Observing in the Workplace

This past week at the Washingtonpost.com I continued editing more videos for the OnLeadership site. I completed the edits for the Kevin Martin Interview that we did two weeks ago at the Aspen Institute. Kevin Martin is the former FCC chairman under the Bush Administration and played a major role in the switch over to digital cable, that has recently been pushed back. The interview will be published on Wednesday, April 23rd.

This week our Interactivity team also met with the publisher of the Washington Post–she is the person who ultimately makes all of the decisions about what gets published and where to focus for both the printed version of the Post and the online section. The meeting was interesting for me because I got to see how come of my co-workers responded to someone of such high power. Some were very candid about how they thought we should proceed, others were more reserved. I think what was most interesting for me was to see how she reacted to each person. What I learned was that she appreciated the candid advice, and certainly gave him more respect for how he approached her–even though she may not have totally agreed. It is little instances like these, where I see how muc I have learned and will be able to take away from my internship at the Washingtonpost.com. I think that I not only learned a lot of things relative to what I am studying–visual media, but also how people and different matters operate in such a big corporation.

I think that it took me some time to realize that these smaller things, although they seem unimportant, can be beneficial to me in the long run.

I only have two more weeks at the Washingtonpost.com, and I’m really going to try and gain all of the knowledge I can–and take it with me. Looking back at my blog posts, I have also realized that it really helps to write all of your experiences down. Even if it’s not for someone else to read, I’d strongly advise for everyone to keep their own Job or internship journal. I am sure that it will be useful some day.