Reflections: a safe space to learn and grow

“I was encouraged and enabled to learn just like a child exploring the world with genuine interest. There was time given to fully immerse, understand and reconstruct tools, ideas and meanings that existed in marketing literature.”

With a full week between this reflection and the end of my internship, I would like to think that I have managed to place some distance between me and my experience, such that I would not only remember the euphoria felt as we finished our final presentation after an intense five weeks of picking up marketing jargons and tools.

Yet, the internship still brings a warm smile whenever I thought of it. My intern teammates were great, in both their work and personality. The support that I have received at this company was also tremendous. I was given access to company information which usually would not be granted to an intern. I was also taught patiently by various full-time staff whenever we approach them with a question in mind. Towards the fourth and final week of my internship, the full-time staff graciously lent a helping hand in the execution of our project, enabling us to make some much needed progress.

Freedom.

The internship had indeed been a fun experience. I enjoyed the freedom to decide when to work and what to work on. At the same time, there was sufficient guidance as we could easily approach our supervisor Marc for his opinions and feedback. There was a fine balance between letting us interns approach the topic from our preferred ways and Marc informing us about the existing trends within the marketing industry. More importantly, Marc had explicitly expressed that we were free to use whatever resources we required, and it was definitely alright to fail and make errors.

Empowerment.

With this special mix of independence, guidance and assurance, I felt empowered. I was encouraged and enabled to learn just like a child exploring the world with genuine interest. There was time given to fully immerse, understand and reconstruct tools, ideas and meanings that existed in marketing literature. As with all jobs and tasks, the pressure to perform and deliver was there, but the anxiety that usually accompanies this pressure was alleviated, for there was no expectation to achieve the intended outcome with a single try. In this environment, I found myself trusting my own capabilities more, and was learning immensely with speed and enjoyment. I too was surprised by the things that I have accomplished within the short time span.

Safe space to learn.

Looking back these five weeks, I think that the defining characteristics of this internship, or perhaps Design Prodigy in general, were the wonderful people that I have worked with, and a safe space to learn through failures. It was definitely an internship experience that I would remember.