Internships-Not just making coffee anymore!

As mentioned before, I am interning with Garden State Woman. GSW was founded 15 years ago by a woman named Judy Chapman. She is an extraordinary woman and has won all sorts of awards and honors for helping other women in their professional and personal lives. My internship is conjoined with helping her husband, Jack, as well, who is the general partner of Bluestone + Killion, a firm focused on teaching business professionals how to utilize the skill of networking to advance their careers, businesses, and even their personal lives.

There has been no sorting of papers or making coffee during this internship, no sir. So far I have already completed tasks such as editing and publishing an ebook report Jack and Judy wrote on "Tips for Getting Your Son or Daughter into a Good College", which you can check out here. I have also used social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote this ebook.

I have created newsletters in Constant Contact to update subscribers on the newest articles on the website (one of them being about me, click here to see it!). I used social media to promote this article as well and there have already been 120 hits in just two days!

I have also acted as an editorial assistant to Judy, giving feedback to writers who have submitted articles to be considered for publication on her website.

For Bluestone + Killion, I have written a press release for a networking skills workshop they are having, and sent the press release to various journalists for media coverage. I have also added the event to the calendars of many local newspapers. I also created a flyer for the workshop.

Jack has taken me to several important meetings between his company and potential clients. Most of the time I didn't know what they were talking about, but just being able to sit in on a real business meeting was a great experience. Judy has taken me to a New Jersey Association of Business Owners (NJAWBO) banquet, where I was surrounded by inspiring women and listened to speakers who talked about how important it is for women to help other women.

I'm am so excited to continue my internship in Australia where I will be writing articles for GSW!

 Dana

Compartmentalizing- Your Focus vs. Technology

Yet again, my boss has left me with a piece of wisdom to chew over after I have left work for the day. He told me to learn to compartmentalize things, meaning, if you are spending time with your boyfriend, that should be your main focus, nothing else. If you are juggling several projects at work or even juggling two jobs, focus on one thing because you will do the job much more efficiently and effectively. To put his comment into perspective, he is an entrepreneur who is constantly running several different businesses. Whatever he is working on, he gives it his undivided attention.

However, this has become increasingly hard due to technology. BlueSteps.com, the executive career management service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) surveyed over 800 senior executives worldwide to discover the latest attitudes of work-life balance. 70% believe that technology (i.e Smart phones & the Internet) have greatly decreased their leisure time.

Taking this thought a slightly different way: younger employees such as myself may find it hard to resist the temptation to check out what is going on in the Twitterverse. Honestly, it's sad but in order for me to focus better I have to check some form of social media for a brief minute in order to re-focus myself, and then I'm back to worker-bee status. My generation has it in our minds that if we are not checking up on social media constantly than we are going to miss something really important.

My friends and I have this running joke which started from a pin on Pinterest, where there was one picture of a boy and a girl on a date, both looking at their phones instead of each other, with the caption "On a Date". The next picture was a group of friends, all on their phones, with the caption "Hanging out with Friends". The last picture was a picture of Einstein with the quote, "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. There will be a generation of idiots". Now whenever my friends and I find ourselves sitting in silence all on our phones, someone usually says, "Hanging out with friends!" And then we all come back to reality.

My point is, focus on whatever it is you are doing, and do whatever you have to do to keep that focus.

Ok, gotta go check my Twitter now!

Dana

About Me

    Welcome to my Blog! 

My name is Dana Drahos. I am a Corporate Communications major and Advertising minor at Susquehanna University. I wanted to start this blog because I am passionate about writing, social media, marketing, and communications. I also love to travel and experience new things, leading me to my next reason for starting this blog: I'm going to study abroad in Australia this coming fall! I want to be able to look back on every amazing experience I have while I'm there so I will be updating a lot! 

I am also interning with Garden State Woman this summer. It is a multi-media resource for New Jersey business women, empowering them and motivating them to improve in all areas of their personal and professional lives. They also have a scholarship fund for inner-city women who have graduated from a public high school in NJ and have been accepted to a four year New Jersey college. I think it is a great cause and their work has truly inspired me. It has been a wonderful experience so far and in one week I have already started learning the skill of networking, made business cards, edited an e-book and will soon help to have that e-book published, brainstormed ways to promote the e-book through social media and other ways, and much more! They always include me in important decisions and bring me to important meetings. While I am abroad, I will write articles for the website about my experiences.

Stay tuned for updates and let's see where this goes!

Dana