Food for thought
Being a teenager, working in an office is portrayed as a job with minimal excitement or thrill. My experience is quite the contrary. I have been lucky enough to spend a week working in one and seeing the do’s and don’ts of the job. What I’ve noticed is there is always something to do, nobody is ever left without a job and they are all doing it to make their business thrive. I’m sure at the end of the week I’m going to be exhausted after doing just a fraction of work that they get through!
My first impression of the office had to be, wow there are a lot of computers in here. My second was probably, yay there’s free Cokes. Then noticing that the work here is actually fun, with spreadsheets, posters, blogs – and looking after the elephant of course.
The thing I love most about this office, so far, is just that everyone is so friendly and gets on well together. Just like an office family. The little inside jokes and banter they have, like trying to steal Stuart’s biscuits. But they wouldn’t dare do that! I have to admit I’m excited for the coming week – I can see that it’s going to be brilliant!
Today I have found to be getting used to the office and how everything works. I like the independence and how I have to act mature in front of adults who love what they do. So far, I would be ecstatic to have this job when I’m older, let’s hope maybe I do!
Temporarily I have my own office laptop, badge and desk…they are definitely treating me well.
Day 2
As you can see below I have already made my desk a mess but I have no time to clean it. This morning I had a meeting with Derek who really opened my eyes to what this business is all about and the work they have to do here, it’s actually very interesting. I FINALLY KNOW WHAT COBOL MEANS:)!!
Also this morning I met with the executives who gave me the all the clear for choosing the new name for the company newspaper. I narrowed 60 possible names down to 10 and now have to count up the 1200 employee votes to figure out the winner. Watch this space! I also created a new user manual for the Borland Software website and uploaded a brochure to slideshare about Mainframe solutions and Visual COBOL.
I also met with John today to discuss the whole Twitter aspect of the business, he gave me insight of what they really mean and showed me where to find the best information to put in my Tweets.
Day 3
We had a conference call with an American lady, Jackie to discuss the Federal Government website which was really interesting, listening about how others talk about the company from other parts of the world and how they manage to talk to interested parties and get their messages across.
In the afternoon we drove to Basingstoke to meet up with a brilliant Marketing agency – called the Purple Agency. I met up with Grace who told me how they manage their projects before a creative director called Alan set me a creative task. I had to pretend that aliens from a desert planet had arrived and were scared of trees! I needed to let them know let them know that trees couldn’t move and weren’t dangerous. I was great fun and challenging – obviously they couldn’t talk in english so I drew them pictures.
Over and out…..
I think the main question I’m going to have to answer from doing work experience here is if I would want to do it again? The answer right now is 100% YES!
Although I’m still trying to figure out this business and what they’re all about, I understand loads more than I did about business software and by the end of my last day I will hopefully know it all.
This week has had its ups and downs, the early mornings are not cool but I like the feeling of having a real job and a real responsibility. So far the free drinks are brilliant, the people are hilarious and I love it here. I understand more about computers, and what they are doing here as a business.
I would definitely come back. It’s been a fascinating experience and I’ve learnt loads about business in 5 days flat.
