Bureaucratic Inefficiencies

Nearing the end of the summer break, I unconsciously have made a comparison between the summer internship I experienced last year and this year's. 

To sum it up, there are two stark differences in terms of the working style, the working environment, and the rewards (intellectually, timely, and financially).

Let's go through the rants points one by one.

1. WORKING STYLE

Last year, my summer internship had more variety of work to do. However, not much of them are specifically architecturally related. It was more about the fundamental design thinking skills, empathetic elements of design, exposures, as well as integrating many design elements into what the company I work for calls: Experience Design. It wasn't probably the most helpful experience for the technical part of the education I received a year later, but nonetheless it was a very challenging, fast-paced and engaging design internship.

The tasks that we interns did was mostly smaller-scale stuff, like data gathering and site surveillance. Myself to be specific, had work involving some background research for parametric designs, vertical farms, interior architecture, modular design elements, and customer-centered design. Overlooking the fact that I had to survey a site and the residents for days (and almost got asked to stay overnight in the so-called "slums"), I think I had a pretty broad exposure about design and architecture (as well as software skills such as SketchUp and Photoshop).

For this year though, it was a rather different experience. It was probably very architecturally related, considering what I did 99% of the time was tidying up design drawings as well as decorating them with trees using only two softwares: Rhinoceros and Illustrator. Designing-wise, the amount of experience was actually close to zero (unless we wanna consider the fact that cleaning up the drawings for the projects got me thinking about how the buildings were conceived). Technical-wise, however, this experience can be considered a rather intensive course of learning and practice. At the end of work, I can quite confidently say that I played around with different combinations of lineweights and trees vectors such that I can apply them to my design drawings (but of course that depends with how good my building design is in the first place). Oh and there is always work to do, but the pace, is really a slow and chilled one which I really, really love. To be honest, I'd rather do something quite regularly, do it well, gain the trust of my supervisors, and then be able to do the work at my own pace as well as not being stressed.

2. WORKING ENVIRONMENT

I should probably not write about this, since both times I worked in my campus compound anyway, albeit at different parts. Haha.

But maybe there is something to reflect about the people I worked with.

During my first internship last year, since I was interning under an independent studio subsidiary of a large company, I believe it may be considered as a work attachment under a small number of colleagues. I have been told that working under such group would make one feel closer to the team as well as the bosses. True, to some extent. I did get to interact with my supervisors and bosses, but I wouldn't say that I was close to them. This could be caused by the fact that the interns were quite a bunch too (8 of us), so we hung out during lunchtime and all. If I was alone, maybe I would get to hang out with the others more. Haha.  As such, the distance between me (and probably the other interns too) and the rest was more apparent even as days passed by.

This year, though, even though the ratio between the interns and the researchers are close to 1:1, the distance between was not as obvious. Sure, to me they still felt more experienced and exhibited higher authority but I also found it easier to approach them for questions, help, or even ask for more work. My direct supervisor, especially, was really approachable and patient in pointing out my mistakes and guiding me. I also appreciate the fact that she seldom checked in on my work progress, which I believe showed that she kinda trusted me for my work ethics. Haha.

As for my fellow interns in the two years, what can I say. Both are equally easy to get along with, since they are all my schoolmates. Heh. I have worked with two completely different groups of people too, which I am really thankful for. This way, I got to make new friends. Haha.

3. REWARDS

Anddddddd here we go.

I had no financial remuneration for the first year's internship. Apparently, the arrangement was that it was a 'special' program from the school and since I did not get any offer somewhere else (what with my lack of skills and etc), I figured I'd just take it and clear the school's internship requirement early.

After a while, however, I kinda started to feel that it was not really worth it. Not sure if it's because of the feeling of being unfulfilled during the work, or because the design experience was not what I was really looking for. Which is quite true I think! I remember the team was going to submit a design proposal for a competition, and since the first-year interns basically had nothing much to contribute, all we were doing in the few weeks of that was basically nothing. I mean, on one hand I can't really blame them. In a tight submission period, I would probably not give someone new who had no particular skills yet to do a job for me. On the other hand, I can't really teach too; time is very tight at that point. So what would I do? I'd just do it myself then. In the end, it kinda became more of an exposure internship to me. I did get some lessons and tips, but since I pretty much contributed nothing, it did not feel right for me at all, much less rewarding.

I thought that an internship where I get to constantly do stuff in the office instead of doing nothing there would be a much better option for me. And I was right. It was exactly what happened in my second internship.

My second internship, in summary, was a better experience for me. Other than being paid, I found that doing what I did rewarded me with more satisfaction. Most probably, it was because of the fact that I managed to do quite a large number of smaller-scale assignments and that in turn, made my contributions to their ongoing project significant. And to be honest, knowing that kinda made me feel more fulfilled inside.

Sure, I spent basically most of my time inside their office but I didn't actually really mind. Once in a while I could still grab a snack or something for a while in the pantry, so that didn't feel as suffocating as when I probably need to be stuck inside my office all the time.

Oh, and if I have to mention a drawback though, the payment for my remuneration can get really late (like months later). I was really pissed for a while dealing with them, because of excuses that I think do not make sense. They would give excuses like:
1). I was required to put my bank account number in my timesheet everytime. (When I already have my bank account record on the school database).
2). They have a lot of finance stuff to process (Then why are you not hiring part-time helpers?! Hire me and I'll do for you!)

If this is what it's like working for large-scale companies/governmental agencies, I feel really sorry for the staff who gets paid late sometimes because of their own bureaucratic bullshit.

So anyway, if this issue about my late salary does not become a disadvantage, this is probably can also be thought as: delayed gratification. Hahaha.





So, yeah. I guess those are both my internships.
Summer's almost over now, but I have yet to want to come back to school.
How am I gonna get myself mentally prepared?
Sigh..