This summer I worked at my first 9 to 5 job ever. I guess that’s what happens when you turn 20– adulthood kicks in. Through the co-op program at Laurier, I was hired to work at a marketing agency for four months. I learned a lot about myself, what I was good at (and not good at) and what work life was like compared to school. I wanted to share a few of these learnings in case you’re about to start a job or if you just want another working student to relate to.
- becoming a pro at emails
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I think I probably wrote over 50 emails a day during my summer job. To someone who already works a corporate 9 to 5 job, it may not seem like much, but for someone who just started, it took some getting used to. One of my biggest responsibilities was communicating with clients and internal teams. I learned the proper jargon, how to be professional and how to write very straightforward emails (hint: bullet points).
Once school started this semester, I noticed that I was communicating with my profs, club members and even friends in a similar way to my colleagues at work. I know that this will probably fade, but I found it funny.
- days are long and hard. setting boundaries is harder.
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I never noticed how often I took breaks during a school day until I started working 9 to 5. I was working online for four months, meaning that I woke up in my room, worked in my room and went to bed in my room. Unfortunately, I got to know the four walls of my room very well this summer. There is so much that needs to happen during the workday to make it possible to end at 5, which makes taking a break on top of lunch during the day unrealistic. Slowly, I started to notice that I would start work a little earlier and stay a little later. I wanted to get ahead on things so that I wouldn’t be as busy the next day. I kept on telling myself that until I realized that I should probably set up some boundaries for myself. This is where it gets tricky. When you need to send something off to a client that day and there is a delay in the internal processes, it’s still your responsibility to wait and send it off to the client as late as needed. In an online work environment, it’s also easy to stay logged on longer, work inconsistent hours and take your work with you everywhere you go. If I’m being honest, I still don’t fully have a grasp on the best way to set up these boundaries. However, I do know that once I started, it slowly got easier.
- communication is everything
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A lot of the work I do at university is independent, so I have learned to be very good at working by myself. It’s basically the opposite at work. Almost all the work I did was completed as a team. If I didn’t work with my team, I was still expected to communicate with my colleagues frequently. I quickly learned that you not only have to be good at communicating in general, but you have to be good at the way you communicate. Something I learned about myself is that the way I articulate something sounds different in my mind than how it does out loud or in text. If you haven’t guessed it yet, it’s my tone. Keeping a calm, composed and even tone while giving feedback is one of the hardest things to do. It’s easy to forget that when giving feedback, you’re critiquing the work that others have done, and it’s important to be sensitive about that. This is something I spent a lot of time practicing and will probably keep practicing for many years to come.
I’m very grateful for the amazing work experience I had this summer. I met some fantastic and creative people, who made my work term much more enjoyable. I’m also glad to be back at school where my everyday routine is a bit different. I know for a fact that everyone’s first 9 to 5 will be important and memorable. I know mine was, and I will definitely remember mine for the rest of my career.