Starting over in a completely different direction isn’t easy, but you’re young and hopeful, right?
Youth gives you the impulse that everything revolves around you, that you’re smart enough to know it all. Mmm… no, you’re really not that smart and you clearly don’t know it all. You’re hit with a lot of work, upsets, frustrations, all sorts of thoughts. How you deal with them and get past the doubts sets you apart.
It was the first internship I ever did. During college I wasn’t a fan of opportunities, and what’s more, half of my three years were spent online. Searching at dawn for jobs for people with higher education, I found an ad that sounded interesting. I went to the website of departamentmarketing.ro and applied directly there.
After a few days I receive an email with a questionnaire to fill in and some organizational details. I read the email and close it, “I have time” I said to myself. I gave myself so much time that I filled it in just in the last hours before the deadline. From the very beginning I thought I wouldn’t stand a chance. Should they even pick me?
But it turns out I was given the chance and was called for an interview – the last step in the selection process. From the moment I walked into the office I felt a pleasant atmosphere. I wasn’t nervous and I was really confident. Music, tea, people seemed nice. After two hours of talking, I left even more confident than I had come. I felt confident and was getting more and more excited thinking that I could start discovering a field that was attracting me more and more. When that feeling came true, I relished the opportunity that lay before me.
What can be so hard about marketing?
Okay, now let’s get to work. Let’s start the internship. You’re probably thinking: what could be so hard about marketing? Some social media, you do another website, some ads, a strategy there. Haha, no. It means racking your brains until you feel like you’ve run out.
I’ve always thought of myself as being good with people and words. I found out in the first two weeks that’s not the case at all. I also thought I knew how to write some articles and a few social media posts. Also from the next two weeks I learned that I’m not very good at that either. In communication I thought I was an expert – that wasn’t true either.
Yes, marketing is frustrating. But it’s driven me
When you don’t know how to lay out ideas differently but keep the essence, how to rewrite the same thing over and over again, even though you think you’ve already done it right the first time, and those around you tell you it sucks. When you have to forget your own opinions to really see what’s going on around you and that you are not the sum of the people you need to address. That it’s not about you, it’s about others. This is where the challenge comes in. I’ve dealt with it with a break-down.
But it gave me a boost. It spurred me on to prove to myself and others that I can learn and be taught. To actually get out of the bubble that I thought I was good at, and thus allow myself to evolve. When I looked at what is around me as an opportunity to learn and not as a demonstration to show that I know, everything connected differently.
