Time management is vital for any university student. But it even is more so important when trying to balance university work alongside an internship.
As anyone knows, it is important to always find a balance in your life. Whether that is between work and leisure or schoolwork and hobbies etc, finding a good balance that works for you is key for a healthy lifestyle and mindset. That being said, as a student, university studies are very important and need be kept on top of in order to stay up to date with lecture content and ensure the understanding of the course. Similarly, internships are learning opportunities and provide gateways to help you learn new skills and complete meaningful work. In particular, the internships with Think Pacific allow you to work directly with different Fijian organisations and truly make a difference. So, when taking on an internship or any role alongside your studies, neither can be overlooked or left behind – so finding a good balance is critical to success.
When joining the virtual internship with Think Pacific, I did lots of research beforehand to ensure that this was something I felt capable of taking on and being able to get the most out of. However, I wanted to ensure that I would not feel overwhelmed so, on my virtual internship journey, I decided to choose a twelve-week course. This allowed me to manage my time more easily and plan out, in advance, how I would complete my internship around my studies and demands.
What really benefited me at the early stages of the internship was the simple grid (found on the navigation page) that indicated what stage you should be at in your internship. This allowed me to plan out what I should be doing week by week and helped me stay on track.
The virtual internship is split into four stages: Discovery, Decide, Design and Deliver. The most fulfilling work is done during the Design phase, which is when you design your action project for the organisation you have chosen and hopefully complete projects that will make a long-term positive change for the organisation. Despite this, I think that the most important work is done during the Discovery Phase. This phase sets you up for the entire internship. It helps develop integral skills to help you succeed, not only in the internship but also beyond in your day-to-day work life. For me especially, this phase was very beneficial, and I became very immersed in its content.
This Discovery phase was all about learning about Fijian culture, Sustainable Development goals, the Fijian National Development Plan and much more. What was very helpful at the beginning of this phase was “The Mindset for Success.” It is true that if your mind is not in the right place, then you are never going to reach your potential. This section helped me face all those possible barriers that could be preventing me from achieving the most out of this internship. The first step of achieving this mindset was Self-Leadership and Self-Management. Taking accountability for your success allows you to realise that you are the only thing holding yourself back. By recognising this, I was able to see that it was my responsibility to ensure I did well. I had the resources and the capability and because of that, it was my job alone to succeed.
Another major part of the discovery phase was the importance of creating SMART goals, standing for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. By creating goals around this system, it helps you visualise what you need to do and helps you not overwhelm yourself with too many different tasks. This way of setting out goals really helped me and so, I did begin to incorporate them into my university lifestyle, which I think is one great example of how the skills and methods learnt on this internship are transferable.
Learning all these skills, models to success and understanding how to craft my success in the Discovery phase really helped me when moving on to the subsequent phases. I could visualise what I had to do, how to plan my time effectively and how to achieve the best results.
The last thing I found extremely helpful, before actually moving on to create the action project, was the Skills Series section in the Design Phase. This section offered great insight into what was required of me. For my internship, I chose Marketing. Therefore, researching more into the skills of marketing and what this meant for my action project helped me plan something that I thought would be really useful and benefit the organisation (NatureFiji) in accordance with the action project.
Overall, the virtual internship with Think Pacific offers all the resources, in addition to much more, to help you balance your workload and achieve the best results. What you can achieve in this internship is very rewarding as you have the knowledge that you are truly making a difference. From there, it is down to you as an individual to create a balance that works for you and to see the process through.
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