– Posted by Business Intern Amanda
This is my first internship, so I had some ideas of what I would be doing, but I really didn’t know what to expect. Did I expect to learn that Mark really likes breakfast, especially omelettes with spinach and tomato (side of potatoes), and LOTS of coffee? Nope. Did I expect to spend almost an hour at IKEA watching Mark pick out different fabrics? Not really. This first week actually taught me to not have so many set expectations for this experience. LeahAndMark.com isn’t your average company, so I should not have been expecting anything average.
My first day was sort of a meet-and-greet over, of course, breakfast. Mark explained to me some things he had in mind for me for the next few weeks which all sounded really neat. Day two was more interesting. Again, over breakfast, I learned about Quickbooks. First of all, there was nothing quick about it. I had to enter every transaction from the LeahAndMark.com bank account into the program. In case you haven’t had the chance to look at their bank statement, it was a little over 5 billion pages of transactions.
That took a while, but as I entered more transactions I found fun little shortcuts which made the rather tedious task a bit more exciting. As a side note – someone should find a way to automatically transfer online bank statements into Quickbooks. If this already exists, someone should tell Mark about it. If Mark already knows and this is some sort of character building experience for me, someone should tell me about it. Anyways, I tackled a few months and got them mostly caught up in Quickbooks.
Day two also involved a trip to IKEA for Mark to get fabric. This is where I got the more sterotypical intern experience. I had to push the cart. I had to put items in the cart. If somewhere along the shopping trip Mark didn’t want, let’s say a rug that he previously thought would make a good back drop, I had to take that back.
That’s when I learned statements like, “We should put that back” actually mean “you should put that back.” Also, the word “please” does not exist anymore, not for interns. Day two was over, and I actually walked away with some good exposure to Quickbooks, which I thought was something good to have, and more patience. And, well, it was IKEA and I am a shopper so I walked away with a cute lamp and candle holder.
Day three involved more doing. As in, I grabbed bags, folded fabric, and taped back drops to the walls. I assisted Mark in setting up the photobooth with the back drops for this weekend’s photobooth at the Indie Craft Experience – and then I got to test them. To say I took a lot of photos of myself would be an understatement. After my self-absorbed photo shoot, I helped Mark pack everything back up. I am getting better at understanding what day-to-day activities are like in LeahAndMark.com world. I actually got to experience a lot of little things that I couldn’t share because it would take so much space.
Just those moments where you learn something that you can apply anywhere in life, like being more aware of your surroundings or problem-solving skills. For example, taking down the light stand. That was challenging to me, mostly because Mark said to push the stand down and then the legs come up. I thought he meant they came up automatically so I pushed the stand down and stared at it and then said something about how it wasn’t working. Turns out, I needed to pick it up and actually push everything closed. I learned.
I do have a few expectations still. I expect to master Quickbooks and learn all about the financial aspects of running a company. I expect to learn about the customer relations management system that LeahAndMark.com has in place. I also expect a really unique experience for the next 9 weeks.
– Posted by Business Intern Amanda
[ad-engine ad_group=”CARE”]
Atlanta Photobooth, Business, Marketing, Internship, Experience, Review, Photos, Photography, LeahAndMark.com
Comments are closed.