The Intern Journal : How It Starts

3rd weekend being home after internship yeay!

Sadly, I came back with a whole new spirit but still happened to be the latest person to arrived in some classes. Surely have to work on that thing!

Di beberapa post sebelumnya, aku bilang bakalan nulis tentang internship thing. So this post will be about how I get there. #longpostalert

Aku termasuk anak yang picky, well I am sure my friends are, too. Ketika mulai memilih dan apply for internship, banyak banget pertimbangan yang dipikirin. Setiap hari sejak akhir semester lima, yang diomongin nggak jauh-jauh dari 'mau magang jadi apa' dan 'pengen magang di mana'. Setiap bulan nya, at least I applied to more 3-4 different companies. Sometimes I got a reply, most of times I didn't get any.

Ada satu tempat di mana aku  pengen magang, dan setiap bulan nya, aku selalu kirim lamaran dan resume dengan template yang sama, ke Gogirl! Magazine. There are many reasons why I want to have an internship there, kayak aku pengen tau gimana sebenernya creative industry operates,but one thing for sure is I am one of a tribe, I've been inspired by this magazine. What I meant by inspired is not that I make it my bible, or being fanatic, I really am open for other source too. Tapi aku ngerasa konten dari majalah ini relate banget sama aku, the thing that I get is that 'sense of belonging', padahal aku 'cuma' reader aja. And knowing there's an opportunity to spend a few months there just make me keep going. I want to a part of that source-of-inspirations too. But after I applied and applied, still I never got a reply.

Aku mulai baca-baca artikel tentang kenapa lamaran kita kadang nggak dibalas sama bagian HR di perusahaan-perusahaan. Ada banyak banget kemungkinan, kayak banyaknya applicant yang bikin email kita nggak terbaca, atau posisi yang kita pengenin udah banyak banget dilamar sama orang lain. At some point, aku akhirnya ngerasa "Maybe I wasn't belong there". So I stop sending email to Gogirl! Magazine.

And there I was, giving up on the thing I really wanted. The pressure is actually came in again when eventually most of my friends have settled on their internship thing. Degdegan dong, udah semakin akhir semester 6 dan belum juga dapat tempat magang yang pasti. I actually have an interview call from another place but at some points the acceptance got cancelled for they considering to not take an intern at that time. See? Banyak banget kemungkinan yang bisa terjadi di tengah jalan.

Sampai akhirnya ada satu waktu, dipertengahan bulan Juni, Mba Nina Moran, CEO Gogirl! Magazine, post a picture on instagram, saying Gogirl! is open a lot of opportunities open for several positions. Kebetulan dua posisi yang aku pengen, disebutkan juga, Copywriter & Reporter. I left a comment there, asking if those positions are available for interns. She said, "buat intern yang butuh banyak itu copywriter & desain grafis. untuk posisi lain dicoba aja kali ya.", that is enough to recharge me.

The next morning, I applied again. I don't know what drives me tapi akhirnya aku nggak pake lagi template lamaran kayak yang sebelumnya. Instead, I tell about myself a lot more, just like sending a letter to a friend. And later on that day, I got a reply telling that Gogirl! will call for an interview the next day. Aku inget, saat itu lagi take video wawancara narasumber untuk keperluan tugas film dokumenter. Kesenengan banget bacanya sampai temen-temen ikut kegirangan juga. Padahal baru dikabarin kalo bakalan di interview aja.

The story doesn't stop there, ternyata ada beberapa step tes yang harus dilaluin buat bisa internship di Gogirl!. The time is running, makin jiper ngeliat temen-temen ngelakuin preparation buat magang, makin jiper karena waktu nunggu test result adalah libur lebaran yang lumayan lama. Then here comes the higher tides, people surround me starts to tell me to turn around. It's a not safe beach for swim, they say. Sempet mikir, "should I have back ups?", beberapa temen constantly checking on me if I already got an internship place. Kepikiran banget sama omongan-omongan yang nyemangatin sekaligus kasih saran buat apply ke tempat lain aja, and yes I did it too, apply ke tempat lain lagi. Simply to feel safer.

In my parents sight, I am way too idealist. But I think who else will believe me if it's not myself? Long story short, I finally got an internship position as a Copywriter at Gogirl! Magazine. The feeling when I came to the office for the first time; nervous yet proud.

My lunch buddies, bunch of Gogirl! interns.
Thing that I saw in each of these girls is they really good at what they're doing.
Kenapa sih mereka bisa 'that good'? The key is there, they're loving what they do.

Buat anak-anak jurusan Advertising, saat-saat paling nyeremin adalah pitching ke klien. Suatu hari aku diminta buat assist Marketing Team untuk present ide ke klien. Feel lucky karena bisa liat prosesnya langsung, tapi degdegan kalo tiba-tiba diminta present ide dan jadi gagu. Dan hari itu, aku pergi ke tempat klien barengan sama Mba Nina. She prepared the materials well to be presented in front of our clients; making the mock ups. checking the presentations. Kebetulan tempat meeting kedua lumayan jauh, di jalan, aku tanya-tanya tentang working in a print media, ke Mba Nina. Apparently she said, "susah kan, masuk Gogirl!?", and the stories flows. And the thing she said that needs to be underlined is, "To keep up with this kinda industry life, kita harus siap buat terus adjust. Sekarang kita dituntut buat doing nearly anything, bisa ini, bisa itu. If you don't the persistency, yaudah, segitu aja. Dan satu lagi, yang paling penting, kamu harus suka sama apa yang kamu kerjain. Kalo engga, ya ngga ada yang drive you to stay."

Aku inget, salah satu Editor's Letter di Gogirl! edisi ulang tahun yang ke 10, Mba Anita Moran nulis kalo proses adalah her greatest lesson for life. She adds, "To get to one place, you have to get through the road. Semakin jauh, semakin melelahkan, tapi semakin 'nggak biasa' pemandangan yang akan kita lihat nantinya. And on your journey, just remember to persist longer and stronger." And I am keeping that in mind. You can achieve anything you want for life if you have that persistence shield in yourself. And sometimes I thought kalo ungkapan "do what you love" itu buat nyemangatin diri kita aja. But no, love did gave you that spirit to keep going. I think that's the reason why I keep applying, why I believe in myself, because that magazine have been with me since then, because the writings, the designs, have shaped me to become who I am today. Like, Gogirl! already taught me that kind of things even before I became an intern there. It starts from the love, kesukaan ku sama majalah ini.

And I think this is no more a blog post, but a letter, to Gogirl! Crew.

Some of Gogirl! Crew yang dipaksa-paksa foto bersama :p

Feel lucky to swim in that kinda sea.

xx,

Avi.

Strolling Around : Jakarta

There is always a first time for everything in life.

The first time you grab a pen and make your first scratch.

The first time you push a button on an elevator.

The first time you eat a raw sushi.

Selalu ada waktu untuk yang pertama kali, buat apapun. This post will eventually get there, my first time spending time away from home.

But first, talking about the first, last Saturday me and two of my fellas; Asta and Dina, have just visited the first Dunkin Donut store in Indonesia, di Jalan Hayam Wuruk, Jakarta. My friend is a die hard fan of DD so it is super necessary to drop by there only to know how was it look like to enjoy your donut in 80's era.

My impression about the store was; oh so American. Interior kedai Dunkin Donut ini banyak memakai unsur kayu dan cahaya temaram lampu kuning, jadi kesannya hangat. Ditambah lagi kursi-kursi yang tersedia masih pake kursi klasik a la American dinner dan beberapa kursi rotan dengan warna senada. If you're a fan of The Perks of Being A Wallflower, the ambience is quiet looking like Kings.,

The kind of friends that I keep : they let me take pictures of our table

I am hanging out with millenials who have life on the phone.

She does, too,

Di area luar, masih berasa banget kesan jadul nya. Kebetulan karena kami dateng di siang hari, keliatan aja bagian luar dibiarkan terbuka tanpa tambahan cahaya lampu, I feel like I am watching Indonesian soap opera in 90's era. But the thing that a bit different for me is, hampir 80% pengunjung adalah bapak-bapak (I guess above 40 yo) yang datangnya bergerombol gitu, sekadar nyantai-nyantai, well I rarely see that in a typical donut cafe.

I don't have to talk much about the menu because, who doesn't love classic DDs? And who's ordering a dine in menu without having dat winning chocolate? (Well actually we only ordered one cup for three lol).

After DD, we decided to walk about 2 kilometers to take a peak on an ice cream pioneer in Jakarta, Ragusa Eskrim Italia. Sering lihat eskrim ini dalam acara jalan-jalan di televisi, ternyata rame betul di kedainya yang kecil dan sederhana. Di depan nya banyak pedang berjualan juhi  & asinan, otak-otak, kue ape dan aneka jajanan lain, yang juga bisa pesan untuk makan di kedai Ragusa. Jadilah kami yang nggak dapat tempat duduk ngemper di luar dengan pengunjung lainnya. But I this the first time I saw people make a long line, we can see it from outside of the store, to eat ice cream.

Natural crowd. Taken by Asta Pramesti

Ragusa ini berdiri sejak 1932, I imagined that time, dimana Indonesia belom merdeka, only fancy people eat there. Menu nya juga klasik, nggak neko-neko dengan banyak pilihan topping atau varian rasa, simplicity in a very best way. I actually thought that Italian Ice Crem texture must be like gelatto, but turns out Ragusa is more like milk ice cream and it taste geeewd.