In this post, I’m going to talk about three important things I’ve learned since beginning my internship. This isn’t really advice to anyone else; it’s more like advice to myself that I thought I’d share with all of you.
Be patient: I’ve always been someone who wants to get things done immediately – if I asked someone to do something, I wanted it done 10 minutes ago. Since venturing out into the “real world,” I’ve had to learn that projects can’t always get done in one day, or one hour. It might take a
few days for a vendor to send me an invoice, or for someone to fax me back an appearance release. The waiting would have crippled me a few months ago, and, to be honest, I would have pestered people continuously until I got exactly what I needed. But since being at Discovery I’ve learned to work on a few projects at a time, and can always stay busy, even while I’m waiting for someone to do something on the other end. Now I give it a good day or so, and if I still haven’t heard back from someone, I either call or send a friendly “hey, don’t forget about me!” reminder. There’s a fine balance being pestering someone and being persistent enough to get things done in a reasonable amount of time, but I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it now.
Follow through: This is as simple as it sounds—just do what you say you’re going to do, and do it well. I’ve really had to learn how to prioritize my time at this internship, because I literally can be reporting to up to ten people at a time. That’s ten people, with ten different requests, and ten different instructions for me—and every person thinks their project is the most important. I now carry a little notebook around the office with me everywhere I go. When someone stops me and asks me to do something, I immediately write down every detail so I won’t forget. If it sounds extra important, I’ll ask when they need it done by, and write that down as well. If someone says to me that they need something done by the end of the day, then they’ll get it by the end of the day – even if that means I’m staying extra late that night. I remember hearing a lot of advice from alums – “always say you know how to do something if someone asks, and then figure it out later” – but that advice hasn’t really worked for me at
Discovery. Because I report to so many different people and help out with so many different shows, I don’t have time to waste, so I ask a lot of questions of my superiors. I think it shows them that I’m listening, and that I care about the end result. People don’t want you to hand them something that’s done wrong. Ask questions until you’re clear about EXACTLY what they want you to do; that way they’ll be impressed when it’s done in a timely manner, and looks exactly how they wanted it to – as if they’d done it themselves.
Look Alive: I try to be the eyes and ears of the production team while I’m on set. I’m only an intern, and I know that all of the “real people” have a lot more to think about than I do, so I try and remain valuable by catching what everyone else might be missing. Let me give you an example – two weeks ago I was on set every night — call time 6:30pm, wrap time 6:30am. It was about 4:30am on Thursday night (Friday morning?), and one of my duties, along with the PA, AP, and PM, was obtaining appearance releases at a restaurant we just arrived at. About halfway through the shoot, I noticed that one woman was leaving the premises; nobody had obtained a release from her yet, and frankly no one even noticed she was leaving (it was 4:30 in the morning). I noticed, and chased after her (down the block, in the ghetto) to get her release signed. Would it have been a huge deal if we were missing that release? Probably not—there were a lot of other shots, which she wasn’t in, that I think could have worked just fine. But I wanted to “look alive” to my superiors, and I wanted to be known as the person who would catch details that just might make a difference. I saw the erratic shooting hours as an opportunity to be on my game when everyone else likely wouldn’t be. Take opportunities like these to stand out and get noticed.