Blog Post 4- Skills

During my internship at KJR I have had many different kinds of tasks given to me, all requiring different types of skill sets. Naturally, some of them have gone better than others. My main job, which is making calls to winners of sweepstakes, was something I thought would actually be very hard for me. I have never really liked the customer service industry. In a way it makes me feel as if I have no power and the customer has all the power. Also, many people are hard to deal with, like they are just down right rude or they have so little common sense that it takes a very long time to explain things to them. Because of my preconceived notions about customer service I walked into the task of making calls to winners very unsure of myself. Though, I knew that the right thing to do was just to start in on them and push myself to do things that make me uncomfortable. So, now that I am a few weeks into the internship, making calls has turned out to be something I am actually good at. Turns out that the more calls I make, the more easily I can deal with bad customers and all around sound as friendly as possible. One thing that has always been a struggle for me is organization, of any kind. And though, a lot of the things I am tasked to do at KJR are already organized for me, I still find myself being held back by some of my organizational issues. For example, just the other day at KJR I was given the job to organize all of these tickets to various festivals and concerts first by radio station, then I needed to count the tickets and group them in pairs with the seat adjacent to them. Now this may seem like quite and easy task, and it was. But on a very small desk with over 200 tickets to organize it became a little jumbled. What happened was I at first tried to make two separate piles of sets of tickets I already parried, and set that I hadn’t already paired. It seemed to be going fine, until I noticed that I hadn’t actually been using my two pile system for some of the sets of tickets. So I had to re-open each one to see which of them I paired and which of them I didn’t. This was not a catastrophe, but it did hinder me from getting my job done in a timely fashion. Just like my skills with customer service, I hope to refine my organizational skills during my internship.

Blog Post 3

            At my internship at KJR I feel like my start there has gone pretty smoothly and that I have not really made any major mishaps or mistakes. But even Though I have not done anything wrong yet, I will admit to some things that naturally did not go smoothly simply because I am new and I am without very much experience. On my first day, the first assignment I was given was a large stack of papers. These papers were “winner sheets”, which are basically the contact info of radio listeners that had won a sweepstakes the radio had put on. So, my first job was to call all of these people to let them know that there prize is either ready to be picked up at the station or not ready to be picked up, but will be ready soon. This was a daunting first task, and there was a large stack of calls to make. So after watching my supervisor make a call or two for me, it was my turn. My first day of making calls naturally went a little shaky. I was nervous so I was stuttering my words here and there, and if the caller had questions that strayed even remotely far from the script I was given to read to them, I couldn’t answer them and had to go hunting for my supervisor to get the appropriate answer. Though, I am very glad that I just stepped up and made those calls because it allowed me to practice making calls to winners early on, and I knew that there would be more to come. Now, making calls to winners is not very hard for me, and I feel like I have really gotten the hang of it.  The second thing that has been a little shaky for me has been integrating myself into the culture of the office. It is not because I don’t like the people, or they have way different personalities than me. I actually really like everyone who works there and I find that some of them are similar to me. No, the reason my integration into the office’s culture has felt a little shaking is because I am only used to one work environment; working at Metropolitan Market. KJR and Metropolitan market have completely different cultures, and since in the job world I have only really experienced one businesses culture it has slightly skewed my perspective on what is appropriate at a job. Really what I am saying is that the people and vibe at KRJ is naturally much more chill than the one at Metropolitan Market, so I am still getting used to how laid back it is. Though, as time goes on I’m sure I will get used to KJR’s vibe, and as my life progresses and I work more and more jobs I will get a broader perspective on the culture of the work force.

Blog Post One- What I Expect

When I first was accepted as an intern at KJR sports radio, I was ecstatic, partly because I am an avid sports fan. Though I saw, and still see, a lot of great opportunities in this internship that would benefit my life in numerous different ways. The first aspect of doing an internship at KJR I am excited about is that I will finally be doing work that pertains to my desired field of study; Journalism and Communication. I believe that through interning at KJR I will really be able to get my foot in door in those fields and give me a inside view as to how Journalism and Communication skills can be used in the real world.  In addition, learning customer service skills, like how to be friendly to clients who are not particularly friendly to you or how to be as helpful to a client as possible, is an important skill in the work force. Customer service is a key part of almost any job. Through making numerous calls to winners of radio sweepstakes and participating in promotional events I believe my internship at KJR will allow me to hone my customer service skills. In terms of goals for my self during my internship at KJR, I have a few that may seem a little vague and cliché, but are still my goals. My first one has already really been said; successfully get a foot in the door in the field of communication and journalism. This goal, I believe will come more naturally and is almost part of the experience. My next goal is to do work that actually matters or makes a difference at KJR. When I say that I mean I don’t want to be running around an office all day fetching people papers or filling out different kinds of paper work. I want to do as close to the same kind of work as I can that other employees do, so that I feel more like a member of KJR rather than just a small time intern. Being given this work means that I may have to start by fetching papers or filling out paper work, but do an over satisfactory job every time so I prove that I can handle higher caliber work. My final goal is a little trivial, but important to me. During my time at KJR I really want to make new friends and connections. This is something that is actually very important to me for a few reasons. One is that I want a work environment that is 100% comfortable for me and I believe that by befriending KJR’s friendly staff I will enjoy my time there significantly more. Also, my dad has always told me that having connections is very important in the job world and told me to make as many connections as I can. This is very true. Connections I make at KJR may mean a possible job in this field later, or having a good reference to put on a resume for any other job I apply to I the future. At this time I do not see any immediate obstacles in the way of the goals I have set for myself other that the obstacle of my own willingness to work. If I remove that obstacle by choosing to exhibit my hard work ethic and friendliness I think I will be able to truly flourish at KJR.