One area of uncertainty in an internship that I experienced was a lack of clearly defined expectations. I found this ambiguity to be unsettling, but it also presented an opportunity for me to take the initiative. The first step in navigating this uncertainty was proactively seeking clarity. I made sure to on the first day talk with my supervisor about my expected deliverables and what he expected from me as an intern. Then throughout the week if I ever felt like I wasn’t meeting those expectations I would clarify with my supervisor what was expected for the day. These conversations have helped establish a shared understanding and set clear expectations. Additionally, I would observe and learn from my colleagues who have been in similar roles, gaining insights into their responsibilities and how they contribute to the overall sponsorship team’s success.
Another source of uncertainty I’ve experienced lies in the dynamic of co-workers. When I first arrived at Core, my company, I only knew my supervisor. However, I didn’t know who he knew, who was on my team, the status of the team members, and how they compared to each other. This uncertainty initially made it difficult to understand the work dynamic and the dynamic between co-workers. I remember sitting at my desk confused as to who was who’s boss or if they were all considered equal level of responsibility on the team. To navigate this I first asked my supervisor about everyone’s respective roles. I found out that everyone while having different roles and responsibilities, were all considered at the same level. Additionally, a “project manager” oversaw all of them, including myself and my supervisor. This became most apparent Wednesday when we had our team meeting and I bore witness to all of my colleagues reporting to the project manager about their respective projects. It was interesting to see how some projects overlapped or multiple people would take on one project together while also working on separate projects. To truly get an understanding of the dynamic of my co-workers, I also paid close attention to how they interacted with each other. This not only told me who worked together but who didn’t as well as people that may not get along with each other, or vice versa, people who get along great with each other. I noticed that most of my co-workers get along well with each other through conversation and interactions with one another, and there are also “lone wolf” independent types of co-workers who tend to distance themselves sometimes from the group to focus on their respective work. Both dynamics were interesting to find to me. Additionally, I was most surprised by the overlap in projects between people, however, sometimes they lacked physically working together. To better explain, two people share a project and responsibilities within it, but each is focusing on different aspects, one with data analysis in Excel and one with communication with the client, so they didn’t have to interact and work together as much as I thought they would. This was very different from the project my supervisor was working on in the office as I got to witness and sit in on his team meetings and watched how they communicated a game plan with each other for their upcoming meeting. Both ways of going about a project depended on the co-workers’ dynamic and the type of project they were working on. This uncertainty I experienced was only navigated through putting myself in situations to witness first-hand their dynamics and understand them from there.
The last main experience of uncertainty and ambiguity I experienced was the initial perception of the organizational culture on my first day. When walking into my job, I had no idea what to expect except the stereotypes I had coming into the job based on the idea of it was a marketing company in Europe. In my head this meant it would be more laid back compared to a work culture in the U.S. but I didn’t want to assume anything in case it wasn’t and as a result, went in taken by surprise. This brought a lot of uncertainty about what to expect when considering all the possibilities the work culture could have been. To navigate this uncertainty, the biggest thing I focused on my first day, was to be prepared for anything by keeping an open mind and asking any questions I had for clarity. Asking questions with an open mind ensured I would have a full understanding of the work culture and would be able to adapt to it.