Hello Dear Readers,

This is the second stop of our internship journey, a learning experience that is going to take us on an intensive trip for the next three months. (Check out my first entry here).

Here I am almost into the 4th week of my internship. Unbelievable. Time definitely flies by when you are enjoying something, doesn’t it?

I am in the phase of an internship where I’m starting to know what to expect from my position within the company. I kind of know my responsibilities, daily tasks, my boss and co-workers, etc. but I can’t rely on this pre-mature judgment because it is too early in the process. I don’t know everything and I don’t want to mess up. So, everyday I work harder and harder to learn deeper and perform a better job so that the first impression I established (hopefully a good one) stays true and strong.

I want to call this point of the learning curve the “Initial Transition.” Yes, it’s your first learning transition.The first week is about getting to know the company, the people who run it, the employees, your boss, your co-workers, the gear in the studio, your responsibilities, etc. That second week is about implementing what you learned in that first week, and putting it to work on a real situation. The third week is about learning from the mistakes you make trying to put your experiences from those first two weeks and trying to implement them on a day-to-day basis. What is this fourth week going to be about? Well, that is yet to be discussed in our next blog entry. For now, let’s just focus in detail on what happened these past two weeks.

I want to tell you, dear blog followers, a little more in detail what I have been doing these past 14 days at Blue Microphones. Just so you get a basic idea, I have done everything from: Sitting in an important meeting for my boss with potential clients and going to grab lunch for that same meeting. From recording a mic testing session with a famous artist, to spending hours trying to troubleshoot studio issues before the artist arrives. From getting the opportunity to sit and chat in the studio with famous artists and discuss a bit their careers and going into a warehouse to pull out 500 microphones out of boxes in a huge warehouse because they needed to be shipped last minute.

Do you see a pattern here? Well, I do. And this is what I want to share with you dear readers: An internship is an extensive learning opportunity where you have to take every single task you are assigned seriously, because each task will provide you a significant lesson that will apply and relate to a future experience. It’s the perfect example of making the most out of every single situation – one minute you can be cleaning and organizing the studio, and next thing you know is that you are sitting in the studio engineering a session with one of your favorite artists. So, you never know what can happen next. You just have to keep striving to do your best.

So far, this internship has been a roller coaster ride, and an exciting one at that. It’s a thrilling experience and you never know what’s going to come after the next turn. All you need to know is this: you have to hold on tight and enjoy the ride because you don’t know when it will end.

Before I let you all go, I want to mention that the knowledge I gained at Berklee in the past four years has come in handy in these first weeks. Everything from basic studio engineering and mixing concepts learned in CWP, to advanced Microsoft Excel and Word accounting concepts learned in Music Business.

This is the time where I thank my teachers for pushing me to the next level. Ok fellow bloggers, thanks for tuning in! See you in a few more weeks.

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More in this series: Part 1

Rafael Restrepo is a CWP / Music Business & Management dual major at Berklee interning at Blue Microphone’s (studio) in LA for the Spring 2011 semester. Originally from Manizales, Colombia, Rafael is the recipient of a World Tour Scholarship and is set to graduate in May 2011. His favorite quote: “Choose carefully the things to which you give your attention. For where you place your attention is where your life will grow”.

For more information about Rafael and to listen to his projects, visit: www.rafaelrestrepo.com

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