January Already
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be a more frequent blogger, so here we go! Last semester I always had a mental list of ideas I thought would make good posts and would think, “Just as soon as I have a free afternoon, I’m going to write all these up.” But somehow those free afternoons never seemed to materialize. Now I’m scheduling some blogging time into my week to make sure I actually get to it.
First of all, winter break was amazing. I stayed up late watching addictive TV, I read non-business books, I took naps in the middle of the day—everything I love that I hadn’t been able to do with so much schoolwork. I also picked up some shifts at the bakery where I used to work, so I got to spend time with some of my old co-workers, decorate fun Christmas cookies and bûches de Noël, and get a paycheck—it was the perfect arrangement.
I went to Ohio University for my undergrad, which was on quarters (though has now switched to semesters with almost every other school) and we had the most holy six-week winter break that stretched all the way from a few days before Thanksgiving to a few days after New Year’s Day. So part of me was still missing those extra two weeks from my break, but mostly I was excited to come back to school and be busy again. After about eight straight days of doing nothing but sitting (ok, laying) on the couch watching Downton Abbey and occasionally wandering into the kitchen to eat leftover pie, even I start to feel like a bit of a schlub.
This first week back has actually been very exciting. First, I went to the kickoff of the Corporate Mentorship Program, which I applied to way back in September. The program is basically what it sounds like: students apply to be matched with a business professional in the Columbus area to be their mentors. I’m always looking for people with more experience to give me a little guidance or push in the right direction, so I’m very glad Fisher has a program like this. In September I filled out a form explaining a little about my background and what I was looking to get from a mentor-mentee relationship, then the magic elves in the Leadership Development Office spent the last few months pairing my fellow students and me with our mentors.
I found out my mentor’s name and brief background information on Monday and then attended a reception on Wednesday evening for all of the mentees and mentors where we finally met. She’s great! We don’t have identical backgrounds, but there’s a lot of overlap and I could see immediately why we were matched. Not only that, I found her very easy to talk to and very helpful already, as I explained how my internship search was going and what parts of my professional development I was looking for help with.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, since my only knowledge of mentors has been watching Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock or George Christopher on Bored to Death, neither of which are perhaps the most shining examples. Fortunately for me, this first meeting with my mentor was great, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know her and benefiting from her advice and experience.
The second big thing this week is that my ongoing process of internship search/application/interview has kicked into high gear. I’m applying for marketing internships, and right now is when a bunch are popping up and coming due. I made myself a document that I’m calling an “Internship Matrix,” though it’s more of a spreadsheet, really, and I’m keeping track of the dozens of positions I’ve found and am applying to and then hopefully interviewing at. So far this week I’ve been on a pretty good clip of applying for one almost every day and checking them off the list. This is going to be the norm for the next several weeks, in addition to interviews and pre-interview events, both of which I have next week as well.
Anyway, overall I’m really glad to be back in school, even if it interferes with my love of lazing about. Fortunately I’d gotten so used to being busy all the time last semester that it’s easy to slip back into that mode. As long as I can keep up my work ethic and time management, and squeeze in some blogging time, I’m feeling pretty good about the next four months.