Totally excited; pumped; shocked and many other things...Part 3!

This is the 3^rd part of my story of my internship which I am completing as part of my last semester at uni. The first two parts of the overal story are “Totally excited; pumped; shocked and many other things!” & “Totally excited; pumped; shocked and many other things...Part 2!”

Woah! What a journey these past few months have been! As a part of my degree, I was required to spend one semester doing an internship as to get the “on the job experience” along with the theoretical study undertaken at uni.

Well, this internship is basically at an end. I have spent the last 3 months as a marketing intern and have learned so much about a whole range of things.  My marketing knowledge have expanded through the  practical experience that I have gained.

At the beginning of the internship, I had some self doubt around my abilities and was very cautious as to not make an “idiot of myself” or not to stuff up.  But, it wasn’t long until I realised I wasn’t going to really stuff up.  It was expected of me (only being an intern and student) that I was going to make mistakes, but the key thing is, that I learned from those mistakes.  I was told that they “don’t care how many mistakes I make, as long as those mistakes are followed by key learnings about what I was doing.  It was fine for me to make mistakes but afterwards I would learn about what to do or, more to the point, what not to do!

This process made me realise how much potential I do have.  With the risk of sounding like I have a massive ego (which I don’t),  I noticed how many things I could do without too much guidance and without too many explanations.  I managed to produce call centre briefs just by looking over the production notes and creative on the database and very few campaigns required me to have the campaign explained to me by my supervisor.
I also came to the conclusion I can talk alot! Given the opportunity, I can talk on a wide variety of subject areas without too much prior planning and without too many nerves.  Talking seems to come naturally (have you noticed?? LOL) and once I start...I keep going...and going...and going!!

From a marketing perspective, being given a hands on opportunity to actually try the job has made me realise that this IS what I want to do in my career right now.  This may change in the future, but this is what makes me happy right now.  I have seen how real organisations put their marketing efforts into perspective and learned how different aspects of marketing works in the “real world” rather than purely in a university classroom.

All in all, this internship has been so beneficial for me and I have seriously enjoyed every minute of it!! Lots of lessons learned, lots of laughs, lots of AMAZING people and lots of great experiences.

To all of you who have supported me through this, I thank you! Whether it be supportive tweets, emails or physical conversations, they have all been muchly appreciated and I am so lucky to have so many people supporting my choices.  All your support has been equally important and it has helped me through the past 12 weeks, especially at those times of self doubt.  Thank you!

This post is especially dedicated to two people who, although aren’t here in the physical world anymore, would have been right by my side all the way through this and would have supported, hugged and cheered me on everystep of the way.  Grandy; Hamish...thank you! I love you both!!

As usual, thanks for reading.  It means the world!! xx

Me and the Twitterverse

Twitter has changed me. Well, I haven't actually changed, I'm still Nat, and I'm still the same Nat I have always been. But, the Twitterverse (I love that word!!) is full of a bunch of truely amazing people who I can interact and engage with right from the comfort of my bed, or when I'm bored stiff on the train on the way to work.

There's a few who are locals around my area and we laugh at the happenings in the city, a few bloggers I enjoy hearing from, a few celebs I follow for the goss and "inside info" and then, there's a group who are known as Teamthyroid.  They are awesome!!  I would never have thought that Twitter could such a HUGE source of knowledge sharing and support.  We come from all sides of the globe...USA, all through Europe and of course, Australia.

Teamthyroid is probably what keeps me sane sometimes!! Those guys and girls are some of the most amazing people anyone could come across.  Although we don't know each other in "real life" the connection we make on Twitter and the understanding we have for each other is invaluable.

Twitter has provided me with understanding, friendship, support, many laughs and just a few tears.  Sometimes the tears have been because of the laughter (for instance, there's a conversation I regularly have invoving toilets) Now you see why I cry with laughter??  The Twitter folk are crazy! But I never take myself too seriously so I don't expect my Twitter friends to either!

You can see, whenever I need a laugh, there is surely gunna be someone in my Twitter stream able to lift whatever mood I'm in...and again, I refer to the toilet conversation! Just to clarify though, this toilet chat usually refers to the difference when you flush the toilet in the Northern Hemisphere as opposed to here in the Southern Hemisphere.  If you're unaware of the difference...it flushes the opposite way!!  Simple? Yes, most definitely!  Funny? Well, we seem to always get amusement from it!!  Life is, afterall, about the small things!!

So, see lovely blog people, my point is, one little Tweet can make big change in someone's day.  No names have been mentioned, but, you all know exactly who you are.
Teamthyroid...thank you!!  I couldn't do this without you all!!
The lovely Tweeter with whom I discuss toilets...Thank you too!! Your support and understanding is such a help!! Your tweet inspired this...it's all your doing!!
Everyone else...Thanks for the great tweets! You are all amazing!! :)