First Few Days

Planning for the first few days of my internship were incredibly exciting but also nerve racking. I’ve been working for the same restaurant for 7 years with the same people and performed the same job functions and all of that was changing and the anticipation of learning something new was sky high. The text had some great tips and tricks for navigating your first few days and making the best impression possible. One tip given by the text was to take pride in your appearance and give some extra detail to clothing, grooming and accessories. I felt that this was especially important for this specific role as I’ve never had to dress business professional before and now suddenly I needed to wear a suit and heels to work. I took a lot of time to research business professional outfits and hairstyles and went shopping in advance to make sure I had some new clothes to get me started. I had my first outfit placed out and steamed the night before, I set my alarm for extra early that day so I could take time to get ready and not feel rushed. Taking this time on my appearance paid off well, I felt like I fit in with my coworkers and luckily didn't feel over or under dressed. Over my first few weeks I paid attention to what everyone was wearing to learn about the dress code boundaries. 

The next tip I paid close attention too was learning my job responsibilities, being this companies first intern the job role and responsibilities has changed slightly over the last few weeks as we mutually figure out what works and does but it’s been amazing and i’ve learnt a lot over the last few weeks that will stay with me beyond the internship, especially as they have already offered me a position with the company once the internship is over. I’ve been able to navigate through the job responsibilities mainly through overt questions and some indirect questions and have developed a close relationship with management and my trainers so I feel comfortable going to them whenever I have any questions. 

The final tip that I paid close attention to was learning to work with staff. My initial concerns were that I would just be seen as an intern (which I understand I am) but I was really hoping I would feel like an important member of staff and that's exactly what happened. I went in with no expectations and kept reminding myself that these people are here to work and I should not be offended if they don’t take time out of their shift to get to know me. With this in mind I told myself that any opportunity I had to see my coworkers outside of work I would take as that's when I would have my opportunity to get to know them and vise versa. At the end of my first week I was invited to team night and however nervous I was I made myself go and I'm so happy that I did. I now get invited to their team nights every week and have become friends with a lot of them on social media and it’s been amazing to help me fit in and not feel like just an intern.