Flexibility During the Pandemic- How I Landed My Easy Event Planning LLC Internship

Before the pandemic started, I had secured a job as a camp counselor in Evanston, IL where I planned to spend my summer break working and volunteering at a local hospital and research clinic. It was my intention to both earn money and seek out opportunities that would enhance my experience level in a medical setting. But, as we all know, life did not go the way that we thought it would so I was left to figure out what I could do from home in Austin, Texas. I applied to many different remote part time jobs and internships both locally and in other states that required all sorts skills that may or may not have had to do with health sciences. It took about 3 weeks of job searching before I was offered an intern position at Easy Event Planning LLC (EEP).

This eight week internship was from June-August 2020 and would require a substantial amount of on the go learning. I worked on the Intern Success Team with two other college aged students who had a couple weeks head start on me. I worked closely with the CEO, Kathleen Kilmer, who runs the company and who gave my team various projects to work on. The focus of my role was to help manage the other 200+ volunteer interns that EEP had taken on that summer. I wrote daily emails to remind interns of their requirements for that day, texted them over Google Voice if we weren’t seeing progress or completed work, and helped update information in the many Google Sheets folders.

While the work was interesting and new to me, there were a few key takeaways from this experience. The first is that every job you take, you have to go into with an open mind. I didn’t really have any idea what I was stepping into so from my first day, I had to remind myself that everyone has different ways of doing things and that eventually through time, I would come to understand what was needed. Another key element is being willing to ask lots of questions. I did not receive a training or incoming intern orientation about what my work would entail, where to get passwords/login information, or what were the most urgent projects. This meant that I had to think critically about what I thought was most important, ask clarifying questions to my supervisor and co-workers so that I didn’t make a mistake that was easily answered from a simple question. I found myself quickly taking to the leadership side of our team, participating in meetings more, and also learning how to set boundaries.

One of the downsides I learned of working for a small company run mostly off unpaid interns is that you have to set clear boundaries of when you are working. I naturally can feel inclined to take on more than I should so I had to quickly lay out clear start and end times to my work day. Not only was I able to be more efficient with my time, but I also started to build the lifelong skills of finding work/life balance. I know that will be an ongoing work in progress but this internship gave me my first taste of the importance of it.

Although I was unable to participate in my original summer plans, I made the best of what I could do, and felt the reward of working really hard for 8 weeks despite the ongoing chaos of the outside world. It was fun to meet other people who were also Psychology majors, and who I came to know and rely on throughout my time at EEP. I would highly recommend this kind of experience to anyone. It doesn’t matter what profession or career you are looking to go into, communication and leadership skills are vital wherever you end up so I’m grateful that I could have the opportunity to strengthen those skills.

Moral of the experience: for every lost or missed opportunity, there is always someone or something else waiting just for you!