I think the work I’m doing in my internship is plateauing.  It seems that I have tried everything that the folks I work under do (at least as much as they could pass on to an intern).  As a result, I seem to get less work – or I’ve gotten to the point where I’m efficient enough that I run out of work while I’m there.  It’s been this way for a bit, but the ultimate result is that I tend to get the kind of work that is useful for them to have someone else keep up with.  For example, copyediting, writing product updates, and creating smaller summaries to localize content for a variety of different sources.  I suppose it is good that I am becoming more efficient, but I think I have learned what this internship has to offer me, unless I stay past graduation to when they produce the next print magazine.

Well, I’ve been interning for a few weeks so far.  Progress update?

It is a little hard to update my ‘progress’ as determing how far I’ve come towards my goals, because I haven’t really set any firm goals for myself. I know that it is probably pretty important to set goals for yourself so you are making sure the experience is valuable, but I think that is a little counter intuitive to how my philosophies on life.  This isn’t to say I don’t have goals, but rather than looking at a situation in terms of: this is what I need to get done here, I lookat in terms of: this is the space I am at, now what can I do with it, or what spaces can I carve out of it?

That being said, I think I have accomplished a great deal in terms of building skills and building my portfolio.  So far I have copywritten, copyedited, worked with a CMS, edited images, web content development, localized copy for different publications, and written articles for magazine, as well as taken articles through the entire process of researching, editing, and publishing. I think that I am getting to the point where I could probably do more, but I just don’t know what that ‘more’ is yet!  The company I am working for has done a great job of finding different things for me to do.  There are some old stand-bys (press releases) that I have gotten pretty quick and efficient at – a skill in its own right – but the folks I work with make sure they are getting me new and fresh assignments.

It is interesting, however, that my internship has taken a sort of twist.  I came in telling them I wanted to do ‘tech-writing,’ and they told me that they didn’t really do technical tech-writing there.  I was ok with that, my response being that tech-writing covers such a wide range of activities that I would like to try whatever part of the spectrum they covered.  I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that what they wanted out of me was more of a writer than a ‘formatter’ (if anything, I would perhaps like to do a bit more formatting in terms of working with images and text – hopefully when we start assembling the new magazine).  As a result, however, I think I am working my way into an interesting sort of niche.  I suppose you could call it ‘content development’ – or copywriter, copyeditor, and any of the work that a content developer might do. I was happy with this at first, because I enjoyed the work, but later I found out that there is quite the market for ‘content developers’ while browsing Craigslist.  It seems that regardless of what I do after I graduate this will be a useful experience.

Now I should probably ’set some goals’ for myself and this internship, or maybe I already have. I think that one thing I have discovered that I want to do next through what I’ve been working with is to follow the process of publishing the magazine further.  I have written a few articles for it, but I’d like to have a hand in its actual production in terms of layout or whatever else goes into the process. I think that would be a great leap in going from being able to say ‘I wrote for a publication’ to ‘I helped publish a magazine by…’

Also, I would like to get out of the habit of hitting the space bar twice.

I didn’t update yesterday, but there wasn’t really any newsworthy work for me.  Wrote some product releases and took some excerpts from a caucus on an education program.  It was good to get another sort of experience though.

Today was great though!  The people that work in my office are totally amusing, and I think I’m gaining some credibility there (hopefully).  When I got there I was given an article to write for the magazine, but this time I wasn’t given much direction – they were basically like, hey write an article about this, here are some resources.  That was cool, because I’ve started to work more independently, which makes me feel good about my position (not wanting to take up their time).

After writing the article, I was shown some strengths – they thought it was creative, nice! – and given some great feedback in terms of how I can promote those strengths.  No edits were made, but I went ahead and rewrote the article according to the positive feedback.  Its pretty exciting because I’m starting to get a feel for the company and what kind of writing they are looking for.  It turns out I can be more creative than I thought I could be.

So far this internship is shaping up really well!  I’ve ended up doing the kind of work I wanted to do: writing magazine articles, creating online content, and doing some marketing writing.  This is great because I’m starting to develop my resume and skills in terms of jobs I really enjoy.  People always stereotype tech writing as being super boring, but I’m entering into a niche that is actually pretty sweet, because it involves layout, writing creatively, and applying critical thinking (including theory, heh heh!).

Since I finished the work I was assigned during my first day of my internship, I worked with another person that heads up the company’s magazine today.  The magazine is both in print and online – the online version being updated much more frequently.  Today I was given an article to write for the online version of the magazine about a new benefit members receive.

I was given some notes written by the person that gave me the project and a general overview of what the article was supposed to establish.  The new benefit basically involves a free technical article members receive every month.  Before I started the project I had to sit down and sort of sketch out what information the reader needed, and how I should structure that information.  What was really interesting about this project, however, was that I had to look at four technical articles and include a brief abstract explaining what they were about in my article.  This basically involved tackling some pretty dense material in an entirely new discourse I knew nothing about!  I actually found this to be a very interesting process, because I’m so entrenched in my own discourse as a student of ‘theory’ that I don’t get that feeling of being a ‘beginner.’  Of course I’m often lost and confused, but this  was a completely different experience.

The article took me quite a while to write, which I was a bit worried about, but after getting it done and going over it with the person I was working with I was happily surprised!  She seemed to like the article, and thought I got it done quite quickly.  Throughout the process I felt like I was working at a comfortable pace – after I figured out what information I needed to include – which bodes well, and supports the fact that I seem to have learned something from academia.  Then again, this also comes from the experience I’ve gained volunteering for local businesses.  That might be an interesting topic to explore, but I’m tired – sorry for the short post folks.

I’ve finished my first real day!  It consisted of learning to write product press releases and then writing four or five of them.  Because the company I’m working for is so involved in their target industry, companies developing new products send them a ton of press releases.  We publish a certain number of these within the publications that go out to our members and on our website.

What this job actually looks like: I receive and e-mail from a company that wants us to advertise their product.  Their e-mail is basically like: we are the best company in the world, look at how great our product is!  My job is to take this information and turn it into a shorter and more informative piece of information for our company’s members.  Basically, I make the information more consumable.  So far I’ve just used Word to organize the information and Photoshop to edit the images they send us.  After I finish these two tasks, I upload the information using the company’s CMS.  It is a pretty straightforward process and I finished all of the releases I was given by the time I was ready to leave.

Though the process was pretty straightforward, and can be done fairly quickly, it was interesting to see how I brought what I’ve learned in the university with me.  At one point, I asked the fellow I was working with a series of questions (I wrote this that way in order to market to such-and-such audience), which seemed fairly intuitive and the guy I was working with seemed pretty satisfied.  He told me that what I’d written seemed accurate, and that he wouldn’t have even thought of those questions.  So while they were perhaps unnecessary for what I was doing, they were still on the mark.  I was happy with this response, because I felt like I was able to bring something extra to the process and utilize what I learned at the university (which is pretty important to me considering I’ve spent quite a while here now, and I’d like to think I’ve learned something useful).

Aside from the actual work I’ve done, I was able to talk to the other folks in my office a bit more.  There were only two others besides me, but I learned that one of them also holds an MA in English!  Apparently it is the degree to have if you’re doing this kind of work.  I had some great conversations with her, and in the end she gave me a ride home.  It looks like I have some pretty cool co-workers for the next 3 months or so

I’ve finished the first day of my internship! A syuzhet for now considering it’s hard to say where it fits in for now. I thought there wouldn’t be much to my first day but it seems to have opened up a lot of possibilities for me in terms of what I will be doing while I’m there, but also what I want to do in the future. A bit soon for that! But that’s how I roll.

A member of their HR department came and initiated me into what goes on at ‘the corporation,’ gave me a tour, introduced me to some people, and finally delivered me to the people I’m mainly working with.

A lot of different things go on at the corporation, so it is interesting to look at how the different departments are set up. Some people have cubicles, some have multiple people to an office, and some folks have their own office. It turns out I share an office – take that cubicled folks! – with three other full-time employees. They seem fairly friendly, when I walked in they were all laughing about something. At my desk I was given a log-in and password so that I can access the company’s content management system (CMS). The CMS wasn’t working for me at the moment, but it looks like I’ll be starting with basic desktop publishing software, Word and Photoshop.

After I was shown my workspace, I went to talk with my advisors about what kind of work I’ll be doing. One person I’ll be working with and I talked about the work I could start doing tomorrow. We talked about doing a bit of research and some press releases using their CMS so I could get used to it. A lot of this work will involve taking the information companies send the corporation about their products and turning it into compact consumable tid-bits for their online and print publications, as well as reformatting media to fit these formats. I will also be researching noteworthy events that pertain to the corporation, including anything noteworthy going on with its members (I suppose it is important to know that this is a member based organization, therefore publishing news about its members is a relevant task). The first person I’ll be working with had to leave early, however, so I spent another hour taking with the other about another set of things I could do for them. This is where things really started to get interesting. The second person I’m working with runs a, for lack of a better word, magazine that the corporation publishes. The magazine includes articles, news, and products relevant to the company. Her job involves developing new ideas for content, choosing content, editing, corresponding with contributers, formatting, and writing for the magazine. I’m sure there is even more to it than that, but that is mainly what we talked about. As we talked about what goes into the production of the magazine I realized that I’m really interested in all of the work that is involved. I really like the idea of having such a diverse set of tasks so that your job is to create ideas, edit, write, and design. Most importantly: she said I’d get a chance to work on the magazine with her! I guess we’ll find out if I like it or not!

I wonder if there are jobs working for magazines that have this same sort of multifaceted approach? It seems like at bigger magazines people’s jobs are probably more specialized – but perhaps there are smaller publications I could work for where I could play a larger hand in their production? Once I’ve had a chance to try my hand at it I think this is something I am going to need to research. Oh man, I don’t need anymore job ideas that I want to pursue! But, I guess more is always better! And think of all the subversive uses I could put magazine production towards! Anyway, that’s why for now I’ll call this a ’syuzhet’ – though, I suppose every day is.

Hello! Welcome to my blog detailing my transition from being a theory buff in an English Master’s program to a corporate work environment!

Beginning Monday I will be interning at a very large company, which I will refer to as ‘the corporation’ for the rest of my time writing here. The company is actually not the ‘corporation’ I am making it sound like, but a not-for-profit society centered around publishing scientific material and holding conferences. A lot of the work they do there involves keeping tabs on their specific scientific community and publishing various proceedings and books for consumption by its members or other prospective participants in the community. As such, the internship I have accepted is mostly a ‘professional writing’ internship – a term that for me here means: whatever kind of writing a large company like this would need. I am not sure what exactly I will be writing yet, but I’ll leave that for another blog update in the future.

I’d like to begin with an installment explaining why I’m doing this, so that my readers might understand why I’d make such a drastic decision. Part of the decision deals with my future teaching, and another part with opening up possibilities for the immediate future, but most of all it is an experiment. Following Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s notions of radical subjectivity, I’m interning in a corporate environment to open up new fields of virtuality – with a perhaps not-so-radical decision. Going corporate? Pfft.

First of all, in the grand scheme of things I plan on returning to teaching, perhaps soon, perhaps not. Regardless, I think this corporate experience will open up a lot of possibilities in terms of my teaching. Although my first love is ‘theory’ in its broadest sense, one of my own personal goals involves findings ways to teach theory to an audience that will find it applicable to their everyday lives. So that while I may teach Roland Barthes from his original writing, I want my students to understand why they might want to understand and apply his ideas to editing and publishing. In order to do this, I also want to teach some very practical writing courses: not freshmen comp, teaching students to enter the University, but technical or professional writing, teaching students to enter the world with a theoretically and well-informed approach. In order to facilitate this, I would like to do some professional writing myself – to experience what I might be preparing my students to go and do.

Aside from teaching, I’m not exactly sure how I am going to spend the next year of my life. The year after next I plan on applying to a Master’s program in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam that I am very interested in, but that still leaves a year-long gap. There are a lot of things to consider: Do I want to teach? Do I want to stay in the area, or perhaps move somewhere like Seattle? In order to keep all of these things as ‘potential,’ I’m doing this internship in order to gain some practical work experience with professional writing. So that next year, if I choose to/am interested in at this point, I can pursue professional writing jobs.

Therefore, the choice to take on this internship is not random. I have a plan, and some clearly outlined goals, but it is still first and foremost an experiment. Who knows what ‘desiring-machines’ will stir to life once I’ve experienced life at ‘the corporation’? Perhaps I’ll begin following lines of flight leading towards career-track writing jobs? Or: establish lines of abolition, wrecking any desire for ever having a boss again! Though, a very productive solo-career might even emerge from this wreckage. The point is: I have no idea what exactly I want to do next year, so I will set an experimental machine into motion that might scoop up different networks of subjectivity and sweep myself along with it.