My iPhone lit up with an unknown number from Colorado Springs. This is it! This is the call I had been waiting for all week. My heart began to pound.
“Hi Lydia, this is Sam from Compassion International. We have reviewed your application, studied your resume, and watched your HireVue video at least a dozen times…”
Okay, okay. Just get to the point!
“…and….we would like to offer you the Technical Writing position for Compassion’s Internship program. Is this something you are still interested in?”
Um, let me think about it…OF COURSE!!!!
I cannot explain to you the excitement I felt in that moment. My first real job…at a ministry I love…for a cause I care about…in a state with gorgeous mountains!
My heart continued to race as I shared the news with my professors, classmates, parents, and pretty much anyone else willing to listen. But after the novelty wore off and my heartbeat slowed down, my stomach dropped.
Am I really ready for a grown-up job in a corporate office? What if the work is too hard? What if my coworkers don’t like me?
However, I worried in vain, for my Professional Writing and Information Design (PWID) major had already prepared me for my summer internship in 3 big ways.
- The Interview
I think it’s safe to say that if it had not been for my PWID classes, Compassion would not have offered me the job in the first place. In Portfolio class, my professor taught me how to improve my resume, create my first online portfolio, and strengthen my interview skills. I even practiced phone and in-person mock interviews with PWID board members. Not only did I get my “first interview” jitters out of the way, but I also received helpful feedback from professionals in my field.Thanks to my Portfolio class and the prayers of my professors and classmates, I walked into each interview with the abilities and adrenaline needed to get the job.
- The Work
Contrary to the popular belief of most students, I actually used the material I learned in classes at my internship (shocking, I know). I applied instructional design methods from my Documentation Design class to transform Compassion’s documents into information my coworkers actually wanted to read. I also used principles from my Editing and Style classes to create schedules, meeting notes, flow-charts, presentations, instructions, and reports. My fellow employees appreciated these fresh and easy-to-read documents. To my relief, my boss entrusted me with more than just coffee runs and copy machines. He actually valued and utilized my communication experience and skillset.I loved using the knowledge I gained from my PWID courses to make my coworkers’ jobs easier, ultimately furthering Compassion’s mission.
- The People
Fortunately, the PWID program not only developed my writing and design skills but my people skills as well. In my Corporate Culture class, I read stories about the day-to-day work environment of professional writers. These narratives quickly proved that success in the workplace oftentimes has a lot more to do with social interactions than the work itself. In order to get along with my coworkers, my professor taught me how to perceive others’ emotions and control my own. My classmates and I studied different personality types and even took the Myers Briggs personality test. I now better understand the way God made me and others.These assignments enabled me to connect with my coworkers on a personal level, handle social conflict with empathy, and work well with personality types different than my own.
If I could go back in time, I would tell myself, “You are more qualified for this internship than you know.” This summer, I realized that knowing what I know and seeing what I know are two different things. I was able to really see the skills I learned from the PWID program and apply them in a practical and professional setting.
— Lydia Watson (Junior. Pictured below: front row, third from the right)
