Jamie Heberling, currently on a post-graduate internship with NBC's "Today" show, will file journal entries as her time in New York progresses. Watch for forthcoming "Jamie's Journal" entries on Ohio University's "Today at Ohio" Web page.
When I arrived at Studio 1A at 5 a.m. last Thursday, I wanted a clipboard to look official -- and five minutes to chug a few cups of coffee! Neither happened. I was whisked off to find a box of pens so the live cast of Nickelodeon's "Dora the Explorer" could sign their tax forms and liability contracts.
But the pens weren't in the supply closet like one would suppose. Eventually, I found them behind the main desk at "Today," tucked into a little cubby designed to prevent hoarders from gathering bundles for multiple desk mugs and drawer trays.
Already more than a month into my internship, the basics are finally becoming clear. Little tasks such as finding a box of pens or the correct elevator lobby to the first floor aren't as time consuming. But until recently, I haven't had time to worry about the network I hoped to establish through this experience.
Rather, I've been busy dubbing and scanning tapes, choosing music for segments, staffing the green room, sitting in editing rooms and taking random trips to the drug store for our "Today" guests.
Now that I'm nearing the end of my initiation period where just finding the bathroom is a struggle, it's important that I meet all the right people who could potentially help me out down the road. In part, that's what internships are about -- compiling your colleagues' business cards just in case you need them, establishing face contact with some of the brightest minds in the business and garnering enough trust with them that they'll vouch for you when a potential employer calls.
Most internships only last 10 to 12 weeks, hardly enough time to learn where the outgoing mail is deposited, let alone develop mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationships with your supervisors. I'm left searching for a fast track to meeting and developing relationships with everyone around the office.
However, I've found that unless you're on NBC's new reality show, "The Apprentice," getting to the top is a gradual process and developing a network is a lifelong pursuit dependent on the way you perform every task, dress or speak to your supervisor.
As many Ohio University students embark on their own internships this summer, I have one piece of advice -- no matter the task, work like you want the job every single day. Doing a great job at the early trivial tasks says a lot about the type of person you are.
Show your supervisors that you can put the holes on the correct side of the paper. And, if you succeed at that, you'll move up to stapling, then writing, then editing. Just think, someday, just because of those holes, you could find yourself in a mahogany-wooded, floor-to-ceiling windowed corner office with an ergonomic leather chair!
"Baby steps," I tell myself. It's all sequential in the path to success. See the desk. Look out the windows. Say to yourself as you move up the ladder, "I can do their job." And maybe, when the fast track comes, we'll be the ones wishing there was some hole punching to be done.
Just enjoy the little tasks for a while and put your whole heart into the bigger ones. The rewards will come. By following simple directions, I already landed the president of NBC's tickets to a Yankees game last week. If that's not promise, I don't know what is!
Jamie Heberling, BSJ '03, was a writer for University Communications and Marketing
