Final Week of the most Interesting & Incompatible Internship

There are a few things to clear up before I start:

First, the work experience I’ve had is unique to the TPO the internship took place in. This should not generalize nor represent what all strategy consulting internships look like. Second, speaking of which, the subject who’s gone through the internship—me—also bears a unique perspective on matters. My educational background, the people I’ve met and conversations I’ve had, and the series of experiences I’ve had throughout my life all took part in shaping the perspective that I hold which is uniquely and solely mine. Therefore, I am naturally biased in providing my insights on this internship experience.

In the same vein, I’d like to rule out the excuses of the circumstances, or the uncontrollables, that influenced my experience. I’m going to focus writing on what could be improved on my end.

1) A scarcity mindset <=> I am the rules, I write my rules

Because most of the internship was unsupervised (meaning, no clear directions, timeline, guidelines or context given; I had to figure out where we are in regards to the project’s timeline by crumbles of hints) I always had the feeling of being chased after by something—that something would sometimes be time, other times be the senior consultants. Because I had not been told of what is expected of me in terms of the scope of the research or time limit, I couldn’t invest enough time to properly digest the research materials nor put much thought into the format or synthesis of the deliverable. It was oftentimes a rough patchwork of bits and pieces of research work. How I can improve in the remainder of time is to clearly define the scope of the research in terms of the depth and time, and keep a schedule that factors in some time to fully digest the topic as a preliminary step. Then, the outcome must be more organized, as I myself understand what the research is about more thoroughly.

2) Synthesis of research and delivery on my own words

After having spent the time to properly understand and internalize the research materials, the next step is to produce the research into a well-documented, comprehensible deliverable. This includes the most crucial step: synthesis with high precision and concision. This is actually what I find to be quite challenging, as it has become a habit in other areas of communication patterns to regurgitate the speaker’s words. I tend to memorize and replicate the exact wording of a text or speech from a source that I find credible. This probably comes from the desire to absorb and learn as much as possible from others. However, it may also root from the doubt that I don’t trust that I’ve understood or remembered something accurately. The fear of making a mistake in the process of comprehension or delivery results in the replication of the original source’s words. I find this to be a habit of mind that I must break. There has never been a time I’d had to question the fundamental way in which I function, but my experiences have revealed that the very ability to deliver content with my own words succinctly reflects the degree to which I’ve fully comprehended the material.

3) Focus on one thing at a time

As ambitious as I am, and as vast the scope of a given task is, it is easy to try to tackle everything all at the same time. However, not only is this approach counterproductive, but it also quickly induces the feeling of being overwhelmed. Focus on one thing at a time. According to the book “중요한 것만 남기고 버려라: 1일 1기 (Ditch Everything Except for the Most Important)”, the author tells us to focus on WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW, and FACE.

WHO: Focus on one person at a time (e.g. Client, Customer, etc.)
WHAT: Focus on one task at a time (e.g. one email, one topic, one campaign, etc.)
WHEN: Focus on one moment at a time (e.g. Put a time constraint of one month, one week, one day, one hour, 10 minutes, or 1 minute and focus wholly)
WHERE: Focus on one place at a time (e.g. one target area, target group, organization, etc.)
WHY: Focus on one reason (e.g. why we do this)
HOW: Focus on one way (e.g. the optimized method for the TPO)
FACE: Focus on one role (e.g. as a student, as a designer, as a consultant, as a daughter, etc.)

Now that I know what I can do to improve my workplace performance, let’s get the most out of the last 4 days!