Today is my last day of mentoring!!

I can’t believe I’ve been at TLT for two full semesters already. Looking back it seems funny that I was so excited to fill paper after Boot Camp. I’m really happy with how everything went and I’m very grateful to have been accepted into the TLT internship.

I feel much closer to my fellow interns than I did before. I know that we’re going to be good Senior Cons and better friends.

I still don’t know if I’d like to be a Site Manager or Help Desk. What I do know is that I’m capable of doing both jobs, and I would enjoy myself at either. That’s really the point of the internship though because Senior Cons take each others subs regardless of what position they are in.

Tomorrow Jennifer Yi and I have our final presentation. The topic is interesting and we have a video of Wilson in it so I’m sure it’ll be a crowd pleaser. I don’t mind talking in front of the class. I’m mostly concerned about my outfit.

Throughout the internship I learned a lot about customer service and how different DoIT services work. It’s going to take some practice to make being a Senior Con second nature but I’m confident that I can do it. I’m actually happy that Ryan made that packet because it’ll be a good refresher for before we go to Senior Con Boot Camp.

WELP- that’s it. That’s everything. That’s the blog project.  🙂 Enjoy summer everyone!

Today I had my first failure at Help Desk. It felt awful.

What made it worse was that it was over Valero Chat.

The student I was troubleshooting a Virtual Sinc Site error with was annoyed that I was asking so many questions and dumped me. She said she doubted that the Virtual Sinc Site was worth it and ended the chat. I was pissed off because I was doing everything how I was supposed to. I KNEW THE ANSWER TO HER PROBLEM AND SHE DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE THE STEPS TO FIX IT.

Celia was subbing for Victoria and she told me that it happens sometimes. I wish it didn’t happen though because it broke a really good streak. Some people are in a rush or they just plain do not want to be helped. I think you just have to shrug it off when that happens.

The rest of the week I worked on answering the questions in Ryan’s packet. There are a lot of things I don’t feel confident about off of the top of my head but I have a pretty good idea about. I think that at this point it’s just learning by doing. The good thing is that we all have SB Connect and I can always ask for a little help.

I think that dealing with really strange problems can be fun sometimes. This week a kid in a North Reading Room CoLa had a video he filmed on the mac and he couldn’t figure out how to save it to finish it later. Victoria and I tried everything to find where iMovie was automatically saving the project. The kid had to leave but we decided we would still try to solve the problem so he wouldn’t have to do it again. We ended up figuring it out after about twenty minutes!

I like working with Victoria because she is a really great Help Desk consultant. Although she doesn’t know everything, she always stays calm on the phone. It’s a shame that some people are really rude because it brings me down. The possible confrontation shakes me up a little bit. Although mentoring is coming to an end soon I still don’t feel super confident because sometimes absolutely nothing happens during the hour that I’m there.

My Site Manager hours were normal this week and I mostly told people how to print in color while standing at the front desk. It’s pretty slow during the late afternoon. I think the most important thing in Main is to just keep consultants walking.

On Tuesday Victoria and I had a busy day at Help Desk. There were three chats and two phone calls. It’s hard to predict what a shift at Help Desk is going to be like because some days are just slower than others.

I answered one call from a woman who was interested in poster printing. Without even thinking about it I directed her to the TLT Media Lab because that is the Google Site that Jennifer and I have been making for our final project.

I feel comfortable filling out footprints and handling upstairs. Phone calls still make me nervous though. I just try to be cheery and act like I know what’s going on until I figure out what I’m doing. I’m starting to feel like Help Desk is what’s best for me now that special projects isn’t an option for interns.

I think that being well spoken, on the phone, on a chat, or in person, is a really great skill to have as a journalist. I know that I’ll do a good job at work regardless of the position that I get.

This week I talked to Vipattra for the first time because she was subbing in Main. She asked me whether I would like to be Site Manager or Help Desk. We went over the positions and their pros and cons. Truthfully I would rather be Special Projects.

I was really excited when Diana came to the class about making Stony Brook websites more user focused. I am a journalism major and I blog for class using you.stonybrook.edu every week. I like being creative online and doing public relations projects for the Stony Brook School of Journalism. I think that working on the promotional website for DoIT would be a really good fit for me. I want to make things!

I heard that Special Projects isn’t going to be a position for this years intern class. I’m not sure how true that is. Overall I’d enjoy taking pictures and blogging for Diana much more than being Site Manager or Help Desk. I’d like to be involved like Lisa and Kara are. I know that I could do a really great job promoting TLT on campus because I am proud to work here and help people everyday.