Most of the uncertainty in my internship hasn’t come from people being unclear on purpose. Its come from the idea that a lot of the direction simply isn’t decided yet when a project gets introduced to me. Coming into it, I think I expected work to arrive as a set of clear instructions and when to complete them by. What I have actually found it that a real task usually arrives as a rough goal, and a big part of the job is turning that into a complete report.

The clearest example was a competitor research project. I was asked to look into how the competitors run their referral and social media programs, but I wasn’t told how to collect the data. Nobody specified which tools to use or which sources to trust. There was no template for me or a list of approved places to look at. For a little bit, that felt uncomfortable, because I couldn’t tell whether I was looking in the right places. So instead of just waiting around, I started my research. I worked out where the useful information was, and pulled it together in the way that made sense to me. I compared what each competitor offered, and looked at other companies outside of our niche sector. This way I could build my own that made sense to me. I was a little worried when I was researching that everything easily couldve gone the other way. I could have spent days on research they didn’t want to see or organized it in a way that wasn’t useful to them. They ended up liking what I came up with, and they told me the blind exploring has been the right call rather than a mistake. The way I see it now is as permission rather than a problem, because it frees me up to do what I think is the best for the company.

The way I’ve navigated ambiguity generally comes down to two habits. The first is that when a specific question comes up, I ask it. If there is something where I can’t move forward without it, I don’t sit on it or guess. A quick question early is almost always better than going blindly at the wrong assumption. The second habit is if there are no outlying questions, then I attempt it myself in the way I think it should be. Then during my weekly meeting I show him what I’ve done so far. I then ask if there is anything else he would like or if the trajectory is good. It makes it easier for me and my supervisor because he can see what I have and add what he thinks would work, which makes the best of both worlds. The second habit has been more valuable. Sharing a concrete project gives the other person something real to look at. People find it easier to add or reduce something that is already there instead of planning from scratch. One of my projects, I had already had everything he wanted which adjusted the plan a little bit.

What I have taken from all of this is that ambiguity at work is a sign that everything is working. It is how most tasks are started, especially when they are still in preliminary stages. The skill isn’t waiting until the instructions are perfect, but adapting with what was created and assessing what to do next. This has been a great opportunity to grow because it helps me understand what is expected and what I can do to make a comprehensive report.