Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: arielle schwalm

arielle schwalm

Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck – Utilizing A Berklee Resource

Being a work-study at Berklee definitely has its advantages. I’ve learned about many services offered by the school I would not have known about otherwise. One of my favorites is Lynda.com! It is a web site that offers different tutorials and many different types of software.

After spending months at my internship updating the extensive File Maker Pro database the company uses, I decided that I wanted to learn more about how FileMaker works. Since I’m going to be an official college graduate in less than two weeks, I wanted to make sure I was taking everything Berklee offered for the last time. I started looking up FileMaker tutorials on Lynda.com. While many people may find this boring, I was completely enthralled by everything that was available to me in FileMaker. When people say it’s Excel on steroids, they’re not joking! I wanted to think of a way to apply my newfound skills in a way that would benefit me.

After about a week of job hunting I was overwhelmed by all of the job openings I had found. Granted, things are still competitive but I am applying for anything and everything. I decided that the best way to keep everything straight would be to make ye very own FileMaker job database.

Screen shot of job hunt database

I made the entire database from scratch. It includes boxes for the job title, the company, and even check boxes for a written cover letter or application status. It has been extremely helpful to me. Not only do I now know how to create a (very basic) FileMaker Pro databases but I also feel more in control of my job search.

Berklee students, staff and faculty can access Lynda.com training for free via their berklee.edu accounts.

  • Log onto berklee.edu
  • Click “Campus Services”
  • Click “Lynda.com”
  • Using your Berklee Username and Wireless Pin, log in.
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Arielle Schwalm is a Music Business / Management major interning in Boston for the Fall 2010 semester.
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Finding Balance – Arielle Schwalm, Intern

Since September I have been going constantly. Monday thru Thursday I have 12 to 14 hour days and that’s not counting the time spent on doing homework and searching for jobs for the New Year.

I’m going to be honest, I’ve come close to breaking down and losing it a few times. My internship is 15 hours a week. I work my job 20 hours a week. I go to class 10 hours a week. While running club meetings at Berklee, I am currently getting things together for the submission process for the show that we put on. If you’re doing the math, that’s a lot of hours and not a whole lot of free time. Oh free time, I miss you.

Anyway, I know that so many people are in the exact same boat as me. We’re humans and we aim to please. Mostly we are all trying to please ourselves, and we are all our worst critics. This semester has forced me to come to a conclusion. I realized that if I don’t take a few moments every day for me, I will go crazy. I won’t put my fullest effort into my work because I’ll be so tired and frustrated that I won’t know what to do with myself.

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The Beauty of Administrative Work – Arielle Schwalm, Intern

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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Arielle Schwalm is a Music Business / Management major interning in Boston for the Fall 2010 semester.
Read more by Arielle:

What to Do When the Unexpected Happens – Arielle Schwalm, Intern

Beginning the process of looking for an internship was beyond exciting for me. It meant that I was wrapping up my college experience and getting ready to move onto the next big thing, the real world. I started my search early, and applied to at least 15 sites, if not more. I only heard back from five of those 15 sites and interviewed at almost every single one.
After the long process of interviewing, writing up a dozen cover letters and waiting, I picked the internship site that I felt would be best for me. My supervisor was extremely professional and was excited to have me start. I went in to meet with him, and went over everything that was to be expected of me. I had him sign my learning contract and was ready to start the semester with the perfect internship.

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