After completing six semesters at the Department of Environmental Design, I am currently taking a year off from school. During the first six months I interned for seven weeks followed by some time of resting and traveling. Right now I am preparing to return to school and am also interning at a different workplace related to my field of study. Many people commonly think that interning is a prerequisite in order to get employed, so I wish to share with you some things that I learned through the internships. I hope what I say will become of some assistance.
The first thing I felt when I stepped out into society was how much it differed from a school setting. Although what I had attained from school was put into application, the relationships I had with people, and the position I was put in completely changed. The first thing I struggled with was figuring out exactly where my position was. Although it might be different in firms where internships are well structured, in comparatively smaller firms, interns may often find themselves with not much to do. There were times when I knew I could perform the task, yet it was not given to me, instead all I got was manual labor like scanning, or collecting data. ? studied so hard in high school to enroll at Ewha, I am learned, did I invest all my time and effort on merely this??was the question I raised in my mind. Rather than putting effort into my work I complained about the surroundingso went my first internship.
Soon after this time, I attended a leadership academy where Lee Chae-wook (GE-Korea Chairman) gave a speech. During his speech he said, ?veryone starts out with an easy job, but if you are careless about your job because you think it? too easy for you, ?hat person can? even do an easy task, how can we trust him/her with a bigger one??will be the impression you give off. So be faithful to what you are doing now.? These words hit me hard. I now feel sorry for what I did in the past, and am putting effort and appreciation into even the small things in my current internship. I wish I could say that I am now doing so much better, and soaring ahead in life with flying colors, but since it has only been a month into the internship I can? really say that. What I can say though is that I am taking one step at a time toward my future. Do you remember the saying that goes, ?ittle drops of water make the mighty ocean!?I hope all Ewhaians will dream big, and keep faithful to what they have been given in their reality.
Park Joo-young(Environmental Design4)