First Day on the Job at Obzside Adventure Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

by Kate Fleming

The first day of my internship was exciting, yet stressful.  I got to work that morning hardly knowing what to expect and left that afternoon with my first project successfully completed…victory! I first met with Sean, my boss, who oriented me to the office, and told me what was expected of me.  Then he put me straight to work. I was in charge of going to backpackers’ hotels and hostels all throughout Cape Town and talking with them to make sure the backpackers book their scuba adventures through Obzside.
So, on my first day, my project was to make a display for the brochures. Sean showed me my computer and told me to get to work…I sat there staring at a blank screen for a solid twenty minutes considering why I didn’t brush up on my Photoshop skills before I came to work… “Oh, THAT’S right….I have NEVER USED Photoshop!” Sean nonchalantly mentioned that he thought it would be nice if the project was completed by this afternoon, and so there I was again having an “oh s*** I am in Africa” moment… feeling lost, beads of sweat starting to form on my upper lip, and looking at the plain white, empty document gazing back at me from the computer screen, when all of a sudden, another employee asked if I wanted to go catch some lunch. I think I was out the door before he even finished the question. I am sure he thought I was the fat girl who had only been in the office for an hour and already jetted for the door when there was mention of “food” …but oh well…I wasn’t going to get anything done sitting at that desk, might as well have a scrumptious snack to kick start my brain-right?
     Well, I got back from my lunch break and got to work, starting to push and play with random buttons in Photoshop and decided to use a combination of old Obzside projects from the computer AND my creative juices. As it turned out, I finished the brochure display by 4:30 pm and was very happy with the work.  I started that first day feeling completely ill-prepared and under qualified, and now I am leaving this organization with a full portfolio of Photoshop projects and a lot more confidence.
     When I first arrived I was little hazy on how I could make an impact at Obzside Scuba Diving Club because it seemed to be a perfectly functioning business. But after about a week of going to meetings, observing, and talking to other employees I realized there were many things in the organization that needed improvement. I thought my ideas to fix these problems were relatively simple, but when I presented them to my boss, he was shocked at how “right on” my suggestions were. I think that just being an outsider gave me an advantage. They had been struggling with a brochure for months, but all they needed were fresh eyes and an outsider’s new perspective to make it a success. I also think that coming from the US I have a different perspective on the business environment, so my international ideas paired with their knowledge of South African business flourished into a recipe for success.
     The most important benefit of my internship has been to gain real life experience in a business environment. This has been my first internship and it was not what I had expected. I was unaware how much work interns were expected to do, but I rose to the challenge and am so thankful I was out in the business world working hand in hand with business executives and not that girl in the office making copies and serving coffee. Even more important than just gaining real life experience has been doing it abroad. I feel now that if I can survive in the South African business environment, I can survive anywhere. I not only had to move across the world alone, adapt to culture differences in both the social and business environments, and make new friends, but I had to work. On the professional level I have flourished. I am confident when speaking with people at higher levels than I am, and I no longer look to Sean for approval with everything I do. And through this professional development I have acquired several positive personal skills: I have become sovereign, self-assured, and have gained more experience in 3 months than most people do in 3 years.