Opportunities Arise From Relationships by Ellen Dodor

Since I’ve started interning in radio, it always amazes me how many people think it’s a mysterious world or that an internship is unattainable. I have to say getting an internship at this station was really easy. All you needed was to show that you have a personality and be able to show it. The hardest part about having this internship is earning your time, on-air and off. I remember first starting and having a limited number of days in the studio and most of them I would spend sitting in the studio just listening and observing. I really missed answering calls and feeling like I could participate. I remember thinking that if I wanted to answer phones and be a part of the show I had to stand out and do one heck of a job the one day I got to be on-air.

Most people can say they’ve had a similar situation in a job but when you wake up at 4:30am to just sit around, it’s a pretty smart way for the boss to sort through those who want to be there and those who are just there to say they were an “intern”. Going into this spring semester I knew my time at the station would be coming to an end, so when I emailed my boss I told him that I wanted 3 days a week, on-air, being the stupid intern making sarcastic remarks. What I didn’t realize during that time when I was sitting in that room was that I was developing relationships with these people. I was learning stuff about their families and other things that not even the most dedicated listener would know. I remember yearning for a paid position with the station, talking about it every day and hinting at topics to discuss.

But this past fall it finally hit me that the morning show is where I am supposed to be. They don’t want to lose me to some weekend show, they are giving me the opportunity to be on air in front of thousands of people and the morning show is prime time in radio. I was telling my parents how cool it is to feel needed and valuable to a radio show and a successful company that doesn’t even pay me! It’s weird but I love getting up to work on the show, and I love it when my peers ask me questions about it.

It just goes to show that when you are working in an intern position, paid or unpaid, that you keep focus and show them how much your work means to you. Once your employer or boss sees that you care about what you do, even the most tedious of jobs and take ownership in them, they want to keep you around. They see you as valuable to their work and don’t want you to leave. Now as I enter my last month of answering calls I can tell they’re going to miss me, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t going to miss the morning show and the people I got to work with. It will be a bitter sweet month for me, reminiscing and having to train in the new interns it won’t be the same.

Moral of this blog post: Care about what you do at your internship and care about the people you work with. They will help to shape you as a professional in ways you can’t even predict, and make you a better person because of it.

Jasmine Lee Blog 3

So now that I pulled resumes for the career fair, and my employer had gotten the half-hour interview slots filled during the fair, it was time to attend of few and see what it’s like on the other side – from the employer’s perspective. I was so excited to go to a career fair and not be the nervous student stumbling around talking to employers like I was a semester earlier. It was great being on the other side and seeing it all from a whole new angle. I watched as students nervously and cautiously passed by and as others confidently stepped up to talk to us and sell themselves and their skills.

Recruiting requires a large range of skills. The biggest is selling, especially at career fairs when you’re competing with numerous companies and others very similar to you. You have to really sell your company and your people, and when you’re in the financial industry, that can be tough since many students don’t fully understand it. Heck, I still don’t completely understand it.  The recruiters have had so much experience talking the company up though, that they have all their stories and experiences down and are fantastic at selling the company. It was amazing seeing them in action and talking to students. I only hope I can be as great at communicating as effectively as they can. 

This was a wonderful experience to hear more about the company’s positions and see how the recruiters communicated with students. It’s true when they say good communication is key, both on the recruiting side and the job seeking side. It’s incredible how some students stood out in comparison to others – and it was largely due to their excellent communication skills. So if I have any advice to give, it would be to brush up on those skills, no matter how proficient they already might be.

During one of the fairs that week, I got to sit in on some interviews and see how that process goes. It was interesting seeing how they structure them and how they make candidates feel comfortable as to not stress them out even more. However, it is just as stressful for the employers as it is students when they’re searching for the perfect fit. There is a whole lot more that goes into the recruiting process than it seems. This next week, I’ll get to sit in on some interviews at SCSU and see more of their process. Stay tuned for what that’s like!

 

Jessica Nietfeld Week 3

         Other than updating blogs, meeting with students about internships, and calling for sponsors for an event coming up in March, I have been really busy. 

        One of the challenges I have found is juggling my schedule between part-time work, full time classes, volunteering, and last but not least, fulfilling my internship hours.  By the end of this semester I will be considered an expert with time management.  Luckily I have picked an internship that is best for me since it is flexible with time as long as I complete the hours required each week.  One of the things I advise students to do when looking for an internship is find one that benefits them as well as the other way around.  I learned this philosophy from my supervisor, she believes students need to get the best out of an internship experience and shouldn't just settle for anyone that they can get.  Now that I have experience, I completely agree.

        Staying focus at an internship is a difficult task, especially when students have so much going on.  That is why having an interest in your internship position and the community you work with makes , it makes focusing that much easier.  Working with students is one of my favorite parts about the job because rather than me always helping them, they are always helping me in return.  Each question students have are different and if I don't know the answer I find it.  Hence, the students teach me something new every time just by the questions they ask!  When helping others I help myself.  I am so lucky I get to experience Internship Development while I myself am an intern.

       I am still trying to contact various businesses to donate/sponsor gifts for an event coming up very soon. One of the things about this duty is that I need to start way ahead of time in order to be considerate of other businesses and their deadlines.  Some businesses have donation deadlines, this is something I just learned.  One organization needed to know at least two months prior to the event date.  This information is vital because it eliminates a lot of sponsors from the list. 

         Procrastination is something I am getting better at the more I keep checklists around!  Thank god for the Stickie app and Post-Its

Stay posted....

Ellen Dodor Week 3

I don’t have the ordinary internship. I am lucky enough to not only work in radio but to speak on air to thousands of listeners in central Minnesota. I feel lucky to be w0rking at this station because I know that there are students out there just like me who would love the opportunity I have.

I am currently studying public relations in school and it seems weird that I have a radio broadcast internship, but I really do love what I do! I was recently at a networking event in the twin cities when a woman asked me if I wanted to get into radio. I replied that I would like to but I don’t know if I would be good at it as a career. I’ve made a good intern and I enjoy what I do, it’s just thinking about whether I am that passionate enough to pursue things further.

Radio for me is fun. By fun I mean I don’t know if I trust myself enough to have that much fun and have it be a career. The last time I enjoyed something so much was when I was working at a waterpark as a lifeguard. I’ve never been in a position or have been told that I could enjoy something so much and take it seriously.

I enjoy myself every morning I take song requests and line up the first four callers to win prizes, but what I wonder is can I enjoy something so much and it also be my career? I know that is something we all strive for but I get this feeling like it’s too good to be true. I feel like I shouldn’t be having this much fun at a place that isn’t even paying me to be there. I don’t know if this is normal but I guess it’s all a part of the adventure of figuring out what to do with your life.

For now I’ll keep taking your song requests and doing my best to stay funny and to keep you laughing during your morning commute!

Meghan Reistad Week 3

What a week! Since my last time writing a blog post, I filmed, edited and published a video about the talent who host the country morning show at my internship location. I am so excited to unveil the final project online! Overall, the experience taught me how to use brand new equipment, learn about a different video editing system and get to know a few of the employees at my internship.

            I began by learning how to use the new video equipment. To be honest, a lot of the process was trial and error. Once I had all of my equipment set up, I had to find the best way to use utilize my filming space. The studio was extremely small so I had to make the best out of a tough situation. I managed to get a few interesting shots by getting up-close and filming the microphone and headphones in the studio.

            The best part to filming the video was working with the radio hosts. They were excited to create the video and use a new form of media to connect with their fans. I arrived with an idea of what I wanted the video to be about, but my plans soon changed after arriving to film. The two hosts had great ideas and we ended up creating a fun and entertaining video that really showcased their personalities.

            After I finished filming the video, I began editing. This was definitely another trial and error process. I began by selecting clips from the footage that I wanted to use. Once I had my specific clips selected, I added in music behind the footage and used transitions to bring the video together. The finished product was better than I expected, thanks to the creativity of the talent I was featuring. All of our ideas, combined in a collaborative effort, helped to make the video entertaining.

The most difficult aspects to creating the feature video was not learning to use the equipment, but making a project with few specifications. Typically, I like specific directions when taking on a task. With this project, however, I was basically only given time constraints and a general idea of what was expected. In the end though, I believe the lack of direction was beneficial to the outcome of my video. We were able to be extremely creative without worrying about specifics.

In the next few weeks, I will be working on a few more videos for the country station to complete a series featuring all of the talent. My goal for the rest of my internship is to continue working with the video and editing equipment. All of the mistakes I make now will only help polish my skills for my future career. I’m doing my best to make the most out of my internship in the last half of the semester. Wow, time is flying by!   

Week 2 of Jacob Byrnes

The first week of my internship, I was overwhelmed with the amount of activity and information I was expected to process.  My week of training merely scratched the surface.  No amount of training could have prepared me for the hectic environment that I would soon be in.  It wouldn’t be long before I was comfortable with being uncomfortable.  In fact, my first task on my first day was to take a complete stranger home.  I was thrown a set of keys, and told Carol would need a ride home; as she had just returned her rental.  I am relatively talkative, and so was Carol, so the task wasn’t as daunting as I initially thought.  It was this car ride that reminded me why I wanted the internship in the first place.  I wanted to be able to connect with people, and this internship allowed me the platform to do that.  When I got back to the office there was a steady stream of customers, and the phones continued to ring off the hook.  There was no time to discuss my next task.  I immediately felt like a contributing member of the team, as I hopped on the phone and made my first reservation.  Though it took me a while to get through all the relevant information I needed to, it felt good to alleviate at least some of the stress a ringing phone brought to the office. 

Everyone from the car preps to my branch manager played a vital role in the rental process.  As a Management Trainee Intern, my primary responsibility was focused on assisting customers in all phases of the rental process.  However, in order to try and provide the best service possible, roles changed frequently.  If one of my colleagues were assisting a customer, I would help clean cars so that the customer could get in and out as fast as possible.  If I needed to verify an insurance policy for a customer, I could count on another employee verifying a personal reference if they had a free minute.  I was blown away by the attention being given to individual customers with so much other noise and activity going on in and around the office.  I was always under the assumption that multitasking took away your ability to perform at a high level on a specific task. That assumption was quickly put to rest.

I would agree that the summer brought a good majority of the customers into our office, as it is prime time for vacations.  However, it was made crystal clear why customers continued to come back.  Customer service is literally the most important element in this position.  Everyone in the office goes above and beyond for each customer whether they are in front of us, or on the phone a thousand miles away.  I had experience in customer service, which played a big role in my landing the internship initially.  My past experience was nothing compared to what was expected of employees at my internship.  Exceeding customer expectations was expected of every interaction. 

Week 2 of Jasmine Lee's Blog

Even though I’m not doing much this semester for my internship yet, it’s still providing valuable experiences and I’m having a lot of fun with it! I enjoy doing hands-on activities and even with the office being in the cities, my employer accommodates me.

Right away, I found that recruiting is much more difficult than it seems. I was given a book called, "Recruit or Die" (which I would highly recommend for anyone in Human Resources) to read and learn more about everything that goes into recruiting before actually getting started. It was overwhelming, but exciting - I was going to get to do some of that!

Since the office is quite a drive from school, I don’t go in too much, so my employer calls me every week to catch up and give me small tasks. A few weeks ago, he gave me tips and tricks to scan resumes. I was given about 30 of them to scan and decide who should be contacted at the career fair coming up. So immediately, I’m in awe – I feel like I’m in control of the future of their company. I mean, what if I pick the wrong people? What If I toss out the right people? It was all so exciting, though, that they trusted me with choosing their candidates to interview. And what a great opportunity, too!

I’m excited to continue with this internship and learn more about recruiting. And what’s next? Going to some career fairs and seeing what it’s like on the other side!