Getting to Know My Colleagues- The Red Project

I’ve been working at my internship at the Red Project for about a month now, and I have experienced so much in such a short time. Getting to know my colleagues has most definitely been one of my favorite parts of this internship. The relationships I have with most of my colleagues are relatively informal and I feel really comfortable around them, which has helped me to adjust to my work environment. Overall, like I’ve said before in my last post, it is a very relaxed atmosphere and I feel like my colleagues really enjoy helping me and showing me the ropes. Since it is a non-profit organization and there are so few of us (6 main employees total), I haven’t picked anyone who I’ve felt would be my one and only mentor. It’s safe to say that all of them are mentoring me in different ways and helping me get the most out of my experience, which to me is pretty awesome.

When it comes to non-profit organizations, there are two main strategies I have learned from my colleagues: you must be patient and flexible and you must learn to deal with awkward situations. In the non-profit world, not everything goes as planned. Sometimes there is a lot of waiting that must be done and that’s where the patience comes in. Flexibility is a must because some days I will come into the office and there won’t be anyone there to let me know my tasks for the day or sometimes there won't be anyone at all (something I've gotten used to). Sometimes our days aren’t planned ahead of time so it’s important to learn to just go with the flow. This hasn’t been easy for me because I’ve always been one to plan things out far in advance, so I guess this is definitely a learning experience for me (and probably a good one). One of my colleagues told me that a lot of non-profit work is awkward, for example I had to make phone calls to some of our clients who missed their appointments to come get their overdose prevention training. I’ve never been a fan of talking on the phone, I’d much rather talk to someone face-to-face, so I was really nervous about making these phone calls. My colleague reassured me that it was most definitely going to be awkward but I was going to have to get used to that. The important thing is that I'm learning more than I ever imagined and I'm really enjoying myself along the way! Hoping to include some pictures with my next post.