would be the one to call. If Ryan needs help with creating a class, ordering new equipment, or scheduling with a large event, he would go to Alicia. Alicia is in charge of everything under the sun on Tempe Town Lake and when she needs help, she usually asks for everyone's input (coaching staff & Ryan) and ideas before she asks her boss. There is a strong line of open communication, and I think that makes our department strong. Everyone is happy working there because they know that if there is an issue they can tell someone about it and be heard - not over looked.

If I were to be in charge of my own department I would try very hard to carry that line of communication over with me. I feel like having an effective line of communication leads to employees feeling safe, understood, and heard. Being a good leader or boss is making sure you give each employee a division of your time so that they feel important. Alicia and Ryan do that, and I would like to do that too. We're not so much coworkers as we are friends. We go to each others parties, celebrate birthdays, hang out and get drinks together- we're all very familiar with one another and it makes the working environment easy, relaxed and friendly.

If I had to start doing something new if I was in charge of a department, I might try to have just a little bit larger of a coaching staff. Maybe hire on people for the specific purpose of having them to do our not-so-consistent programs and one-day classes. I feel like sometimes small one-day classes are planned and then forgotten about until the last moment because they're so small and out of the ordinary that staff is left to the last minute and usually falls on me or one of the other key staff members...It's never anything hard, and only usually takes two hours to do, but the spontaneous act of having to work kind of throws off a day.

Sportsmanship

One thing that I like about working for the City of Tempe and coaching high school athletes is the fact that everything has to be done together.

The lake wouldn't be able to function, if only one person was in charge of everything. The Team wouldn't be able to work if there was no coach, and the boats wouldn't be able to move if everyone did not agree to work together. 

It's a lot of teamwork, delegating, and sportsmanship. Even if you don't like someone you're working with, or rowing with, you have to get along with them for the sake of the "big picture." It's definitely one of those life lessons where the point that the world does not start and end with you, is very evident.

I like working in that type of environment. Things go more smoothly when there are multiple people working together, instead of one person trying to do it all.