When interviewing for this internship, I was forced to think objectively about my strengths and weaknesses, how I work on a team and individually, and how self-motivated I can be to finish long-term projects with a somewhat flexible deadline. My first day at the office I learned a few very useful tasks for site development in WordPress and some basic HTML. This process of being thrown into tasks and having to learn what might be an unfamiliar skill set is commonplace in our office. I have learned how to use Siteimprove, how to audit web content on the University’s website, how to transfer content from an old website to a new one, and many other things during this internship.
One of the most enjoyable things about this internship for me is the process of doing actual content editing. As an English major, I will always get the most pleasure out of editing and writing content, and it is nice to have the challenge of taking certain content and making it accessible to anyone who may be using our website. I also enjoyed becoming more familiar with WordPress and learning some basics about HTML and CSS. One of the less enjoyable tasks was when we were building the new campus directory and had to call offices to confirm numbers and do what was basically data entry for the employees and offices. One task that proved/continues to prove to be frustrating is that of doing site/department site audits. Some of the development on the University website is difficult to navigate, there are pages that are almost hidden within the navigation, and that some content is unclear or inaccessible to a general audience. One surprising thing about our office was how much I actually enjoyed team tasks. Often in a classroom setting the workload becomes extremely unbalanced (sometimes unintentionally) or the working chemistry in a group just is not present. This was never the case when working with the other interns or the other people in the office. I always felt that the work was (as much as possible) evenly distributed and that we worked well together.
I feel that this internship has been extremely beneficial for me. I feel better prepared to enter the workplace, more confident in my ability to self-teach certain skills or to learn online tasks more quickly, and I learned to enjoy working in a team. Our office always provided a safe and pleasant environment in which to work. I greatly enjoyed my time with the Digital Communications office and the University Relations team and feel that I would now be qualified for an entry level job within in the technical editing field.