Many interns are terrified that they will have to push papers and make coffee constantly. I’m here to tell you that nine times out of ten that will not happen. At my internship I’ve been graced with being able to communicate with people and become a part of their team. But that’s not what I want to talk about, what I want to talk about is the absolute beauty of administrative work.
Like most students, I’m juggling my internship, my work-study position AND my classes. My days are brutally long, sometimes upwards of 15 hours. Usually, I start off at my internship, go to my other job, do tons of homework, send out graduate school application and attempt to make time to talk to the people who are important to me. After all that is said and done, my brain is fried and my people-to-people skills are tired and worn out.
That’s the beauty of spreadsheets and administrative work. They don’t talk back. You don’t need to think about what to say next to them. You simply input the information. I really do enjoy the time I spend entering items into the spreadsheet at my internship because it gives my brain time to rejuvenate itself. While data entry isn’t totally mindless, it’s a task that I am completely in control of. I’m not thinking about what the other person is going to say next or what response I need to have ready. I simply pay attention to what information I put in the spreadsheet and make sure that it’s correct. If I input something incorrectly, it’s okay. I just delete it and redo it. Unlike speaking to someone and saying something wrong. It’s much easier to make a mistake on a spreadsheet and fix it than to say something wrong to a client and trying to make up for you said wrong.
After all is said and done, don’t knock the administrative work. It’s a beautiful rest amongst all of the interpersonal things I have to do everyday.
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