What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do
The advertising industry is very client based that involves communication going multiple directions. Sometimes, too many people involving in one project can be confusing and less efficient. This industry trend also applies to the team that I work in. The analytic department that I intern with work with all departments ranging from creative, social to account team. Moreover, all marketing analysts in my department have followed specific client for a while, and they were busy putting together reports towards the end of the month. Therefore, they do not have much time to spare on explaining each project and client to me. Sitting on my desk, I wonder what I can do in this first week to get my hands on.
First, I asked my team for access to some of the platforms such as Datorama that they have been using for creating analytic reports. Through these platforms, I got to explore around different widgets myself, read through insights for different projects. This helps me when I actually started to analyze data in the second week, since by that time I already had a general idea about each client. This also allows me to stand out when communicating with managers.
Second, I talked to interns sitting next to me to get more insights into other departments in the agency. For instance, I sit next to the social media intern, and through conversation, I learned that his team works with identifying target clients using MRI tools and choosing media channels based on clients. Analytics team will then follow up with insights from different media channels and report back to the social team. Learning about what other interns do help me to see how my work will interact with the rest of the company.
If you are going through your first week and find yourself getting bored or wanting to quit, try to explore some past work that your team put together and use fellow intern friends as resources to know more about the company.