Some of the intern initiatives that Calvert Street has implemented have made it easy and enjoyable for me to reach my learning goal. Each Wednesday, we have intern lunches where one of our directors brings in a prominent and interesting member of the Nashville community for an open Q and A session with our intern team, as well as any staff members who are interested in their line of work. In the past, we have had the cofounder of Strategic Hospitality restaurant group, a journalist for the Tennessean, and today we spoke with Courtney Wheeler, Karl Dean’s campaign manager. I was especially excited for this conversation, and to hear the perspective of a female managing a Democratic campaign in such a deep red state. Some of her insight was extremely helpful for my own career development, as she discussed how she has learned to maneuver discriminatory comments based on her gender, how she prioritizes what is important enough to speak up on, and what she needs to let go. I found this to be extremely relatable to some of my own workplace experiences, and appreciated her acknowledgement of how strongly male so many areas of politics still tend to be. One Pew Research study conducted this year found that 27% of women in majority-male workplaces have experienced small slights at work due to their gender, and that 25% feel the need to prove themselves in order to garner respect from coworkers. Over the course of the semester, I have found it difficult to establish myself as credible or taken seriously when I so often find myself to be the youngest person and the only woman in the room. It was comforting and inspiring to see a woman who acknowledged and conquered these obstacles to prove herself successful. Because she was so open and honest with us, it also made me more naturally inclined to speak up, ask questions, and share my opinions as she spoke about her role in a gubernatorial race, the current state of politics in the United States, and what it means to her to be a Democrat in a red state. I did not expect to have such a dialogue with Ms. Wheeler, but realized over the course of our lunch how much more inclined I am to take initiative when I am passionate about a subject and comfortable in my surroundings, even if it is just over the span of an hour-long Q and A session. In many situations over the course of this semester, I have found that the more involved I have become on a project, and the more I am able to discuss the purpose and goal of a project with the staff at Calvert Street, the more I can begin to speak up and feel confident contributing. In this case, however, it came much more naturally. While I understand much of this is due to my own biases about gender in the workplace, I think it is worth acknowledging how important gender diversity is within an office, and how much it can improve the dynamic of simple workplace conversations.

One of my greatest struggles this semester has been finding a way to make myself necessary within the organization. I feel that often times in internship situations, the person occupying that position knows they are expendable, and that can have an effect on his or her attitude and quality of work. One article I read during my industry research explained how difficult it can be for a young intern to stand out and make a good impression during such a small window of time in a new environment. When there are so many other interns working in my office at all times, and not enough responsibility to go around, it can be especially difficult. As a result, I have spent much of my time on site this semester attempting to navigate my desire to take initiative while being assigned tasks that can sometimes be frustratingly menial. This week many people were out of the office doing groundwork in preparation for election day, but we were contacted on very short notice by an out of state company to tackle a new defense project (Defense projects tend to be confidential, so I cannot disclose any details). Because there were so few people in the office, the other interns and I had been waiting around for most of the day to be given something to do. When one of the VPs came in a little late on Tuesday, we asked him if there was anything he needed from us. He promptly handed over a box of mailers and a basket of phones, and we spent the majority of the next two days making cold calls and stamping mailers. At first, we were annoyed at the thought of spending our days like this, but two of our VPs came into the conference room to help us stamp the mailers. We knew they had other work to do, but they stuck around and chatted for a bit, and answered some questions we had about this new client. When I checked my phone last night I received a Slack notification that project had been successful, and that the client had signed on with us for a subsequent project. This was concrete proof that our work had been successful, and a reminder that even though it may have felt unimportant in the moment, that did not mean that we were not making a difference within the organization. Up until this point I felt I had spent a decent amount of the semester learning how to become comfortable speaking up and asking for more responsibility in the office, and was frustrated and bored when I kept getting assigned grunt work. However, this proved what a small difference it made to simply ask to be a part of something new within the company.

There are certain clients with whom we have been working all semester, so I have steadily become more and more involved on some of these projects as they have progressed. One project I am working on in particular is heavily research-based, so I have spent a lot of time becoming familiar with search engines like LexisNexis other voter databases. After devoting so many hours at work to researching such a niche topic, I have become much more confident in my research skills, as well as my ability to take on other like assignments that come in through the pipeline. This has been helpful for my professional development, and has allowed me to learn what it means to be a key part of a small project team within the company. Within this team, I am much more effortlessly comfortable speaking up when I have a question, idea to share, or more to contribute. When a new client came in this week with a similar project, I was tasked with doing some preliminary research due to the experience I had developed over the course of the previous project. Neel, who is on the team for both projects, gave me a brief run-down of what the overarching goal of the project is, and what my research would be for. I appreciated this because instead of giving me a task to blindly complete with no background information, he explained the purpose of the assignment to me, as well as how my work would help contribute. I was then able to delve directly into the research phase of this assignment, and begin collecting helpful data and information that would go on to be useful in later stages of the project. I was more confident and streamlined this time around, and this helped me tremendously when I was presenting my findings to the rest of the team. From this experience, I have learned how much my self-confidence can impact the value of my work. Aside from simply becoming more familiar with the kind of work expected within this industry, I have also learned to better estimate how long a specific task will take to complete, how to more efficiently research a topic, and what kinds of deliverables our clients are looking for. I was able to develop this knowledge to more confidently and successfully contribute my work to these projects.

It has officially passed the one month mark since I began my internship at Calvert Street Group. While some days in the office are busier than others, work has begun to pick up, and the other interns and I have been given new responsibilities and insights into projects as we better settle in to the culture that already exists within this organization.  With the organizational assessment looming over my head this week, I made a plan to conduct some interviews with key members of Calvert Street’s staff in order to learn more about the organization’s internal structure. I determined who I wanted to interview by considering each staff member’s career experience, personal perspective, and who would be willing to offer the most candid and useful discussion points with me. The relationships I had cultivated with specific team members thus far, along with who was in the office this week also impacted who I chose to interview. My first choice was Neel, the campaign manager I have probably worked most closely with over the past several weeks. My desk is situated directly in front of his office, which has made way for him to come to me with research assignments or an extra set of hands on a new pitch. He is also one of the younger members of the office, which has made it easier to forge a relationship with him than with some of the older staff with whom I may have fewer things in common. I peeked my head into his office and asked if he had some free time at any point in the day for me to ask him a few questions about his role in the organization, and gave a brief explanation of what my assignment was about. He motioned for me to sit on the couch, indicating that he was free right now, and I began my interview.

I wound up sitting in his office for about thirty to forty minutes, and as the interview progressed, I strayed from my pre-written questions and we shifted more toward a conversation about how he arrived at Calvert Street, as well as my own plans for my future. He spoke to me about the importance of enjoying your day-to-day work life, and making sure you leave time for yourself outside of work. I felt a sense of relief as I realized this was probably the first time since I began this internship that I was involved in a productive conversation about my personal life where I did not feel like I had to have my guard up because I was talking to a superior. Instead, this was a conversation with someone with similar interests to my own who has over a decade more experience under his belt. This was incredibly helpful, and made me feel like I was learning new personal lessons, rather than just focusing on the work. As it came to a close, he asked me if I felt like I had enough work each day at work, and pointed to a white board in his office with a list of pending projects. “If you ever need some stuff to do, don’t hesitate to come ask me because I’ll always be able to think of something that hasn’t been done yet.” An interview for a school assignment turned into a valuable networking opportunity for me, and also reminded me of the importance of embracing ambiguity. By setting out to learn more by engaging with new people, and by being proactive in cultivating relationships in the workplace, I was able to gain new insight on career planning. The stronger relationships I develop in the workplace, the more comfortable I will feel speaking up and creating stronger networks as I become more familiar with the organization’s culture.

 

One of the aspects of this organization for which I am most grateful is its horizontal, or flat, organizational structure. Flat organizational charts allow for flexibility and open communication, and are most often used by smaller companies where roles tend to overlap. Being a relatively small firm, Calvert Street has adopted a model that involves a handful of senior directors, with the rest of the employees considered junior staff. Being a new addition to an organization with this kind of structure has been relatively seamless. Roles are relatively open-ended, and as a result I have been able to witness a variety of areas of practice already in my few short weeks here. Because the structure of the organization is so decentralized, I have been able to take advantage of new ways to achieve my learning goal by taking more initiative at work; and because there is so much overlap among company roles, the intern team often takes on many small project tasks at once. New projects are often times new territory for everyone involved, which not only makes asking questions less daunting for me as the person with the least experience, but sometimes even brings up a critical concern within the group, and can help with the project’s big picture as well. I am also able to bounce around between projects all the time, which makes it easier to keep asking questions and taking on new tasks since I am reporting to different people on each project. One concern that arises with every new internship I begin is being able to strike a balance between seeming bored and overeager, especially when I have a lot of down time on certain days. Having different responsibilities on separate projects has mitigated this concern and allowed me to spend time developing new skills with different people around the office who have different strengths. It has also made me much more willing to speak up during the small project meetings that occur throughout the weeks. Some clients require drafting of memos, research, or social media design, and we are going to begin canvassing for signatures around Nashville next month for a new project as well. I appreciate the model we work in because we have been exposed to all aspects of what it means to be a successful public affairs firm, and can understand the importance of choosing an organizational structure that makes sense within a given office space.