During this summer, greatly due to my reflections, I have realized that I do not present myself as professionally as I would like. As I stated in one of my earlier reflections, my first student affairs experience was in an extremely professional environment. While I appreciate the reduced pressure I have had in my assistantship and internship experiences, I feel it is important to ‘step it up a notch’. In classes last year, in my assistantship and the class I TA with them, and in many news articles, I have read a great deal about the Millennial generation. As part of the generation I can see the good aspects of traits which Millennials are perceived to have. As a professional, and as someone who reflects, I can also very easily see the many negative perceptions people in general and employers specifically have about millennials.
Dylan actually posted an interesting article recently about 20 somethings from forbes.com which got me thinking about this more. The article talked about what 20 something’s do not understand; time is not a limitless commodity, talent is overrated, productivity is higher in the morning, emails and phone calls are not equal forms of communication, come to work early and leave late, be proactive at work, take responsibility for mistakes, speak up but not out, your reputation is priceless (Nazar, 2013). I think a lot of these things are issues which can be addressed through professionalism. Using time wisely and demonstrating your commitment to the organization or institution as well as a job well done is important, professional, and perceived as something not done by 20 somethings and millennials. Also, we are a technology generation, and I am just as guilty as anyone else of sending an email instead of picking up the phone, or even worse, instead of walking out my door and down the hall. I believe that by acting, dressing, and generally presenting myself in as professional of a manner as I am comfortable, I will be able to avoid millennial judgments and go further, sooner, in my career.
Overall I enjoyed my internship experience, the biggest take away being a new mentor. Talia is a busy student, just like me (but busier), and took the time to get to know me and my aspirations. She was not only interested in the work we were doing but the classes I took, my other internship and work experiences, and gave me advice and a sounding board for those. Practically, I learned how much planning really needs to occur to perform a sound and thorough assessment. I also saw how frustrating it can be, how long it can take, and how many times that plan might have to change. If someone has thought 5 years ago that LEAP needed to do additional assessment, we may have had more pathways to get the information we were looking for, or even had the information we sought. What makes me feel better about that is that now the program is set up to collect much of that data each year, regardless of whether or not a formal assessment is planned with it. Therefore the data will be there, complete, and able to be assessed.
References
Nazar, J. (2013, July 23). 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don't Get - Forbes. Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. Retrieved August 2, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/07/23/20-things-20-year- olds-dont-get/