As you may have seen in my previous post – Introducing Intern Insights – Hi, I’m Kim!– I’m taking on an internship with Shawna while in college. An internship can mean a bunch of different things, depending on your field and skill level. As for my current internship with Shawna, I’m a design intern specializing in creating graphics for use on S.Barnes Designs, other services like Simply Swassy, and whatever other cool ideas Shawna’s cooking up. Shawna’s also teaching me some of the ropes of running a business and playing around with web design. 

I took this internship for a few reasons, but I think the biggest one is: it’s fun working with Shawna!

I took my first internship with Shawna during the summer between my Junior and Senior years in high school. There, I learned design, print production, and customer service skills. I also learned how amazing it feels to do a job you enjoy when you have a boss who values your interests, feelings, skills, and even your fallbacks.

Shawna taught me how to be patient with everyone we work with, manage and organize time and productivity, and most importantly, keep a healthy balance and separation between home life and work life.  She’s shown me the importance of using content fairly and finding ways to create new content without copying or accidentally taking someone else’s work–which is SUPER important! She’s also given me tips on how to manage time, like choosing certain days of the week for different tasks and knowing when it’s time for a break. 

For this new internship, I’m hoping to learn some web design and outreach for design clients when I’m working in the industry. I’m also hoping to narrow my plans a little more, as right now my plan is just “learn everything so I can decide what I want to do later.”

Alongside this internship, I’m slowly working toward making my own design/craft business, and I wouldn’t even be able to start without the help Shawna’s given me. I took the internship because I’m working to collect as much knowledge and skill as I can in design and business–if you’re good at something you enjoy, you should work to be the best at it.