By the end of my internship, I had a handbook and a poster to my name. Neither of which solely belonged to me, but were created through a collaboration process. It didn’t feel like I did much, but I gained a lot of insightful experience.
Aside from one internship where I was being mentored, I didn’t really feel like I gained much from my past internships except good portfolio pieces. I worked as an intern with a lot of small companies, and there was always the general feeling of all-hands-on-deck. At AIR, I honestly felt the people there wanted me to learn and grow as a designer. I was part of a design team, and everyone knew how to divide the workload and effectively manage stressful situations.
Through the internship, I was able to learn how to design for target audiences and better empathize with them. Not that I didn’t get that from my past internships, but it was different. Those companies had a target audience in my age group, and weren’t beholden to accommodate for people with visual and hearing impairments. (Although they should.)
I also learned about how to communicate with a large group, especially if there was something I couldn’t handle by myself. I’m too used to working in my own little cubicle, away from mostly everybody except my supervisor. I used to downplay any difficulties, out of fear that it would make me look “incapable” if I admitted it would take too long. But when part of a team, or communicating with clientele, it’s better to set realistic expectations first, instead of later down the line.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience there and was really happy to attend their workshops. My supervisor informed me that they had paid positions during the summer, and I plan to apply for them so I have money for next semester.
The link below goes to my in-class presentation for COMD 4900.
