My Summer at SAS: Week 1

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here. Note: My Twitter handle has been changed to @Stacey_Alex.

Editor’s Note:
Stacey Alexander, who rejoices in the Twitter handle @stacemiiister (clearly she has some work to do in that regard), joined our team this week as a Student Intern. She’ll be here throughout the summer helping to create some actually very important and useful social media resources, and will be a regular contributor to Conversations & Connections.

Week of June 14, 2010

This is my first post of what will be a series dedicated to the experience of a Student Intern at SAS. Although, most of the posts will be from my perspective, I’m hoping to get input from other interns within the company to give it a more rounded reporting. My personal experiences will be in the format of the following post. I’ll be adding daily highlights, and then wrapping it all up in a recap of my week. Most will be written, but I want to try my hand at video editing, so there will be some video posts also. Please feel free to comment. I hope you enjoy it!

(Monday, 6/14) Day 1:

I just met my office. Let me give you a visual. On my desk is one lonely lamp (with what I think is a blackout shade), a box of tissues and my computer. The phone will have to come later. As my boss told me, it won’t be a problem. Nobody knows I’m here anyway. There’s a bookcase riddled with old sascom magazines, a dictionary, a half-used water bottle, a light bulb that won’t fit any fixture in this room, and a can of SPAM. I have an office! In all its glory. And although I’ll have to share it soon, right now it’s all mine.

(Tuesday, 6/15) Day 2:

Nobody has talked to me today. You may think this is bad, but coming from several jobs where I’ve teetered on the verge of insanity due to micromanagement, I find it incredible. Yesterday, I got my to-do list for the summer. Today, they just expect and trust me to do it. Imagine that.

(Wednesday, 6/16) Day 3:

Sushi was on the menu for lunch today. I am officially ruined for every other company I will ever work for.

I commandeered another table lamp today. A “ninja special ops snatch-and-grab” is the official term my brother used. It felt wrong (and thus a little exciting), but I’m told this is how things work around here. If it’s in the supply room, you can take it to your office. Not sure this one’s going to work either, but at least I’m burning at both ends of my desk now.

(Thursday 6/17) Day 4:

I just had my first meeting where I actually participated. Now I feel like I’m doing something. Don’t get me wrong, I really like what I’ve been doing. Who wouldn’t like a job where you’re supposed to be on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, just figuring out how stuff works? But I just had a meeting. Other people know I’m doing stuff.

(Friday 6/18) Day 5:

I had another 2 meetings today. I made friends with the guy who came to put a second computer in my office, and met some people from Marketing at lunch. Yes, I’m getting quite popular. In other news, my orientation has been rescheduled for Monday morning. Not sure yet whether I’ll be attending, since I’m now a seasoned SAS employee with an entire week under my belt.

Weekly Recap:

So, what will I be doing this summer? Thank you for asking. My official title is Administrative Support Student for Marketing Editorial. My job is Social Media. My project is a manual of sorts to explain to all those people not in Social Media how to use it for their own business purposes. Of course, this will be directed at the business purposes of SAS, but our hope is to make it public so that anyone can learn from us. We’re so philanthropic, I know. When complete, this project (a social media dashboard) will highlight key influencers in each industry topic at SAS. Basically it will tell people who they should be “listening” to on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like. On the other side of it—the SAS exclusive side—there will be tutorials explaining the value of each network, how to create accounts, and how to use them effectively.

This week has been fun. Aside from my work research, I’ve made a lot of discoveries (the majority of them due to my dad and brother, who have both worked here for years). One such discovery is StudentConnect. It’s a social media network for student interns at SAS. On their homepage, they have links to upcoming events, a student directory, and even an extra work forum where you can cross-train, getting experience on a project in another department (as long as your boss approves I’m sure). I haven’t seen any activity on the site dating later than last year, but there are active students (including me) on the directory. I’m hoping some mingling can take place so I can get other perspectives for this blog. Stay tuned…